6/30/15

Wow, it's the last day of June already.  Going to be hot as well, mid 90s.  Yuck.  I took this image back in the early part of June when we were having rain and cooler weather.  This is an image from the Annual Bi-plane Fly-In that was held in Junction City, KS.  This Mohawk Bi-plane is owned and flown by a local car dealer.  He was giving rides to the public in order to raise money for an aeronautics group for young adults.  At the time this picture was taken he was changing passengers.  I decided to give the image a different look and process in B&W with a tone.

6/29/15

While I was in Minnesota, I was finally able to capture a Nuthatch!  I was steaming up the large scale locomotive that I help run one morning and saw this guy walking down the tree.  I hurried and grabbed my camera and got off a few shots.  I got mad at myself when I realized a couple in that I had not zoomed in as much as I could in my haste so this is not as close as it could have been or that I would have liked.  I still like the image and wanted to share it though as it shows how they walk down tree trunks looking for food.  Cute little birds.

6/28/15

This image goes back to the archives from our first trip to the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad.  We were treated to a double header on the day after riding when we were out photographing them.  At this point they are heading out of Chama, New Mexico on the way to Antonito, Colorado.  It's a mostly uphill trip for half of the way and they are working hard.  You can tell by the very dark smoke of the rear locomotive that they just had a load of coal shoveled in.  When it first goes in, it's very dark due to blowing off all the dust and that's where the ciders come from that fall on you and the train as you ride.  White clothes on a steam train aren't the best.  :-)  Hardly any of this black dust stays in the air.

6/27/15

Light My Fire

This Spring was a good one for Tulips.  My antique ones had more than ever and ones that I planted came up and bloomed as well.  This is a new one that when I took it I loved the light caught and even was able to come up with a title for it.  I have never been good at that.
I have a question if anyone knows.  Tulips propagate by bulb but several of these new tulips had large seed pod heads.  What are those for? 

6/26/15

We got a bit of rain last night which mostly makes me happy in that it cooled it off here.  We have been up at 100F for several days and for a few will now be in the 80s.  I took this image at the railroad several weeks ago when we were there after it had rained most of the morning.  This lovely water Iris was blooming and still had some rain drops on it.

6/25/15

I was able to get this image earlier this Spring while out at the Railroad.  There is a nice pond there that usually has lots of Dragonflies and frogs and I got lucky with this shot and caught them both.  I was photographing the frog who seemed to be lying in wait for lunch to fly by and caught this Dragonfly on a flyby.  I am guessing he was not what the frog wanted on the menu as it swam off shortly after or maybe it caught it and I didn't see.  :-)

6/24/15

This is an image that is made up of 3 shots put together into this panorama of the view just around Butterfly Hill on Konza Prairie.  I took this a few weekends ago in the evening as we were heading in from a hike.  This clearly shows that this area of Kansas is definitely not flat.  This view looks out over the Flint Hills.  Needs to be viewed larger to truly appreciate, just click on the image.