Popcorn Clouds

OK, first, there is no such thing as "popcorn clouds."  I just made that up, because the clouds did remind me of popcorn.  The weather from JFK to LAX was above clouds, all the way.  Our route was different this time - I asked the pilot when we landed why we took the southern route - almost direct from JFK to Little Rock, Arkansas, and then almost directly west to Los Angeles.  The pilot said that there was a lot of weather around the Chicago area so we avoided it by taking the southern route.  Also we were not flying into the jet stream, so we arrived in record time for a westbound trip - 5 hours and 10 minutes!  And we got to see these scattered cumulus clouds all the way to the horizon, for a good part of the trip.

The Educated Cat

Kathy was lying on the couch reading the paper and when I walked by, I saw the silhouette of Bebe looking at the paper!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  The difficult part was having to leave my spot, cross the room, grab my toy camera, set the ISO to 1600, and THEN I could take a photo.  Fortunately, the cat did not move until after I got about three exposures!  Whew!  Got it!  This is so cute, isn't it?

The Light on the Stairs

Sometimes the subject of my photographs is light itself.  It's that the quality of the light is more important than whatever the subject is.  I think that's why I was attracted to this scene.  It is the late afternoon sun shining on the stairway landing.  I love how the light is exploding around the ballusters.  I also like the design of the photograph, with all the lines at different angles.

"Greetings..."

I love that they have greeters at Home Depot when you arrive.  Look at the new greeter they now have.  Met him when we stopped in to get a few small items.  His name is Winston (it says on his apron) and he was talking, but it was noisy and I couldn't hear what he was saying.  I tried to ask him to repeat what he said, but he is old, and clearly hard of hearing, so no luck there.  Who ever put him together did a great job, didn't they!

"Spencer, you ain't too swuft"

When I was on active duty with the U.S. Air Force reserve, I was getting "on the job training," at Niagara Falls International Airport.  I drove fuel trucks, fueled airplanes and set up pumping stations to transfer fuel from tanker trucks to 100,000 gallon tanks of JP-4 and Avgas.  Sometimes the other airmen would forget to tell me how things were done, and when I made a "mistake" there was one guy from Texas who was very fond of saying "Spencer, you ain't too swuft!"  That always cracked me up!  Anyhow, I say that, because yesterday my whole post was about struggling with trying to figure out my new telescope mount.  Then after all that, what did I show you?  Right, a landscape photograph!  I am definitely not too swuft.  I should have shown you a photograph of the scope and mount!  Duh!  So here they are.

I Was Hoping for Clear...

This is kind of pretty with the clouds in the sky, but I was really hoping for severe clear.  I have a new computerized equatorial mount for one of my telescopes, and I am trying to learn how to use it.  If anyone asks me about what kind of telescope to buy, I always say "DO NOT BUY A COMPUTERIZED TELESCOPE!"  And then I did buy one.  What's wrong with me!  So I am learning how to align the computer with the sky, but I have more to learn, and I need a clear dark sky in order to do this.  So clouds are pretty, but not when I have new toy!

Busy as a Bee

When I was out photographing the tomatoes which are in the flower garden, I happened to notice some bees at work.  Out comes the close-up lens, and I spent time watching them move around the flower, gathering nectar.  Man there is a reason that there is an expression "Busy as a bee."  It is just amazing to watch them at work, and it is all for the good of the hive.