Happy Leap Year Day! This year we have an extra day of the year. I haven't been able to get many snowflake photos this year. We haven't had much snow and when we have it's mostly been very rime covered. I found this one that I had never shared from last year in February. It has a few balls of rime on it as well but was mostly a clear and well shaped snowflake. It is a 14 image stack.
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Friday, February 28, 2020
2/28/20
I find Dragonflies very cool and interesting to watch. My large pond attracts them which makes me happy as i get to see them pretty regularly. I was able to get this shot of one on a Cattail reed. I don't know my dragonflies very well but thought the yellow stripe on the abdomen was interesting. I think because of the spots on the wings it is probably a young Twelve Spot Dragonfly. I like the soft bokeh created by other Cattail reeds.
Thursday, February 27, 2020
2/27/20
I am doing a B&W challenge with a group of people. The last theme I had to do an image for was for "Cold". This is what i came up with and I rather liked it so thought I would share it here. This is a shot of the ice growing over the waterfall on my backyard pond. I like the patterns in the ice and I thought the image looked great in B&W.
Labels:
black and white photography,
ice,
icicles,
monochrome photo,
pond
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
2/26/20
Today's image isn't the best bird photo I have ever shared but it is, as a bird photographer I follow says, a "Lifer" for me, the first time I have ever been able to capture this bird. I was able to capture this American Kestrel in a tree in Missouri in December. Even though I couldn't get closer than this, I was pleased I got it in focus. Wish I had had my longer lens with me but you make do with what you have.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
2/25/20
We have been having some warmer days and it has me looking for spring to arrive. I hope to see more butterflies this year, they were a bit scarce with the wet and then very hot spring and summer we had last year. I was able to capture this Common Variegated Fritillary in the backyard on some Elderberry blossoms this past spring though.
Monday, February 24, 2020
2/24/20
I wanted to share another image of my African Violet. I find these flowers very photogenic with the tiny hairs on them and the interesting pad leaves and fairly delicate flowers. This is a 3 image stack to bring out more details.
Labels:
African Violet,
close up,
flower,
flowers,
focus stack
Sunday, February 23, 2020
2/23/20
Today's image is Norfolk & Western 475, A "Mastodon" 4-8-0 locomotive which is owned and run by the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania. It was built in 1906. This locomotive was pulling trains along with N&W 611 which was visiting from Virginia.
Labels:
475,
Norfolk and Western,
Pennsylvania,
railroad,
railroading,
railway,
steam,
steam engine,
steam trains,
Strasburg,
trains
Saturday, February 22, 2020
2/22/20
This is another image that I took some years ago of Homer's Pond in snow but never liked because it was just drab and blah. It's similar to the other I posted a couple weeks back but from a different angle. I like this one even more than the other due to some subtle things I did in this that I did not do in the other.
Labels:
Homer's Pond,
Junction City,
Kansas,
landscape,
landscapes,
winter
Friday, February 21, 2020
2/21/20
Wishing for summer but today's image shows more of what we are having lately though last weekend did warm up a bit. We had some pretty huge icicles hanging off the roof last week. I imagine they would hurt pretty well if you were under them when they broke off. I liked the bokeh in this one created by the tree branches behind.
Labels:
bokeh,
Bokehlicious,
frozen,
ice,
icicles,
macro photography,
winter
Thursday, February 20, 2020
02/20/20
Looking forward to the Bumble Bees and other bees coming back out. Hopefully warm weather will be here soon though I hope we don't go straight to summer. Yes, I know, beggars can't be choosy. 😉 This is a Bumble flying among the Obedient Plant which is not terribly obedient and spreads everywhere.
Labels:
bees,
bumble bee,
Bumblebee,
insects macro photography,
macro photography,
nature
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
2/19/20
I shot this image last May and never shared it. I am getting tired of winter and looking forward to green and other colors than just blah brown. This is the Geary State Fishing Lake Falls just south of where I live. We had a lot of spring rain and it made it flow quite nicely.
Labels:
Geary State Fishing Lake,
Kansas,
landscape,
landscapes,
waterfall,
waterfalls
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
2/18/20
I captured this Blue jay in the Mulberry tree this past Saturday calling out to it's buddies I think. It was telling others there was food available. 😀 I have been able to see Blue Jays fairly regularly this winter. It's been nice, they are usually pretty elusive.
Monday, February 17, 2020
2/17/20
I was playing around this weekend with some photos and I came up with this and was pleased with how it turned out. A composite image of a rose and frozen bubble.
Labels:
bubble,
composite image,
flower,
frozen bubble,
macro photography,
photo manipulation,
red,
red roses,
Rose
Sunday, February 16, 2020
2/16/20
At Rollag Minnesota where the yearly Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion is held, there is a pond named Gunderson Pond. It is no relation but it's kind of fun especially when the "Pond Monster" is around. This year the Monster had a little one. In this image, 353 pulls a train of passengers past the pond where they can have a view of the "Monsters".
Labels:
353,
Minnesota,
railroad,
railroading,
railway,
Rollag,
steam,
steam engine,
steam trains,
trains,
WMSTR
Saturday, February 15, 2020
2/15/20
We have had quite a lot of gloomy and dreary days lately that have not really produced much moisture which would at least make it a bit worthwhile. After one long spell of dreary weather the clouds opened up for a beautiful sunset. This is a 2 shot panorama and it was taken on the evening of 02/02/2020 which was a major palindrome day and I missed it. The date reads the same backwards and forwards whether regular or military format. There will not be another like this for quite some time.
Friday, February 14, 2020
2/14/20
It is Valentine's day today. Hope it's a good one for all who have a special valentine. 😄 I received a miniature Rose plant from mine last year and this is one of the blooms it produced. I planted it out in the garden by the large pond and so far so good, it is still living.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
2/13/20
I am really looking forward to warmer weather and butterflies again. This is another image of one that we have around here but is rather elusive. They don't usually feed on flowers and are often found in shady areas so very hard to capture. This is Question Mark butterfly that I captured in a wooded area by my large pond this past summer.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
2/12/20
This is one more of the snowflakes I have been able to capture this winter. Lately we have either been getting just sleet or it comes during the night while I am asleep or in the day while at work so no opportunities. This is actually 2 flakes stuck together. A tiny one on the branch of another. I was pleased with how this one came out. It is a 12 image focus stack.
Labels:
focus stack,
ice,
macro photography,
snow,
snowflake,
winter
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Monday, February 10, 2020
2/10/20
I really liked this image, your mileage may vary. 😉 I captured this image after one of our ice storms this winter. I liked how the ice contained the open seed petals of a Chive plant. They look like little flowers when they open up.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
2/9/20
This is another shot of Union Pacific restored Big Boy 4014 during it's visit to my area. In this image I captured it as it had just left Junction City and was heading towards Abilene Kansas. It was a great experience to see it come through my area.
Labels:
4014,
Big Boy,
Junction City,
Kansas,
railroad,
railroading,
railway,
steam,
steam engine,
steam trains,
trains,
Union Pacific
Saturday, February 8, 2020
2/8/20
Today's image is one I actually shot a few years ago but never liked. It was shot on a very gloomy day and just looked blah and I was never happy with it and could never get it to look how I wanted even though I tried off and on with several techniques I learned. I bought a new piece of software last weekend and tested it out on this image and was quite pleased with the results. After a bit of some other tweaking in Photoshop, I finally got it to a point I was happy with enough to share. This is Homer's Pond in Junction City after a snowfall.
Labels:
Homer's Pond,
Junction City,
Kansas,
landscape,
landscapes,
snow,
winter
Friday, February 7, 2020
2/7/20
Today's image is a variation on a previous one I shared a while back. I was able to capture this Dickcissel out on Konza Prairie this past June. I was able to get it from a couple different angles and it stayed and didn't fly off right away. In this shot it is singing it's heart out to others on the prairie. This one and the previous image are my most favorite I have ever captured of them. Plus the bokeh in this image was pretty great and so it was perfect for today because Fridays are Bokehlicious! 😄
Labels:
bird,
birds,
bokeh,
Bokehlicious,
Dickcissel,
Kansas,
Konza Prairie,
nature,
wildlife
Thursday, February 6, 2020
2/6/20
My African Violet has been doing quite well and is in it's second bloom period since I got it from a friend. I think it makes for an interesting subject with it's tiny hairs and flowers. This is a 2 image focus stack to get more details of it in focus.
Labels:
African Violet,
flower,
flowers,
focus stack,
macro photography
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
2/5/20
These are a couple more of the tiny snowflakes I was able to capture during our last snow. The flake on the left is a 7 image focus stack and the one on the right was 8 images focus stacked.
Labels:
focus stack,
macro photography,
snow,
snowflake,
winter
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
2/4/20
This is a Black Cap Chickadee I was able to capture recently. They usually don't sit very long but I was able to time this one right and capture it on the trunk of the Mulberry tree. This image had some pretty good bokeh as well and bokeh is good any day!
Labels:
bird,
birds,
Black Cap Chickadee,
Black Capped Chickadee,
bokeh,
Kansas,
nature
Monday, February 3, 2020
2/3/20
The warm weather we had this weekend made me wish that winter was over and that I was seeing butterflies again. This is an image from last summer of a lovely little butterfly with a not great name. This is an Imported Cabbageworm on a Russian sage plant in my garden.
Labels:
butterflies,
butterfly,
close up,
Imported Cabbageworm,
Kansas,
nature,
Russian sage
Sunday, February 2, 2020
2/2/20
For the first Steamy Sunday of February 2020 I thought I would share another of my passions. This is my Live Steam Accurcraft C-21 locomotive on a friend's layout. I have been working on getting my railroad cleaned up so I can run trains on it again. After we bought our new land the railroad took a back seat to that but now that things are fairly cleaned up and shaped up there I hope to be running trains outside again. For anyone new to the Blog this year, I have a very short YouTube video of this locomotive running in this spot where this image was taken but with a coaling tower there instead. It can be found here Link will open in a new window.
Labels:
Accucraft,
C-21 locomotive,
G Scale,
garden railroad,
live steam,
railroad,
railroading,
railway,
steam,
steam engine,
steam trains,
trains
Saturday, February 1, 2020
2/1/20
This is the sunrise I was treated to on my first day back to work after our winter break on January 6. I was hoping it was an omen of a good year to come. So far so good. 😀 This is a 2 shot panoramic image.
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