183/365

Purple Iris

 

091/365

Frog Decor

I was leaving a friend's house today when I noticed this cute little frog decor in the front yard of the house next door.   

278/366

Blue Heron????

The other day when the weather was so wonderful I forced myself to go to the local park to see if there were any photo ops.  For the first time ever I saw this bird...I'm not a "birder" so even though I tried to search the internet for the name, the only thing I could come up with is "Great Blue Heron".

I'm not sure that's what this bird is, but it fit the description pretty well.

I tried to get a photo of it in flight, but the images didn't come out as well as I wanted.

234/366

End of Track

One set of train tracks in Abilene, TX comes to an end.  Another set goes straight through the downtown area.  

125/366

Some of My Favorite Guys

While visiting to celebrate the grandson's graduation from college, this image was made.  Two grandsons, one soon-to-be granddaughter's husband and my son-in-law. All of them so amazing.

My heart is happy for:

family

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Rural Delivery

A long row of mailboxes on a back road somewhere in upstate NY.  

My heart is grateful for:

my grandson's graduation dinner

146/365

Coleus in Black and White

Seen at the Sarasota Botanical Gardens.  I was practicing with the bw setting on my camera and took this photo as a test shot. When I looked at my camera, I KNEW this was a keeper.

My heart is grateful for:

the beauty that surrounds us if we but have the eyes to see

15/366

Cement Wall

This wall is outside the now defunct train station in town.  I just heard the story today about how the wall was built because the train tracks used to flood when it rained hard and trains would have to wait until the flood waters receded.  So the tracks were raised up and this wall is part of the support of the raised tracks.  

I love the vine branches. There's just something so appealing about bare branches in the fall and winter.  Obviously in the summer the wall is covered in vines which is also beautiful. 

Once Upon a Time...

15/365

Once upon a time there was a great little roadside farm stand not too far from my house--actually, it was right on one of the routes I could take to get to town.  It had been there for years and years.  They sold the most amazing produce.  I stopped there at least every other day throughout the summer and well into the Fall.

They grew their own corn and I have never tasted better corn on the cob than theirs.

Well, once upon a time there was a storm, unlike any that had hit our area before.  It rained and rained and the floods came and the waters rose and continued to rise until--devastation and destruction.  Some homes were lost, others were seriously damaged, one person lost his life and Pine's Farm stand was destroyed.

You might be thinking, "well, it's only a farm stand and compared to the homes and the one life that was lost, it's a small thing in the big scheme".  You're right.  But....it was an icon.  One that used to draw people from miles around, and it was, after all, the livelihood of the family that owned it.

So even after all theses years, I still miss it. Others do too.  Every spring you'll hear someone say, "gee, I wish Pine's was still around".  This spring was no different.

A Day in Haleiwa

8/365

My friend and I spent the day in Haleiwa.  I wasn't too excited about it when she suggested it, but I agreed because I haven't been out shooting much lately and I needed the diversion.  Once we got there, I decided to put some effort into it.

It was hot and I'm not a big fan of hot-weather photography.  But unlike hot weather in the northeast, there are always chances to cool off by getting into the shade or when the trade winds blow, so it was fairly tolerable for me today.

I'm pretty happy with some of the images I brought home.  

So I give thanks to my friend, Jackie, for giving me the impetus to get out there, for the stimulating conversations we had and for the great ideas for some creative uses for my images.  

The Waterfalls

70/365

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up to attend a photo field trip today to a location that is a short hike to a really beautiful waterfall.  After my hike yesterday I was pretty weary and half determined not to get up at 5:15 am this morning to get to the carpool location on time.

But then I thought that if I didn't go, I'd just sit around the house, bored and unproductive, so why not get up and go?

Although it was very cloudy and drizzly this morning, it never actually rained, thank goodness. 

The cloudy conditions contributed to the intense colors of the foliage and rocks, and it was easy to 

avoid the sky at this particular location.  So all in all, it was a good day

and I'm glad I convinced myself to get out of bed and get there on time.   

I don't know the people in this first image, but I love the image anyway.  I love how they are relatively sharp, while the waterfall in the background and the tree branch in the foreground are soft.  

I recently purchased Photoshop Elements 10.  It has some fun special effects that are very easy to do.  Since the images in most of my recent posts have been straight, traditional images, I decided to try a couple of the special effects in Elements 10.  All but one of the images in this post have had an effect applied.  Such fun.

Late post for Sunday

Yesterday Jackie and I went to the Foster Botanical Garden. It was one of the first places I went to by myself when I arrived in Hawaii last year. That would have been early Jan. There were almost no flowers, but I managed to get some interesting images of the greenery. I was assured, by several people, that by this time (April), flowers would be blooming at the Botanical Garden, so I happily accompanied Jackie on this jaunt.

Well!

There was one section where there were hybrid orchids and that's pretty much all we saw in the way of flowers. Coming from a climate such as exists in upstate NY where "warm" weather heralds in the buds and blooms of a cacophony of flowers, it still confounds me that in a year-round warm climate, winter is still winter as far as the flowers are concerned.

So we wandered around the botanical garden viewing the lush foliage (it has rained a lot this winter--have I mentioned that before?), hoping to see an occasional bloom, and, yes, once again, getting rained on.

It was a struggle for me to get interested enough to take photos. I appreciate beautiful landscaping, but could really care less about names. It was worth the the small entry fee (thank goodness for kama 'aina discounts) and the effort to get there, but unless someone could guarantee that I would be engulfed by a sensory overload of blooming flowers, I probably won't go there again. I would, however, recommend it to any of my friends who have a propensity toward horticulture.

It was a nice way to spend a few hours on a cool afternoon with a good friend. Below are a few of the images from the hybrid orchid garden.

While waiting for the wind to die down to photograph a flower, I saw this reflection ball. The wind finally died down and I took the shot. It was a bust!

The tree in the following image is called The Cannon Ball Tree--obviously not the technical name. But it's very interesting looking, and is nothing like anything else I've ever seen.

Posted for Sunday, on Monday, April 6, 2009