Mr. Lizard

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I went on a 20 minute walkabout in my yard yesterday and came away with the pictures in this post. None are particularly great yet I really like the light in some of them.

Of course the daily shot is of an anole lizard taken in my yard on the trunk of an American Holly tree. I liked the bokeh to the left of the tree.

I probably like best the rainbow burst of light shot which is cropped about 1/4 of the original frame and filtered for noise with Noiseware, but I wasn't sure if it had broader appeal to anyone but me.  I think water drops on the American Holly leaves generated the spectrum of light.

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I continue to see many of these Crab-like Spiny Orb Weaver spiders in my yard.

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They hydrangea bush by my front door continues to delight.  Madi's dad, Danny, gave me this bush several years ago, and it's thriving.  In the spring it's a beautiful blue then it fades to a pinkish purple and in the winter it still delights as a tan with fanlike texture to the petals.  A real joy to see every day.

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Just a focus on the hydrangea and then UP.  I loved the light filtering through the trees.

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Hope...

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I was out and about with the kids near sunset last night, and I thought the light coming through the trees was pretty.  Here's the original:

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I cropped it to 8X10, ran an Orton filter on it, and applied the lettering and frame in OnOne's PhotoFrame.
The letters and frame have a partial color dodge applied to give the orange tone less of an even feel (or more of an uneven feel:-)

I also took this picture of a restaurant ceiling as a window reflection and did some pp on it to bring out the blues and grain.  I'd like to use this as a background for something else...I just don't know what yet.

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Resting

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Stopping in 'the field' for a few minutes each morning after dropping the kids off at school is addictive for me this time of year.  I just can't pass up the morning glories, butterflies, and beautiful light.  I am seeing a lot of sulphur butterflies, but they move so fast and rarely stop to perch, so I haven't gotten many pics.  Yesterday, however, this skipper (probably a Zabulon Skipper )  was kind enough to pose for me.  I really liked how the dark purple morning glory looked set against the yellow ragweed, and when the skipper landed while I was already taking pics, that was even better.

Here's a collage including some other morning glory shots that I liked. It's a little harder to get a nice background now that the tobacco leaves have been picked.  But, I can maneuver the rows better now.  I've been watching for snakes and haven't seen any:-)

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In B&W just to see...

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Madi's mom called me over for a brief visit yesterday which turned into a photo shoot of Evan and Andrew.  Who can resist their cuteness.  They are not brothers, but they are quite close in age and were adopted form the SPCA of Wake County  just a few weeks ago.  I'm sure they will be featured as a daily some day.

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Beneath the Forest Floor

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Yesterday on my way into my office building, I spotted these huge mushrooms along the forested walkway.  In NC, we have a lot of trees nearly everywhere...a mix of oaks, maples, sweetgums, tulip poplars, and loblolly pines to name a few.  I remember in years past large mushrooms popping up in this forest, and I knew right away that I wanted to a picture.  I wouldn't say that we've had a lot of rain in the last month in inches, but we've had a lot of overcast days where we had at least a brief shower.  There be fungus amongus everywhere:-)

The daily shot is converted to B&W and contrast adjusted.  Below, I used a combination of the plaster and bass relief filters and a gradient map.  I wish a tad more mushroom fan detail remained in the shot.  I redid it several times, and this was the best I could do.

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The shot below is a cropped pretty good.  I loved the impressionistic forest canopy view.  I wish I'd realized how pretty it was, and after close focusing on the mushroom I would have taken several shots without the mushroom in them at all.  I just love those blues and greens.

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Pumpkin Patch

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I think it's going to be tradition each fall to take a pumpkin patch photo. Several weeks ago, I realized that this field had pumpkins in it,  and I've been watching them develop ever since. Earlier this week, workers hauled about 30 pumpkins out of the field. I wanted to stop and get pics that day of the men and their teamwork to lift and move the heavy pumpkins, but it was extra cloudy and drizzling and I didn't stop because I didn't think I could get a quality shot. But, on the way home from school with the kids today , I decided that today was the day to try to get a shot. I took nearly every image as a bracketed series so I could use Photomatix on them. The shot I originally thought would 'the' one I ended up not liking as well as the one I posted as my daily.  I grew to really like the pine tree on the right of the daily photo shot and missed it not being in this image.

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The crop today is 16X10.  I just liked the wider view without shooting a wide shot.

I hope you don't mind the humor in my daily photo;-)  Without the humor.  I feel like it's one of those childrens' books where you have to spot the difference.

Here's a pano created from 3 images (well 9 total) that were tonemapped prior to pumping them through Microsoft ICE.

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Do you have any pumpkin fields near you?  Will you be picking out the biggest, fattest, spookiest or best pie making pumpkin this year?  The kids and I will definitely be looking for just the right ones to carve.

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Last year's shot:

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They didn't plant pumpkins in this field this year so good thing I got this shot last year:-)


The humor in the daily shot was added using a brush set (.abr file installed in PSE7) that I downloaded for free off the internet.  Set #2 on this page.  The designer.

Trains in Monochrome

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I've been to the NC Transportation Museum about 8 times now, and besides some very fun family snapshots, I usually feel like I come away with some artistic shots too.  Our trip for Day Out With Thomas on Saturday was no exception.  I used Photomatix to process most of these and then did a black and white conversion afterwards.  See what you think of my daily as well as the rest of these images.

From their website:
Southern Railway #542: The locomotive was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1903. This 2-8-0 Consolidation operated in North Carolina on the Southern Railway around Statesville and Winston-Salem. Repairs were performed at Spencer Shops. Similar class 2-8-0 locomotives were extensively used by the Southern for local freight trains throughout the entire system. In North Carolina they were found from Raleigh to Asheville. Southern owned only 90 of this rare J class locomotive, and the 542 is the sole remaining example. In 1954 the Southern donated the locomotive to Tanglewood Park, near Clemmons, NC. A trade was made in 1991 using the ex-Illinois Central 0-8-0 1984 to obtain the 542 for the museum.  It was cosmetically restored for use in the Letterhead movie as #604 during 2008

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From #542 shown above:

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I didn't take a zoomed out image of this 'train'.  I probably have a shot from a prior visit.  I just thought the 'end' of this car had some very neat metal mechanisms that might lend well to black and white.

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The windows in the Robert Julian Roundhouse always capture my attention.  So much light diffused so nicely! This shot is tinted to black and white although the straight out of camera (sooc) version is pretty much black and white on it's own.

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This shot is sooc.

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I tinted this shot...the brick here did add color.

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This shot is from the Back Shop.  According to the information on the website, this building was once the largest industrial building in North Carolina and that at the peak of activity 2-3 locomotives rolled out of this building each week as new (I assume that means overhauled).  I was reading on one of the historical signs that the Back Shop was strategically located between DC and Atlanta based on how far steam locomotives could travel before needing services which was about every 150 miles.  

They've been working on restoring the Back Shop build itself for years now, and this was the first time I visited that they let us go into a roped off area on one end to actually stand inside the building.  Whoa!  What an experience with the size, light, and just all those lines going around in there!  I hope one day, and I think it's still years away, we'll go and it will be complete with exhibits.

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In the back part of the Robert Julian Roundhouse, you'll find this fascinating end grain block wood floor.

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Yesterday, the kids and I spent the morning putting up more Halloween decorations outside.  We're mostly decorated now, but there are a few more things that we could put out, and the kids are likely to be asking:-)  The mosquitoes were all over us with the high humidity and clouds.  Hoping we dry out a bit here this week.

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Day Out With Thomas at the NC Transportation Museum

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We had a great day at the NC Transportation Museum yesterday for Day Out With Thomas (the Tank Engine).  It seemed like a large area of rain sat all day just east of where we were in Spencer, NC north of Charlotte.  We drove through it on the way, and we drove through it on the way back, but at the event, we were dry:-)

Here he is. You know the guy that drives the kids crazy.  If you have boys (or even train enthusiastic girls), I bet you know one of the Thomas theme songs.  "They're two they're four they're six they're eight shunting trucks and hauling freight red and green and brown and blue they're the really useful crew..."

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Madi and Joey each had shirts on that were bought on previous trips, although this was Madi's first DOWT and trip to the NC Transportation Museum.  They enjoyed taking pics with engines similar to the ones on their shirts.

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The 6133 was actually the back engine for Thomas yesterday. The train crew made a big deal out of Joey's shirt when he went to board.

Of all the kids, Johnny is the one that has always loved trains the most and continues to enjoy Thomas the most.  It was good to see the smile on his face yesterday as he enjoyed the trains...  Here's a shot of him in the caboose in the Robert Julian Roundhouse that the kids always enjoy playing in.  We just about had to pull them out of there!

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Donnie went with us and got his first real introduction to Thomas.  I should have gotten a picture of him by himself with Thomas:-)  I like this picture of him and Madi on our 2:15PM train ride:

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Donnie took lots of videos throughout the day focusing on the model train layouts.  You can see them here.

Tomorrow I'm going to focus on some monochrome images.  I've started tonemapping and converting but need more time to really figure out which one to feature and which ones to use as back-up.

Wet Web

It seems like the right time of year for gorgeous wet webs. I used manual mode and a tripod yet these still lack the sharp clarity I'd hoped for. Pretty just the same, though. I'll keep trying.

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