Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

 ”Roads, Trails and Paths”  

 

Suggested by:  WakeUpLaughing

 

 

My Photos number a few more than usual.  I put the smaller images on my entry to allow the page to load.  You should be able to bring them up larger by clicking on the image of interest. 

 

I picked a single route to take on this terrific subject.  I concentrated on the word “path”, going with some of the oldest paths in existence.  The paths I have photographed date back hundreds of thousands of years

 

This image probably looks like any path anywhere in the world.  This particular path leads to a very old path in Remington, Ohio.  You can see a bit of it near the bottom right hand corner of the photo.

 

 

Here the brush has opened up to give us a better peek at what we couldn’t see in the above photo,  the Little Miami River (Remington, Ohio). 

 

 

The Little Miami (Loveland, Ohio) is only a tiny part of the river system in the United States which numbers over 800 rivers, great and small that criss-cross the country. 

 

 

These rivers are fed by rivulets and creeks that number in the hundreds of thousands that follow paths ages old, like this stormy run  (Indian Hill, Ohio) only a few miles from our home.

 

 

And this creek in one of our Hamilton County parks, Sharon Woods.

 

 

And this frozen Winter run, not 100 feet from my front door.

 

 

All of these water flows move towards greater rivers (the Ohio River in Ashland, Kentucky) 

 

 

(the bend in the Ohio River, Cincinnati, Ohio) which follow their paths

 

 

   to even greater rivers (the Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa).

 

 

Some rivers spill into lakes like Lake Michigan (photographed from the Chicago shore) and

 

 

they all spill into one of the greater oceans like the Atlantic seen here, photographed from Virginia beach.  There are great waters, like the beautiful Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico or beautiful oceans, lakes and rivers on the shores of the beautiful countries where you live. 

 

Waters from all over the world churn and run, intermixing with water from the balance of the world, uniting us for the best or the worst, whatever it is we choose or allow. Billions of years to create the paths the waters have followed (read here) and in barely over 200 years technology, created by man, has stripped them of their dignity.   I can’t help but think of what our photographs will become if natures guidelines are continually swept to the side of unimportant, as they have been for much too long.  

 

A personal testimony to this sad state of affairs is in the trash I have picked up on all shores everywhere I have had the privilege to visit and the sickening sudsy float on the waves that crash on the beaches and the grime my feet have testily had to touch in the sands, when walking bare.  I have to wonder just why it has come to the current state of affairs.  Are we so unfeeling of the future that our personal paths have wandered so far from a better course?

 

Keep on taking your photos, thanks for your comments and

have a good week,

 

 

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

 ”All Creatures Great and Small”

 

Suggested by me:  PhotoGraphics

 

My Photos

It was raining the day I took these photos and the back of the goose is covered with tiny raindroplets.  It’s a truth, like water off a ducks back.

This magnificent creature is a Canadian Goose.  I fell in love with them the first time I ever saw one and that is so long ago I can’t tell you when it was.  This particular goose is on the lake at Lake Isabella and it’s hurt.  Notice the prominent lift on the back, a damaged wing.  A car? the oar of a boat? I haven’t a clue.

 

 

One of my favorite movies is “Fly Away Home”.  It’s a thrilling movie derived from a true story which includes some of the ways people are helping the wild flocks to come back.

 

 

One of my favorite books is James Michner’s “Chesapeake” and it’s a multi layered story of the Chesapeake area from prehistory and includes a sad but true tale of the history of Canadian Geese here in the states.

 

 

This glorious bird flew in flocks of thousands migrating Summer and Winter to and from areas it fed and bred in.  Those thousands upon thousands has dwindled to a small percentage of what it was. 

 

This particular goose has been reduced to feeding on what is dropped for the amusement of park goers and it is always in danger of becoming tangled in the fising line of careless and uncaring fishermen who frequent the lake.  I imagine it will end up on someone’s supper table or fox food.  I have no problem with eating wild things and never have but I do have a problem with driving them into extinction.

 

 

Like so much of wildlife, this goose has taken a back seat in importance in communities who see them as a nuisance because of their droppings or in general, their existence.  Man has so much to learn.

 

 

I play in a graphics group and this image was given by a member with the instruction to remove the tigress from the penned area and put her into another environment.

 

 

This is one of my replacement environments.  I titled it
“One False Move and Lunch”.  I thought you might like to see it.

 

 

Have a great week and keep taking your photos.

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

 ”Your Workspace”

 

Suggested by:  VeryBasic

 

I’ve had a rough week so am feeling SOOOO bad I didn’t get this entry up and running during the proper week.  Apologies to VeryBasic.

 

I’m retired, no actual workspace unless you consider my kitchen or home.  My main occupation is actually an avocation and it has to do with my camera.

 

Some Workspace Photos

 

 

I take photos while watching the television.  It’s a great learning workspace.

 

 

If we are out driving, I take photos.  This bridge was a prime target in my workspace.

 

 

Nothing misses my eye though I may not be fast enough to catch it.  If the traffic is slow, construction is a workspace target.  I love construction.

 

 

Dead or alive, moving or not, I try to catch it and NEON is choice workspace.

 

 

I watch for truckers, talkers, runners, walkers and an interesting view in my workspace.

 

 

My workspace at the lake always has something and the boathouse is loverly.

 

 

An expression, “the world is my oyster.”  Modified, “The world is my workspace”.  I’d go stark raving Quackers without it.

 

 

Have a super week and be good to yourselves.  Keep on taking those photos.

 

 

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

 ”North, East, South and West”

 

Suggested by me:  PhotoGraphics

 

“North, East, South, West”, your choice of landscape, within a five minute time span, retaining zoom length and focal height take four photos from a centerpoint, displaying light effects in photos due to its incoming direction of N. E. W. or S.”

 

March 7, 2009

Time:  1:17 through 1:20 p.m

78 degrees, cloudy and windy

Images taken “eyeball height” at Lake Isabella, Symmes Township, Ohio USA

 

My camera is set at what I think may be a generic setting for point and shoot cameras.  I have not pulled the distance in closer, my zoom was set for 28/35 MM, exposure time stayed around 1/58 of a second and the fstop bounced around at f10, f11.  I’m not technical so can’t explain what I just wrote.  I just take the photos and have gotten used to where I put a setting.

 

Today was a decent day, in fact fantastic for the time of year.  There was sun peeking through the clouds and it wasn’t too hot.  I didn’t have the perfect setting for taking the photos but I did have a perfect center point.  My photo results do show off what light and direction can do for our photos. 

 

 

 

 

#1- This was my centerpoint, a flagpose set into a rock base about 2 x 2 feet.  As you can see, straight up looks blue, blue, blue.

 

 

 

#2- a map of the area to show you my directions as they weren’t true North, East, South, and West.  I am standing at the red dot at the left side of the lake.

 

 

 

 

#3- This is Lake Isabella and I am standing between it and the railroad tracks are behind me as I take this photo so the lake from where I stand is in the South East.  The sky in this direction isn’t showing any color in my photo as the direction to take the photo may not be the best lighting for the time of day.  If I want a photo of the lake, with the nice cloudy sky, I think I would be better off on the other side taking the photo.

 

 

#4- John is parked directly in back of me just this side of the tracks.  If I turn to face him I am looking North West and the sky shows up in my photo nicely.  I am standing back in some shade given by the brush this side of the lake.  It probably helps difuse the light above me so the photo is nicer.

 

 

 

#5- The entrance drive to the park faces the expressway which runs North and South but at this point it gets confusing as it is running from the North West to the South East which is what happens on turnpikes and which I never get used to as their ultimate direction is not what they are doing.  The railroad tracks are slightly visible in the photo at the left behind the rail fence.  They run from the North East to the South West from upper Ohio to Cincinnati and beyond.  I do have some color in the sky, not as bright as in the above photo but its better than washed out grey.

 

 

 

#6- My last photo sees the tracks running in the opposite direction or to the South West.  It covers my final direction and as you can see the sky isn’t pretty, just washed out gray.  As it turns out for my photos on this day at this time, looking to the North East and North West would be my best choice to place subjects or get the nicest scenic photos.  I need to try harder to do experimental shots when I’m out and with digital, it only costs me a little time.  I’d like to see my photos improve and it appears this experiment proves, lighting makes all the difference.

 

Keep on taking those photos

and thanks always for your comments.

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge

This weeks Challenge

 ”Long Exposures”  

Suggested by:  Timages

 

 

 

A Mix of Images for Timages

 

ALL OF THE PHOTOS POSTED IN THIS ENTRY ARE UNTOUCHED EXCEPT FOR THE SIZING AND SMALL FRAME AS I BELIEVE THE EXERCISE IS FOR A DISPLAY OF WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE LONGER EXPOSURE. 

 

 

#1- This one looks across my computer mouse into my living room which was set in a darker light being later in the evening.  Taken without flash, exposure time was 2 and 1/2 seconds.

 

 

 

 

#2- I believe all of these photos from inside the car were taken on our drive back from Virginia.  Sitting inside the car for a light or possibly in a center somewhere, Exposure time, 8 seconds.

 

 

 

 

#3- Inside the moving car, the Dashboard, 10 seconds

 

 

 

 

#4- Car Lights, 8 seconds.  I forgot to say on this one, I had the camera in hand bringing it around and around in deliberate circles to see what I would get.  What amazes me is the color the camera sees that I don’t seem to see untill I look at the captured exposure. 

 

 

 

 

#5- Car Lights, 25 seconds

 

 

 

 

#6- Some of my screensavers in motion, 30 seconds

 

 

 

 

#7- Screensaver:  30 seconds

 

 

 

 

#8- Screensaver, same as #7,  8 seconds

 

 

 

 

#9- And this is an older one, taken at Lake Isabella, the night of August 30, 2008, 7:44 P.M..  I saw the girls walking and decided to take the image.  Exposure time is .8 seconds.

 

It’s obvious for something moving in a still photo, the image blurs more, the longer the exposure.  A long time exposure on a still subject at night is necessary to allow more light into the camera so the image shows up.  No light, no image no matter how long the exposture even if you can get the shutter to open.  I like playing and learning and my discovery is, even the mistakes can be fun and useful.

 

Have a great week, thanks always for your comments.