sky scraper

There is a timed floodlight on a building near my home.  It lights up the tree at eleven PM like daylight.  I have often thought about taking night pics here, and I finally brought the tripod and took this picture.  And do you know what I noticed?  Do you see the star near the top of the tree?  Well, I had never realized that this tree... is almost as tall as the stars.  Any taller, and it might poke, scrape or tear the night's velvety shroud.  ;-)

For the next thee weeks, I plan to cooperate with a few blogging friends in a header competition.  While this is technically called a competition, for me, it is more like a community event.  We five will submit a post and header around the same subject.  I was afraid I might not have time, so I have only said yes to doing this for three weeks.  I do not know if I will be able to continue after that.  If you have not visited their blogs before, would you please consider viewing their posts and leaving a comment?  More information will be posted a couple of days from now.

super moon

I tried to get ready for Saturday's super moon pictures by taking photos on Friday night, but I like what I got at 10PM Friday night much better than the yellower, but less detailed Saturday morning shot. (Ugh, I got up at 5:30 on a sleep-in Saturday, and the pics were not worth it.) Then, I looked for the moon on Saturday evening, but our skies were mostly cloudy. (sigh) Oh well, c'est la vie!

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I tried to layer the pic by making copies and stacking them in a collage. It seemed to bring out some detail in the mid-tones.

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If you know of anyone who got good moon pics this weekend, please leave a comment so the rest of us can see them. I'll start us off... I found really sharp detail on Friday's moon at Imac's blog. If you click on his pic, you can see pristine details on the bottom an left of the moon.

night lights

Good news - I've begun carrying my camera bag again!

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Daylight lingers until after I start heading home these days. Sunset's spectacle changes so very rapidly, that I hurried into a lot at the local park to set up a tripod and snap off a few pics.

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Besides the amazing colors in the sky, the ground was an interesting blue-gray hue. It was important to me that I capture the snowbank in the foreground, so I used a flash. The white snow in the foreground makes the blue behind it look like it's painted on, but that's what I found so fascinating here. I did not add the blue in the back... I removed it from the front (by using a flash). That blue compliments the orange sunset rather nicely, don't you think?

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It is 56 degrees (f) as I write this. (That converts to 13 c.) It is so warm, that I walked out front during a break, and filled my lungs, but could barely reconcile what I felt on my skin with the piles of snow that still cover the ground. I reached down to touch it and make sure the snow was still cold.

it'll be dark soon

After we change the clocks each fall, it gets so dark! There are a lot of windows at work, and it starts to feel like I’m working night shift. That brings new challenges for taking pictures. There will likely be a change of emphasis toward indoor opportunities, but I don’t want to miss out on night photography.

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I hope I didn't obfuscate the post with a misleading title, but this is going to be more about the sun in general than sunsets in particular. Right now, I'm thinking about the setting sun. You know, in the summer, it goes down ever so slowly, and sunsets are stretched out over a longer period of time. But as the seasons change, and the sun sets quicker, I am concerned that it might descend too rapidly and break something. Easy does it, Sunny boy!

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Another random thought: if the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, why is the longitudinal reference point in England? Shouldn't it be somewhere in the Pacific? One more blurb, then I'll stop. John Denver's song "Sunshine." I've been listening to (and singing along with) that song in my car. Play song from iLike.com... wow, that guy was brilliant!

send more snow

People around here are generally less enthusiastic about the snow now, than say, at Christmas time. Either way, I tried a few weeks ago to get a nice pic while it was snowing, but it was light outside, and the snow did not turn out well in those pics. Since then, I have been waiting for the night time, to use the flash, and make it really stand out.

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(Click any pic to enlarge. This first shot is straight out of the camera (sooc), completely unedited.)

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The first photo looks like more snow than we were really having, because when I got ready to snap the picture, a gust of wind filled the air with lots more snow from my rooftop.

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If you saw the photo of the icy eclipse from last week, the second photo here is the same tree and streetlight. I tried a night setting from the camera's program (twilight plus), and it produced a very reddish hue, so I took a little bit of that color out in post editing. Now, this looks more like what I actually saw that night.

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Have you ever taken pictures of a snow flake? I didn't think of it that night, but right now, that's what I hope to get... a macro shot of a single snowflake.

moonscape

The camera provides more fun than any other toy I've ever had! Sometimes I try to take pictures as a purist, for realism, and sometimes I look for a way to be creative. Despite the unusual hues, this shot is SOOC (Straight Out Of the Camera). It is absolutely untouched by post-editing.

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The big, outside property lights at church were close enough to this tree to give strong light, and they give off an interesting color. I took the pic at 9PM. If I remember correctly, the sun had just gone down. That is taking place faster and faster these days, eh?

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The pic was taken, using the camera's twilight setting and a tripod. It was only a little cool but very breezy. Soon, the days (and nights) will be most ideal for casual strolls, taking the scenic route, and then coming home to something warm to drink. When I take those walks, you can be sure I'll have the camera slung over my shoulder!!

bug from mars

Nine PM, Saturday night. We backed into my spot on the driveway. As I was still gathering my things, S2 called out, "Dad, you better get your camera and take a picture of this already... then kill it so I can go inside." Why do these kids think I have to kill any bug they don't like?

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"Whoa! What on earth is that?!! I've never seen anything like it! It's too dark. Hang on, Son. Lemme get that second flash out of the trunk."

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This thing was about two inches long, not counting the legs. I haven't figured out what it is, but are those cornicles sticking out of the thorax?!

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I took a few pics, but didn't see it bothering anybody, so I left it right there, unharmed.

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Thanks to Fishing Guy we have an update: The Crane Fly (also called Mosquito Hawk) is harmless. The pointy tip at the end of the abdomen indicates that this one is female. The knobby protrusions are not cornicles as I had guessed, but halteres. They supposedly act like stabilizers, which is funny, because these things look clumsy when they fly.

nightlife

Momma doesn't like me hanging around with the riff raff who roam the streets at night. But I like these guys. The skunks are nice animals. They don't go 'round stinking on people unless they're provoked. And the bats have been eating the mosquitoes. The only thing on God's green earth that I hate more than mosquitoes is dandelions, so the enemy of my enemy has become my friend.

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As you may have surmised, these were taken with something more than just the pop-up flash on my point & shoot. I used an infrared slave device to trigger a stronger flash. The bats were really hard to catch, since their flight patters are so quick and irregular.

night driving

Did I hear one of my passengers complain about how long the drive to Florida was? That's okay...

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Here is a fun game to play at night with your kids. You have a volunteer sit in a driver's position, facing this image on the computer screen. All the other players in the game go to sleep for eight hours, but this volunteer must stay awake the whole time, cannot take his eyes off the screen except for a moment, or get out of the driver's position... or they all die.

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Truth be told, there were parts of the drive that it didn't seem quite so agonizing. I liked the stillness of all God's creatures and the opaque shroud of tranquility that tucked us in from horizon to horizon. I liked the space to drive, and the absence of commercials. There was no urban competition for that piece of asphalt right in front of your car. Except for the occasional remnants of highway Kamikaze, the animals were all out of sight. I delighted in the unique sound that a bug makes when the windshield pushes its face through to the opposite side. (Just checking to see if you're still with me.)

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The kids behaved so well for having to sit through a 22-hour drive. I am quite pleased with how they got along. To harass me for all the psychological prepping and behavior coaching, one of these monkeys asked me if we were "almost there," while we were still in the first hour of the drive. (sigh) Everybody wants to be a comedian!

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Oh, before anyone says anything... I DIDN'T take that photo while driving. I talked my wife through it. She doesn't usually use my camera, but did a nice job, eh?

night traffic

There is nothing of consequence to say at the moment. Things are very busy at work, home and church. But last night, I was fiddling around with my pictures on the computer and for no reason at all, I superimposed the moon and a splash of purple on this otherwise plain photograph.

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Shallow? Maybe, but I kinda like it.