Tuesday, October 31, 2017

10/31/17

Happy Halloween or All Hallow's Eve!  Hope you have a good time with the Trick or Treaters or get some treats yourself.  This image is just something I created for the day with a shot of the moon I took in Topeka the same night I photographed the Capitol and some other related items. 


Monday, October 30, 2017

10/30/17

I captured this image fairly recently.  I was taking several images of this web with dew drops on it to focus stack them together when suddenly the spider decided to come out and photobomb the shot.  It worked out and I didn't have to stay so close to the web for long with the spider right there.  LOL  This is 5 images stacked together.  I thought it was an appropriate image since Halloween is tomorrow and I find spiders rather creepy.  


Sunday, October 29, 2017

10/29/17

This is an image from a much warmer day back in July taken during my trip to the Durango & Silverton Railway.  This is our locomotive and train sitting in Silverton waiting for passengers to re-board for the trip back to Durango.  Silverton is a quaint little town that basically only still exists due to the railroad and tourists.  It was once a mining town.


Saturday, October 28, 2017

10/28/17

Posting late today doing steamy stuff on a very chilly day.  This was taken on a nice warm day in August after a rain.  A large group of these large 'shrooms popped up in the backyard.


Friday, October 27, 2017

10/27/17

So we are supposed to have our first hard frost of the season tonight.  The blah starts early.  Sigh.  Winter is just so dull and brown around here.  Maybe we will get some snow to give it some character now and then.  In the meantime, here is a wildflower image that I shot back in May.  This is a Fringed Puccoon or Frilly Puccoon.  It's flowers are fairly small and grow low to the ground.


Thursday, October 26, 2017

10/26/17

Our last day of warmer weather for a while.  I got out a bit to enjoy it yesterday.  My image today was taken while hiking at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on the North Kaibab Trail.  I originally called this bird in another post a Scrub Jay but it is actually a Steller's Jay.  I need to repair the other.  They are closely related to the Blue Jay but are the only crested Jay found west of the Rocky Mountains.  I was fortunate to see and capture, I had only seen them in photos before.


Wednesday, October 25, 2017

10/25/17

I hope you got outside today because real autumn is coming tomorrow.  Yikes going from 75 to 45 in 2 days.  Anyway, the photo.  This is a little Toad that I captured on the rock by my Garden Railroad the other day.  I believe it's a young American Toad.  It was very small, only about 2 inches at most in length and had this shimmery copper color to it.  It was nice enough to pose for me a bit and let me get fairly close.


Tuesday, October 24, 2017

10/24/17

I caught this tree in the sunlight against a stormy sky a couple of weeks ago.  It was another instance of storms around where we received no rain.  It made for a dramatic photo though with the light and dark sky.


Monday, October 23, 2017

10/23/17

There have been a few different butterflies around the garden lately which has been nice.  I have not seen many Monarchs this year but I have had a few stop by the garden this autumn.  This image was an accident but I liked how it turned out after I played with it in Photoshop.  I had been shooting some images in low light and when I saw this Monarch and it let me get very close to it I was excited and forgot to check my settings so they turned out over exposed and this is the result of one of them.  I did manage to realize something was off and was able to change my settings and get some normal images after.  This image is un-cropped as this Monarch really allowed me to get up close and personal with it.  😊  I posted the B&W version over on G+ as I thought the image and the high key look lent itself well to a B&W treatment.



Sunday, October 22, 2017

10/22/17

When our train got back to Durango after our ride, we went over to the museum and we were able to watch our locomotive being put on the turntable to move it into the Roundhouse.  As you can see, it just fits so the engineer has to be pretty good to get it stopped at the right spot to balance correctly so the table will turn.  It was a great end to a steamy day to watch this operation.


Saturday, October 21, 2017

10/21/17

Posting a bit late today as I was off doing steamy stuff.  This is the sunrise I saw yesterday morning.  I just love the colors of a vibrant sunrise and how it gets more pastel as it moves outward.  It was a lovely way to start the day.


Friday, October 20, 2017

10/20/17

Fridays seem to be about butterflies for me lately.  Today's image is of a Great Spangled Fritillary that came to visit the garden in Late July.  These are fairly large butterflies like Monarchs and I had usually seen them on Bee Balm but this one came to visit the Zinnias.  I will say again, if you want an inexpensive, easy to grow, butterfly magnet, plant Zinnias.  I can almost always find a butterfly on them up until a killing frost.  


Thursday, October 19, 2017

10/19/17

This is an image I took in Minnesota earlier this year.  It is a Loon on one of the many lakes there at sunset.  This image is a favorite of mine even though the Loon is not close.  The whole image just says peaceful or tranquil to me. 


Wednesday, October 18, 2017

10/18/17

This is an image of Topeka, Kansas that I shot one evening while at my work conference.  The window at the hotel I was staying at actually opened and fairly wide too.  My room was on the 7th floor and this was the view I had to the north.  To the east it was great for watching the full moon rise which will appear in a photo soon.  😉


Tuesday, October 17, 2017

10/17/17

This is an older image I took on an outing in Minnesota.  I have been to the Buffalo River State Park a couple of times and this was taken there.  This park is near Hawley Minnesota.  It's a bend along the trail of the Buffalo River.  I'm already dreaming of summer days.  😊


Monday, October 16, 2017

10/16/17

I had shared this guy up close a little while ago.  This image shows it with it's long tail.  Some lizards will shed their tails easily to escape from prey but this one only does it if absolutely necessary as it uses it for balance.  This is a pretty common lizard in Kansas, and called a Collared Lizard due to the black band around it's neck.  I am pretty sure this is a male because the females are not so green.


Sunday, October 15, 2017

10/15/17

Today's image was taken from the train while riding the Durango & Silverton Railway.  The train was on the High Line as we were heading back to Durango.  I like to sit near the end of the train to get images such as this when it is in curves.  We were only moving along at about 5 mph here due to the steep drop off so that helped in getting a good photo as well.


Saturday, October 14, 2017

10/14/17

I woke up to some much needed rain again.  Nice.  Today's image goes back to my trip to the Grand Canyon in July.  While I was there on the third day I was hiking for a bit on the Bright Angel Trail.  This image was taken from the trail and you can see more of it in the bottom center.  I definitely did not go that far!  😅  This is a 2 shot panorama looking towards the North Rim of the canyon.


Friday, October 13, 2017

10/13/17

Happy Friday the 13th!  It's usually a good day for me, I shall see how it ends.  😉  Seems Fridays have been for butterflies but I have had great opportunities for butterfly images this year.  I think I have enough shots I could post one every day but that may bore you.  This one is a Silvery Checkerspot that I captured in July on the Butterfly Milkweed.  It sat quite well for a macro shot of it.  I also realized this was a positive ID on a new one so I have updated the Butterfly Page as well.  



Thursday, October 12, 2017

10'12/17

We are back to warm weather again after a day of very autumn temps.  My Zinnias were still good and the butterflies were back so all is well.  This is an image I took on a day like yesterday this past spring in Pennsylvania on the Conodoguinet Creek.  It was the first time I had ever seen a Hooded Merganser duck in real life.  It was not real happy about having me around and trying to take a photo so it took off and I was, fortunately, able to capture it somewhat in focus.


Wednesday, October 11, 2017

10/11/17

It got pretty cold here last night but I don't think enough to kill anything but tender plants, we shall see.  Since late summer and now into early autumn, the Goldenrod has been in bloom.  There are several different varieties in Kansas and this one is Prairie Goldenrod.  I find it interesting how the colors change in the wildflowers as the year progresses, autumn ones are mostly yellows and purples. 
Due to that I was able to update those 2 pages of my Blog of the Wildflowers in Kansas.  They can be a help to identify what you are seeing so hope you will check them out.  They are linked at the top of the page on computer and on a phone on Android off the home button at the top, sorry couldn't check IOS.


Tuesday, October 10, 2017

10/10/17

Wow, a real autumn day today and then back to summer again.  We even have to worry about frost.  This was taken on a totally different day when it was quite warm out.  This tree stands on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It's an old twisty Cedar tree and I love these trees.  They seem to have so much character in their twisty shapes.


Monday, October 9, 2017

10/9/17

I bought a Penta plant this spring for the first time for some color on the deck and it was a great choice.  It has drawn in a lot of different types of creatures from Praying Mantis to butterflies to moths like this one.  This is a Snowberry Clearwing Moth enjoying the blooms one day a few weeks ago.


Sunday, October 8, 2017

10/8/17

Hmm, something went weird with my postings for the weekend but they are both there so it's all good I guess.  😉  My image today goes back to some Garden Railway fun at a friend's house and his nice layout.  I took this in the evening at almost sunset so the smoke has a bit of pink color in it due to that.  It was steaming very nicely in the cooler evening.  This is my C-21 locomotive and I had shared a link a while back of it running on Youtube so if you missed it, here it is again:  https://youtu.be/WrMf8inrSkc  It runs on butane and water and is a great running engine.


Friday, October 6, 2017

10/6/17

So all summer I have mainly been seeing Painted Lady butterflies.  Recently I have had a Monarch visit.  I captured it visiting the Zinnias on Saturday.  If you ever want a cheap flower that's fairly easy to grow and attracts butterflies, Zinnias are it.  very popular wit them.  Autumn Sedum too though not as cheap to start.


10/7/17

I took this image while I was out on Konza Prairie last Sunday.  The Bison were visible from near the Barn.  They were on the move on the hillside and I was able to capture a few of them.  



Thursday, October 5, 2017

10/5/17

Dreary days we have been having and not really that much rain to show for it.  At least we are getting some.  I thought this image would brighten things up a bit.  This is a Katydid, also known as a Bush Cricket in Europe, that I captured this summer on my Neighbor's Geraniums.  The camera I used is having exposure issues but I like the effect I was able to get due to that.


Wednesday, October 4, 2017

10/4/17

I captured this image in my neighbor's yard this summer while watering her plants.  This is a Collared Lizard that I saw several times and was pretty shy but this day I was able to get an image.  This type of lizard is fairly common in my area but I don't see them often.



Tuesday, October 3, 2017

10/3/17

This is an older shot of a bird I don't get to photograph in my yard very often.  I hear them around all the time but they don't come into view even when I try to entice them with peanuts.  The Titmice eat those instead.  I got lucky this past winter when one sat in the Walnut out in the backyard long enough for me to get a few shots off through the window.


Monday, October 2, 2017

10/2/17

Once in a while I like to get back to my roots in photography and work in Black and White images.  I used to even process my own film back in the day.  These days with digital it's much easier.  I thought that this Gazania bloom provided a good subject to play with and this is also a 2 image focus stack to bring detail out well.


Sunday, October 1, 2017

10/1/17

Happy October!  My image today goes back to the first day of July when I was in the Animas River Canyon taking photos of the Durango & Silverton Railway trains on the High Line.  This is Locomotive 486 returning from Silverton with it's train for the day and traveling along at the speed limit of 5mph.  

Note: To process this image I used a new HDR program from Macphun called Aurora.  I was impressed by how it brought the rock color out and kept the photo looking natural.