And looking forward to this summer.

A time to wake up early, enjoy the cool air, and catch the moring's sunrise.  Take a walk along the lake shore and watch the birds,  watch while the boaters enjoy a morning work out.  Catch a spider in the grass and just plain enjoy the cattails.

Added 05/09/08 (pm) lightened spider 

Added 05/09/08 (pm) lightened spider 

Woke up early the other day, heard thunder, so I thought I could capture some lightning.  No such luck.  Was able to get a sunrise.  And, since I was all ready up, decided to drive around and see what I could see.  Like a reflection and dew, silhouetted.  Even found head of grass.

Almost Invisible -  Nosey Fly
Almost Invisible -  Peek - A - Boo, Blue Eyes

Hot Time In The Country -  Today's Sunrise  Burning

 

Enjoyed the sunrise this morning.  There was allot of mist rising off the lake.  Didn't stop the birds from flying though, misty morning flight. After things started warming up and the mist disappeared, I walked on around the lake.  Found a field of 'dark eyed' Susans with a couple of odd balls.  (A more conventual view.) On the way home, I stopped at /\/\ for a quick bite.  Photography, it's hard work.

(Odd ball and the sign are the entries for this weeks challenge.)

with a fellow viewer. Picture

Greetings Earthlings,

I have returned from five days on the Oregon Coast. I will be making you suffer through a wide range of subjects once I get all of the images sorted and thinned. I shot around 450 images but you won't have to see all of them. Some of the goodies include beaches, driftwood, a working fishing port, sea gulls, endangered Brown Pelicans, lighthouses, people fishing and elk. Oh, I almost forgot.. I also found Surfer Guy's summer beach house in Oregon!

The sunset gods took the week off. There won't be any sunset shots. Such is life at the coast. On the other hand the fog gods were working overtime. While I am sorting and thinning you can see what I woke up to Wed. morning. The fog was the thickest it had been all week. As the sun started to break the view of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse was worth getting out of bed and taking the hike up the hill to shoot.

More as I get them sorted and thinned.

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Hope y'all enjoy!

Sunrise On Pea Island The Outer Banks, North Carolina.
OBX Magic

I'm finally getting around to doing some theme work...... spent lot of miles

I also did some portrait photography this weekend.  I haven't done a lot of this type of work, or, should I say, I haven't tried to be serious about it.  I just thought I'd try it to see how I could do if I set my mind to it.  getting serious

Y'all know I've had a boat load of dust on my sensor.  I was at my wits end today, and thought I'd try something.  I have a glass cleaning cloth that I got from my optometrist; I just remembered that today.  So, I got to thinking about it, and those kind of cloths don't attract dust.....so.....I committed a cardinal sin today.  I set my camera to "clean sensors", used the cloth on it, and got almost all of my spots off.  Mind you, I was scared to death; I was very gentle and cleaned it twice that way.  Anyway, I feel better about taking photos now......maybe I won't have to spend HOURS in Adobe removing so many spots.....before after The last shot still has some dust, like I said, but I can live with it.

Sorry this is such a long post.....I only have two more shots for you....
Male ruby This morning's sunrise

Hope y'all enjoy!

I was getting ready early one morning and I saw the sky and it was breathtaking so i got a picture of it.

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Hope y'all enjoy!

My internet came back on!  Yay!  Thought I was gonna have to go in a treatment program.......

Hubby and I went fishing over the weekend; took the boat over to Carlyle Lake in IL.  It was a beautiful day; very relaxing.  Here's a shot of hubby and my poodle, Baby, as we were coming back in.

Here's a few more I've been wanting to share with you......dang internet....

 clematis

flight  puffed out

This was taken the morning after our storms last week (when I posted the lightning shots).  The day after

Hope y'all enjoy!

I've lived in Michigan for 23 years now, and inevitably as the weather warms I get the itch to get outside.  After long months of huddling inside during the Winter, I get the urge to get up and catch a Sunrise when the temperature goes up. When it gets even warmer, I'll journey to the Upper Peninsula by way of the Mighty Mackinac Bridge.  Perched on Lake Superior, you can observe birds and big ships at  Whitefish Point Bird Observatory. Returning home, I might chose to stop and hike the rolling dunes along Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
At the end of day you can always catch a  Sunset too.  There are so many things to see and do in my state.  I can't wait to get out and shoot again.

A couple from this morning...

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Since I didn't have to take the kids to school on Thursday, I headed for the river to catch the sunrise before work.  Unfortunately, due to a terrible wreck in my way, I missed the sunruse.  It was a beautiful morning on the river though.  The reflections were great.  Even downtown Knoxville looks good in the early light.  I took a ton of pics and haven't gone through all of them yet.  These are the first ones that caught my eye.

it's a secret
earth and sky
sky and earth
no diving
caring fairness

and then
sunrise
 no parking
empty lines
split up

when I got off work on Wednesday morning there was a hole in the clouds on the horizon and it looked like it might make for an interesting sunrise. It did not work out that way, the clouds closed and a storm moved in.

Sunrise Coming
Clouds Lowering
Lower
Rain Starts
Darker, snow and wind kick in
Snow in the headlights
Full Gale

It may look gloomy, but it's just another part of nature.

So I was perusing through my image selection and saw that I have several nice sunrises (and one sunset) that I have yet to share. So why not go for it? The sunrises I took when arriving early (obviously) to school one day to study for what would be a rather heinous mid-term exam in Nutrition class. The sunset was on my way home from a roadtrip to see an out-of-town friend.
Sunset After A Rain
Sunrise at School 1
Sunrise at School 2
Sunrise at School 3

  Here's the last of the pics from our two-day casino run. We had a comped room at Caesar's and Grand Victoria. Tuesday we stayed at Caesar's. On Wednesday we left there drove over to Belterra for awhile and then continued on to Grand Victoria where we stayed the night. All three casinos are richer for having known us. Caesar's, Belterra, and Grand Victoria, all are riverboat casinos located along the Ohio River between Indiana and Kentucky.

  This first set were all taken from the window of the moving car (unless noted)... Barb will not slow down or stop between casinos.  I took them mainly to keep my mind off Barb's driving...

Richland Farm Barn.
Bridge over the Ohio.
Where clouds come from 1.
Where clouds come from 2.
Cross and Shadow....caught a stop light for this one!
House with tree from Wizard of Oz.
Old barn and reflection.

These last pics were taken in the hotel room or from the window of the room while I was waiting on Barb, either to get up, or get ready...

Blanket swirl.
Blanket drape.
Sun on the rug.
Sunrise over Ohio - horizontal.
Sunrise over Ohio - vertical.

Again, they aren't real big so they should load pretty quick, see ya later.

One of the local wineries had a port tasting yesterday, and they also allowed you to make your own.  It is a very interesting process and getting the right mixture of everything is more important than I realized.  That can be some nasty tasting stuff if the mix ain't right!  I took too many pics to post, so I combined them for you; hope you can get the gist of my day by looking at these.

The day started out like this and this little fella came back for a visit, too.  All in all, it was a great day!

Hope y'all enjoy!