10/7/13

My Mother-in-law and I were walking out by the swimming lake at Milford Lake this weekend.  We saw these birds to photograph but didn't know what they were until we got back home and researched on the net.  We were able to determine that they are Double Crested Cormorants which we didn't know were this far south.  Also, because their chest is white, they are juveniles.  Learn something new all the time!

10/6/13

I haven't done a train one for a while, one of my favorite subjects.  This one is actually not a full size train, it's the 15 inch Wagner that I get to help operate in Rollag, MN.  I was in the process of "Blowing it down".  You wait till the pressure has dropped pretty low and then you open a valve to let the remaining water and steam blow out any crud that may have gotten into the boiler and then allow it to dry out.  This was in preparation for winter but it's something you would do if you aren't going to run for any length of time as well to fight deterioration of the boiler from rust.  I liked the way the light was hitting the steam and the angle made the engine appear as if it's larger than it is.

10/5/13

I find spiders rather creepy but have been a bit braver in taking a photo of them lately.  A friend and co-worker helped me get this shot at work one day by stepping in front of it when it tried to move while I was getting the shot.  We were both a bit even more creeped out when we found out what it was.  It is a Cardinal JUMPING Spider.  If either of us knew it could jump I don't think we would have been doing this.  At least I got a good shot out of it!  

10/4/13

This is a Skipper that I caught on some Dakota Verbena out at Konza Prairie earlier this year.  There are actually 2 but the one is facing forward and hard to see.    Have a great weekend!

10/3/13

I have been experimenting a bit with star shots since I have been seeing ones from a particular photographer on Google Plus.  He even has a site with tips and how tos. This is my third kind of major attempt at photographing stars and I was rather pleased with how this one turned out.  You can see the Milky Way fairly clearly.   I took this on this past Saturday night at a spot I figured would be pretty dark for this type of thing.  It's a 25 second exposure.

10/2/13

This is another view of the beautiful waterfall I found not far from where I live.  This is at the Geary County State Lake.  The falls has about a 30 foot drop and was flowing very nicely this summer due to the fact that we actually were getting rain at the time.  I processed this shot with a bit of an HDR effect to bring out more details.

10/1/13

Wow, it's October already!  Where has the time gone?  Pretty soon winter will be here and the cold and blah.  Well, enough of that.  This is a male Redwing blackbird that I was able to photograph in Minnesota this June at a nature center in the reeds by a pond.  He was sitting there calling, most likely to the female who was also around.  It's about the closest I have ever gotten to one, they are very skittish birds.

Remember you can always click for a larger image.