9/15/18

This is an image that shows a bit of the vastness of the Sunflower field that I came upon in Minnesota a couple weeks back.  It was huge and beautiful.  I captured this image and did a bit of an HDR treatment to really bring out the details in the clouds and also the Sunflowers.

1/17/18

I have had this image around for a while and never shared it for some reason.  G+ had a theme of Arches today and it reminded me of this image so thought I would share it here as well.  This is the main area of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis Minnesota.  It was opened in 1907 and was the first basilica in the US.  It was so ornate and beautiful inside and huge.  I visited it a while back and took several images of which this was one and is an HDR image to bring out the detail.

12/2/17

I was looking through images of the Grand Canyon and decided to share this one.  I took this shot while hiking a bit of the Bright Angel Trail back in July on a nice hot day.  It's true about drier air not feeling so hot as humid air.  

11/28/17

The trees have now mostly lost their leaves so I spend a lot of time raking and leaf blowing.  This is an image of a tree at my friend's home while it was showing off it's lovely autumn colors.  This is a Sugar Maple tree and a quite lovely pop of color.

11/26/17

My image today goes back to early September in Rollag, Minnesota at the Steam Thresher's Reunion.  This is 353 pulling away from the water tower area with some passengers for an early morning run around the grounds.  It's about a 2 mile loop of track with a nice grade to work up at one point. I liked how the early morning sun was catching on the steam in this image.

11/25/17

Today's image is another view of the sunset at the Grand Canyon this past July.  The original image because of shooting at the sun made the canyon rather dark.  I used a new HDR software to bring out the canyon more and I really like what it did with it.

12/23/15

Yuck, what a dreary day out.  It's currently raining and I am glad it's not snow but we have had so many dreary days lately.  My image for today will brighten things up a bit I think though.  I shot this last year at the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City.  This was their tree in the main entrance hall which looked quite lovely with all the marble.  I got lucky that there was a low amount of people around but I did remove about 3 people from the background.  :-)  I processed it with an HDR effect because it was rather dark in the hall and wanted to bring out details.  We have been to this museum several times now.  They have a lovely presentation and it's a great building as well.  I highly recommend it if you are in to art. 

12/3/15

So a lovely and warmer day today.  From ice to 50s, one extreme to the other.  My image today is from the ice event and as can be seen in the photo, the ice became quite thick as the days went along.  This is branches of one of the Rose of Sharon bushes that I have covered in ice and making rather abstract shapes.  The color comes from fallen Sycamore tree leaves.  We were quite lucky that we did not lose any more branches or power than we did with as much ice as we got.  It did provide for lovely images though.

11/25/15

Well, looks like our last nice day for a while.  I need to get out and do some things.  Anyway, today's image is one I went 16 miles out of my way to see in Lincoln County, Kansas, west of here.  It's a historic double arch limestone bridge that was built in 1908.  This is a 2 shot panoramic image of it.  It spans the south fork of Spillman Creek which was dry on the day I was there in October.  When it was built they used wooden arches to support the rocks until the final Key Rock, the uppermost center one in each arch, was set in place.  It originally had stone banisters on each side but they were removed to widen the bridge.  In 1946 it was part of a state highway.  In 1993 it saw it's last use when the highway was moved a bit to the west to straighten out some sharp curves in the road.  I liked the textures and color the limestone has taken on, not typical and made me wonder if it had been coated with something.

12/28/14

Those of you who only visit my Blog may notice a trend on Sundays.  I post a lot of trains and such mainly because over on Google + I co-curate a theme called Steamy Sunday and we encourage others to post photos of steam.  They can be anything steamy, even the steam off a coffee cup, I just happen to enjoy trains as does the other curator who is from Australia.  Anyway, this is a bit different, it's a steam traction engine that some friends of ours own and operate at the Steam Threshers Reunion up in Rollag, Minnesota.  I was trying out a new B&W style, with a copper tone to it and thought I would share it today.  This is a 28 HP Minneapolis.

7/29/14

I actually have a title for this one, Buddies Enjoying the View.  When I saw these 2 trees at the Bristle-cone area on Mount Evans it looked like 2 people with their arms towards and kind of around each other just looking out at the landscape.   You can see the type of area these trees grow in this photo as well, at the tree line about 12 to 13,000 feet up the mountain which is a 14,000 footer as they say in Colorado.  It also showed off their colors rather well too.

6/7/14

This image was taken last weekend out on the Konza Prairie.  It was earlier in the evening than my previous cloud image from that day and the light on the prairie was still quite lovely and the clouds gave it a bit more dramatic view.  The Konza Prairie is quite beautiful and one of the few reasons that I like where I live.  This image has a bit of an HDR effect on it to bring out details in the foreground.

3/25/14

I don't usually post this kind of train photo here on the blog.  I took this in Pennsylvania at the historic Rockville Bridge which is the largest stone masonry arch bridge in the world.  I was photographing just the bridge but then got lucky when a train started across it as well.  Norfolk Southern still uses this bridge and crosses it very slowly.  I would guess to keep vibrations to a minimum so as not to cause damage.  This image has a slight HDR effect added to it.  I also cropped it to a bit panoramic view.

3/13/14

This is an image I took in Rocky Mountain National Park this past summer.  We were on a hike to Alberta Falls the first evening we were there.  I decided to try a long exposure image and I also put a bit of an HDR effect on this. 

3/4/14

This is an older shot but one I quite like so am going to share.  I took this back when we went out to the Grand Canyon in New Mexico I believe.  It was along the infamous Route 66 and I believe that this was a museum commemorating the Route.  It was closed at the time.  I liked all the old style elements in it especially those gas pumps.  I put a bit of an HDR effect on it and quite liked the result.

2/19/14

This is an image from this past summer from our trip to Yellowstone.  This was taken at Artist's Point and is a long exposure.  I also put an HDR effect to bring out details in the valley area.  The waterfall itself, which is the Lower Yellowstone Falls turned out a bit too milky but I still like the overall image so sharing it today.

2/16/14

This is an image from our trip to Yellowstone this past summer.  This is Grand geyser which wasn't horribly "grand" at the time because we didn't get to witness a full eruption.  It was quite active though as you can see in this image.  There is a slight HDR effect to bring out some details but yet keep it natural looking.

12/31/13

Happy New Years Eve!  I thought that since it is still, technically the 12 Days of Christmas, that I would share this photo today since I finally finished working on it last night.  This is the Christmas tree at the state capitol in Topeka.  It was surrounded by caution tape, which I took out, due to some work that was continuing on the dome above it.  The photo has an HDR effect on it to bring out details.  Happy last day of 2013!  Remember you can always enlarge the image to see more detail.

12/27/13

We got to visit the Kansas State capitol in Topeka last week and got a tour that was rather nice because we were basically the only ones there so easy to get a photo.  They have been restoring the capitol and it's absolutely gorgeous with all the copper and brass and beautiful limestone and woodwork.  This is an image of one of the staircases that I used for my B&W project today.  I almost hated to take the color out of it since it was so rich.  I processed this as HDR to really bring out the details.  

12/1/13

This is an image of the Norris Geyser Basin area in Yellowstone National Park.  I found it very interesting with the color of the water and the steam rising off the hillside.  Very alien looking.  And oops, forgot to post this yesterday. ;-)