After The Rain

  We had a neat rain and a weird light tonight so I shot some pictures.  Some looked pretty nice.

Check out Gina's pics

   I just got back from Gina's space and look at the wonderful pictures she has taken.  Simply beautiful.

http://journals.aol.com/rbrown6172/Ginasspace/entries/2006/08/18/some-of-my-pics.../567

Random shots

    I saw this train and wanted a picture because I like the way it is decorated.

                        Isn't this a cool old building!

                                                   Iowa Farmland

     Neat trail at Hitchcock Nature Center.

                                              Rural Road

                                   The Old Barn

                            Neat hill in the Loess Hills

                         Birdhouse, obviously

    I think the tires were to keep the roof from blowing away, didn't work very well did it?

                                  New growth after the fire

                                  Weeds, grasses, whatever

   Omaha, Nebraska in the distance at Hitchcock Nature Center lookout.

                At Con Ag, the watchtower

                   And their water fountains

                     Neat glass building in Omaha

Monday Morning Photo shoot.

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take a photo that shows you with your camera. A mirror or other reflective surface would probably help here.

Also, tell us a little about your camera, and how you use it. (This isn't a sneaky marketing survey, incidentally.)

   Joe is doing the photo shoot since John is on vacation.

http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2006/08/21/your-monday-photo-shoot-my-camera-and-me/1602

   Here is my picture.  I was taking a picture of a underground room at Con Ag in Omaha.  It didn't turn out like I expected.  This is at their world headquarters.  Very fancy and lots of money spent on the grounds.  I use a Soni Cyper shot DSC-H1.  12 times zoom, nice macro features and in my budget.  I am still learning how to get the most out of the camera.

Pictures from Loess Hills

  I love these hills, the only other place in the world they have hills like these are in China.  The hills are not suppose to be covered in trees and in places like the Hickcock Nature Center they are reverting the hills back to the way they used to be.  Large twisted Oaks and prairie grasses.  They call it the 50 year plan.  Sure would be nice to see the finished product.

 

  Below if one of our favorite hiking path.  There are many.

 

                      Even the birds enjoy the view from the hills.

 I have been trying to do more and more pictures manually.  Trying to control shutter speed, white light etc....  Not having a lot of luck yet and getting some pretty weird color variations. And whats up with that focus!  Practice practice.  I like putting my really bad pictures on so Greg will let me know what I have done wrong and how to fix it.  I save all his tips in a file.  Someday I may get a picture as nice as his.

 

                 

              Little whispers in the wind

                   of tall grasses

            gently brushing the blue skies.

  

               Under the boardwalk.

   Now when women go hiking they sometimes get to see things that men don't in the search for a little, ahem, privacy.  When nature calls you see nature in a different off the beaten path way!

  The last picture for now because I have to go to work soon.  I call it Shadow Lands.

 

 

 

Neat cabin

This cabin is near Preparation Canyon in the Loess Hills.  I always loved it.  They alway plant their crop with lighter green edge.

      

My flower Garden

You are invited to my flower garden to check out some pictures I listed there.  Hope you enjoy.

My Flower Garden

Loess Hills Bug Files, Be Warned

  I love taking pictures of bugs.  They sit still, they are so interesting and my camera is really good at getting good shots.  Love the macro lense.

  This interesting bug was all over the scenic lookout.  The color blended in good with the wood. Isn't this a neat bug!

                  

                

                       

   Next is a really pretty beetle of some sort.  It landed on the very good looking fit young ranger who graciously let it sit there while I got a picture.  I asked him what type of bug it was and he said, "I don't know, I hope not the dreaded really pretty bug with the nasty painful bite bug."

        

Even flys are not immune to my camera's eye.

        

    The next pictures are graphic!  Now I am not fond of spiders, not fond at all.  Even I however feels sort of sorry for the fate of this spider.  It is not dead.  It has been stalked and captured by a spider wasp.  The wasp paralysed the spider and then drags it back to its nest.  There it lies a single egg on the spider.  When the larvae hatch it eats the spider alive.  Yikes I am glad I wasn't born a spider.Spider Wasp: pictures, information, classification and more

 

                         

               

  Now the wasp didn't sit still like the other bugs,  it was busy dragging that large spider all over the shelter.  The spider was bigger then my thumb, big hairy spider and little wasp was hauling it all over.  Neat in a morbidly facinating way.

  I am working on getting my scenary pictures up soon.  There are so many I am having trouble deciding which to put on.   I will probably put the flowers in my other journal, My Flower Garden

   So what do you think?  Like the bugs?

Butterfly files from Loess Hills

  I decided to do this in stages since I took so many pictures yesterday.  We had a blast and did a lot of hiking.  Hiking and the Loess hills go together as to really see you have to walk, and climb and walk some more.  It is worth it.  In the fall the colors are spectacular. 

  Anyway so far I am just going to show some butterfly pictures.  I love taking pictures of bugs as you know Greg.  These didn't sit as still as my dragonfly but I got some really neat shots.

  Now this picture has some flaws I realize but  I still like it.  I love the way the smaller bug is captures also.  I think it is a bee.

 

   I like the colors of this picture from the flower, the butterfly, to the background.

   I always really loved flower pictures also and started my first journal just doing the flowers I grow.My Flower Garden

  I thought about cropping the next picture but decided I liked the contrasting tree behind it so left it as it was.

 

  The bee was unknown to me until I downloaded the pictures.  Nice addition though.

   I decided to add the pictures in the album format also because they can be viewed full size.  I think the ones I will be showing of the views from the hills would look best viewed that way.

Practicing

   I am just having a terrible time with my microsoft Picture it.  I get soft edges on my pictures and frames etc... then I can't get most of them to download to my picture site so I can put them in the storage place I use.  I also decided to make them smaller, I have larger copies to see if they download faster but still have a nice quality.   Also my husband got my tripod fixed so it works with this camera.  It is light enough I can carry it on my bike without adding much weight.   Hopefully I can get some good pictures tomorrow.  Wish I had my filter already but will have to wait.

  

  The squirrel below was the object of my shot but the leaves took the focus.  I decided I liked it anyway.

I love black and white.  Even the most mundane things take on new look.

   Out of the 18 pictures I softened up the edges on and signed only 7 would transfer.  What a bummer.