Bok Tower Gardens

Bok Tower is one of those place where you go just because you have been there and think that you really liked it.  This was my third trip, and yes, I do like it!  Besides that it gives you an excuse to visit "the mountain" in Florida.

Plasma Globe

I have this wonderful plasma globe that is good for absolutely nothing except staring at, so I decided to take a photo so others can stare at it.

Air Plant

This cute little guy is (I think) a Bromeliad, or "air plant" that grows in Florida (at least it was sold in Florida!).  I find the ones for sale to be quite colorful, but the ones I saw "in the wild" were pretty blah.

Florida isn't the only place for birds!

Visited Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area (GPFWA) and spent several hours watching the birds and attempting to get some good pictures.  This one is not bad.

In addition to lots of ducks various waders, we saw two bald eagles nesting--really neat!

Yet another shore bird

These guys are thick in the Canaveral National Seashore. One wonders what it is that they are eating--they spend an awful lot of their time sticking their bills in the water. I wonder if they actually see something yummy or just stab and hope?

Since there are some fifty species of shore birds, I won't even try to guess which one this one is.

Anhinga

These guys are a bit strange.  The first time I saw one I assumed it was getting ready to take off, but what they do is wave their wings in the air to dry them.  Called "water turkeys" they do not have as much oil as most water foul, so they have to periodically dry off.

Bring on Spring!

Not bad for March 24!   I declare winter to officially be over!  I went out to the garden this morning and pulled to covers off the cold frames where we planted the arugula, kale, and spinach in last fall.  Needless to say we had fresh veggies for supper, and it is only a matter of days before we have asparagus.  I highly recommend Olympia Spinach (the row to the left).

Motor on dude!

OK, so your engine may be more powerful than mine, but I'll bet the gas mileage sucks....

I highly recommend the Kennedy Space Center if you are in the area.  It is exhilarating to see what we have done and discouraging to see how much of our history is rusting away! 

Slow water...

There is something "dreamy" about taking pictures of moving water with long time exposures.  I shot this fountain at sundown.

Swan song...

Ahhh! So that's where the swans go at night. They hang out with the canoes at the end of the dock.

Things you can't do in Indiana

I've never seen a swan flash another swan before.....

Where am I?

Do you like to play games?  This is a really neat vertical sundial.  President Calvin Coolidge was even present at its dedication.  Where is it?

Roseate Spoonbill

This is a fairly good shot of a Roseate Spoonbill that I caught flying overhead in the Canaveral National Seashore.  They are indeed weird looking birds with their spoon bill.  The last time we were in Florida we found them mainly feeding.

If spring won't come to me, I'll come to it.

I took this three-layer 45 shot panorama using a really simple panorama head I put together with a few pieces out of my junk box.  Not bad considering it was really windy when I took it (click on the image to enlarge).

You can see some artifacts in the palm tree in the upper left, but otherwise it is quite good. The unreduced image is 13,000 x 5,200 pixels. And yes, I did make a "small world" with it.

Across the lake in Orlando

On vacation in Florida--we were waiting for fireworks that  never happened, but I thought the following time exposure was rather nice. 

I am not sure if that is Jupiter or an airplane in the upper right--it didn't move very fast.  I will say that there are an amazing number of airplanes in the sky at night.

Sunbathing

Seeing this guy makes me want to go back to the Canaveral National Seashore.  There is something majestic about them that our birds simply don't have in Bloomington.

Have you ever?

Have you ever taken a picture at night and simply opened the shutter and rotated your camera?  You can come up with some really interesting effects.

I didn't say they were necessarily pretty, just interesting.

Rainbows over Atlanta

We had just gone through a short down-burst when a magnificent rainbow appeared to the east.  It was well-defined and usually double, and I swear I saw a triple rainbow faintly.

This is not a bad picture for a "drive by" photo with a point and shoot shot at 60mph! I certainly thought it was a good start to a vacation!

Fall Moon

The sun was setting and everything was turning that "sunset orange" color.  I thought the white moon looked really neat through the sycamore tree.

Footprints in the snow

You sometimes wonder what kinds of creatures wander around in the snow at night...  Snow lizards perhaps?

Yet another bird...

This is another bird from my last trip to Florida. I love these guys!

Whoa!

This is what happens when you try to land on a wet slushy frozen lake.  I didn't have time to set my camera properly but managed to get three shots before he came to a stop.  I Photo shopped the images to make it look like an action scene.  The poor thing actually broke through the ice after landing and spent the next five minutes playing icebreaker before getting to open water.

Even weeds are pretty

This is a photo I took last year just playing around.  I was at a photo shoot for macro-photography and I was having trouble finding things worth taking a picture of. This is the seed stem of Plantain, a common weed that grows everywhere (at least in my yard it is everywhere).  After "adjusting" the image with PhotoShop I decided that I like this version--it reminds me of a watercolor.

Happy Orchids

Orchids always look happier when they are singing.

I asked them to close their eyes so I could take the following 3D photo. I like the depth in it.



These photos are from last year when the Bloomington Photography Club had a field trip to Hilltop Orchids near Cloverdale Indiana.

Dew spheres look pretty?

I don't know, dew they?

I like the reflections in the droplets as they act as lenses.

I'm rich!

This is a photograph of a very small percentage of my diamond collection.  I would conservatively estimate that this constitutes less than 0.1% of my collection. 

Look at the following two diamonds to see the cubic symmetry (they are well-formed octahedrons!)

Before you decide to burglarize my house, note that these guys are not very large--they are the abrasive on a diamond whetstone, and each of the diamonds is probably about 20 microns.  It is interesting that even industrial diamonds look (somewhat) pretty.

I wish I were in ......

Looking through photos reminds you of all the places you would rather be than in Indiana in the winter.  This guy was in the Canaveral Wildlife Refuge--a really neat place to visit if you like birds.

Small World Chicago

This is just to show that you don't need a 360 panorama to make your own "small world".  This was a picture of the Chicago skyline I took about five years ago.  I "mirrored" it horizontally and then applied the polar coordinate distort filter in Photoshop.

The only reason for doing the mirror flip is to eliminate the seam.  I kind of like the symmetry(!).  By the way, I found out that there are jillions of these spherical panoramas on Flickr, many of them outstanding.

Standing Tall

This is another "favorite photo".  This was actually taken on Thanksgiving day several years back.  We were walking across a field as sunset was approaching and whenI snapped this.

Mystic River

You never know what strange things you will see on the Mystic River.

February is gone!

It's March 1st and I could hear the birds when I went out to get the paper this morning. Spring must surely come soon, so I had best get the back yard rental units ready.

To quote junior: "I'm hungry too!"