Wednesday, October 31, 2018

10/31/18

Hello!  Hope you are having a good and fun Halloween!  This is just a little something I worked up from some yard art and the moon.  🎃


Tuesday, October 30, 2018

10/30/18

Happy Halloween Eve!  My image today is again from the air show I went to in Great Bend Kansas.  This is a C-45 Expeditor that I captured as it was coming in to land during the show after taking some participants for a paid ride.  This aircraft was manufactured by Beech Aircraft Corporation in 1941 and 1300 of them were produced.  The Army Air Corps used them as utility/training planes during WWII.


Monday, October 29, 2018

10/29/18

A nice warm and beautiful day today.  I enjoy working in monochrome at times because my photography roots are in Black & White with the classes I took early on learning how to photograph better and develop my own prints.  I look for subjects that work well with a monochrome treatment.  I thought this one was a good example.  This is a macro image of a Clematis bloom from my neighbor's plant.


Sunday, October 28, 2018

10/28/18

This image was taken almost exactly 5 months ago now, time flies.  This is the day in May I was chasing the Cumbres & Toltec train as it headed back to Chama New Mexico for photographic opportunities.  I captured it here as it was crossing the Lobato Trestle.  The open car that you can see almost at the end is where I like to ride and photograph from.  You get good images as it rounds a curve like this of the locomotive. 


Saturday, October 27, 2018

10/27/18

We have been having the most colorful autumn I can remember in some time.  Usually we seem to go right from summer into winter with high winds that knock the leaves off the trees before they really get a chance to fully turn.  This year we have had an autumn and no big winds yet.  The trees have really been putting on a show.  This is a view of Homer's Pond in Junction City.  The drought caused the pond to get fairly low this year and so the plants grew into where the water usually is.  Normally there would not be all that growth along the edge.  It was added color in the late afternoon sun though, can you tell that's when I really like to capture photos?  😉


Friday, October 26, 2018

10/26/18

I was out walking around the new land on Monday and I found something wonderful.  I have a beautiful Red Maple tree on the western edge of the property.  I had not noticed there was a Maple tree there because it had a bunch of scrub trees around it.  As I was walking I could see there was a bunch of red and wondered what it was so imagine my surprise as I got close and realized it was a beautiful Maple.  I have since been clearing out the scrub stuff around it to expose it more and help it thrive.  I wish it was on the eastern side and easier to see but it is worth the effort to visit. 😊 This image was taken in the late afternoon sunlight of a small branch and I loved the bokeh the camera aperture produced.  


Thursday, October 25, 2018

10/25/18

Yikes, exactly 2 months to Christmas now!  Time is flying!  It's been a bit dreary but good that we got some much needed rain again.  I wanted something bright.  This is an image I never shared from this spring.  My new pond has beautiful yellow water Iris.  I love this shape of this type and the yellow color was lovely and bright in the early spring.


Wednesday, October 24, 2018

10/24/18

This autumn has been very vibrant around my area of Kansas.  I think it's because we are having an actual autumn this year and the leaves are staying on the trees longer.  It's been really lovely driving around and seeing all the color.  This image is a Burr Oak tree in my yard in late afternoon sunlight that always looks rather lovely in the fall.


Tuesday, October 23, 2018

10/23/18

This image is un-cropped from the Great Bend air show a few weeks ago.  This Navy SNJ was taking off and I was in the front row with a zoom lens and was able to get this shot.  I got to fly in and fly the Army Air Corps version of this plane a few years back, the T6 Texan.  There is no difference between the 2 except for the color and designation of SNJ or Texan.  They were both used for training pilots in WWII and are quite capable of acrobatic maneuvers and this pilot performed some of them.


Monday, October 22, 2018

10/22/18

I love being in the mountains, the scenery is quite beautiful.  I took this image of some mountain scenery while riding the Cumbres and Toltec Railway in late May.  This is looking back into New Mexico.


Sunday, October 21, 2018

10/21/18

My image today goes back once again to a warm day in late May where I was chasing the Cumbres & Toltec train to get shots of it on the route.  This was the locomotive that I rode behind the day before from Chama New Mexico to Antonito Colorado.  Here it is about to pass through a crossing on it's way back to Chama near there.


Saturday, October 20, 2018

10/20/18

This was a cool sight I was treated to while driving east last weekend in the morning.  It looked like an arch or round rainbow.  The colors weren't quite as vivid as a normal rainbow but it was very neat to see and capture.


Friday, October 19, 2018

10/19/18

I have been so lucky with butterflies this year.  The past few weeks I have had a number of Monarchs come through the yard and visit the gardens.  I was able to capture these 2 together on the Budhelia or Butterfly Bush in what I think of as one of my best butterfly images.  😊



Thursday, October 18, 2018

10/18/18

We are back to beautiful autumn.  Nice clear days and the temps are in the 60s.  I got this image on a nice warm evening back in June of a Dickcissel bird high up in a tree singing over the Konza Prairie.  They are named for their "dick dick cissel" call and are sometimes confused with Meadowlarks as the coloring is similar.


Wednesday, October 17, 2018

10/17/18

So we are having pretty cold mornings and even had a hard freeze but the butterflies are still around.  Maybe they know something we don't.  Anyway, I captured this guy in the pond last week.  A fairly good size Leopard Frog.


Tuesday, October 16, 2018

10/16/18

Got really cold last night, 20s.  Flowers are probably all gone now.  Sigh.  Anyway, my image today is from the Great Bend Air Show a few weekends ago.  While I was horribly disappointed to not get to see the B-29s fly I did get to see a neat show.  The highlight for me were these two which are a couple of my favorite WWII fighter planes.  In the foreground is a P-40 Warhawk painted in Flying Tiger style and in the rear is Gunfighter, a P-51 Mustang.  These pilots were good as you can see from how close together they were flying and were quite something to watch.


Monday, October 15, 2018

10/15/18

So winter came already, woke up to about an inch of snow!  I am sure my flowers are all gone now.  Sigh.  My image today is of some lovely horses I saw in Minnesota eating in a row.   😃


Sunday, October 14, 2018

10/14/18

Every now and then I like to get back to my roots of Black & White photography.  I thought this image was a good one to do that with.  This was at our lunch stop on the Cumbres & Toltec at Osier Colorado.  The train from Antonito heading to Chama had pulled in and I was photographing it.  You can see an old cattle pen off to the side.


Saturday, October 13, 2018

12/13/18

I seem to be in a flower mood lately, probably because they are all going to be going away in a couple of days when it is supposed to freeze over night.  This is the color version of the Marigold I shared a little while back.  I thought it looked rather dramatic even in color and you can see it had a visitor of some kind.


Friday, October 12, 2018

10/12/18

A cold and rainy morning again. Winter is coming quickly.  I hope these guys got the heck out of here and went on their way south.  I saw them on Tuesday I think out in the rain.  I keep saying, of all the flowers I plant the one I find them on the most is the cheaper Zinnias.  Glad they enjoy them because I do as well.  This Monarch posed so lovely on one of the Zinnias for me so I just had to take a photo of it and share it.


Thursday, October 11, 2018

10/11/18

Well we are not getting much of an autumn it seems like.  The temps this weekend are looking more like winter.  I think it's going to be a long one.  Sigh.  The yellow Water Lily at my new pond has been lovely.  I captured this image last week in between the rain which was great because of the drought we have been having.


Wednesday, October 10, 2018

10/10/18

I captured this image in Minnesota when I was there in early September.  I love this flower, it's very small and delicate looking and looks to be part of the Orchid family but is actually part of the Impatiens family.  It is called a Jewelweed or a Touch Me Not because after it blooms if you brush up against it the seed will drop out. 


Tuesday, October 9, 2018

10/9/18

I went to the Great Bend Air Show a couple of weekends ago mainly to see these two B-29 airplanes that were supposed to fly together.  I went down on Saturday which started out cold and dreary but the clouds lifted and they had the show.  Unfortunately these 2 still did not fly which was a huge disappointment as it is a rare thing to see 2 of this type of aircraft together.  I did not go the next day because the weather was crappy again but I saw later that they did fly that day.  Incredibly disappointing that I missed it.  Anyway, this is  Doc which was very recently restored in Wichita Kansas and Fifi in the rear which belongs to the Commemorative Air Force and I got to see fly over 30 years ago so it has been around a while.  I captured them sitting after the airshow on the tarmac of the former B-29 training facility there which is now the Great Bend Airport.





Monday, October 8, 2018

10/8/18

We are still getting some much needed rain.  Makes for it being quite dreary but it is helping my well so can't complain too much.  My image today is a companion one to yesterday.  While shooting the train on the embankment at Osier Colorado, I saw movement near me.  I discovered this little Chipmunk popping out of his home and watching me.  It posed so nicely I had to get a photo.


Sunday, October 7, 2018

10/7/18

Today's image is of our Cumbres & Toltec train sitting at the midpoint of Osier where we have lunch before traveling on for the rest of the trip.  I climbed down the embankment to get this shot.  The train was waiting for passengers to re-board for the trip to Antonito Colorado.


Saturday, October 6, 2018

10/6/18

Yay, we are getting some much needed rain!  Not happy with the temps only being in the 50s but I guess it is autumn.  I have been lucky the past few days because I have had several Monarch butterflies visiting the flowers still blooming.  I captured 4 of them in this group of Zinnias the other day.  I shot this with my phone which is an older model and I usually don't use because I am not thrilled with it's ability but it did OK for this image.


Friday, October 5, 2018

10/5/18

This is kind of a companion image to yesterday.  This is a female Cardinal that I captured on the ground feeder that I made out of a concrete bowl and some rocks.  She is definitely not as bright as the male, blends in a bit with the rock which is a good thing when she is having to take care of young.  They are still quite lovely though I think and fun to watch.


Thursday, October 4, 2018

10/4/18

Happy 10-4 good buddy.  (Trucker speak)  😁  Anyway, my image today is of one of my favorite birds that I was able to capture in a cute pose.  This is a male Cardinal and he was looking at something below him, probably the food I put out.  It was a rather windy day too so his feathers are a bit rumpled.  


Wednesday, October 3, 2018

10/3/18

Still summer today.  90.  Ugh.  Tomorrow back to autumn.  My image today is of a Hairy Woodpecker I was able to capture on the Mulberry tree this spring.  They move around so quickly, they are hard to capture.


Tuesday, October 2, 2018

10/2/18

We are going back to summer for a couple of days.  high 80s today and maybe 90 tomorrow.  Crazy weather.  This is an image from a while back of a cute little Nuthatch on the Mulberry tree outside the window.  I love to watch them walk down trees face first.


Monday, October 1, 2018

10/1/18

Happy first day of October!  September seemed to last forever.  My image today is a close up of the Great Egret I was able to capture this past August.  This is not cropped at all, it was that close, I was in a vehicle at the time.  I love the yellow eye.  It was such a neat experience to be able to photograph it and not have it fly away.