Thursday, August 31, 2017

9/1/17

Happy 1st day of September!  Autumn will be here before we know it.  Sigh.  I took this image of some lovely Hollyhocks and I really liked the bokeh in the background from the tree leaves.



8/31/17

The last day of August and still nice weather.  Looks like a couple of days coming up will be more like what August usually is.  I captured this image of a Bumblebee enjoying one of my other different Sunflower varieties.  This is a Lemon yellow variety and it did have a nice paler yellow color to it as compared to other Sunflowers.


Wednesday, August 30, 2017

8/30/17

This is another image I got of one of the cute Chipmunks that were looking for a handout from the people on the Durango & Silverton train.  He posed quite nicely for me so had to share him.


Tuesday, August 29, 2017

8/29/17

I took this shot while hiking on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I love the old Cedars and Pines on the area and I thought this one with it's twisty shape was very interesting.  The format turned out square for it because this is a 2 shot tall panorama.  I had a zoom lens on at the time while walking and I was too lazy to change it so just shot it that way.  I thought it worked well for the subject anyway.  😂


Monday, August 28, 2017

8/28/17

Today's image is a bit older.  I got this shot this spring when the Orioles were around.  This Red Headed Woodpecker was looking for some of their grape jelly.  I shot this through the living room window so I was fairly close.


Sunday, August 27, 2017

8/27/17

In a couple of previous posts I have been mentioning about how I was capturing the trains as they were moving around to turn on the Wye.  I found this shot that shows just what that is.  I took this while we were moving in to town on the main track that crosses the top of the Wye.  Looking towards the first train to arrive at Silverton you can clearly see the Y of track that gives this formation it's name.  Depending how the train enters and exits the Wye, it can easily change it's direction and keep the locomotive at the front of the train.


Saturday, August 26, 2017

8/26/17

I took this image the evening of the 4th of July while waiting for the sun to set on the Grand Canyon.  This is a 2 shot panoramic image and I loved how the light brought out the colors in the rocks.  The canyon is mostly known for the red rocks but there are some other colors and types mixed in.  They have made a presentation along the trail of the South Rim that tells you the type of rock, mostly limestones and granites which was quite interesting.  Had samples of the rock and then pointed out where to see it.


Friday, August 25, 2017

8/25/17

I have some miniature Allium plants growing in my Garden Railway.  Alliums are an ornamental Onion and come in many varieties.  I like the size of these for the railroad.  The butterflies were enjoying them as well as you can see in this image here.  This is a Painted Beauty Butterfly, which have been very abundant in my gardens this summer, that I was able to capture enjoying some of the blooms.  Remember that I have a guide for commonly seen butterflies that can be found here in Kansas to help you ID them.  There is a link at the top of the page.


Thursday, August 24, 2017

8/24/17

I have a patch of Sunflowers growing in my yard this year that have done really well.  One of them produced the most vibrant red bloom I have ever seen on a Sunflower.  I captured this Green Metallic Bee, also known as a Sweat Bee enjoying it as much as I do one afternoon.  


Wednesday, August 23, 2017

8/23/17

This is an image I captured while waiting for the train to come by on the Highline of the Durango & Silverton Railway.  This is near the Rockwood station which is near where people kayaking the Animas River have to pull out.  Just behind where I was this kayaker would have to leave the river due to it becoming more treacherous because of low water and rocks.  The fast flowing water looks like it made for quite the adventure in a Kayak.  I observed one person tip completely over a couple of times and the water is fairly cold.


Tuesday, August 22, 2017

8/22/17

So yesterday it was cloudy here the whole time till about the last 15 ins of the total eclipse.  We didn't even get any decent rain out of it being cloudy to make it worth it.  I got this image of the moon passing over as it was almost done.  If you look large you can see few sunspots on the sun.  I was very disappointed to not have  been able to see more of the eclipse.  At least I got one good shot of it.  Plus I learned how to photograph the sun.  Not a total loss I guess.  I shot this with a 500mm lens with a 2X converter on it, so not cropped.


Monday, August 21, 2017

8/21/17

So I was all set for the eclipse and then it's all cloudy.  Typical.  The one time you want clear skies.  My image today is one that I took on an evening in June out at Konza Prairie.   This is a Dickcissel overseeing it's domain out on the prairie.


Sunday, August 20, 2017

8/20/17

I took today's image while I was in Silverton Colorado.  We had a 2 hour stop there where we could walk around the town and I chose to go watch the trains as they moved about.  This is one of the 3 trains that run each day as it was moving towards the Wye to turn around to head back to Durango.  You can see the 2 waterfalls created by the snow capped mountain in the background.  I had shared an image of these a couple of Monday's ago in an image I shot from the train.  The scenery is a big reason to ride the Durango & Silverton along with the old time steam experience.


Saturday, August 19, 2017

8/19/17

Happy World Photography Day!  My photo today was taken on the 4th of July and was my fireworks show for that day.  I spent the evening watching the sun set at the Grand Canyon.  You can see a bit of the Colorado River in the shot.  The Grand Canyon is quite an impressive place to visit and watching the sunset there is quite a beautiful experience as well.


Friday, August 18, 2017

8/18/17

So we have been having a bit of rain and some cool-ish mornings so it has, apparently, been the type of weather that Fungi likes.  We had an explosion of mushrooms in the backyard in an area they seem to like.  I liked this shot for the bokeh that the line of them created.  Not sure what type they are but they are fairly common in this area as I saw them popped up in several yards.


Thursday, August 17, 2017

8/17/17

The Sunflowers that I planted in my garden this year have been a great draw for nature as well as being lovely to look at.  This one has a Bumble Bee that was enjoying it quite a lot.  It also has another visitor if you look closely after enlarging it by clicking on the image.


Wednesday, August 16, 2017

8/16/17

So my Surprise Lilies sure surprised me a few days ago.  I was not expecting them till a bit later this year.  They are having a good year and a good number of them came up.  I shot this group of them against a black felt background and then played with it a bit.


Tuesday, August 15, 2017

8/15/17

This is a different type bird I was able to see and capture while I was at the Grand Canyon in July.  While hiking on the North Kaibab Trail at the North Rim of the park I spotted this Scrub Jay sitting in the midst of a tree.  They had been flying around in one area of the trail and were quite difficult to capture but I got a couple okay images of which this is one.



Monday, August 14, 2017

8/14/17

The Dragonflies have been around more lately as well.  This is, what I believe is, an immature Twelve Spot that was having a stare down with me.  😁  Actually, I shot this with a telephoto so it was just nice enough to pose for a bit.


Sunday, August 13, 2017

8/13/17

Today's image is another that was done to recreate an 1800s image taken by my favorite photographer of the old west, William Henry Jackson.  My photo is at a different angle because I didn't have the freedom he had to get off the train but was taken at about the same spot.  This is our train on the Durango & Silverton Railway headed back to Durango.  This shot is taken along the Animas River and Needle Mountain can be seen in the background.  I have included WHJ's image below mine for easy reference again.


This is William Henry Jackson's photo from a book that I have of his photos.




Saturday, August 12, 2017

8/12/17

I had posted an image of one of these a while back that was fairly artsy.  This is just a straight up one where you can really see how this flower gets it's name.  This is a Pincushion Flower.  I can't seem to get them to grow so this is from my friend's plant.


Friday, August 11, 2017

8/11/17

The Painted Lady and Painted Beauty Butterflies have been enjoying my flowers in fairly large numbers.  It's been very cool to see.  I have a large bunch of volunteer Zinnias growing in the backyard and they are a great draw for these butterflies.  I was trying to photograph this Painted Beauty on the Zinnia flower but it took off as I took the shot so not in perfect focus due to the movement but I thought it was still a cool shot.




Thursday, August 10, 2017

8/10/17

The Cicadas have really been loud lately.  This is an older image I was able to get during the year when they had their 17 year emergence and were quite abundant.  It is sitting on the wall of one of the buildings at the Large Scale railroad I get to play at.  I had a very shallow depth of field so only a line of the image is in focus but worked well for trying to get the Cicada captured but that's what gives it the different look.


Wednesday, August 9, 2017

8/9/17

While I was on vacation this year I spent some time on historic Route 66 in a couple of towns in Arizona, Flagstaff and Williams.  This image was taken on the first evening in downtown Williams.  A good number of the shops and restaurants had neon signs.  I liked these two in particular.


Tuesday, August 8, 2017

8/8/17

Today's image is a bit different but interesting I thought.  We had some damage to electronic equipment about 2 weeks ago now.  While out walking around in the yard last week I spotted my neighbor's tree looked odd.  On investigation, it was obvious that it was hit by lightning.  The left image is a panoramic taken with my phone and if you click and view large you can sort of see where it started way up in the tree.  The image on the right shows how it came down the trunk on the other side as well and threw dirt out of the ground.  It's pretty wild how it did that and tore strips out of the tree like that.  Oddly enough, even though it's a lot closer to my neighbor's house, there was no apparent damage there but ours 30 to 40 yards away received some.  Pretty odd and interesting how lightning works. 


Monday, August 7, 2017

8/7/17

I was able to get this image in Alexandria, Minnesota at Lake Agnes.  I captured this Pelican as it came in to land on the lake after a flight.  I got lucky with the timing and the splash.  I actually came up with a name for it which was obviously Splashdown.  😁


Sunday, August 6, 2017

8/6/17

Well, I think we have had enough rain for a while.  We have had about 5 inches in less than 24 hours.  We needed rain but not all at once.  Sheesh.  My image today was taken the day before I rode on the Durango & Silverton Railway when I was down in the Animas River Canyon trying to recreate 1800 era photos.  This shot is of the K-36 locomotive Number 481 that pulled the train I was on the next day.  Here it is moving along the famous High Line area at a speed of about 5 miles per hour due to the steep drop off.


Saturday, August 5, 2017

8/5/17

On my summer vacation this year I spent 3 days visiting the Grand Canyon.  I had been there before several years back but it was combined with riding the train out and back so I only spent less than a day there altogether.  This trip 2 days were spent at the South Rim and then the middle day I traveled to the North Rim which was a new experience.  It takes at least 4 hours to drive there from the south but you can see the lodge there at the North Rim from the South.  It would be easier if they just built a bridge.  LOL  Anyway, this is a 3 image panorama taken from the North Kaibab Trail looking towards the South Rim.  Kind of a different image as the North Rim is not as visited and therefore not as commercialized which was nice.Of course this image is best viewed large by clicking on it.


Friday, August 4, 2017

8/4/17

The small types of butterflies are back in my area in abundance now that it has turned cooler.  My new perennial garden is paying off and my choice of potted plants and Zinnias as well.  This is one that I think is a pretty type with it's deeper yellow color but it doesn't have a pretty name.  It's an Alfalfa Caterpillar Butterfly that was enjoying the Gaillardia or Blanket Flower in my new garden.  The bokeh for today is provided by some limestone rock that surrounds the garden. 


Thursday, August 3, 2017

8/3/17

While I was in Minnesota on a photography trip when I got yesterday's photo I also was able to get this image.  We were at a little know park and it was beside one of the 10,000 lakes there in Minnesota.  I captured this Heron flying overhead.  I got lucky with this shot in that it was in focus as well. 😃  I know I have mentioned it before but I love how their long legs hang out behind.


Wednesday, August 2, 2017

8/2/17

When I was in Minnesota in June I was able to go on a photography trip with my mom-in-law and her brother.  We always have a fun time and get to visit interesting places.  I saw this guy on our stop at Alexandria and had to share him.  He guards the town and Lake Agnes there.  He is known as America's Biggest Viking.  He was quite huge.


Tuesday, August 1, 2017

8/1/17

Yikes it's August already and school will be starting soon.  The summer goes so by so fast.
Today's image is of a perfect bloom I was able to capture from one of the Sunflowers I am growing.  I tried 3 different varieties this year and they are all producing so that was great.  This is obviously the Red variety and I was able to capture it before the bugs got to it.  It's petals were just perfectly formed too which doesn't always happen.  It was just a lovely example.