Monday, December 31, 2018

12/31/18

Well, we have reached the end of 2018.  Not the best year for me personally and I am glad to see it go.  Hopefully the upcoming year will be better.  We always hope that but lately does not seem to be the case.  I guess we shall see though.  I thought this image was fitting.  I realized I have shared a very similar one but still thought it was fitting.  A sunset on Konza Prairie from this past June.


Sunday, December 30, 2018

12/30/18

The year is almost over.  I decided to share my favorite railway once again for the last Sunday of the year.  This is the Cumbres & Toltec train heading back to Chama New Mexico.  I captured it here just coming off the Lobato Trestle.  This trestle had to be repaired a couple of years ago as there was a fire on it possibly started by fireworks.  Not sure they ever found the exact cause.  It had to undergo some major repair work but they kept the original look of it while strengthening it up to more modern standards. 


Saturday, December 29, 2018

12/29/18

This is another image from the beautiful snow we had in November.  If it always snowed like that I wouldn't mind it so much.  It clung to the trees very beautifully but did not stick on the roads.


Friday, December 28, 2018

12/28/18

It's the last Friday of the year.  I like sharing an image with good bokeh on Fridays and images of butterflies are some of my favorites to shoot so I thought this was a perfect image for today.  This is a Monarch that was visiting my Echinacea or Cone Flower on the first day of July this past year.  I love the creamy, dreamy background the bokeh created.


Thursday, December 27, 2018

12/27/18

Just a shot of a female Cardinal that I liked sitting in the Mulberry tree from a while back for today.


Wednesday, December 26, 2018

12/26/18

This is a lovely Serrated Evening Primrose I found growing near where I live this summer.


Tuesday, December 25, 2018

12/25/18

An image I created for today.  Hope all who celebrate have a .....


Monday, December 24, 2018

12/24/18

Happy Christmas Eve to all who celebrate!  I was taking photos of my Christmas Village.  When looking at the images, I thought with a little tweaking it appeared as though it was a village on the water like a lake.  


Sunday, December 23, 2018

12/23/18

My image today goes back to Rollag Minnesota and the large scale 14 inch Wagner locomotive that I get to play with a couple times a year.  This was after one of the days run and we had put it to bed in it's new roundhouse home.  The area was all nice and cleaned up as well so I decided to take this image from the turntable looking in.


Saturday, December 22, 2018

12/22/18

Happy day after the Winter Solstice!  I was bad and forgot about it yesterday.  We are on an uphill climb with light for the next 6 months now. Our weather has been weird this year, bitter cold and snow in autumn and lately in the 40s and 50s.  This is an image of a stream near where I work that I shot on the way home during a very clingy snow in early November.  It made lovely winter wonderland scenes like this.


Friday, December 21, 2018

12/21/18

I like to share photos with great bokeh on Fridays so I thought this was appropriate.  I was playing around with my Poinsettia and got this image.  Only 3 days to Christmas Eve and I still have lots to do.  Hope you are more prepared!  😅


Thursday, December 20, 2018

12/20/18

Yikes, only 5 days to Christmas!  Time is flying.  I am not even done with cards yet!  Anyway, my image today is another capture of a Blue Jay I was able to get in Minnesota over Thanksgiving break.  Sometimes they pause just long enough before coming to get food that I can catch a shot.  I am lucky when it's clear.  😁


Wednesday, December 19, 2018

12/19/18

I haven't shared a waterfall in a while.  I visited a couple in Colorado late in May of this year.  This one is called Treasure Falls and is located outside and east of Pagosa Springs.  It's an easy one to get to as it is not far off the main road.  It has a nice easy walk to it.


Tuesday, December 18, 2018

12/18/18

My image today goes back to the Air Show at Great Bend Kansas.  The main show was over and these planes were sitting On the Flight Line waiting to move out again to do a flight demonstration for the veterans who were attending.  In the row are the P-40 Warhawk, the P-51 Mustang, the C-45 Expeditor and, I think, a Thunderbolt.


Monday, December 17, 2018

12/17/18

Only 1 week to Christmas Eve!  Yikes time is flying.  My image today is a 2 image focus stack to bring out detail in this angle macro.  This is a bloom of my Gazania flower.  I am trying to over winter these indoors.  They bloom almost constantly if kept well watered.  Gives some nice color to winter.


Sunday, December 16, 2018

12/16/18

Today's image of the Cumbres and Toltec train relates to Wednesday's wild Iris image.  The area I was waiting for the train with the wildflowers was above the railroad grade and had a nice long view of the train.  While waiting to get this image I was taking pictures of the wild Iris growing in this spot.  I captured the train as it was coming around the bend to start heading north up the grade to Cumbres Pass.


Saturday, December 15, 2018

12/15/18

Well, it's going to be like spring for several days.  Temps in the 50s.  I already saw some Daffodils coming up in a spot by my pond from another warm snap.  Not good.  I like the warmer weather though.  So the photo.  I had seen these signs on several trips but had never taken the time to stop and photograph it.  I like the old style look of them.  I was able to capture a bit of the beautiful scenery I was viewing as well on the way.  I was actually heading back to New Mexico when I got this image after a day of visiting waterfalls.  It looks fairly sunny and nice but not long before this I had driven through some torrential rain and wind.  They have been having some crazy weather as well.  I did get a shot of the NM sign as well but this one has more character.


Friday, December 14, 2018

12/14/18

Last year we had quite the explosion of Painted Lady butterflies.  I am not sure where they all were this year but I did not see very many at all.  I did see and capture this one in early September as it visited the new Echinaceas or Cone Flowers I had planted. 


Thursday, December 13, 2018

12/13/18

This image is actually a manipulation.  It's a composite of 2 images that I took and put together.  I put the Hummingbird together with the Hibiscus flower and thought it worked rather well.




Wednesday, December 12, 2018

12/12/18

There's only about 8 or 9 more shopping days till Christmas!  Yikes.  I seem to be into flowers this week.  My image today is of a wild Iris or Mountain Iris that I captured in New Mexico in late May while I was chasing the Cumbres & Toltec Train.  There were large groups of these in the area where I was waiting for the train so I grabbed some shots of them.  They were lovely to see from the train as well.


Tuesday, December 11, 2018

12/11/18

A nice day today and tomorrow.  Weird weather lately.  Of course I have things to do so I miss the nice weather but still glad to have it.  My image today is of some lovely 4 O'Clocks blooming  that I had growing in a pot.  I love how the light seems to make the centers of them glow.


Monday, December 10, 2018

12/10/18

It's been nice to see the sun these days and that the days are a bit warmer.  I was playing with this Orchid image yesterday instead of doing Christmas things.  😁  I changed the background to a black one because I think it shows off the flowers better.


Sunday, December 9, 2018

12/9/18

My image for today is from the morning of my train ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Railway back at the end if May.  This was only the third day the railroad had been in operation for the year and it was a beautiful, clear day for a train ride.  This image is at the Chama New Mexico station.  They were prepping the locomotive to move and hook on to the train that would pull us to Antonito Colorado.


Saturday, December 8, 2018

12/8/18

Here is a view of the Sunflower field I found in late August still in lovely bloom.  When I was looking through the images I captured I found that this one had a couple of insects in it as well.  There is a bee and also what is likely a small butterfly as I saw a few sitting on the heads while walking around.


Friday, December 7, 2018

12/7/18

Yikes, what a week.  Very glad it's Friday.  We have seen the sun a bit this week so that has been a plus at least.  I captured this image in Missouri while there for Thanksgiving.  I love watching the Blue-jays and trying to capture them.  They do not sit still very long when they are close up.  I have seen them sit for a long time far away.  They seem quite camera shy, so I count myself lucky when I can get a good shot of them.


Thursday, December 6, 2018

12/6/18

I felt like something summery because it is just cold out and mostly dreary.  This is a Bumblebee on my Salvia from this past May.


Wednesday, December 5, 2018

12/5/18

We finally saw the sun today, a week later.  Now it will be gone again for awhile.  Sigh.  Nice while it lasted.  These are some white Asters that are on my property blooming this autumn.  Usually you see the pink/purple variety so it was nice to find these.  They are a wildflower found her in Kansas.


12/4/18

Posting late, sigh.  An image from the Great Bend Air Show I went to this past September.  One of my favorite WWII airplanes making a fly by of the crowd, a P51 Mustang fighter plane.


Monday, December 3, 2018

12/3/18

We have had such dreary weather for several days now, it's getting old.  I want to see the sun.  I decided to share something bright and colorful since it is so dreary.  This is a Monarch butterfly visiting a Zinnia flower in my garden this past summer.  


Sunday, December 2, 2018

12/2/18

Today's image goes back to a much warmer day in late May once again.  I was riding through the New Mexico landscape on the way to Colorado aboard the Cumbres & Toltec Railway.  


Saturday, December 1, 2018

12/1/18

It's the first day of December and we are having rain.  Interesting weather this autumn.  We have had more snow already this autumn then we had all last year.  I think Mother Nature is making up for our drought this summer.  I took this image during the lovely clingy snow we had in early November.  This is another view of my pond in snow with, what I thought were, some interesting reflections in the water.


Friday, November 30, 2018

11/30/18

It's the last day of November and the pressure is on to Christmas with buying gifts.  Sigh.  My image today is a summery one because the day started out blah again and I am tired of blah days.  This is from Tamarack Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota from this past June.  I captured these 2 dragonflies in 2 different images and stacked them together to show both in focus in Photoshop.  I wish I had done a shot or 2 more to get the leaves in between them in focus as well but I was lucky they stayed still for even 2 shots.  


Thursday, November 29, 2018

11/29/18

It's been cloudy off and on so I felt like something bright today.  I actually took this image with my old phone, a Note 4.  I rediscovered it the other day when I was copying images from the phone to my computer in preparation for getting a new phone.  It wasn't until I was looking at the image on my computer that I noticed the Sunflower on the left has a buddy hanging from it.  These Sunflowers were volunteers in one of my gardens this year.


Wednesday, November 28, 2018

11/28/18

I was in St Joseph Missouri for Thanksgiving.  My in-laws have a lovely Hawthorn tree which gets these red berries that the birds and squirrels seem to love.  There weren't many left but I managed to capture this male Cardinal sitting among the berries looking rather picturesque.


11/27/18

Yikes, I have been busy lately and totally forgot a day.  Sorry about that.
This image is from the Great Bend Air Show.  The airplane is an SNJ Navy Trainer, another of which was flying in the show, sitting in front of an original hanger.  This hanger used to house the B-29s that were used to train pilots in Kansas.  2 B-29s were at this show but as I mentioned, I unfortunately did not get to see them fly.


Monday, November 26, 2018

11/26/18

Well, what wacky weather.  64F on Saturday, then yesterday a blizzard, today a snow day with temps only at about 30F.  So weird.  My image today is of part of a huge old Oak tree that we have acquired over on the new land.  I thought the silhouetted branches looked lovely against the sky with the November full moon rising behind.


Sunday, November 25, 2018

11/25/18

Well we went from some lovely 60 degree weather yesterday to blizzard like conditions today.  UGH.  My image is from a much warmer day in May when I was riding the Cumbres & Toltec Railway.  We were heading up the grade from the New Mexico side and it was fun to experience the locomotive working hard.  We are at Windy Point in this image just about to head into Cumbres Pass.


Saturday, November 24, 2018

11/24/18

Another of my autumn photos from this year for you.  This is again at the large scale railroad I get to play at looking lovely this autumn.  This view is as you go around the back side and head into the tunnel.  It was highlighted with some lovely trees in autumn color.


Friday, November 23, 2018

11/23/18

I hope everyone stayed safe if you went out Black Friday shopping today.  Today's image is one of my favorite flowers that I shot at the Chama station in New mexico before my train ride.  These are pink Columbines with Aspen tree bokeh.


Thursday, November 22, 2018

11/22/18

Happy Thanksgiving to all in the US, happy day to everyone else.  This is an image of a pond on the outskirts of town that people fish in at times.  It was looking quite lovely this autumn and I like how the colors reflected in the water as well.


Wednesday, November 21, 2018

11/21/18

I'm remembering our colorful autumn again.  Here is a shot of the trestle at the large scale railroad I get to play at outside of Topeka Kansas.  The trees were putting on quite a show in the afternoon sun.  The Poplar trees turn such a lovely golden color and remind me of Aspens.


Tuesday, November 20, 2018

11/20/18

My image today is from the Great Bend Air Show I went to this year.  This is a Navy SNJ which was a WWII training aircraft and exactly like the Army Air Corp T6 Texan I was able to fly in a few years back, just different paint schemes and designations.  Here it was performing some stunt flying with smoke.  I liked how the smoke trail was captured in this image.  


Monday, November 19, 2018

11/19/18

I had 4 pairs of Cardinals in my backyard a week ago.  I captured this male sitting in the Trumpet Vine looking like he was looking at me with a rather punk hairdo.  


Sunday, November 18, 2018

11/18/18

Today's image goes back to a much warmer day this past May when I was chasing the Cumbres & Toltec trains.  This is the one coming from the Colorado side.  It is just beginning to enter the switchback up to Cumbres Pass where it will gain quite a bit of feet in elevation.  It is already gaining here and you can tell that it is working a bit hard by the smoke.


Saturday, November 17, 2018

11/17/18

It's blah and dreary today so I decided on something bright and it was a type of photo they were looking for over on Google Plus so helped me decide.  Google Plus is going away next August so trying to find a new place to play.  I am not all that fond of Social Media and G+ is the only one I have ever been active in so trying to decide the right place to go to have the same kind of experience.  Anyway, these are some colorful Tulips that I shot in Wamego Kansas at their Tulip festival.


Friday, November 16, 2018

11/16/18

Today's image is another of the lovely leaves with a bubbly bokeh background of the Red Maple I discovered this autumn on the outskirts of the new land.  It really put on quite the show of color.


Thursday, November 15, 2018

11/15/18

We went from the colorful scene I posted yesterday very quickly to this scene one week ago today.  You can still see some color in the trees in the background.  This was the perfect snow, I loved the way it clung to the trees and made a winter wonderland in autumn and it also did not stick on the roads.  We got about 4 inches of it and it was still falling at this point.  I shot this image at the pond on my new land.


Wednesday, November 14, 2018

11/14/18

Hope you are having a happy Hump Day Wednesday.  This is an image I captured out on Fort Riley a couple of weeks ago when the autumn colors were at their peak.  I loved how the sun was highlighting the tops of them.  The colors are gone now after our snows and bitter temps but it was beautiful while it lasted.


Tuesday, November 13, 2018

11/13/18

With the bitter cold weather we have been having, everything is killed off now.  I decided to share the color version of the monochrome Clematis I shared a little bit ago.  It really gives a pop of color.


Monday, November 12, 2018

11/12/18

I posted an image of the Mulberry tree in it's golden glory last week and this image is what it and other trees looked like on Thursday afternoon.  We were having a lovely clingy snow and you can still see some of the golden leaves peaking out from it.  It was very beautiful in our area until later on Friday when the wind blew most of it down.  Yesterday it was pretty much gone but overnight we received another inch or so and we are white again.  I am about done with winter and it hasn't even actually begun.