It is a colorful season at my bird feeders this time of year! Have a look!

The Painted Bunting

paintface

paint

Eating with the cardinals

paintcard

Rear view

paintsize

Orioles stay for just a while...

oriole2

Blue Bunting for the challenge....

indigo

For Penny..... a "hurty" bird... the Rose Breasted Grosbeak.... 

grosbeak1

The butterflies have really loved my lilac bush!

lilacbutterfly

Thanks Cory for working on the site..... the changes look good...now let me figure out what to do with this post? I don't see any way to preview it, so will just publish and hope for the best!

God's Window

Thanks for lookin!

Sometimes sunset can be like music...

The Prelude

The Overture

The Finale

Thanks for lookin!  Enjoy!

Just the Sun's Sweet Song

Thanks for loookin!

Took some shots of an odd sunset last night.  When I saw the challenge.... I knew what to post....

Does the Sky
Have Eyes?

You tell me......

So I give you....

Seven Sepia Trees on a Hill

Thanks for all your hard work Cory!!!

They say if you don't like the weather in the Ozarks, just wait an hour... and it will change!  Never more true than here lately.  A few days ago we had a foot of snow.... today it was 75 degrees... expecting severe thunderstorms tonight, possibly tornados... then another snow tomorrow night.

Seems like the sky even changes rapidly during sunset... so tonight I give you

23 minutes of Sunset...

6:16

6:20

6:21

6:27

6:33

6:39

All shots of 3x HDR composites generated by Photomatix.  Thanks for lookin!  Enjoy!

Big change today... the Sun came back!  This weekend we are supposed to be back in the 60's.... so the snow will be a fond memory and soon give way to soggy ground and mud.....

My Driveway

A Lone Fawn Comes to Look for Corn

Sun Shines Bright Across the Way

Thanks for lookin!  Have a great weekend!

I've been wishing all winter for a big white fluffy snow......

We didn't just get a snow..... we got a

Blizzard
 
It Was Crispy
 
The Woods Were Silver
 
Snow Wheel

The Cardinals were Hungry

One for the challenge.....
 
I will plow the path....
You Just Follow in my Steps My Love

Thanks for lookin!
Alma's in the Snow  

This is a story about screwing up.  Back in October, I was rushing to put a bunch of stuff on ebay before my monthly poker night.  I had a brain wave, it said to me... "Reset your camera for 3 megapixels and shoot these in low resolution to save time having to compress them and save for web to put on the ebay listings."  I said to myself "Great idea, and I changed the settings on the camera."

I go off to Poker night, and all of a sudden, there is a double rainbow over my friends house, with the most spectacular red sky bringing in the storms... My camera was in the car, cause I never leave home without it, so I grabbed it and fired off about 50 or 60 shots of the miraculous happenings in the sky.  My hubby called me on my cell phone, and said, "Are you shooting this sky?  Well, of course I am!" I replied.

After poker, got home and downloaded the shots.  I thought, wow, these pictures are really crappy, what in the world happened here.... then a big brick hit me on my pea brain, and said... You shot the best sky of the year in 3 megapixels you idiot.  I have been so PO'd at myself for doing this, I waited until now to sit down and try to salvage these shots.  

So here is my little tutorial.... HDR can sometimes be used to TONE DOWN a shot, not just put it over the top!

Check out these exposures.  Aperture setting... Automatic exposure bracketing set at Minus 2... 0.... and Plus 2.
The sky is so red it doesn't even look real... but these are how they came straight out of the camera.

Minus 2

 Zero

Plus 2

I went ahead and generated a HDR out of these three shots on Photomatix Pro.  I DEsaturated the color 55% while tone mapping to get the sky toned down.  At least now I also have a little foreground in the HDR exposure.

Photomatrix 3X Composite

So two lessons learned here...

Always take a second to check your settings on your camera before you start to shoot....

And sometimes HDR can be used to tone down a photo instead of pumping it up!

PS  You don't have to critique the photos, I know they stink.

in My Sky Tonight .....

Thanks for lookin!

You have probably seen these two subjects from me before, at different times of the year.....  So here is Winter....Golden light right before twilight....

Cotter Bridge

Cotter Railroad Trestle

Thanks for lookin!

Hummingbird Hill Take 3

Overlooking Bull Shoals Lake, Ozark County, Missouri....  
Taken out my back door 09/09/07....
Thanks for your consideration!

We had our first sunshine today in a while....  I took a lot of birdie pics this morning, but grew bored, and decided to get out before the sun went down to catch some of that "Golden Hour" so come along with me....Even when you are going somewhere you are familiar with, there is always a chance you will find something UNKNOWN....

Bluejay Duo

Country Road

Church at Price Place

Marina

Sun on the Water
 
Golden Light on the Limestone Bluffs

BONUS..... When I got home, there were TEN deer in the yard.... giving me that
 
World Famous Deer in the Headlights Look     Enjoy!!!

Saturday morning peanut platter at BSV's house....

Male Red Bellied Woodpecker

Female Ladder Back Woodpecker

Bossy Male Cardinal

Sweet Female Cardinal

Tenacious Titmouse

Bully Bluejay

Thanks for Lookin!