12/16/16

So my image today is mainly for the festive bokeh I got while taking it.  I have a Geranium that is an indoor plant and it is blooming right now so I shot a macro image of it in front of the Christmas tree.  The blue-ish color comes from the LED lights and the gold comes from the regular string I have on it for some special light up ornaments.  The shape is the result of the shutter's aperture when taking the photo. 

12/15/16

So winter has really come, only a high of 26F or about -3C today and by Saturday even colder.  Have I mentioned lately I don't like winter?  :-)  I am dreaming of warmer days and looking at images of warmer days.  I got this image on a lovely warm day.  This Ladybug was looking for aphids on these Daisy Fleabanes and I was able to get a shot when it sat still for a moment.

12/14/16

I captured this image on the first day of this month, my how time flies, I thought I took it just last weekend.  It's rare when a Black Cap Chickadee sits still and even rarer when it does it in a spot where I can get a shot and extremely rare when it's fairly close.  I got really lucky with this image.  The ISO on my camera was set pretty high so it's kind of grainy in the tree area but it allowed me to get this shot on a very cloudy morning.

12/13/16

This is from my trip to South Dakota last year and the Badlands there.  I saw this grass in several areas and found it interesting.  The seed heads are flat, a lot like the feathers of an arrow.  I don't know the actual name, I call it Flat Grass.  I took this image of it to show the Badlands behind.  A really beautiful area and like a desert with very little vegetation.  This grass grew on the edges. 

12/12/16

I took this image a few weeks ago before the first frost when I brought in several of my Zinnias to enjoy.  I set up a few of them on a black background and used a supplemental light and took this macro image of them.

12/11/16

This is an image of the locomotive that pulled our train to the Grand Canyon and back from Williams, Arizona on my trip there a few years back.  It was a great experience and I am not sure they do steam any longer.  I decided to give this photo a black and white treatment and I think it made for a bit more dramatic image.  Locomotives usually don't have much color anyway.  

12/10/16

Choosing a color to paint a room is difficult, you have to decide on something you can live with for many years.  That's my current dilemma. :-)  The colors of the Grand Canyon are quite beautiful even under cloudy light.  I took this shot on a day we were walking the trail you can see in the shot.  I didn't have enough time to walk the whole way because we had to catch the train but I was on the part you can see in the image.  The black dot in the sky is not dust but is actually a Condor.  Very cool birds and I was able to capture one up fairly close.