Monday, June 30, 2008

Cloud chasing again...

Roger asked me if I wanted to go for a drive...of course I said yes.
It had been overcast part of the day and bright and sunny part of the day, so thought we might get some interesting skies before the day was done.
So we headed south, to a place called Merom Bluffs. I was hoping with the air being clear that I might get some photos I liked.
Merom Bluffs is approximately 20 miles south of Terre Haute and are high above the Wabash River. These photos below does not really do it justice, but I got to concentrating on the clouds so much I forgot the original intent of going there.

I am not how far we can actually see from up there, but I am sure it is miles. Probably 5-10 miles at the least. And you look down on the Wabash...thinking about how it was a major route of travel for pioneers.
Then on the way home, I photographed these clouds as we were heading north. I thought sure we were going to get a major storm but it cleared up without anything but a few big drops of rain.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Can you see it?

Another Sky Watch Friday has come and gone now...I saw so many awesome photos that my head is spinning. I almost got everyone visited...but not quite. I am thankful to Tom for hosting it. And I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as me.

Now to today's post....these are a couple pictures from my slides. I am not sure if it was me that did not have them in sharp focus, or if it is so late I am doing something wrong in scanning them in. They aren't horrible but they could definitely be a bit better. I am not sure what moth this is, I have not had time to look it up. If you know what it is, please feel free to post the answer.

Please click photos to enlarge.
I think nature's camouflage is so awesome...you almost have to do a double take to see the image the moth in the picture above. One of the girls put it on their leg so I could get a better photo of it. These were taken in 1995

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Over the Rainbow Sky Watch Friday

It's another Sky Watch edition! And I could not settle for just two or three photographs. I am sorry if they are a bit monotonous. These are from slides...from several years ago. This is one of the most brilliant double rainbows I have ever seen--these photos do not do it justice. By the time I got to this place to take the photos the second rainbow was starting to fade a bit....






I have tried to manipulate the photos a bit but just could not do much with them. I am sure from lack of skill on my part. I may try at a later date with some other software. As usual each photo should enlarge when clicked.

To join the fun, see Tom at Wigger's World.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Art is where you find it....

Click photo to enlarge.
This is from the slide collection. So it was taken several years ago. Imagine being out in the middle of nowhere and coming around the bend to this view. That is what we did. I am not sure I could find this again, and even if I could, I wonder would it still be there. I really thought it was beautiful, and that someone was a good artist. I cannot imagine painting something this size.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Earlier this week a cat, now?

Today is a possum!
Click to enlarge photo!This is the same barn I posted earlier in the week...just taken at a different time...I could not believe my eyes when I saw what was in the barn when I actually took this photo. I remembered taking it, but had not remembered the cat. And it WAS a cat in the picture earlier this week...I double checked on both and then rechecked again before I posted this picture.

Edited to add: I had to go to the dentist (oral surgeon) in Indianapolis today to have a tooth removed. I have not got to visit everyone as I normally do...but will get back to normal here shortly I hope.
Feeling much better today--just thought I would crop the originals and post here....hope everyone chances back by to see that one is a cat and one is a possum.

Monday, June 23, 2008

When you see these

When you see these photos, is there another blogger that comes to mind. I was going through some of my slides and scanning a few in over the weekend and I came across these two. I laughed--even though they are sure not an exact replica, they sure remind me of Carletta's Round the Bend Blog. Her header photo to be exact. Does it affect anyone else that way that visits both our blogs? My husband didn't really see the similiarities that I did. Maybe it is because I have been visiting her for a while and know we like a lot of the same thing.

I posted both pictures for two reasons. I like the coloring better in the first photo...but I like the second one because I was not quite at the side of the road when I took it. I would have liked it better if I had been in the center of the road. I don't know why I didn't take one from the center...but these were the only two photos of this scene.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Which do you like best?

The first picture is taken with a cokin filter...I do not remember which one. I wanted to try it out because as you can see in the second photo the sky was on the colorless side. I am not even sure which one I like best. The third picture is taken from the other side of the creek, I think.
Click photos to enlarge.
This is the Narrows Covered Bridge, one of many in Parke Country, Indiana. It was built in 1882 by J. A. Britton and is 120 feet in length. Britton is interesting to read about...he read law had been admitted to the Kansas and Indiana bars, but that occupation did not satisfy him. Bridge building did. I suggest you follow the link--it is a short read and I cannot say it better.
The bridges were made of locally available timber, such as oak or tulip poplar. And part might be laid out in a nearby field and constructed first.

Did you see the cat??

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Slide film with multiple exposures...

Click to enlarge.
My old Nikon 8008 had multiple exposure capabilities. It has been so long since I worked with it, I cannot remember much about it. I am pretty sure I underexposed each exposure by one stop and that is about all I remember. I think I have a few more multiple exposures that I messed around with but I don't think I liked any as much as I liked this one.

You can accomplish the same thing with digital just by doing a collage...I am sure most programs have some way of accomplishing this. But the one I first started to use that is free on-line. It is Picasa. It is so simple...choose the photos you want to use--after you pick one, click on hold down at the bottom. Choose your next pictures and click hold after each one. Then click the button Collage and choose multiple exposure.
Below are two photos I chose and the last photo shows them layered together as a multiple exposure. In digital I have not worked with more than two exposures, but in film I would sometimes do 3 or 4...and some time I will probably end up playing with more in digital.



Thursday, June 19, 2008

Sky Watch evening views....

As usual, click to enlarge.

These were all taken after that short storm on Sunday.
They turned out darker than it actually was, but I liked the affect so I left them basically as I took them.

I hope you enjoy them half as much as I did when I took them.
If you want to join Sky Watch, go see Tom at Wigger's World.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Imperial Moth

Click to enlarge.
I am pretty sure this is an imperial moth. I notice some of us have either been posting some of these beauties--well, butterflies mostly, but I always think of moths when I think of butterflies. Anyway, I found Butterflies and Moths of North America and that will be helpful to some of us. The thumbnails of the photos in the gallery are not real great, but most of the time the ones I clicked to enlarge were pretty decent photographs.

And THIS is another place I found with photographs--I don't think it quite as good as the one listed above but it isn't too bad.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm in business now!!!!!

My scanner arrived today!!!! And I think I'm in love! These are two scans from old slides...they don't have the year printed on them...by anyone. Sometimes I did but not all the time. And sometimes they came back with month and year printed on them, but not in this instance.
Click for enlargement.
We always called these spiders writing spiders, but I think the more common name for them might be garden spider. I will try to think and look it up later, if someone doesn't tell me in the comments.
This is another scan from a dateless slide....I really had a time coming up with how I thought the photo should be rotated. I think this might be right, but not sure.
It is going to take some time for me to learn the ins and outs of scanning slides and just learning this scanner.....I could not remember which side of the slide film was the 'right' side. By the right side, I mean the side that you view it from to get the correct view. I had to hunt for a photo with a house that was familiar to me to figure it out.


Monday, June 16, 2008

After the storm



Yesterday we had another storm--not a bad one. The wind did blow and we had some thunder and lightning, but it didn't last long. Since the storm hit in the late afternoon, I kept watching to the east to look for a rainbow, but no such luck. I think the sun was still just a little to high when the conditions were right for a rainbow. I got the bright idea to look to the west! I grabbed my camera bag and my husband did the chauffering...

Please click to enlarge--it really does change things!
This is a couple photos from the first stop. The bottom one is sort of grainy--I think the proper term for it in digital is that it has noise. But I still think in terms of film a lot of the time. Anyway, I had the iso set on 1600....that is the reason it looks like it does. I wish I had taken one with a lower iso, but I do like this one.

Be sure and check my other blog, The Road Less Photographed. I know soon as I get done here I am going over to it to post a couple photographs there from this drive.
As an added note, I had a heck of time getting these uploaded...and when I finally accomplished that feat, they did not enlarge to the size they should. So I deleted them and uploaded them again one at a time. If they don't enlarge now, I don't know what else to do. They should be almost full screen sized when opened.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Roses

Click to enlarge...
When our oldest daughter first moved out, she rented a little house not too far from here. It had belonged to the mom of her landlady. And this pink rose had belonged to the landlady's mom.
She was there for two seasons's of blooms...and she had several the first year. And the landlady and her brother could not get over how well/good it did under my daughter's care that year. This is from her second season with it. The photo of the whole plant is not the best, but just had to show you what it looked like.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

More clouds


Please click to enlarge these images.
These were taken the same day as the Sky Watch photos of both this blog and The Road Less Travel. It was a good day for sky watching! And the photo in the header here was taken that same day.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Refreshed

Click to enlarge....
Husband and I went fishing yesterday morn for a while...we came home with these bluegill plus one more that he had filleted before I got the camera. Notice one or two are really small--well, they are about as tiny as they look. But they had swallowed the hook/lure and retrieving the lure damaged the fish so they would have died anyway. And the monster second from the left is the first one my husband caught. We caught several more that we threw back because of size, plus a couple bass that were under the size limit.


My husband was using a small spinner type bait when he caught that big one, but I don't think it was a beetle spin which he caught some of the others on. I used some of these little things that we call tube worms-- I like to them use on this type of hook with a weed guard. Those 'tube worms' are hollow and fit over the hook and you push the head end up over that barb to keep it on the hook. Not sure that the one pictured is the size I use...just showing it to show my favorite thing to use.

I almost always start out with Black and Blue tube worms but they are getting hard to find. I just now noticed that Bass Pro doesn't seem to carry that color. So I don't know where I will get them...I originally got them at Walmart. They stopped carrying them, and the only place I could get them was at Bass Pro. After the blue and black, I like the chartreuse with black or red....plus two or three other colors.

If I am fishing near the bank where there is a lot of moss, or where I am apt to snag the hook one thing I really like a Johnson's silver minnow, only I usually start with it in gold, especially if the water is more muddy or murky than usual. (I am not employed by Bass Pro or anything, I just knew I could find pictures of the lures we used there.)

And I even took some nightcrawlers and a zebco type reel and fished a while that way. I did not want to come home...and I wanted to go back this evening. There is just nothing like fishing to relax me. It was so peaceful, except for this duck that was mad at us--if you could have heard it you would have thought it was a cartoon. It sounded about like Donald Duck on speed. I wondered if we were near its nest, except I figured they were done nesting. I don't really know much about ducks, and it was too far away for me to tell what kind.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Sky Watch Friday

This is from the other day--our first little drive after the floods and before another rain. I could not believe the cloud formations. Too beautiful for words.
To see more Sky Watch photos or to post your link, go to Welcome to Wigger's World.