Story Inn

For years I have heard people talk about the Story Inn ("One inconvenient location since 1851"), so I finally took my wife and found it.  It certainly is inconvenient but the drive was well worth it.  My guess is that you don't want to compete with the fall tourist crowds, but I highly recommend it for a tasty lunch.

There is a garden and other outbuildings adjacent to the inn, and while eating you can enjoy the interior decor.

Stonehead

I visited this place years ago and decided that I really should go back and take a picture.  It wasn't really exciting, but what did you expect!  If you want to know more simply Google "stonehead" + "Indiana".

Abstract Stereo Art

Now this is getting to be fun!  The top image started as a shot taken last winter in Providence combined with a photo of a butterfly taken in my garden last week.   By using various warp edits in Photo Shop it is possible to create a rather interesting 3D composite.

The side-by-side stereo is better resolution,

but the anaglyph is pretty good also!

West Baden Dome Panorama 2

I will leave West Baden after this one (I promise!).  I spent way too much time stitching this one in Hugin.  It consists of 52 photographs, all hand-held (no tripods allowed).  All together it took about 5 hours to find enough control points to create the nearly seamless panorama of 14000 x 3000 pixels.  Since it wouldn't fit on the blog, I converted it to a spherical panorama using the filter/distort/polar commands in Photo Shop.  This image has been reduced to 1500 pixels square from the original 4100.

West Baden Dome Panorama 1

This is a six shot stitched panorama inside the West Baden Hotel. I "squished" it a bit, so it doesn't look nearly as tall as it really is. 

Patterns in tiles

I liked the floor tiles in the West Baden Hotel, but the photos I took were all rather drab (bad lighting, bad photography).  I picked one and bounced it around in Photo Shop for a while and came up with this.

French Lick Bloomington Express

I am still in the process of working on the photos I took last weekend during our photo club outing.  I liked the old trains in French Lick so I decided to fire one up and have it go by in our back yard.

Williams Indiana Covered Bridge

West of Bedford, near the Williams Dam on White River is the longest covered bridge in Indiana that is still active.  It is one lane and unfortunately needs (IMHO) a lot of work.  They are building a new bridge across the White River just downstream from the covered bridge, so my guess is that you won't be able to drive over this one much longer.

French Lick West Baden Railroad

If you visit French Lick, be sure and check out the railroad museum and the train ride through scenic Southern Indiana.  Here is a view of some of the old passenger cars that are on the museum grounds.

West Baden

After the horse races we spent a day running around various places in Southern Indiana.  One stop was West Baden where we took a tour of the dome and looked at all the neat architecture.

I will have to show some more of the images from French Lick/West Baden (stay tuned!).

More from the races

Naturally I had to take a panorama while at the horse races.  This one consists of about 40 individual photos (two rows of 20 each).  I am surprised at how well it turned out.

And they are out of the gates!

Spent a wonderful (but hot) day watching the horses race at Ellis Park.  I actually ended up winning this year (a total of $2.40).  Of course you have to ignore the hamburger, beer, two lemonades, etc.

Mint blossoms

I think this is the Kentucky Colonel Mint that I have in the garden--whatever it is, I like it (not the photos, the taste in my iced tea).

Here is the side-by-side stereo.

And, for those who can't uncross their eyes, the anaglyph.

Nature is weird

I just had to get this photographed.  While the lighting is not terribly good, it adequately shows what I observed. Any guesses?

Do I have to show you everything!

I realize that catching a bug for breakfast might involve some training, but you would think that junior would be able to pick up and eat a seed from the bird feeder without detailed instructions from mom.

Coming out party

This is actually from the spring.  I took a series of photos hoping to make a time lapse, but the lighting changed too much.

A memory from long ago

My favorite State Cop (photographer unknown).  At least once a month all the troopers had to report to the State Police Post for inspection.  I still remember my father polishing his boots and holster.  I am fairly certain this was taken at the Pendelton Post, probably late 1940's.

Main Street

This is what the main street of Huffman Indiana looked like in the 1950's.  You could buy bread and candy bars in the general store on the left (complete with worms), and the blacksmith was still around (red building on the right) when he felt like working.  The grainery is at the end of the street where the road T's with the county road. When I was young it used a large belt-drive powered by a tractor parked on the left side.  It generated enough dust to cover just about everything.

Rescuing photos

I have found that it is possible to take old images (mostly slides) that appear to be completely worthless (scratches, fading, etc.) and do a remarkable job of bringing them back to life.  Here is a photo I took about 45 years ago, resurected after running it through all kinds of filters in Photoshop.

It certainly doesn't meet the standards we expect today, but is what I consider a "keeper".

Early microscope toys

I found this while going through my old pictures.  This was one of my earliest "high-tech" toys--a Bausch and Lomb metallograph.  I really don't remember how I got it (probably in the late 1950's), but it had all kinds of mechanical and optical parts including a large bellows.  It mainly looked cool and took up too much room so it finally got torn apart for scrap parts.

Gooseberry Island Spherial

I have been regenerating some of my panoramas (and in some cases doing them for the first time).  This was from a trip to Gooseberry Island and was generated from 23 hand-held photos.  It took quite a bit of work to get all the seams (and a few people) to dissappear.

The itsy-bitsy little thing pointing to the right is the observation tower with all the graffiti I posted earlier.

Trail of garbage

Every Tuesday evening I have to drag the recycle material and rubbish container down to the curb for the Wednesday morning pickup.  I noticed as I made my trips that there was not even a slight breeze this evening (still 86F outside) so  I  took a series of shots (1/2 sec to 110 sec) just to see how photoshop HDR mode would do.  Not terribly artistic but it is interesting that I can see the stars (I certainly can see one airplane trail)!

Plan ahead

I thought you had the wire snips.....

Soon they will be gone (sob).

In spite of the heat and nearly a week without rain the butterflies and birds are prolific.  I am going to hate it when they leave!

LST 325-2

I took this one near Evansville Indiana.  This is a WWII Landing Ship For Tanks that was obtained by a local veterans group and is (was?) open for tours during the summer.  After taking our money they insisted that we get the "full tour"--whether we wanted to see everything or not. (Actually it was a good tour!)

Nectar of the Hummingbirds

This is actually from two year ago.

Look what happens when you fill the bird feeder

You get birds of course!  Actually, I was surprised that the starlings didn't immediately show up, so I will keep the feeder filled.

Patterns in wings

It has been too hot to even think of going outside and take new photos (It was 98 F this afternoon with a heat index of over 115!).  It is supposed to be just as bad tomorrow, so I have been playing around learning some more Photoshop tricks.  This is actually the moth I did early this year with a bit of rotational symmetry added.

Mr. Rabbit

I decided one more county fair pic was in order.  There is something about this fine chap that I like--even if he is not cooked (actually I don't remember the last time I ate rabbit, so he is probably safe).

Garden 2010--Potatoes!

Well, it was an experiment this year, but next year I plan on being a bit more serious!  I planted a few "sprouters" in my garden annex (the back area conveniently cleared by the RR and power companies).  I actually did little else all spring and summer.  The plants died back last week (heat wave time!) so I did an exploratory dig this morning.  Not bad!

I have two other "patches" that I need to examine.  I could have Irish blood.

Ugly little guys

I had a jar in the back yard that I was letting "age" for a few weeks.  I took a peek last night and discovered all kinds of microscopic life and some creatures that were visible to the naked eye.  I fished this one out and came up with the following image.  This is a composite of 48 individual images taken with my Nikon Alphaphot2.  The "worm" was about 4 mm long and I slowed him down by transferring him to ice water on the slide.  The total length of this image is probably 0.25 mm. and (I think) is his head.

Obviously this is another reason why you should never drink water that has not been tested......