Skywatch

We had unusually scenic skies one day this week...

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Moon Shot

     A few days ago I mentioned not being much of bird photographer and I'm not much of a moon photographer either.  Sometimes I try, though.  This shot was taken recently and just now I worked on it in BeFunky, adding a border and a vintage color effect.

Yesterday's Sky

Look at the great sky we had yesterday morning...

Posting this photo is a gamble.  I'm trusting there will be another photoworthy sky today or tomorrow to use for this week's Skywatch Friday.

Barn Charm

Here's a photo taken last April.  What in the world is that green stuff?

  

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week's Barn Charm.

Antique Show

     Yesterday my husband, his brother and sister-in-law, and I spent several hours browsing at the annual antique show at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.  I snapped this quick shot on our way in right after the doors opened for the day.

I had a great time looking around and spent only $5.

Horned Lark

     I'm not much of a bird photographer, but did happen to get a zoomed shot of this one in the drive-way yesterday.

  

     It was unfamiliar to me, so I attempted some detective work with the bird book.  My conclusion is that it might be an immature horned lark.

Honk if You Want Spring

     Last evening while walking to the mailbox I heard the honking of Canada geese. Hastily aiming the camera, I took a shot but unfortunately the setting was wrong and the geese ended up blurry.  I cropped them out of this first photo:

     I quickly changed the setting and tried again, zooming to get this view of the geese who were further away by then:

     Hopefully, they are a sign that spring weather will soon be here.  The lengthening days just don't fit with the cold temperatures we've been having.

Skywatch

Here's a shot from a couple days ago.  Thanks to Daylight Savings Time I can say it was taken in early evening instead of late afternoon.

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Cloud Shots

Here's a couple of cloud shots.  This first one is from yesterday afternoon...  

And, this next one was taken the day before...

Live Settings

     Yesterday we had snowfall early and then strong winds to blow it around all afternoon and evening.  In the morning, I went outdoors to take some quick shots. My freezing fingers happened to find another feature on my new camera, a Live setting where you can adjust the dark/light, neutral/vivid, and cool/warm before you take the picture---an app which will be much more fun to use when the weather warms up.  I think I increased the vividness and darkness on this first shot.    

     Later, through a window in the house, I took this next photo with the vividness turned way up.  It would have been a good one for St. Patrick's Day.

If you adjust all the way to neutral, the photo turns out black and white.

Barn Charm

Here's a drive-by photo from a couple months ago.  I almost deleted it because of the clothesline in the way but then decided not to.

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week's Barn Charm.

Cats on a Bale

     Late yesterday afternoon while pulling into the farmyard after a grocery-shopping trip, I spied these two cats perched on a cornstalk bale.  I'd been looking for a photo opportunity all day long and there it finally was.

Skywatch

A sunset sky from last week...

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Winteritis

I just gave this photo from last week several editing effects...  

     I'm a bored blogger right now.  There's nothing good to take photos of.  We had a thaw a few days back which was nice for the warmer temperatures, but then it turned cold again and the melted snow became ice which makes walking treacherous. I don't feel good if I can't take walks and this morning I tried to remedy that and ended up falling down.  No serious injuries, but looking back over the years, I realize that this is a really bad time of year for me and it probably is for other people, too. I've had two mental breakdowns and I think they both got started about this time in the year.  Don't worry, it ain't gonna happen again!  Winteritis, cabin fever, or whatever you want to call it, I wish you well in dealing with it.  

     Maybe I will work on changing the color of my blog's background.  That's kind of fun but at the same time I have trouble deciding which color to choose.  I probably should update to one of the newer blog templates, too.

Barn Charm

A drive-by photo from several weeks ago...

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week's Barn Charm.

Tree Branches

A couple more shots from a few days ago...

 There were great photo opportunities that morning, but they didn't last long.  

Frost Macros

Photos taken in the morning, the day before yesterday...

Photo Proportions

     I've discovered that my new camera can easily be set to four different proportions for photos.  (Maybe my old one could do that, too, and I just never figured it out.)  

3:2

4:3

16:9 

1:1

The first three photos were taken yesterday morning.  By afternoon, as I was planning this blogpost, I realized I hadn't taken a 1:1, so that's why it doesn't have frost-covered branches.

Skywatch

Photo taken a few days ago...

Visit Skywatch Friday to see photos from around the world..

Photo Sizes

     Here's a photo I took the day before yesterday after our most recent snowfall.  I'll use it to show you the photo sizes that are available when creating a blogpost in Blogger.  I wish the Large was bigger and doesn't it look like it should be. 

X-Large

Large 

Medium

Small

Squirrel

Yesterday morning I glanced out the window in time to see this squirrel contemplating his next move.  Can you guess what is was?

Appropriating the bird feeder for his own use!

Zooming

     Here's a couple more zoomed shots taken with my new camera.  This first one is SOOC from frosty morning a couple days ago.  I liked how the sky color turned out.

     This next one I took yesterday after our neighbor phoned to tell me there were geese in our field across from his place.  He knows I like to take pictures.  The photo was kind of blurry due to being zoomed so far, so I used some effects from PicMonkey (a free website where you can edit photos) on it.   

Barn Charm

Here's a drive-by shot from a few weeks ago:

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week's Barn Charm.

Find the Sparrow

Here's another shot taken yesterday morning when everything was covered in frost.  I didn't even realize there was a sparrow sitting on the shed roof when I took the picture.

New Camera

  
     The other day I took the plunge and bought a new point-and-shoot camera to replace my old one which had given up the ghost a few weeks ago.  I missed having a handy, pocket-sized camera to have along when I'm outdoors doing chores.  Here's a shot taken this morning:

     The new camera has 16X zoom.  The old one had 10X.  You can see how I zoomed in on part of the scene above in this next shot.  Fun!

     I almost bought a camera that had 32X zoom and was priced lower than the 16X, but it wasn't sized to fit easily in a pocket.  I stood there in the store, mulling and pondering and weighing the advantages of each camera.  The sales clerk tried to be helpful, but I kept wishing he would just go away.  I like to be left alone to think things through, though that doesn't mean I always make the right decision.

State Tournament

Yesterday I went to Des Moines to watch a state tournament girls' basketball game in the Wells Fargo Arena at the Iowa Events Center.  It was snowing when we got there.

The team I was cheering for won!

By the time we left the arena, the snow had stopped.  I took a shot of the State Capitol on our way out.  From where we were, it was impossible to get a view free of wires and other buildings.  

Here's one last shot.  It was taken on our way in.  The spots in the sky are snowflakes.  Wish I could go to that Bon Jovi concert!