Evening Rose

Taken Saturday evening, before the sun completely sank in the horizon for the night.
There was a light breeze, but a fast shutter speed dealt with the gentle swaying, however didn't leave room for much light to enter the picture.
I was going to center the rose on the cropped photo, but I like it with some negative space on the left-hand side.

In the Corner

Taking my camera everywhere has become a habit for me...
Some find this annoying, others find it quirky and still some just don't get "it".

All I can say is, I like taking photographs...I want to capture something that others might have overlooked or seen as just an everyday object.

Visiting my Grandmother, I took some photos of her and her house while she was talking to me about the weather, the holidays and everything else in between.

Walking into her house is like strolling through an antique shop... There's an old Singer sewing machine (which she still uses!), old glassware, black and white photos (when that's all there was) and figurines of all kinds.

Glancing around the house one last time, I saw this basket and bucket in the corner and casually snapped a photo.

I didn't think much of it, until I cropped it and converted it to black and white in Picasa. I think it conveys the rest of the house...how easy going it is there, with the simple things in life like clothespins and rolled up newspapers.

Car Show, Part 3

One final look at last week's car show.

Car Show, Part 2

The vehicles are arranged on this collage as they appeared on the one from the previous post.
Before we proceed, I just want to clarify that I'm a little iffy on the year, but make/model should be correct, as I neglected to take a notepad to jot down details!!

Let's see how you did...

1. 2008 Ford GT
2. 1973 Dodge Charger
3. 1966 Chevy Bell Air
4. 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback
5. 1959 Chevy Corvette
6. 1954 Dodge Truck

Both the Charger and the Dodge Truck were difficult to guess, given only a small portion of the vehicle to view.

Hope you had fun! Can you guess which would be my favorite?

No?!

Well, here's a hint....

If you want to see what my favorite automobile is, then head on over to my other blog. I think you'll find the answer there.

Car Show

This past weekend, there was a local car show at Simpson Racing in New Braunfels, Texas.

Cars, trucks, dragsters and other four-wheeled beasts of all makes, models were on hand.

Limited on battery life, I snapped as many photos as possible, saving that precious battery power for photos at the racetrack later that evening.

Try your hand at guessing the make or model of these vehicles. One answer is already provided for you. I'll post the answers tomorrow.

Picasa Parade

A little boy stood out from the crowd, intently watching the marching band as they paraded down the street.

I tried to capture this moment, however, standing behind the crowd wasn't the best place to set up, but it was the only seat on the street, er sidewalk (but that doesn't rhyme!)

After cropping the photo and making some edits in Picasa, I couldn't choose just one version to post.

Plus, I thought this would be a good way to show off some effects that Picasa has to offer. There are so may different combinations to try!

I started off with just a cropped version of the original photo, then clicked over to the Effects tab. Once there, I could preview how each effect could customize and maybe even enhance (or not) the photos.

Be sure to use the 'Save A Copy' feature to save the edited photo and maintain the original photo. You'll have to 'undo' the effects on the original photo though, since the saved photo with all the effects is under a different file name, usually with the suffix of '-1', ie. PhotoName-1.jpg.

Which version strikes your fancy and why? Let me know in your comments!


1. Original Photo...Not Cropped.


2. Cropped Photo, with the Shadow factor increased ever so slightly.


3. Cropped Photo - Using the Focal Black & White effect.

4. Cropped Photo - Using a combination of Sepia and Film Grain.

5. Cropped Photo - Using a combination of Soft Focus and Focal Black & White.

6. Full Photo - Using the Soft Focus effect.

7. Full Photo - Using a combination of Soft Focus and the Focal Black & White effects.

Big Green Tractor

This photograph makes me think of a song by Jason Aldean... Big Green Tractor,

"....And I can take you for a ride on my big green tractor.We can go slow or make it go faster -Down through the woods and out to the pasture - 'Long as I'm with you it really don't matter - Climb up in my lap and drive if you want to - Girl, you know you got me to hold on to - We can go to town, but baby if you'd rather I'll take you for a ride on my big green tractor..."

Each year there's a parade through downtown New Braunfels, TX to celebrate the Comal County fair. People line the streets, vying for the best spot to see the parade participants. Police cars block the roads so that the parade can proceed, with marching bands, football teams, decorated floats, fair Princesses and of course...tractors.

Most of these tractors then participate in a good ol' Tractor pull at the fairgrounds.

Now, not all parades can boast of having tractors cruise through the streets...at least, I've never seen any of these at a Macy's parade.

After the Rain

These photos are also from Sunday morning's thunderstorms. We had driven to another area of the creek to see how high the water had risen. This area was extremely muddy and slippery, so we didn't tempt fate and kept our distance.
The cows didn't seem to mind the rain waters at all. As I started walking toward them, they got camera shy and kept their distance from me!

Road Closed

After a severe thunderstorm early Sunday morning, we drove around so that I could take some photographs. We drove to the creek and found that it had flooded the road. We had to stop the truck about 30 feet from where the water met the road, due to the silt and mud that had been left behind from where the water had risen.

As we walked to the edge of the water to get a closer look, the mud clung to our boots, making nearly impossible to walk in the slippery stuff. On the exposed road, there were muddy lines showing where the water had been and the grass that got caught in the torrent was now laying down instead of standing up. It was amazing to see just how high the water had been just a few hours earlier.