Always Stop!

I was coming back home from running an errand, and as I drove by Scudder's Pond, I caught a glimpse of a white shore bird standing in the water, and reflected in the water, because it was so calm. I kept driving. What a dolt! About a hundred yards later I finally thought to turn around. Grabbed the camera and the scene was sublime! The original bird was no where to be seen, but fortunately there was another bird, in a different part of the pond, and that completed the picture. The subtle colors and delicate textures in the background are what the photograph is all about, in my opinion. Please click on the photo - I posted an extra large file so you can see all the detail.

Collimating the Telescope

One frame! One shot! That was it! Yikes! During our astronomy meeting tonight, several members were demonstrating how to collimate the optics in a Newtonian telescope. I wandered over, saw this image (or rather part of the image) and took one shot with my toy camera. Then they all moved and the picture was gone! I was so surprised when I got home to find out that the shot was OK. And even more surprised because I hadn't seen the man on the right - I thought I was only photographing two people! The addition of the third face on the right really makes this shot, I think.

Cold, Gray, & Rainy

I went over to the Apple store today to fill my brain up and to try and get smarter. I only got a *little* smarter... :-) I am getting bummed about the weather - it feels as if warm weather will never come, after a few days of shirtsleeve weather. Anyhow, today was cold and gray and rainy. I tried several different photographs, but this image had the best feeling for how the day felt.

Yesterday's Photograph

This is the photograph you would have seen yesterday, if I had not gotten caught up in my rant about the stupid cyclists. I was in church, and took my glasses off so that I could rub my eyes. The sun outside was in and out of the clouds. When I looked down at my glasses, resting on the Missal, I was struck how a shaft of sunlight had illuminated my glasses and the book. Fortunately, I always carry my "toy" camera, and it only took me about 15 seconds to frame this image and take it.

Stupid Cyclists!

This is a rant, so if you want to skip it, please feel free to do so. This is a group of cyclists who we run into every Sunday. They are riding on the back roads, which we take to get to church in Westbury. The law says that cyclists must ride no more than two abreast. Guess what... Do these guys look like they are two abreast? The pack takes up the entire lane from side to side, and there is no way to get around them. I have tried to pass at times, and they just will not move over. I guess it is the mob mentality - they are in a pack and gain strength in their numbers. So it is annoying, and I slow to a crawl, and follow them until they turn off after several miles.

Diamonds

This is amazing! We were cleaning up the garden, and I looked down at these shoots or buds coming out of the ground, and saw sparkles like diamonds within a number of the buds. What? So I got the close up lens and investigated. There were water drops within the petals but because of some kind of surface tension, all the drops were sitting there as droplets, apparently not wetting the buds at all. Look at the tiny round water drop sitting by itself. Amazing. I posted a larger image so please click on it to see more detail. Someday I will even find out what kind of plant this is.

False Alarm

The forecast last night included the possibility of snow overnight. When I awoke, there was not a flake to be seen. But it did remind me that I took a picture I really liked in the snow last Thursday morning. I was shooting all around my favorite tree when I spotted this view - I suddenly saw this tree in a way I never had before. I was thrilled that I could see the tree so differently. It has never felt like a twisted tree, until this photograph of it. Do I say something about being glad that we are done with the snow, at long last, or will that put a hex on everything and give us a blizzard in the next week?