Sunday, October 31, 2021

10/31/21

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog and it is also Halloween!  I hope you enjoy my little creation for the day.  Have a fun and safe one and don't eat too much candy!



Saturday, October 30, 2021

10/30/21

 I was out driving this week and saw that even with the many trees that have already dropped their leaves there was still some good color left.  I was very surprised.  I went out and took some photos on the way home from work one day and this is one of them.  Of course I had to do one railroad related.  😀



Friday, October 29, 2021

10/29/21

 TGIF!  Happy Friday!  The Aster's are about done for the year as well and they were really a butterfly magnet for me.  I was able to capture this Painted Beauty that was enjoying them along with a bonus Skipper.  There was some lovely bokeh behind created by some drying out flowers and so this was a good photo for today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!



Thursday, October 28, 2021

10/28/21

 I was going back through my images from this year for a project I am working on and I found this image that I had never shared before.  I was able to get some really close Ladybug images that turned out well and this is one of them.



Wednesday, October 27, 2021

10/27/21

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's flower is already mostly done.  This is Canada Goldenrod.  Goldenrod is usually a butterfly magnet.  I did have some butterflies enjoying it but not the number like in years past.  It makes for a lovely photo subject I think.




Tuesday, October 26, 2021

10/26/21

 While out on a bike ride at Milford Lake recently I saw this bird flying overhead and stopped to take some photos.  I was surprised to see that it was a Bald Eagle.  We usually have them over wintering here but not this early.  It was only mid October.  I was pleased to be able to get a couple of fairly good shots of it.



Monday, October 25, 2021

10/25/21

 Happy Monday!  I thought I had shared this flower before but maybe not.  It is an interesting variety of Morning Glory.  The blooms are fairly large and they usually close up very early in the day so most times I would only see them in the very dim light as I left for work.  I got lucky on the weekends a couple of times to see them and I captured this image of it.  I love the little spikes.  They are fairly soft so you can grab it, they look rather deceiving though.  The flower color is lovely and much lighter than the usual Morning Glories I see.  It vines quite a lot and does not bloom till late in the summer.  Next year I need to come up with something better for it to vine on.  I used dead tree branches that worked but made it very unweildy.



Sunday, October 24, 2021

10/24/21

 It's Steamy Sunday once again here on the Blog.  While I was at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion this past September, I got a photo of 353 from a different angle than usual.  I have usually been in front of or on the left hand side but I happened to be going down a different drive and captured it like this at the water tower.  It has it's birthday banner on the cab as this locomotive turned 100 years old last year but due to Covid we had to celebrate it's 101 birthday instead.





Saturday, October 23, 2021

10/23/21

 We had some mushrooms in the yard recently.  It was a surprising find because it has been very dry since the first week of September.  This is a 4 image focus stack and then I played a bit with the general look of the image as well.



Friday, October 22, 2021

10/22/21

 TGIF, it's Friday!  Sunny Sunflowers make me happy.  Here is a lovely trio of them I captured late this summer.  They have some lovely bubbly bokeh behind them so I had to share them for today because Fridays Are bokehlicious!



Thursday, October 21, 2021

10/21/21

 It's a double digit day today.  😊  Butterflies have been few and far between lately.  I captured this one a few weeks ago enjoying the Ironweed in the yard.  It's a Giant Swallowtail.



Wednesday, October 20, 2021

10/20/21

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog once again!  Today's wildflower is a fairly common one for us.  This one was actually growing by our garage.  This is called a Tall Thistle.




Tuesday, October 19, 2021

10/19/21

 I have seen an Egret out in one of the inlets I bike past once in a while.  I usually do not have a camera or it flies off before I can get a shot or is way too far away.  Last week I finally got lucky and was able to capture it before it flew off.



Monday, October 18, 2021

10/18/21

 This is a new flower for me this year.  I think it is a wildflower as well in my state.  Hopefully that means it will come back next year.  This is called Sneezeweed.  The flowers remind me of Blanket Flower.  It has bloomed all summer for me.  The name comes from the fact that the leaves were dried and used for snuff back in the day.  The image is actually a 5 image focus stack that I spent way too much time on for what it is but turned out pretty well I think.



Sunday, October 17, 2021

10/17/21

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today goes back to Pennsylvania once again.  I was able to see and photograph Norfolk & Western J Class locomotive 611, the Queen of Steam, once again.  I captured it here as it was pulling out of Paradise, the end of the track from Strasburg.  In Paradise it changes from the pulling the back of the train to moving around and pulling from the front back to Strasburg.



Saturday, October 16, 2021

10/16/21

 This was a lovely sunrise that I took from the end of my driveway as I left for work one morning at the end of September.  A lovely way to begin the day.



Friday, October 15, 2021

10/15/21

 It's Friday!  TGIF!  My Toad Lily is blooming.  I love this plant, very unique and photogenic I think.  I got this image of it last week and love the bubbly bokeh in it.  Of course I had to share it today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!  These are in the Lily Family and grow best in shade.  I have them on the east side of my house.  They have orchid like blossoms.



Thursday, October 14, 2021

10/14/21

 My Sea Oats Grass seed heads are turning to their autumn colors.  I captured this image of it in the late afternoon recently.  I love how they look when backlit by the sun.  The grass has done well, it's third year at least in this spot but I wish it would spread like it is known to do.  Something must be eating all the seeds. 



Wednesday, October 13, 2021

10/13/21

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  This is one of my favorites.  I planted some seeds this spring that I had collected from ones growing in the area and they actually came up.  I was very happy to see it flowering now.  I hope it spreads where I put it, I would love to see that area covered in Queen Anne's Lace.




Tuesday, October 12, 2021

10/12/21

 I was working on my deck the other day and saw this Praying Mantis while cutting some support boards.  After she posed for a bit I tried to move her because I was worried she would get stepped on or driven over as she was by the garage.  At first she did not want to be picked up but then she wouldn't get off.  😄  I think it's a she because of the dull color.



Monday, October 11, 2021

10/11/21

 My yellow water Lily has been blooming all summer.  I captured this image one afternoon when the water was rather still due to not much wind for once.  



Sunday, October 10, 2021

10/10/21

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog and it is also a double digit day!  I recently watched a video on Youtube that was an interview with former Disney animator Ward Kimball who was in to trains quite a bit and even had some full size equipment.  While I was in Strasburg Pennsylvannia at the Pennsylvannia Railroad Museum, they had this locomotive that was visiting from the Smithsonian that was a locomotive that Kimball helped retore and ran on his railroad.  It was actually owned by Gerald Best.  Kind of a neat coincidence that I had just seen it in person, and then again in a video.  This was originally a sugar plantation locomotive.  They used small tank engines that were lightweight and easier to lay track for to move between fields.  It is named Olomana and was originally built in 1883 and retired in 1944.




Saturday, October 9, 2021

10/9/21

 We had a gorgeous sunrise during the last week of September.  The sky was filled with great light and color.  This is a 2 image pano that is actually looking to the west.  



Friday, October 8, 2021

10/8/21

 It's Friday!  TGIF!  I finally had some Monarchs visiting my Goldenrod flowers in the yard.  I wasn't able to capture them together but I did get several captures of them by themselves.  This is one that I was surprised to see had a nice in focus bee in flight as well!  I also chose it for the lovely bokeh it had because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!



Thursday, October 7, 2021

10/7/21

 I haven't posted a bird image in a bit and this is actually one I have had for quite a while and never shared.  I re-discovered it one day while looking for something else.  This is a beautiful Red Headed Woodpecker that had come to eat some Baltimore Oriole jelly I had put out.



Wednesday, October 6, 2021

10/6/21

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  There have been a lot to choose from to take photos of these days.  The Asters are in bloom.  I believe this variety is called a Heath Aster.  It is a volunteer in one of my gardens.



Tuesday, October 5, 2021

10/5/21

 Today's image is actually a composite.  I shot the image of my Bee Balm flower earlier this summer but found it somewhat uninteresting.  Then, this is another bee in flight images I got that had a very boring background so I decided to put them together into a more all around interesting image, to me anyway.  Another reason to not trust what you see on the internet these days.  😉



Monday, October 4, 2021

10/4/21

 I am trying another Gaillardia plant this year.  It's a bit different variety, the petals are an interesting shape which my photo shows off.  It sure seems to like it's spot as it has grown and flowered a lot this year.  I hope it over winters better than the ones I have had before that never came back the next year even though they are perrenial in this area.  This is actually a 3 image focus stack.




Sunday, October 3, 2021

10/3/21

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog once again!  Today we go back to Pennsylvania and the Strasburg Railroad.  This is locomotive 475 as it passed by my with it's train at Paradise on it's way back to Strasburg.  It's a short but fun ride that I reccomend if you are ever out that way.



Saturday, October 2, 2021

10/2/21

Today's image is another sunset I was able to capture recently.  This one I actually drove to a spot to take two Sundays ago now and did a bit of artsy angling to capture the grass silhouettes in front. 



Friday, October 1, 2021

10/1/21

 It's Friday, TGIF!  It's also the first day of October, winter is just around the corner unfortunately, sigh.  Fridays Are Bokehlicious as well and today's bokeh filled image is of a Twelve Spot Dragonfly at the Gazebo Pond.  During the very hot weather we have had I have not seen them around much.  Hoping that now that it's a bit cooler they will come around again more.  I captured this one on a Pickerel Rush bloom.  It has my favorite circular bubbly bokeh behind.