Stockade

6/365

A few weeks ago I went to the Schenectady Stockade area with a couple of photo friends.  It was one of our mystery rides with a scavenger hunt.    When you've been to a place many times it seems like there isn't anything left to photograph, but our alphabet scavenger hunt helped solve that dilemma.

We have a sheet with the alphabet and spaces next to each letter to write what our subject is.  It's just as much fun to see what the others get for each letter as it is to take the photos.

B~~blue steps (this was originally in color and the steps are blue)

W~~watering can

V~~vines around window

I~~ice cream sign

M~~mail

just a random shot~~I like the symmetry of it and the colors

another random shot of a barber pole

 

Saratoga Race Track Morning Warm-up

5/365

After delaying our field trip to the Saratoga track morning warm-ups twice, my friend and I finally made it on a beautiful cool morning just in the nick of time.  The track closes for the season in a few days.

We treated ourselves to a track-side breakfast, then spent some time photographing the horses during their warm-ups.  It's not a colorful as it is during a race, but still fun to try and capture the horses as they run.

Mystery Ride to Corinth

4/365

Two of my friends and I have begun a tradition.  It's a mystery ride for a photo shooting day.  We take turns choosing a surprise location.  Whoever is in charge chauffeurs the others to a surprise location.  Once there we spend some time photographing for an alphabet scavenger hunt.

This month we arrived in Corinth on a beautiful sunny day and after about an hour we met back at the park to  look at each other's images.  It's truly amazing how we each come up with such different ideas for each letter. 

After finishing the scavenger hunt we managed to get this group shot by the lake.

None of us were able to complete the entire alphabet, and we decided that for the next trip time we might need a little more time.  

Following are some of the images I made that day.

D Doggie Decal

L  Lock

N  Newspaper

R  Red Firehydrant

U  Umbrella

X  

3/365

Panther Mountain/Echo Cliffs

It's the middle of June.  This is only my 3rd post of the year. 

It's not that I haven't had anything to write about, just that I've been kind of lazy about keeping up.  So here goes for this post.

Today, two of my hiking buddies, Jane & Trish and I, went to the Caroga Lake area and did a short but intense hike up Panther Mt to Echo Cliffs.  It's the first uphill trek we've done this year.

It was one of those picture-perfect days and the trail is beautiful.

On the way to the trailhead

we saw this field of beautiful lupines.  We did a quick U-turn to get some photos.

When we began the trail this young woman, Lindsey, passed us but we met her again as she was coming down (and we were still on the way up).  She had just returned from 3 months of study-abroad in Italy.  Lindsey lives nearby and does this trail 2-3/summer.  She was a pleasure to talk with.

While at the summit this young family arrived and we had a fun and interesting conversation with them.  The dad is military and they were home on leave after being in Japan for 4 years.  After leave they would be heading back to Japan for 3 more years.  

The youngest 2, 5-year old twins, were just adorable.

Some scenes from the summit. 

On the descent we met this cute couple.  She was doing the trail barefooted. 

It was a great day.

Koko Head Botanical Garden

2/365

The other day my friend and I finally had the chance to get together to go out shooting.  In all the years she's lived on Oahu, she's never been able to get to this particular Botanical Garden, so that's what we did.  

When we first got there I was a little disappointed.  It was very dry, not much grass and I didn't think there was much to photograph.  Flowers are not my favorite subjects.  But as we walked around I began to see things and decided to get busy with the camera.  

There were a lot of plumeria trees and many of them were blooming.  A lot of the clusters were way up high, but some were at eye level and some low enough to look down on.  

There were several different colors which made for nice changes.  

I thought this gnarly branch was interesting.

This botanical garden has several sections.  The American, the Hawaiian, the African and one or two other areas.  For me, this cactus area was the most interesting.  Who would think that cactus would grow and survive in Hawaii, especially on the windward (rainy) side, but they do.

I don't know what the name of the tree is in the image below, but the cactus is called

Golden Barrel Cactus.  

Octopus Agave (below)  

Since I took this photo, I've discovered that Agave is NOT related to cacti or aloe, but it grows in conditions similar to those plants.  Agave bloom but it takes a long time to flower and then it dies.  

After we left the botanical garden, we stopped at this beach park just to see if there was anything interesting.  By then we were playing around with multiple exposures.  I didn't like most of the ones I created, but I think this one is pretty fun.

Walkabout in Glen

1/365

Well it's almost the end of January 2017 and this is my first post of the new year.  I'm really slacking.  

Today turned out to be a very beautiful day.  It began cloudy & dreary and looking like it was going to rain, but early in the afternoon the sun managed to shine through and by mid-afternoon it was almost 50 degrees and sunny with blue skies and it was impossible to resist the siren call to go for a walk.

It's been a lot of years since I've walked around town just to take photos.  

It was a good walk.