Six degrees on the thermometer this morning!

There’s what I call my Zen Waterfall in the unheated vestibule, and it was frozen with little icicles coming down it this morning when I went to get the paper. Had to get a picture of that.

If there is one question I get asked time and time again, it’s how do I get the colors I do in my photographs. Until now, I have kept that a closely guarded secret, but today I have decided to tell the world how I do it.

It’s a button.

It’s actually button #54 on my Xkeys, and I have named button #54 quite appropriately. So, whenever I see an image that has great potential, it might look pretty darned good right out of the camera, but when it gets button #54 the magic really happens.

So, that’s it….. button #54.

WOW.

This was my Christmas card design about five years ago and I ran across it while doing a little housekeeping on the ole ‘puter today. Still appropriate. So today, it is a New Years Card!

In 1986, Dan Harrison (see picture above) was on holiday in Kenya  after graduating from Northwestern University .  On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Dan approached it very carefully.  He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.   As carefully and as gently as he could, Dan worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.   The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.  Dan stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.   Dan never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Dan was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son.  As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Dan and his son Dan Jr. were standing.   The large bull elephant stared at Dan, lifted its front foot off the ground, and then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Dan couldn’t help wondering if this was the same elephant.   Dan summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Dan’s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn’t the same elephant.

:)

I just got back from a quick trip down to Florida this weekend and I tried out a new pocket camera while I was down there. I bought the Olympus Stylus 850SW to mostly take on paddling trips so I wouldn’t have to worry about a wet bag. The camera is supposedly waterproof to 10 feet, but I haven’t tested that yet. I was at a party Saturday night while there and someone there told me they had one and it took on water within three months.Maybe mine will last a little longer than that!

Aside from any water bonus, this is really the worst pocket camera I have ever had. I read a review AFTER I had bought it and I would have to agree with about everything they said. Throw in the fact that it requires a special memory card from Olympus and I wonder how they ever sell them. Must be the waterproof feature which is what attracted me. If you have just the right lighting conditions, the camera will produce an acceptable photo. Flash??? Forget it, the worst I’ve ever seen despite the review saying that indoor flash was its only strong point. I had to use exposure comensation on almost every lighting condition and focus is hit and miss for sure. Battery life? Pathetic.

Here were a few that I thought made the grade. Otherwise, Olympus Stylus 850 SW gets a BIG FAT “F”.

Incidentally, I can say that I give the Casio cameras a good grade. I’ve had two, both of which bit the dust by accident, and they had pretty stellar performance. The battery charge on one lasted  an entire three week trip to Asia and that was even after using it as a flashlight one night.  I also hear that the new little Nikons are pretty sweet.

I think Jack looks like a Whoville Pup here. Not the one that pulled the Grinch’s sleigh, but perhaps if Jack lived in Whoville, he would look like this.

I went home for Thanksgiving this weekend and Jack and I went up to my old elementary school so he could get in a run. I was amazed that they still had the same monkey bars I remembered way back. I particularly remembered this view from the top of the monkey bar ladder, just before I took that first leap of faith to cross them without a teacher below to catch me if I fell. Nothing but cold steel and sky. Whew….glad I made it!

What a beautiful weekend. I am amazed at how simply gorgeous it was, and to think it is not even peak yet! I passed by some Pumpkin Fest in Riner on my way to wedding #1 this weekend, and all I could think about was getting out of the car and running like mad through a corn maze, reveling in the feel and sound of corn stalk stubble crushing beneath my feet, the warm sun lighting up all of the colors just starting to peek out from summer greenery. Why can’t I be six again?

Another thought. Aren’t Pumpkin Fests and corn mazes kind of like a Charlie Brown Disney World? Doesn’t the Great Pumpkin live in one?

Wedding #2 was just as gorgeous a day. On the way, I passed by a horde of people crossing Rt 311 to start their hike up to McAfee Knob. I know that all of them were thinking how lucky they were to live in such a spectacular place. I can’t even imagine the views they were able to take in today.

I was lucky enough to have a few myself.

Here’s one of my many favorite images from this weekend.

Happy Fall everyone!

This was a different kind of year in the garden as we moved all kinds of stuff around. Crop rotation I guess you would call it. Interestingly, tomatoes flourished and corn did not, even though both did well where they were at last year. But maybe that had more to do with the sporadic rain we had here all summer. Whatever the case, tomatoes are coming out of our ears and corn looks like it belongs in a wok.

But the big project for me this year was the crop circle! Well, with time crunch as it was in May, it was more like crop semi-circle, but I do plan on finishing it this fall. I took a stake and drove it into the ground, tied a piece of string to it, then put a spray can of white paint on the end of the string and made a template for the circle about 15 ft in diameter. Then, of course, came the real work of getting the sod up and the earth turned for some planting.

So this year I planted it with sunflowers from the seeds I had harvested last year. The seeds were from a dwarf variety that only got about 2 feet tall, but as plants will do, they reverted from their hybrid traits and I got plants from 2-5 feet tall. That was kinda cool as I think it looked more natural than when they were all the same height. There were plenty to cut and give away to friends and neighbors, which everyone always appreciates. It’s nice to bring a little of the outside inside.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do next year. Maybe a whole circle of sunflowers. Or maybe plant some perennial grasses in it like pampas and other tall varieties. I like ornamental grass and it usually looks good year round.

The sunflowers have peaked and are now starting to wane. But I really like that time of the year, and I always like the look of sunflowers that are a little spent. The texture is awesome, the way they kind of wither gracefully. But, I really like to contrast of old flowers and new ones. In a couple of months, all of them will be dried up and I get to explore the seed pods, which really is one of my favorite things to photograph.

But for now, the bees are buzzing and things still look like summer. But in a few weeks, the leaves will start to turn and things will settle down, and we’ll all be ready for some football weekends and maybe a trip or two.

So here are a few shots from the crop circle this morning. It is hard to photograph bees with a macro and no tripod, but one or two turned out like I wanted. Boy, did I ever need a little personal shoot time. All work and no play was making Kemper a dull boy.

Energized….CHECK!!!

Just a few from the little car show they have at Festival in the Park. Love me some shiny old cars! The burnt organge paint job was the most beautiful I had ever seen. Flawless and delicious!