12/31/19

Today is the last day of 2019 and the last day of the teen years.  The decade is not actually over until a year from now but heading into the 20s seems pretty significant.  I hope this year was a good one for you and I hope the year to come will be even better.  May it bring you health and happiness.

12/30/19

This is one of the best snowflakes I was able to capture the day of the snow.  It was a fairly large flake and I did 9 images of it and focus stacked them for this result.  This is a good example of the fact that I should have done more because you can see some of the tips of the flake are out of focus.  Ah well, live and learn, I thought I had covered all areas of it while shooting.  Being that close you have to shoot multiple images and focus just slightly different in everyone.  Don K who I learned this from, can do many, like 40 or more to have enough to pick and choose from to get it all in focus.  Anyway, I thought it turned out fairly well considering.

12/29/19

Today is the last Steamy Sunday for 2019.  I had to post something fun.  This is an image of the Porter locomotive that I got to help operate again this year after it had been down for several years.  I was grateful to the people who got it up and running again and allowed me to help fire it up and also fire it around the track during the Labor Day Show.  It was a blast.  This locomotive does not have a tender, it carries it's water in a tank over the boiler and the coal is in a bunker in the rear.

12/28/19

The day of the frost I just had to take a bit of a break and go out close to where I work a take a couple images.  This is a view of the Smoky Hill river looking east with the trees all covered in Hoar frost.

12/27/19

I am going to take a break from the winter images for today and share one from late autumn.  This is an image of my lovely Sea Oats Grass that I am fond of due to the color and light and the bokeh.  The latter is why I wanted to post it today because it's Friday and Fridays Are Bokehlicious!

12/26/19

Today's image is one that shows just how thick the Hoar frost was that day.  This is a part of the chain link fence behind where I work.  I went out and shot a few quick images with my phone.  I am glad I decided to get a Google Pixel which takes very good images since I did not have my actual camera that day.  The phone camera did pretty well in capturing the detail.  I have never seen Hoar Frost so thick, it was pretty amazing.

12/25/19

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!  Happy Wednesday everyone as well!  This is an image I took at a light show in a park in St Joseph Missouri last year.  I thought it was fitting for me to share today.

12/24/19

Merry Christmas Eve!  Happy Tuesday!  Two days after it snowed it was very cold out but we had a foggy morning that created some lovely Hoar Frost. The closer you got to the river, the thicker and more beautiful the Hoar frost was, I have never seen it as big as it was that day.  Unfortunately i did not have my actual camera with me as i would have loved to do some macros, that is one thing phones are not good for yet. This is a tree that was covered in it.  The white dot to the upper left is the moon.  

12/23/19

As I mentioned, the previous Sunday we had a good snow, 6 inches fell at my house.  I was out a few times trying to photograph flakes.  Most of the time they were not very good at all, they were quite rimed up with sleet.  This is a good example of that.  You can see the shape of the flake but it has quite a bit of rime or sleet all over it as well.  This is an 11 image focus stack.

12/22/19

Changing up from my 611 and 4014 shots of late and going back to the steam locomotive that I have the privilege of working on for 4 days out of the year when it runs at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's reunion every labor day Weekend.  This is former Soo Line 353 heading up the steepest grade on the track towards the station to pick up and drop off passengers.  This year was Case Tractor feature so someone had put a stuffed toy eagle on the engine to join in as the symbol for Case is a Bald Eagle.

12/21/19

Today's image moves from autumn into full winter.  Last weekend we had a good snow, 6 inches at least at my house, some areas had more.  The birds were out in full force at the feeders.  I titled this image Sharing for obvious reasons.  This Carolina Wren and Black capped Chickadee seemed to have no issue with eating from the peanut feeder together.  It was quite cute.  By the way, the snow background created the absence of bokeh in contrast to yesterday's image.

12/20/19

Today's image moves from late summer into early Autumn.  These are some leaves on my lovely Maple tree that did not get into it's full color this year due to an early hard frost.  A few of the leaves were determined and remained on the tree long enough to turn.  I chose this image because of the beautiful bokeh because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!

12/19/19

Going back to a late summer day with today's image.  This is a Snowberry Clear Wing Moth that was enjoying the Ironweed blooms.  Ironweed was quite popular with all kinds of insects for me this year.  It is in the Sunflower family so maybe tastes good.  😀

12/18/19

This is my last Wildflower Wednesday post for the year and maybe till next summer due to running out of images to post.  I need to see if I have any others.  Hope you have enjoyed them.  This image is a group of Black Eyed Susans that is actually a phone shot.  These grow wild along the sidewalk near my home.

12/17/19

So we ended up with 6 inches of snow on Sunday.  I was out taking a few snowflake images.  I was able to get a couple fairly good examples and here is one of them.  This is an 18 image focus stack macro.  I use a macro lens and a 2X converter and still have to crop a bit.

12/16/19

Sorry about the late posting of the image yesterday.  Forgot to set the time for it.
We had quite the nice snow yesterday.  As I write this it is at least 4 inches and still coming down quite heavily.  It's actually quite lovely when you don't have to go out in it.  
My image today is a 5 image Focus Stack of my Toad Lily from a different angle than I shared previously.  This flower is a quite interesting one I think and lovely despite it's name.  Because of the mottled color and the fact that they prefer shade is where the name originates from.

12/15/19

I took this image of Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 in Salina, Kansas where it was overnighting after coming through my town.  The locomotive is so large and I was very close to it that I actually did a 4 image panoramic to get it all in, top to bottom and lengthwise.  The Big Boy got it's name from something that has been recreated on this locomotive and can be seen a bit in this image.  When the first one of this style locomotive was produced, number 4000, a worker chalked the words "Big Boy onto the smoke box door as is seen here and the name stuck for these as they are certainly big.  Their wheel arrangement is a 4-8-8-4 articulated style meaning it can move in the middle and navigate tighter curves.

12/14 19

This is another image of the interesting fungus I saw growing on a tree out on Konza Prairie in early October.  We had just had a significant rain.  A friend helped me ID it.  We think it is Gilled Polypore (trametes betulina) .  I like the frills it has on the underside.

12/13/19

I rarely get to see this bird in my yard but was very pleasantly surprised by a visit of a few a couple Sundays ago.  They were bathing and drinking in the stream of the waterfall to my backyard pond.  I captured this Bluebird getting a drink.  I had to share an image of it with great bokeh behind because Fridays Are Bokehlicious!

12/12/19

My Surprise Lilies Resurrection Lilies, or Naked Ladies as they are also known, did very well this year.  They put on quite the lovely show.  I captured this one by itself in my neighbor's yard.  This flower is in the Amaryllis family.

12/11/19

Today's Wildflower Wednesday is another one that I found blooming on Konza Prairie in early October.  This one is a late summer to autumn bloomer and is called Blue Sage or Pitcher Sage.  It is a type of Salvia and is also in the Mint Family.  They usually like dry conditions and part shade.  My image on my Kansas Wildflower pages shows it more in a full bloom.

12/10/19

This is another lovely autumn image from the large scale railroad I get to play at outside of Topeka.  This is looking at the main station and the trees behind had some lovely color too them.

12 /9/19

This is another Collared Lizard that I saw out on Konza Prairie in early October.  All the ones I saw seemed rather small so must have been this years brood.  This one posed on a large limestone rock for me as well.

12/8/19

I took this image at the Union Pacific depot in Salina Kansas on the day the Big Boy 4014 came through my town and several others on it's way back to Cheyenne Wyoming.  While it is not really that obvious that the steam train in the photo is 4014, it is my favorite image I took that day.  It had been cloudy and dreary the whole time up until about sunset when the clouds started to break up in the west and created this fabulous light which fell on the train, the station and even the tracks.  A great way to end my 4014 experience in Kansas.

12/7/19

Today's image is a 2 shot panoramic image taken out on Konza Prairie in early October.  This is looking towards the northwest.  Of course it is best viewed large by clicking on it.  😃

12/6/19

I have Blue-jays in my yard but i rarely see them even when I put food out specifically for them.  I hear them a lot but they are elusive.  My in-laws are able to feed them regularly so they seem them every day.  This is one that came to the bird bath for a drink.  Because Friday's Are Bokehlicious, I had to share this image today with the great bokeh behind it created by the Ornamental Pear tree.

12/5/19

I need to share a butterfly, I miss them already and the cold weather has just begun.  Sigh.  I did not see all that many late this year which made me sad but one of the few I saw were Monarchs so it was kind of a mixed feeling.  I captured this one on the fading Ironweed plant as it stopped by my yard for some nourishment.

12/4/19

It's another Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog.  This is another that I see fairly commonly but I only recently discovered exactly what type it was.  This is an Aromatic Aster.  We have several Aster varieties here in Kansas and the difference is mostly in color but there are other subtle differences as well like the leaf shape and how they tend to flower, either single on a stem or clustered.  Asters are in the Daisy family.  This variety is one of the last Aster species to bloom and you can find into autumn.  I found this one in early October on Konza Prarie.

12/3/19

This is another image I took at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Shops in Topeka Kansas.  These locomotives were sitting in the yard waiting to be worked on.  It was interesting to see the various paint schemes still on the locomotives like the two in the foreground from the pre-merger years.

12/2/19

It's December and only 3 weeks till Christmas Break.  Yikes time is flying by.  Today's image is another of my Spoon Flower from the Osteospermum family or African Daisy as it is more commonly known.  I dug it out of it's pot and re-potted it in a different one to bring indoors for the winter.  It has been happily flowering indoors better than it did outside.  Brightens up the work space where I have it.  The purple variety has never flowered as well so if you find one, this is the better color to get if you want blooms.

12/1/19

The Union Pacific restored Big Boy locomotive 4014 came through our area a week and a half ago now.  It was a thrill to see it and be able to capture it in our area of Kansas, never thought it would be able to come through here.  I captured it as it was departing Junction City and on it's way to Abilene and Salina.  In the background is the rock quarry.