It's Friday, TGIF! Sharing a flower today that I love to see as they make me almost as happy as a Sunflower. These are some Coneflowers or Echinacea that were growing in my garden railroad this past year. They are a bit tall for that so I will probably transplant them this year. They had some lovely bubbly bokeh behind them so I had to share them today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
I was surprised by this guy one day while I was watering my plants. It was in the pot of one of my Gerbera Daisies and was kind enough to pose for a few photos. I believe this is a Gray Treefrog.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is Aster. I believe this variety is Heath Aster. It blooms in September and October mainly and is one of the last flowers to be blooming in autumn. It is one of the most common Asters in Kansas. This one is a volunteer at the edge of my garden. A very nice coincidence.
Today's image is one that I was quite happy with. On a recent bike ride I was able to capture several shots of a Red Tail hawk flying overhead. In a few of them it was looking at me and this is one of those.
Happy Monday! My Amaryllis bloomed this year and 2 different bulbs bloomed at just about the same time which was quite a treat. I'll be putting them outside again this year as that really seemed to help them do well. I captured them in front of my dark background to make them really stand out.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog, the last one of March already. Wow, the year is going by quickly it seems. I wanted to share a photo from my favorite railroad this week. The Cumbres & Toltec is a wonderful ride from Antonito Colorado to Chama New Mexico or vice versa. You travel through wonderful scenery and go across the border between CO and NM several times. There is a lunch stop in the middle of the ride. I highly recommend taking a ride on this train if you can. My image is from my first trip there when I was chasing the train for photos and got lucky with a double header for part of the way.
Today's image is one I captured recently while on a bike ride on a warm day. I am sure a lot of these are migratory as we have a lot coming through our state on to places elsewhere and it happens in late winter to early spring. I saw a large group of Green-winged Teals and then there was a lone Bufflehead in among them. I think there were a few Mallards as well. I captured this shot just after the Bufflehead landed in the water.
It's Friday, TGIF! Today's image is of a flower I have that I hope survived the winter as it puts on a nice show. This is a Coreopsis, a couple of varieties are native to Kansas. I loved the bokeh in this image so I had to share it today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
It's a double digit day! I feel like seeing a butterfly today. Spring is finally here and hopefully the weather will warm up and they will start appearing again. This is a type of Checkerspot and the coloring seems like one not very common here, a Harris but could be a darker Silvery. I caught this one on the Aster flowers in my garden late last summer.
Today's date is a palindrome date. 😀 It's also Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is Pink Smartweed, a fairly new one for me. I haven't been able to find out why it is called Smartweed. It blooms July through October in moist disturbed areas like ravines and streams. It is in the Buckwheat Family.
Spring is finally here officially! Today's image is another of an event I have seen and been able to capture a couple of times now. Kestrels can hover in the air while hunting. It is quite cool how they can stay in one place and then dive down to catch their prey. I recently saw a close up video of this on YouTube that was pretty cool. Here is the link: Hovering Kestrel on YouTube
Happy Monday! This is one more of the snowflakes that I captured in late February. I was very pleased with how this one turned out. This was a 12 image stack for focus. I liked the bits of color in the lower branches especially the lower right orange flash of color.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Today's image is another of the Queen of Steam, Norfolk & Western 611 on the Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania. It has been spending some time out there running excursions and raising money for it's new home in Virginia. This locomotive is a Northern 4-8-4 type like UP's 844 I shared last week but it has been shrouded. They did that to some locomotives to make them look more futuristic and streamlined in the later days of steam. It was built in 1950 and retired only nine years later. Due to it's excellent condition it was donated to the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
I captured this cutie while it sat for a second in the Mulberry tree. This is a Black Cap Chickadee who is another bird that never sits very still. They are constantly moving in the branches down to the seed and back again. I got lucky when I was ready when it sat for a moment in-between this movement.
It's Friday and Friday's Are Bokehlicious! It's the last official day of my Spring Break. Sigh. Anyway, today's image is another to remind of summer. I captured a Monarch enjoying my Cone Flowers in my yard this past summer. Our temps keep bouncing around from nice and warm to cold, really looking forward to them stabilizing out on warm. The bokeh is created from the leaves from the trees behind the flowers.
Today's image is one I captured while on a bike ride last summer. There is a spot where I can rely on seeing Jewelwing Damsels. It is by a creek and I captured this one perched on a leaf above it.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! Today's flower is one of my new favorites, Sulphur Cinquefoil. It blooms in May and June usually. I transplanted some in my yard and so far it seems to have survived the winter so I am pretty happy. They are in the Rose family and I find them quite lovely. Unfortunately deer like them so I will probably have to find a way to protect it.
I like to photograph birds in natural settings and usually when I get a chance to capture a hawk not in flight it is perched on an electrical pole. I got lucky on this day last week and captured this Red Tail Hawk sitting in a tree. It sat there for quite a while and allowed me to get relatively close which I thought was odd but when it flew off I saw why, it had a snake it had captured. Good hawk. 😋
Happy Monday! Really hoping we are done with winter but here is another snowflake image I was able to capture in late February. This one was 22 images stacked together for focus. I was shooting at F 4.5 with a shutter speed of 1/200. This flake had some pieces stuck to it which is part of the reason it needed a good amount of images to bring it into focus.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Today's image is one that I took a number of years ago on a trip to Colorado. Former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad locomotive 1819 sits at the Colorado Welcome Center in the town of Lamar. It's a Prairie type 2-6-2 locomotive that was built in 1906 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. It was retired in 1953 and donated to Lamar in 1956.
Today starts my Spring Break! I thought I would share another of my male Cardinal images. This was taken a second or two before the image I have shared last weekend. It's interesting how fast they change in position and seemingly, their expression as well.
It's Friday, TGIF! Today's image is a subject that I love to photograph and usually provides some great bokeh. Bokeh is important today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious! This is a 12 Spot Dragonfly once again showing off why it has that name. 😊
Today's image is one that I hope to see more of this coming summer. This is a Monarch butterfly that I was able to capture in the Mulberry tree.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog once again! This weeks flower is a fun one to see. They seem rather dainty but also seem to last longer than some. These are Clasping Coneflowers and they bloom May through July. I photographed this group in June of last summer.
Another bird that I find hard to catch is today's image. Downy Woodpeckers always seem to be on the move and rarely sit still so I have to be very fast to catch one. I got lucky one day when it was moving around the Mulberry tree on it's way to the birdseed below.
Happy Monday! Hopefully we are done with snow now but I did have another opportunity to photograph some flakes this winter. I captured these two flakes on the back window of my car. I liked the faint reflection off to the left side of each flake due to photographing them on glass. This is a focus stack of 17 images.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog! Today's image is of Union Pacific locomotive 844 as it left my town in Kansas several years back on one of it's excursions. It's always fun to have a steam train pass through town. 844 is a Northern type locomotive meaning it has a 4-8-4 wheel arrangement. It was delivered to the UP in 1944 and was never retired.
Today's image is one I thought turned out rather cute. I was taking pictures of this male Cardinal in the Mulberry tree checking out the food below and captured it with it's head turned in a cute way. It almost looks like it is looking at me but I am not sure it could see me, I take these photos from inside the house.
It's a double digit day today! It's also Friday, TGIF! Friday's Are Bokehlicious as well so I have chosen this image to share today. This is another image of the leaves of my Amur Maple tree after they turned red this past autumn. The leaves from other trees behind are providing the nice bokeh.
It's a Palindrome Number day! 😃 I took this image a couple of weeks ago now. I processed it a couple of different ways and had a hard time deciding which I liked better as they both had pros and cons. Both were stacked from 9 images. One I basically just processed like a normal photo and this one I did the techniques used by some astrophotographers. I think this image had a bit more detail in it. This is the Orion Nebula which is located in the Sword of Orion when you are looking at it. It can be seen with the naked eye if you are in a fairly dark location. I took this image using my Pentax K3 III camera with a manual 300mm lens and astrotracer which allows me to take the 10 second exposures that I did to not blur them from the movement of the stars during that time.
Happy 1st of March! Spring should be on the way soon! Today is also Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog. Today's flower is one that is very important. This is Common Milkweed, the one that Monarchs need. I was fortunate to get some to transplant well. I captured the flower while it was in a lovely ball state. The flower doesn't last long unfortunately and it has a fairly strong smell while blooming. It blooms June through August. This photo has some great bokeh too and bokeh is great any day!
