Thursday, November 30, 2017

11/30/17

The last day of November.  Christmas is coming fast.  My image today is an older one of a Water Lily in my pond and it is one that I played around with quite a bit. 


Wednesday, November 29, 2017

11/29/17

I love the Conodoguinet Creek that runs near my Dad's home in Pennsylvania.  Every time I have been out there I have been able to capture some kind of wildlife image.  This last week I was able to get an image of this Heron that was wading in the creek looking for a meal.


Tuesday, November 28, 2017

11/28/17

The trees have now mostly lost their leaves so I spend a lot of time raking and leaf blowing.  This is an image of a tree at my friend's home while it was showing off it's lovely autumn colors.  This is a Sugar Maple tree and a quite lovely pop of color.


Monday, November 27, 2017

11/27/17

Today's image is really about the scenery but it does have the added bonus of a steam train in it as well.  I was capturing the scenery in Silverton, Colorado while shooting the trains coming into town.  The locomotive of this train was clearing out it's cylinder as I took this image of one of the mountains in the area that still had some snow on it in July.  Silverton is a beautiful area but I think it really only exists these days due to the tourist train.  


Sunday, November 26, 2017

11/26/17

My image today goes back to early September in Rollag, Minnesota at the Steam Thresher's Reunion.  This is 353 pulling away from the water tower area with some passengers for an early morning run around the grounds.  It's about a 2 mile loop of track with a nice grade to work up at one point. I liked how the early morning sun was catching on the steam in this image.



Saturday, November 25, 2017

11/25/17

Today's image is another view of the sunset at the Grand Canyon this past July.  The original image because of shooting at the sun made the canyon rather dark.  I used a new HDR software to bring out the canyon more and I really like what it did with it.


Friday, November 24, 2017

11/24/17

I shot this image this past summer in Colorado while I was waiting for our train to depart in Silverton.  I think this is a type of Metallic Bee on a Daisy that was growing by the tracks.


Thursday, November 23, 2017

11/23/17

Happy Thanksgiving to those from the US and happy Thursday to everyone else.  This is just a little solar Turkey that I shot against some orange lights for bubbly bokeh.  The Turkey flaps it's wings in the sun.  😃


Wednesday, November 22, 2017

11/22/17

A five day holiday from work, nice.  This is an older image I got while I was up near Milford Lake one day awhile back.  This Red Tail Hawk was flying overhead and I was able to capture a few shots of it.  In this one it looks like it was checking me out.


Tuesday, November 21, 2017

11/21/17

I mentioned how the Maple trees in our area were putting on a show.  This is a friend's red Maple that I thought was quite lovely. I took this shot laying on the ground looking up the trunk.  


Monday, November 20, 2017

11/20/17

My image today is of a Columbine flower that I had growing in my garden this year.  I isolated one of the blooms and shot it against a white background.  I love Columbine and the wild ones do very well for me but the more specialized ones with bigger blooms, like this pink variety, I have to find just the right spot.


Sunday, November 19, 2017

11/19/17

Today's image goes back to summer and Rollag, Minnesota and the 14/15 inch scale Wagner locomotive I get to help operate.  Here a friend of mine is running a group around.  Much progress has been made on the Roundhouse and turntable which are able to be seen in this image.  It will be a great place to store the locomotive and train.


Saturday, November 18, 2017

11/18/17

I took this image of a lovely colorful evening sky over the Konza Prairie this past June.  This was looking to the north from the barn in an image I shared a few weeks ago or so.  The light was lovely on one of the hills along with the pinky sky.


Friday, November 17, 2017

11/17/17

Today felt a bit like late summer, in the 60s in the morning and 70s later.  Weird weather.  My image today is of a plant that gives our area some nice color in the autumn.  This is Virginia Creeper or Five Leaf Ivy back-lit in the afternoon sun.  It gets it's name from it's habit of growing up tree trunks like it has here.


Thursday, November 16, 2017

11/16/17

I saw this flower at a friend's home and thought it was quite lovely looking.  It reminded me of a Columbine but I knew it was not that.  I found out it is called Angel Earring Fuchsia.  I may have to try to grow it this spring though it seems it is picky about light and water.  Needs to be damp and in shade.  It will take heat so that's good for my area.


Wednesday, November 15, 2017

11/15/17

It's Hump Day today and we get to see the sun as well, it's been a while since we started the day with a clear sky.  I took this image earlier this year and while these birds are what I think of more as "wild" birds they act like the regular little birds that come to visit.  The wild Turkeys come to the yard to visit the feeder as well, they just can't get up into it so they forage around on the ground.  This male was strutting his stuff for 3 females who are just out of frame and they were not as interested in him as I was.  😁


Tuesday, November 14, 2017

11/14/17

The day started out dreary once again.  I needed this to brighten things up.  A lovely summer day with Dame's Rocket in bloom and a Red Admiral butterfly enjoying the blossoms fit that need well.


Monday, November 13, 2017

11/13/17

I was looking back through some old photos and processing a few over the weekend.  I found this one of a beautiful scene in Rocky Mountain National Park and decided to share it.  It would be my dream to live where I could have this view every day.  I find the mountains very beautiful and relaxing.


Sunday, November 12, 2017

11/12/17

So today I am sharing an image of two of the things I love to photograph in one shot.  I shared one from a different angle a while back.  This is the last train of the day arriving in Silverton, Colorado to let it's passengers off to walk around the town for a couple of hours like I was doing.  You can see in the background a couple of waterfalls that were being created by the snow melt that was still going on in July in the mountains.


Saturday, November 11, 2017

11/11/17

Happy Veteran's Day to those in the US.  I took this image a couple of weekends ago at the railroad I get to play at and I liked how it came out.  I used a new program to help bring the sky color out which turned out rather washed out in the original.  It really made it rather rich looking and made the Autumn colors stand out.


Friday, November 10, 2017

11/10/17

Posting early today due to being on holiday from work.  I haven't shared just a straight flower macro in a while, usually has a butterfly or bee on it.  This is a lovely Water Lily from my pond this past summer.  It reminds me of much warmer days instead of the mid 40s we are having right now.



Thursday, November 9, 2017

11/9/17

This is another view of the beautiful Red Maple tree that I found on Fort Riley last week.  I shot some of the leaves against the deep blue sky and loved the almost flames like appearance of them.  These Maples really pop color in the Autumn as compared to the mostly yellows and brown.  


Wednesday, November 8, 2017

11/8/17

My image today is one I captured late this summer and added to my pages of Kansas wildflowers here on the Blog.  This is Blazing Star Gayfeather.  I captured this during the explosion of Painted Lady Butterflies in the area so there is also a butterfly bonus.  


Tuesday, November 7, 2017

11/7/17

This is a Maple tree that I photographed out on Fort Riley about a week or so ago.  It was really putting on a colorful show.  Most of the trees just turn yellow and brown around here but the Red Maples are quite lovely.  I am surprised that most of them still have a lot of leaves left even after a couple of hard freezes here.


Monday, November 6, 2017

11/6/17

I captured this young Praying Mantis on the Lantana just about 2 weeks ago.  It was found on a piece of metal and I took a couple of shots of it there and then I moved it to a more photogenic location.  It was OK with me moving it and wouldn't even get off my hand at first.  It finally did and then posed for me very nicely so I was able to get 4 images of it to stack together to bring out the focus of it's body better.


Sunday, November 5, 2017

11/5/17

Did you remember to set your clock back 1 hour if you are in the States?  😉  My image today was taken after I road the Durango and Silverton train.  We had just got back to Durango and I was walking around and going to the museum when the last train of the day pulled in.  They were checking things out before they took the cars to park for the night and locomotive to the Roundhouse.


Saturday, November 4, 2017

11/4/17

Hope you are having a great start to your 49 hour weekend here in the US or a great day everywhere else.  This is another view from the not as heavily visited North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It's kind of amazing that it takes about 5 hours to drive to yet you can see details of the other side while on each.  Too bad you have to go so far around.  😊 Anyway, this is a 3 shot panoramic image that I took just west of the lodge on the North Rim side.  Best viewed large by clicking on it.


Friday, November 3, 2017

11/3/17

I had not seen a big variety of butterflies this summer, it was a big year for Painted Ladies though.  I finally had some different ones visit early this Autumn.  This is a beautiful and perfect Buckeye that came to visit the garden not that long ago and allowed me to get a few shots of it.


Thursday, November 2, 2017

11/2/17

The leaves haven't really changed much around here or else they changed fast and dropped like the Walnuts.  I wish we had more Maple trees in this area because they are the only ones kind of putting on a show this year.  I'm not sure if it's due to the lack of rain or maybe that it has still been fairly warm until recently but a lot of trees are still green or just turning.  This is a yellow Maple that I captured some leaves of at the railroad I play at outside of Topeka.


Wednesday, November 1, 2017

11/1/17

We made it to November and had our first snow yesterday, it was lovely how it clung to tree leaves.  My image today was taken on a much warmer day in Minnesota.  This was at the lake in Alexandria and this Pelican was coming in for a landing and I was able to capture it in good focus.  I'm always happy when that happens.  😄