My New Toy

Mrs. Claus brought me a new lens for Christmas, a Lensbaby.

I first got to play with an original model back in Santa Fe a number of years ago and have wanted one ever since. The whole point of the lens is the blur and the way you can tilt the point of sharpness and focus. It will take some practice and getting used to because I don't see so well and it is a manual focus lens.

Here are a few of my photos from today. I walked through a local cemetery that has a number of graves from the mid-late 1800's. I figured that was only fitting since the Santa Fe National Cemetery was where I was first introduced to this type lens.

St. Andrews Cemetery - Milford, OH





St. Andrews Cemetery - Milford, OH




This is the same tree as in this previous post.
Sycamore Tree - Milford, OH





King on the Game Table

Winter Continues...

and it isn't even here yet.....spring seems a long time away

Pine With Snow

Baltimore's Inner Harbor

I spent a late afternoon walking around Baltimore's Inner Harbor last week. It was a beautiful, if a bit cold day with bright deep blue skies. It was amazing to see how much the harbor area has changed in the past 26 years or so. What used to be home to a lot abandoned docks and warehouses is now home to posh condos, hotels, and fancy shops and restaurants...

I'm not too good at merging photos into a panoramic shot, I don't have the time and I'm on my rather slow and old computer....so excuse the obvious merging skies etc in the first shot.

Baltimore and Inner Harbor from Federal Hill



Mooring Pylons with Seven Foot Knoll in the distance - Inner Harbor



Hard Rock's Guitar Towers Above Inner Harbor



Cannon and Flag on Federal Hill

Longwood Gardens

We visited Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania earlier this week and saw their Christmas display. We didn't have the energy to stay around late enough to see the lights once it got dark (we arrived at 10 am. and it was a pretty cold and blustery day). Walking through the grounds made me really like to see the gardens and fountains in late spring or late summer. This time, we spent most of our time inside the conservatory. It is something like 4 acres undercover and it was beautifully decorated for Christmas (and it was warm:). The various Christmas trees were especially nicely decorated.

The Longwood Gardens is one of Pierre Samuel du Pont's lasting legacies. Walking around the grounds made me wonder if any of the present day robber bankers will leave a legacy beyond their current blatant pillaging of damn near anything they can get their hands on (only with government approval of course).

Christmas Ornaments on Tree - Longwood Gardens, PA



Decorated Christmas Tree - Longwood Gardens, PA




"Silver" Plants as a Theme - Longwood Gardens, PA




Succulent in the Cactus Room - Longwood Gardens, PA

Winter is Here

A little earlier than I'd prefer. I took this on my snowy walk yesterday.

Cold Pumpkin

Man of War

Hopefully I'm back to posting more photos. I'm definitely getting the chance to take more again...a bunch of Portuguese Man-of-War were washed up on the beach at Destin last week. Most were the size of about a quarter, but some were bigger like this one, about the size of a small cantaloupe.

Man Of War

Reflectons Chicago 2007

Downtown Chicago Reflections - 2007

Looking Back,Two Years Ago Today - Lake Bled, Slovenia

Looking back fondly ... we had a great time, and I'm certainly looking forward to more weekend adventures...

Bled Island & Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary - SloveniaBlejski Otok, Cerkev Marijinega Vnebovzetja

Tonight - Crescent Moon

I missed that cool blue/purple twilight sky by just a few minutes...but the craters and details of the moon came out nice.

Crescent Moon and Venus9/11/2010 Over the Middle East


Crop of above to show detail...

Crescent Moon

A Year Ago...

...we'd just returned from our cruise. Here are a few photos I took on the flight the Seattle to Salt Lake City leg of the flights home. The window view flying into and out of Seattle is just amazing.


Great Salt Lake - Utah




Crop Circles From the Air




River





Mount St. Helens - Washington State



Contrails and Mount Hood - Washington State

Catch...

...the wind,

Catch a wave...

Catch a fish...

Catch some rays...

Catch... - North Myrtle Beach, SC

Turtle

There were dozens, probably hundreds of turtles in this little lake/pond. I happen to like this particular shot, more for the abstract qualities than anything else...looks like the turtle is heading into a galaxy...

Turtle Heads Into The Maelstrom - North Myrtle Beach, SC

I'm No Snake Expert

but we figured out this one was a rattlesnake...something to do with all the racket it was making with its tail.

From the National Park Service Web Site:
"The first question that most park visitors have when they see a snake is “Is it poisonous?” The answer is almost always “no,” since only 2 of the 23 species of snakes that live in the park are venomous: the Northern Copperhead and Timber Rattlesnake. The likelihood of an average visitor even seeing a venomous snake in the Great Smokies, let alone being bitten by one, is extremely small. There is no record of a human fatality due to snakebite in the park’s history."

Timber Rattlesnake - Great Smoky Mountains National Park



Timber Rattlesnake - Great Smoky Mountains National Park



"Headshot" Timber Rattlesnake - Great Smoky Mountains National Park



The "Rattle" Timber Rattlesnake - Great Smoky Mountains National Park




And Off It Goes, Timber Rattlesnake - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Green

After spending time in a desert, I tend to go a little nuts photographing stuff that is green. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was a "target rich environment". All these photos were taken in a relatively short period of time in the park's Greenbrier section, near the trail head to Ramsey's Cascades one morning.

Fallen Tree - Great Smoky Mountains National Park



Mountain Stream - Great Smoky Mountains National Park




Mini Falls - Great Smoky Mountains National Park




Mini Falls #2 - Great Smoky Mountains National Park




Rocks, Moss and Forest - Great Smoky Mountains National Park



Moss on Rock - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Pine Tree

Pine Tree - Clingman's Dome, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Not What You Want to See On Your Plane...

A woman straddling a jet engine isn't sexy...when it is the plane you are getting on, it is scary

Fixing the Engine - CVG, July 2010

Spruce Flat Falls

A nice, little known hike with a wonderful waterfall at the end.

Spruce Flat Falls - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

More Tree Bark and Fungi

A few days of my time off were spent in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A peaceful and beautifully green (especially compared to the desert here) park once you get away from the crowds of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the main thoroughfares. It is one of about 12 of the U.S. National Parks on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Below is the first of what will probably be many photos I post from those few days in the Smokies.

BTW, two Ohio "properties" are under consideration for inclusion on UNESCO's list...a collection of locations in Dayton associated with the Wright Bros. and the early days of aviation, and Serpent Mound in Adams County, which I've still not made it to with my camera, even though it is almost right next door.


Moss and Fungi on Tree - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Nature's Spirograph

All kinds of excuses for the lack of recent posting...the best of which was vacation :)

One of the many photos I took during my time off, these natural Spirograph type drawings in the dunes near the beach always fascinate me.

Nature's Spirograph - North Myrtle Beach, SC

Dying to Get Out of Here

this bird didn't make it...

Two Years Ago Today

Since I've not actually had much opportunity to take new photos...two years ago today, my parents were visiting and on one of our drives around, we stopped up above Sarajevo and I took a series of 6 photographs I intended to merge together into a panoramic ...tonight I tried out the photomerge function in Photoshop CS4 for the first time and here is the result. After the merge and cropping out the "waste" it was still over 45 megapixels. I think Blogger limits me to only 1024 pixels wide (the original is over 17,000). I would have liked a little more blue in the sky (that was behind us) but it was still a nice day. See how many cemeteries you can count...


Sarajevo Valley, 2008 - Sarajevo, BiH





Zetra Olympic Stadium (extracted from the photo above) - Sarajevo, BiH

I'm Thinking

that people aren't so close right now...in retrospect, we were probably too close...I think these are all scans from Jan 2005. When we went up in 2006, we actually looked down the hole spewing lava in the photo #4...

At the Edge of Creation - Volcan Pacaya, Guatamala City




Lava Tube Breathing Fire - Volcan Pacaya. Guatamala City




Sulfur & Steam - Volcan Pacaya, Guatamala City




Modern Day Dragon Spitting Fire - Volcan Pacaya, Guatamala City

Some of the Oldest Photos of Mine

that I can find among my scans on this computer...I'm sure I have a pile of negatives somewhere from when Ryan was born. I first really got into photography and shooting slide film in Australia the early 90's...maybe 1992 or 1993 when I bought an EOS-10s. It is interesting to go back and see how far I've come and how good I still think some of my early photos are. I also wonder what I'd do now photographically in the same situation but with the experience and equipment I have now...

The oldest first...too bad I didn't have the 70-200 2.8L IS for this one...I wouldn't count this as one that I still consider real good...it is just one of the very oldest I have.

Pink Cockatoos at Sunset - Northern Territory, Australia



This was just weeks before we left, on a road trip through the Northern Territory with another family that was also from Cincinnati and also leaving...this remains one of my favorite photos of all time and among the first I posted...I took 6-8 rolls of 36exp slide film on the about 10 day trip. If I took the trip today, I'd probably shoot a couple thousand photos.

Devil's Marbles - Northern Territory, Australia




Among the many highlights of that trip was our time in Kakadu National Park

Yellow Waters - Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia