Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

 “Where do we go in the Fall” 

Suggested by:  StixAndStonz

Where do we go in the Fall? 

 

Honestly, we travel very little distance in the Fall, instead enjoying local pursuits (50 mile radius).  We have a lot of city and county parks and if we get the bug to travel, there are state parks within a couple of hours drive and national parks no more than a days drive.  Our local highway plus parks make for exciting Autumn color outings. Surrounding states, especially Indiana are noted for Fall color and we love to see it but if Ohio is not hit by drought, our color can rival anyplace and short drives or walks can provide the perfect photo.  The BIGGGG drawback, unlike wide open spaces, much local fall color is distorted with wires and poles so a different angle may be needed to get the best image.  If you can look past the problems, many a colorful photo can be logged into the camera for prints or online views.  This makes our local Fall excursions, well worth their weight in camera gold.

 

Some Fall Photos

from close to home parks

 

 

 

#1- Hoppy’s / Glenn Island Miami River, Loveland has a canoe livery only a couple of miles from our house that travels this river.  it stays busy during all nice weather.

 

 

 

#2-  Lake Isabella County Park, John and I spend a lot of time in this park.  Lots of fishermen fish here.  It’s a small park.  It is pretty much kept up though areas the fishermen walk are worn to grassless.

 

 

 

#3- Loveland Castle, Chateau LaRoche, one man with an idea built this castle.  It’s unique because of this single fact.

 

 

 

#4- Loveland City Park and not the only one.  It has a nice lake and courts for tennis and other court sports.  It also has fields for team sports. 

 

 

 

#5- Montgomery, Ohio City Park is a nice neighborhood park with a lake, lots of geese and families who enjoy it all. 

 

 

 

#6- Sharon Woods County Park, it has been around longer than I am old.  Just about anything a park usually provides is here except for horse back riding.  Others of our county parks profide that entertainment.

 

 

 

#7- Spring Grove Cemetery Park, a cemetery but actually the nicest park in the area, my opinion.  I really enjoy being in this park for photos.

 

 

 

#8- Woodland Mound County Park is fairly small compared to others of Hamilton Counties parks but it has some really beautiful spots especially in a nice fall.  The red in these trees is breath taking.

 

Have a super week and thanks for comments, always. 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

 “My Favourite Toy” 

Suggested by:  Usalapinhazzer

 

I would like to tell you my favorite toy is a big exercise gym set purchased and used faithfully for years BUT, as I can not tell a lie, I’ll list what many of you already know, in the order I became interested.

 

1- my computer, a love / hate affair

2- my Paint Shop Pro software, pretty much the most trouble free software I have ever used.

3- my digital camera, the first a 3.1 megapixel Kodak, and now a 10 megapixel Canon.

4- an add in here, I love the television for movies and have a large collection of great ones with a few duds interspersed.  I seldom watch television, otherwise.

 

We are now using computers 6 and 7, we went through three before the internet came into existence.  Under some duress, my husband talked me into doing my typing/writing on the computer.  I avoided it for years actually.  

 

Sometime in the frame of things, providers became available for online activities and I discovered Excite Chat where I met friends I correspond with still.  While in Excite Chat, I discovered Paint Shop Pro where a lot of creative people used it to make Avatars

() for changeable profile pictures and creatively designed and displayed pages.  I still have all of my images I made and the program in my computer.  I have played with Paint Shop Pro since V5.  There were previous versions retailed so it dates back a little before my discovering it.  All of this precedes but leads to my digital camera’s and that is the total of my all-time, very favorite, toys IF I don’t count children, pets and husband. 

 

 

Some Photos / Images / More

---

 

Toy #1 Writing on the Computer

 

A Poem For You
© RSBlain
May 10, 1999

(my poem, 10 years old, editing is a given for it’s improvement)

 

If I could do it all again, my life from start to end
There’s not a bridge that I would burn, not a fence I’d think to mend
I’d travel all the highways that I have traveled on,
And never a pot hole would I change or blade of grass upon
*
My little weeded patch of life, with all its little stones
Which I’ve traveled with some dignity, some bruises, grunts, and groans
Gaining no important titles, no bags of coin or gold,
I’ve been blessed with natures riches, it’s to this I tightly hold.
*
As every road, every turn, led me, to you, before,
Being led to things to learn and share, not view and then ignore
The greatest WEALTH of INTERESTS:  flowers, birds, the freshest skies,
Roots, the vines, and various seeds is where importance lies.
*
And though my travels took me not far, from battered, old front door
I know that with my final glimpse, I will have witnessed more,
Gained knowledge and love of a temporal kind, so readily I turn my page
Slate clean and open for the imagined, on which I hope to gaze.

 

 

---

Toy #2 Paint Shop Pro

 

 

The above is a desktop.  I have made hundreds and offered hundreds as free downloads and sent them as gifts in Emails.

 

 

 

 

The above is something I just learned, Digital Greeting Cards.  All mine, all fun.

 

 

---

 Toy #3 My Digital Camera

 

 

A photo taken lately with my digital camera.  The newest nuisance to our household.  It is sleeping on the chair I use at the computer having gotten the notion it prefers I vacate it so it can sleep there.  Fun it is / isn’t but so far it is letting me survive.

 

Have a great week, thanks always for your comments,

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

 

This weeks Challenge

    “Photo Views of the Heavens”    
Sun, Moon, Clouds, Stars, Rainbows or ??

Suggested by ME:  PhotoGraphics

 

My Photos

 

#1- I think I am like everyone when it comes to night photos.  They aren’t always easy to get but very desirable.  I decided on Moon photos for this challenge as I have concentrated on taking them within the environment I usually find myself taking photos, from a moving car.  This image was taken coming home from Rockford, Illinois, a recent trip, July 26, 2008.  I would have called it a harvest moon but it’s a bit early, month wise.  It came up over the horizon like a huge ball this particular evening.  I always wonder how it can look so big and then so small in the same night.

 

 

#2- The same moon, the same night and the perspective is totally wrong but to put it into this image and keep any size for viewing, I fixed it this way.  The neon is a huge billboard sign off to our right as we drive.  I saw it coming and  it is high and to my right and the moon appears to be checking it out.  I don’t know what flex is but I do know about Ford and it can’t hold a candle to the moon.

 

 

#3- Same moon, same drive and another billboard.  The moon kept pace with us as we drove and fixed itself right above some of the night time landscape.

 

 

#4- A different night, hurricane, Ohio, September 14, 2008.  It was an experience I won’t forget, magnificent and a little scary at the same time.  We don’t get hurricanes often, in Ohio.

 

 

#5- The exact same shot but as big as it came out on my camera card.  The moon shines as brightly as the sun when the parameters are right and the wind had been so fierce during the day that clouds were sweeping across the heavens most of the evening and it was as pretty a sight as I have ever seen.

 

 

#6- October 12, 3008, Lake Isabella, Hamilton County Park and the moon is bright and rising.  The silouette of the trees set it off perfectly for photos.  I used a very slow speed for some, ruining shots as the moon tracked across the photos in stages.  I finally managed settings that were decent so this one came out bright, round, shining and very romantic.  It was a beautiful night.  If I ever get a lens to pull the moon in closer, I will enjoy taking larger but the moon by itself isn’t really my thing, I love the story of the trees or the traffic tied into it.  I think a bit of added attraction allows it to show off, in my images, a little more.

 

 

Stay well everyone, don’t eat any peanut butter and thanks always for your comments.

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

 

This weeks Challenge

   “A View From My Window“   
Suggested by:  StixAndStonz

 

 

Some of my photos, A VARIATION of the theme:

   “Views From My Car Windows“   

 

 

#1-  I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled before our drive to Virginia, in December .  The day was snow, ice, and cars off the road, everywhere.  We re-scheduled for January 27, 2009.  I should have known.  More snow and lots of ice.  The above isn’t my first view from the car but it is typical.

 

 

#2- The view of the snow covered evergreens is always a breath taker for me.  I really like snow and how everything has a fresh, clean appearance.  That is, all except where the cars mess and muddy things up.

 

 

#3- I imagine this fella made a few dollars that day.  I love red and his bright red plow brightened the landscape.

 

 

#4- I was thinking, when I saw this combination, the owner of the car may experience a change in the condition of the car if it slides off the hill.

 

 

#5- There have been deaths in the greater Cincinnati area from this Winter storm. Lots of homes lost electricity and the usual business and schools were shut down.  The driver of this truck is taking some much needed comfort to homes, somewhere, I believe the tanks the truck is carrying are propane for cooking. 

 

 

#6- Headed home and dropping over one of the hills, a flock of small birds circled close enough to catch them in the photo, as birds, not just a blur.

 

 

#7- On our street, all is right with the world.  The flag is flying and at least one child is out playing in the snow.  It’s nice to know snow still calls to some, for outside activities and fun.

 

All of these views, compliments of my camera and a necessary drive on a snowy day. 

 

 

#8- Here in the house, currently, the window view stays looking pretty much like this …

 

 

A few of the “dreaded computer problems” for us this week.  Hoping not to be shut down completely but ???

 

Wishing all of you a great week.  Keep on taking those photos, and 
thanks always for your comments.