Tuesday, January 31, 2023

1/31/23

 It's the last day of January.  Today's image is one I was able to capture very recently of a bird I can rarely catch.  This is a Downy Woodpecker that I see fairly often but it is usually on the suet and if it is in the tree is usually in a spot where I can't get it.  It was sitting on the trunk of the Mulberry tree for a few moments so I was able to get a few images of it.



Monday, January 30, 2023

1/30/23

 Happy Monday!  I am dreaming of summer these days as it has been rather cold and wintery.  This is an image of a couple of my vintage Morning Glory blooms.  They have to be photographed very early in the morning because once the sun comes up they very rapidly close.  The blooms are larger than my other variety, about a good 2 to 3 inches across.  I save the seeds from the current year to plant the next as they don't do well if they freeze.



Sunday, January 29, 2023

1/29/23

 It's Steamy Sunday!  The last one of January already.  It seems like it was just New Years Day last week.  Anyway, I am dipping into the archives again for one of my favorite railroads in Colorado, the Georgetown Loop.  This is an interesting railroad with some photos that were done by William Henry Jackson back in the 1800s.  It was an engineering marvel in that it gained nearly 600feet in elevation in less that 2 miles using a corkscrew type route.  It was built originally to transport gold and silver from mines but then hauled freight and passengers between Georgetown and Silver Plume.  It operated as a tourist railroad as early as 1906  till 1918.  The line was dismantled in 1939 but was rebuilt in the 1980s and continues to operate today.  I took this image of it on the well known Devil's Gate High Bridge and gave it a B&W treatment for a timeless look.



Saturday, January 28, 2023

1/28/23

Today's image is a bit different but I thought a bit interesting.  We had a recent light snow which clung to the trees quite well.  I decided to get the drone up and capture my yard in snow.  This is an image of my Gazebo Pond, the roof of which can be seen in the lower middle.  I rebuilt the center top of the roof a couple of summers ago.  That was interesting to install for someone who does not like heights at all.  If you follow straight from it across the pond, the waterfall stream can be seen, marked by the small white rectangle which is a stone bench covered in snow beside it.  The big white blob of plants covered in snow are my water Iris that I need to cut back before spring.  I need for it to be cold for a while so the pond freezes enough for me to stand on it, that's how I get rid of the remainder of the Cattails which are the smaller blob below the Iris.



Friday, January 27, 2023

1/27/23

 It's Friday, TGIF!  Today's image is one I took this past autumn of my Maple tree's leaves.  It had dropped a majority of them early but the ones that hung on turned a lovely red color.  A friend of mine helped me determine the type of Maple it is by the leaf shape.  It is a Flame Amur Maple.  I read that these can be invasive but it was originally planted by the Nursery that used to own the land and there are no others anywhere around the area.  This image was chosen for the great bokeh because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!



Thursday, January 26, 2023

1/26/23

 I found this photo that I thought turned out rather well of a Bumblebee that was collecting pollen from the Cosmos.  I liked how it seemed to be looking at me and how you could see the collected pollen on it's legs.



Wednesday, January 25, 2023

1/25/23

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's flower photo should be a Friday one as it has wonderful bubbly bokeh but bokeh is good any day.  These are the flowers from my Golden Rain Tree that is growing on our land.  The flowers change into these lantern pod looking things as they mature.  It flowers May through July.  They are originally from China and are fast growing and relatively disease resistant.



Tuesday, January 24, 2023

1/24/23

 I have not seen this guy around for a while to capture.  A few weeks back I was able to capture him while he was hovering in the wind and looking for prey.  It was very cool to see.  This is an American Kestrel male.



Monday, January 23, 2023

1/23/23

 January is flying by and today is a double digit day!  😁  Happy Monday as well.  I thought I would share another of the snowflakes I captured on the day after this past Christmas while I was in Missouri.  The flakes started out with a nice shape but rather rhimey or sleety.  They became cleaner near the end.  I was able to get a few fairly good ones of which this is the second.  It is a focus stack of 16 images.  At the top left and then straight across on the opposite branch, each branch has smaller flakes and bits of flakes stuck to it.



Sunday, January 22, 2023

1/22/23

 It's Steamy Sunday!  Today's image is of my all time favorite railroad.  I need to get back and ride it again, last time was 5 years ago.  Time flies when you're having fun.  😏  Anyway, this is the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad train sitting at the station on the Antonito Colorado end.  It had just returned from Chama New Mexico.



Saturday, January 21, 2023

1/21/23

 We had for a few days recently, huge flocks of Canadian Geese flying overhead going both north and south at various times.  Guessing they were going out for food and then heading back to the lake which is north of us.  Late one afternoon while a huge one was going over, I captured several of them as they passed in front of the moon and this is one of those images.  



Friday, January 20, 2023

1/20/23

 It's Friday, TGIF!  Why do short work weeks always seem longer?  😕  Today's image is one to make me warm.  This is a Mandevilla Dipladenia that I had on my deck.  It's now over-wintering in my work office and still flowering.  I chose this image for today for the lovely bubbly bokeh behind the flowers because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!



Thursday, January 19, 2023

1/19/23

 Today's image is one I had totally forgotten that I was able to get this past spring.  I took it on my visit to the Lawrence Wetlands.  This was the first time I had ever observed and, more importantly, been able to photograph a Beaver in the wild.  It was swimming across a small waterway carrying material for the damn/home it was building.  It was pretty cool to see.



Wednesday, January 18, 2023

1/18/23

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's flower is one from a plant that I have been trying to eradicate in my yard but seems to surprise me in places.  This is Bristly Greenbriar which is very well named, it is VERY bristly.  This is a native plant that blooms in May.  It will vine itself around other plants and can be very painful to remove if you are not careful.



Tuesday, January 17, 2023

1/17/23

 Through a couple fellow photographers, I learned how to tell the difference between the male and female of this bird.  This is a male Red Bellied Woodpecker who was visiting the ground feeder under the Mulberry tree.  The male has the larger red stripe on it's head where the female only has a bit of red on the rear of it's head.



Monday, January 16, 2023

1/16/23

 Happy Monday!  It's a holiday, Martin Luther King Day here in the US.  The day after Christmas, when I was in Missouri it snowed a bit.  Because it was so cold as well the flakes formed really well and I was able to capture some.  The background I was able to take the photos on was not as dark as I would have liked so it took me a while to get this one ready to share.  This is a stack of 11 images.



Sunday, January 15, 2023

1/15/23

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  I am going to be dipping back into my archives for some of my favorite railroading experiences for a while.  I'm starting with one from several years ago where Union Pacific was running an excursion with "Living Legend" locomotive 844 through my town in Kansas.  844 was built in 1944 and was the last steam locomotive built for the UP and has never been retired.  It went from freight duty straight into excursion runs.  It is a Northern class or 4-8-4 wheel arrangement locomotive.  I captured it here from a bridge that doesn't exist any longer as it is currently undergoing replacement as it headed out of town towards Topeka.



Saturday, January 14, 2023

1/14/23

 Today's image is a bit different.  We had below zero temps a few days before Christmas which was rather unusual for my area.  We were -9F actual.  It created some cool looking frost on the storm door windows.  This is an image of some of it.  I liked the feathery appearance of it.



Friday, January 13, 2023

1/13/23

 It's Friday!  Woohoo, we made it, TGIF.  It's Friday the 13th and some are superstitious about that but it's usually been an OK day for me.  😀  Friday's Are Bokehlicious and today's image has some nice bubbly bokeh for you.  It's also one to warm you up if you are cold like me.  This is a Painted Lady Butterfly on my Butterfly Bush with the Marigolds providing the lovely background bokeh.



Thursday, January 12, 2023

1/12/23

 I took this image a while back and never shared it.  A friend has a miniature Japanese Maple Tree.  I laid on the ground under it and got this image that I quite liked.  The photo makes it look rather large I think but it only stands about 4 1/2 to 5 feet tall.



Wednesday, January 11, 2023

1/11/23

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  Today's flower is Smooth Sumac which is, oddly enough to me, in the Cashew Family.  It blooms in May and June and is very abundant in my area of Kansas.  Prairie burns are used to control it along with Cedar trees.  The leaves of this plant are beautiful in autumn as they turn a bright red color.



Tuesday, January 10, 2023

1/10/23

 I was looking through some photos and I realized I had never shared this image even though it's a bit old, I took it this past May.  I get wild Turkeys going through the yard every now and then.  As I was heading out one day I was surprised to see this one perched in a tree not far from the garage.  I have seen them in the trees before but usually they are in the woods behind the house and not so visible.  I was able to capture this one and it stayed in the tree longer than I watched it so not sure if it stayed there for the night or what.



Monday, January 9, 2023

1/9/23

 Happy Monday!  I am starting off the week with a flower that I enjoy photographing as I find them rather interesting.  This is a close up of a yellow Bearded Iris that grows by my Gazebo pond.



Sunday, January 8, 2023

1/8/23

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  As I have mentioned in the past, black & white photography has been a favorite of mine because that is how I began with my more serious photography such as when I was in college and taking photography classes.  B&W is great for steam trains in my opinion because they are rather gritty subjects and it also gives them a timeless feel.  This is 353 pulling it's train on the south side of the grounds at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion over Labor Day weekend 2022.





Saturday, January 7, 2023

1/7/23

 This past December was a great month for some beautiful sunsets.  I took this one early in the month.  The sky was changing and becoming more colorful as I walked along.  It was quite dramatic looking by it's peak.



Friday, January 6, 2023

1/6/23

 It's the first Friday of 2023 and for those of you who have been following my Blog know that Friday's Are Bokehlicious!  Starting off the year with some lovely bubbly bokeh is an image of a couple of branches of my Briar bush by the Gazebo Pond.


 

Thursday, January 5, 2023

1/5/23

 I think I'd like to start off the first week of the new year's posts with a butterfly.  I didn't see all that many this year but I did get a few good opportunities when they were around.  This is a male Tiger Swallowtail on my Western Ironweed growing in a spot of my yard.


 

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

1/4/23

 It's the first Wildflower Wednesday of 2023 here on the Blog.  I am starting off with one of my favorites.  These are Ox Eye Daisies.  They usually bloom in May and June.  They are usually around a foot tall but can grow to 40 inches!  Daisies seem like such a cheery flower and always make me happy to see them.  These are growing in my backyard near my small pond.


 

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

1/3/23

 I am starting off my bird photos for the year with one that is hard to capture because it rarely sits still.  This is a Tufted Titmouse that I was able to get one day when it paused in the Mulberry tree just long enough for a quick close up.


 

Monday, January 2, 2023

1/2/23

 Happy Monday, the first Monday of the new year!  I am going to start off the year of flowers with my new favorite, Cosmos.  I saved some seeds from this plant and I am going to try to get it to grow in more locations and see what does best.


 

Sunday, January 1, 2023

1/1/23

 Happy New Year!  It's a double digit day!  😁  It's also the first Steamy Sunday of the year!  I thought I would start off the year with a photo of our locomotive which was 9 years in restoration.  It was quite rusty from lack of use for many years and also worn from hard use back in the day.  It was built in 1947 by the Ottaway Amusement Company in Wichita Kansas.  This is an image taken from some drone footage I shot when we took it to the C & H Railroad where we volunteer at for it's first runs on an actual track set up instead of just some footage in the yard.  It performed very well.  We named our locomotive after our favorite photographer, William Henry Jackson, WHJ for short.  He was on the original Yellowstone survey and he has also photographed Colorado extensively including many steam trains.  You can see my YouTube video of the locomotive at the C & H here.