Saturday, September 10, 2011

Reaching for the Sun


SmugMug Daily Link

I'm posting a shot I took Thursday that was in my blog yesterday and which several folks commented on.  I just had to fix a few spots on the flower, so I did not just copy over the original but have uploaded the fixed version.  Thanks so much for the encouragement that this one was worthwhile.

I was back beside the tobacco/corn field yesterday taking more morning glory and other wildflower pics.  It's become an addiction this week.  A determination to take advantage or the flowers while they are there before their blooms slip away to fall and then winter.  The tobacco and corn are close to harvest, the morning dew is starting to form on the plants each day, and the butterflies and other insects continue to do what comes natural to them.

I kept hoping I'd startle a deer from the fields and one would run past me, but no such luck.  With my camera set for close-up flower stuff, I probably would have missed the shot, like I did with the hawk, anyway but still I hoped.

I did take this combined corn and morning glory shot yesterday that I like much better than the one the day before.  Still, it needs 2-3 more flowers clustered in the shot I think.  At least today they are all looking at the viewer which is what I determined was not right in yesterday's shot.


SmugMug Daily Link

For papamuggger and webstersway, here's what I think is a cucumber beetle.  In larger sizes, you can really see the pollen on his head/mouth.  I've also been seeing a lot of sulphur butterflies up there, but they are so incredibly FAST.  I have not focused much on capturing them.  Maybe they'll slow down and I'll get lucky.  (Note:  papamuggers says probably a Soldier Beetle goldenrod s. b.)


SmugMug Link

For a few minutes yesterday, I was in love with how the stem on this morning glory curled away and into the frame.  BUT, there's this huge shadow behind the flower that I never saw when I took the photo.  Yuck!  I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out in PSE if maybe I could fix it but no luck:-(


SmugMug Link

I kept noticing how beautiful the grasses were in the light and dew yesterday too. The number of interesting things on that small stretch of country road is limitless to me.  I am only held back by time and poison ivy:-) I've been taking the kids to school a few minutes earlier the past couple of weeks.  Really, we're back on time as over the last school year we kept slipping later and later.  This new found time is giving me the chance to stop and take morning photos again.  Still, it's always a rush to finish and get on with what I'm supposed to be doing!


SmugMug Link

Most of the shots this week have been taken in manual mode.  It requires a bit of effort to control the light bouncing around off the dew and at that time of day.  I love the backlight here, but somehow the petal details and color still seem not right.  Another shot I thought I might love back on the computer but didn't...at least not for a daily.


SmugMug Link

Friday, September 9, 2011

Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder...



SmugMug Daily Link

I think with this shot I found a way to include a dried up Queen Anne's Lace in a pretty format:-)  The geometry of those flowers lasts through their entire growing season I think.  In the background is of course a morning glory.

When I took this shot, I thought I was going to like this the best and want to post this for my daily, but I was disappointed back at the computer.  I had to crop it.  I wanted to get closer, but there was a ditch with briers between me and the flowers.


SmugMug Link

I do really like this morning glory shot:


SmugMug Link

As well as this one:


SmugMug Link

which was my 2nd choice as a daily today.

This yellow beauty was close by.  So many of the wildflowers blooming right now are yellow.  This is common evening primrose:



SmugMug Link

I was excited by the insect on this yellow flower( wingstem or yellow ironweed):


SmugMug Link

As I was taking the shots, I clearly heard this red-talled hawk flying my way and then overhead.  I reacted as quick as I could but not quick enough:-(  This is the 2nd shot.  In the first one his head is just into the frame.  He continued on over to the woods a short distance away, and I could hear him but not see him.


SmugMug Link

Oh, and there was one last shot I wanted to show...the location:


SmugMug Link

It's rare for anyone to bother me out there.  Sometimes folks on bikes go by and wave.  I'm probably going back this morning.  I really need my knee high boots!

I used this link to identify the wildflowers.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Bitterweed (or Yellowdicks or Bitter Sneezeweed)


SmugMug Daily Link

This yellow flower is growing in all the fields in my area in central North Carolina (NC) right now. This shot was taken early yesterday morning when it was a bit cloudy out. Just as well to give this shot a bit of a softer and dreamy feel.

Apparently if cows eat this week their milk can taste bitter.

A continuing shot in my unofficial series of things that grow beside a tobacco (or corn or soybean) field:-)

Hoping the sun comes out today. We're at the point in the year where it takes a while after I get up to tell. Missing those mornings where the sun was already up when I got up. 64 degrees here this AM. The humidity is gone. No temps over 90 degrees in the 7 day forecast and night temps in the 60s too. Fall is coming!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Tobacco Field View


SmugMug Daily Link

On the way home from dropping the kids off at school this morning, I stopped to take some pictures of the morning glories beside a tobacco field.  I'm kindof bored taking flower pictures (hit me in January when I am dying to take flower pictures) wishing I had more opportunities for people shots or at least barn settings.  I've been looking at this barn for years...daily.  It's not much.  I saw this one sole morning glory up high enough where I could get it and the barn in the shot and though I'd try to take some bracketed images for HDR and see what I could do with them.  I've seen so many wonderful settings on SmugMug by other photogs where they compose some foreground object in front of a gorgeous background scene.  I knew this would not be quite that but wanted to try anyway.

So, tonemapped, straightened, cropped, and a stray piece of grass removed, here you go.

Original:


SmugMug Link

My second choice:


SmugMug Link

With TD Lee past us, the sky was fantastic!


SmugMug Link

My favorite morning glory shot of the morning:


SmugMug Link

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Candlelight and Flowers


SmugMug Daily Link

I made a special dinner last night, and the table included a new vase and a new candle holder from the thrift store plus some flowers from the grocery store.  Dinner (bottom round roast, broccoli, mashed potatoes, yellow squash and onions plus a no bake cheesecake) was yummy, and the candlelight sure was pretty.  The new candle holder is a tall tube shape that you put water in with marbles/beads and flowers (submerged) if desired and float a candle on top.  So, after enjoying the pretty light at dinner, I got to taking pictures of it after dinner.  The flower I used in the tube was lantana that I cut from my mailbox flower bed, and some of the tiny flowers ended up breaking off and floating around the candle at the top.  At any point, 100 shots or so later, I stopped and went through the bunch to pick out a daily and a few back-up shots.  In the daily, those are 'mood' lights on top of my entertainment center providing some additional light in the background.


SmugMug Link

Poster Edges


SmugMug Link

Solarize


SmugMug Link

When they say soak the bottom of the pie plate in hot water for 30 seconds before trying to cut and serve, they mean it;-)



SmugMug Link

I only note .5 inches in the last 24 hours.  The rain from Lee is mostly staying west of Raleigh.


SmugMug Link

I am done with my week of being on call for work.  Woo hoo!!!!

Monday, September 5, 2011

The History of a Statue


SmugMug Daily Link

I was taking picture of a writing spider yesterday, and this statue was closeby, so I snapped a few pictures of it too.  I always wondered what the origins of these statues were and suspected that they were offensive and inappropriate, but I really didn't know.  Back at the computer last night, I found myself really liking the contrast on this shot.  It looks good to me in both color and B&W:


SmugMug Link

Maybe that in and of itself means something too.  I thought, though, that I can't post it because the last thing I want to do is offend someone or post something that goes against my feelings that we are all equal regardless of skin color, religion, place of birth, etc.  However, after reading the origins of these Lawn Jockey statues on Wikipedia, I decided to go ahead and post with the history so that we all might understand.  Some of the origins are indeed associated with prejudice, however, others are a bit more noble.  I'll let you read for yourself what Wikipedia had to say:


A lawn jockey is a small statue of a man in jockey clothes, intended to be placed in yards. Most today are white jockeys, but historically black jockeys were commonplace. The lawn ornament, popular in certain parts of the United States in years past, was a cast replica, usually about half-scale, of a black man dressed in jockey's clothing and holding up one hand as though taking the reins of a horse. The hand sometimes carries a lantern or a metal ring suitable for hitching a horse. Two traditional lawn jockey styles are produced, commonly known as "jocko" and "cavalier spirit". The former is of stockier build, with a hunched posture; the latter is generally slender and erect. Typically these statues are made of concrete but are also made of other materials such as poly resin and aluminum or cast iron. Despite being controversial, lawn jockeys are still in demand. Both styles are still manufactured and sold.

The black lawn jockeys often had exaggerated features, such as big eyes with the whites painted in, large red lips, large, flat nose and curly hair. These pieces were typically painted in gaudy colors for the uniform, with the flesh of the statue a gloss black. These statues are widely considered offensive and racially insensitive and many remaining samples have now been repainted using pink paint for the skin while the original sculpture's exaggerated features remain.

However, some accounts of the figure's origin cause some to see the statue as representing a hero of African American history and culture. According to the River Road African American Museum the figure originated in commemoration of heroic dedication to duty: "It is said that the 'lawn jockey' actually has its roots in the tale of one Jocko Graves, an African-American youth who served with General George Washington at the time that he crossed the Delaware to carry out his surprise attack on British forces at Trenton, NJ. The General thought him too young to take along on such a dangerous attack, so left him on the Pennsylvania side to tend to the horses and to keep a light on the bank for their return. So the story goes, the boy, faithful to his post and his orders, froze to death on the river bank during the night, the lantern still in his hand. The General was so much moved by the boy's devotion to his duty that he had a statue sculpted and cast of him, holding the lantern, and had it installed at his Mount Vernon estate. He called the sculpture 'The Faithful Groomsman'." The most frequently-cited source for the story is Kenneth W. Goings in "Mammy and Uncle Mose" (Indiana University Press), though he regards it as apocryphal. The story was told as well in a 32 page children's book by Earl Kroger Sr., "Jocko: A Legend of the American Revolution." Moreover, there is a 13-page typescript titled "A Horse for the General: The Story of Jocko Graves" by Thomas William Halligan in the archives of the Alaska Pacific University/ University of Alaska-Anchorage consortium library.


Charles Blockson, curator of the Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia, claims that the figures were used in the days of the Underground Railroad to guide escaping slaves to freedom: "Green ribbons were tied to the arms of the statue to indicate safety; red ribbons meant to keep going ... People who don’t know the history of the jockey have feelings of humiliation and anger when they see the statue..." Blockson has installed an example of the statue at the entrance to the University's Sullivan Hall.

Neither the Revolutionary War nor the Civil War legends are corroborated by historical records. Mount Vernon's librarian Ellen McCallister Clark wrote in a letter to Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library: "No record of anybody by the name of Jocko Graves, nor any account of somebody freezing to death holding Washington's horses, exists in the extensive historical record of the time." Nor do any of the many historical inventories and descriptions of Washington's estate mention any such statue. Moreover, stories about the Underground Railroad using lawn jockeys as signals are rendered suspect by the fact that red and green as signal colors meaning "stop" and "go" (or "danger" and "safe") were standardized by railway signals during the World War I era.

End of Wikipedia Text

I think I like that this statue has the paint faded and that is has not been repainted.  There is a blending of new and old.

Other things going on yesterday at our house were homemade pizza and oatmeal cookies and kids playing Smurf Dance Party on the Wii.


SmugMug Link

http://fotomom.smugmug.com/Nature/September-2011/18827553_CmnN58#1463214315_D4QC3F8


SmugMug Link



SmugMug Link

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I used dried cranberries (Craisins) instead of raisins.  Yum!  And they did vanish and quick!

As for the writing spider...well the shot was just ho hum I thought:


SmugMug Link

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Glistening in the Noonday Light


SmugMug Daily Link

I took a ride down my favorite dirt road, John Adams,  yesterday.  In any season, there is always something interesting to take a picture off.  I heard a red-tailed hawk but never did see him.  The swampy area was very low on water as you would expect in September, but there were still a few dragonflies.  I saw several wildflowers that I thought were very pretty too.  The tiny size and delicate look of the blooms on some of them amazes me.  This collage shows a picture of the  best of what I saw:


SmugMug Daily Link

I thought the triangular tri leaf composition on the lower middle was really interesting.

The grapes are from Adams Vineyards.  I hope to go back when the light is better!

Also noticed that the kudzu flower is blooming right now.  If you don't look close, you'll miss it, but kudzu does have a flower:


SmugMug Link

I really appreciated Donnie being willing to accompany me on my photo trek yesterday and the good volleyball and dinner with the Kidd family too.  These are the shots that warmed my heart yesterday:



This video is a real winner IMHO too:


YouTube Link