Sunday, August 11, 2013

Louisville, KY

One of my business trips this summer had me spending a few days in Downtown Louisville, KY.  I really enjoyed my time there and took advantage of the summer evenings to explore the city.  It has an interesting history and there is a lot of cool architecture there.   Here are a few shots.











Downtown has an entertainment area where they close 4th Street.  On Thursday nights its Bike Night.


Of course what is a visit to Kentucky without Bourbon.


Summer Time

Well, its been several weeks since I've posted anything up here.  I haven't shot much in a couple of weeks but have had a couple of trips.  I've been putting more up on Facebook so as a result haven't been giving my little blog enough attention.

Earlier this summer I went on a motorcycle trip to coastal Texas with several good friends.  We stayed a couple of nights in San Antonio and three nights on the beach in Port Aransas.  I got some great shots of the San Antonio Mission Trail, but not many on the beach.  It was so humid my camera would fog up and take up to an hour to defog.  But more important we had a great time and killed several bottles of wine!

















After a long day touristing, a glass of wine shared with friends is a great way to relax!


Sunday, June 02, 2013

Pond

There's a couple of ponds fairly close to the house.  It's Sunday morning, a beautiful day so I figured I'd see what I could shoot.   Was out about an hour, was hoping for some dragonflies, but I only saw a couple and they didn't want to cooperate.  So here is what I have.




Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Bike the Bricks - 2013

Friday night was the Annual Bike the Bricks in downtown Mckinney.  This is the third one I have attended (spectator) and the second one I have shot.  This year I was particularly looking forward to it as I have a new flash that has second curtain sync.  Its the first time I used it though so still getting used to it but overall I was pleased with the capabilities of the flash on many fronts.

The weather this past couple of weeks has not been very typical, with lots of clouds and developing storms.  The sky was fairly grey, but fortunatley the rain held off till near the end of the evening.  I took almost 500 shots and had very little garbage, comparatively speaking.

Here is a handful of shots from the evening. 











This guy wrecked, I heard the crash to my left and couldn't believe he didn't get hit by anyone else.  It was in the middle of a turn, and in a large group, I don't know how all these guys were able to course correct themselves.





Probably one of my favorite shots of the evening.  Just illustrates how close you can get to the action. 


Not sure how this happened.  I have a couple like this.  I suspect the ghost image is the result of someone elses flash firing close to mine.




Sunday, May 19, 2013

Backyard

They say you can find lots to photograph in your own backyard.   It it very true but it can be easy to overlook things.   I think you have to look hard, and look small.  By that I mean get very close.  Over the past few years I've had a little garden in my back yard.  I have a very active bird feeder this year as well, hopefully I can figure out how to get some shots of the cardinals and other birds that are frequenting the feeder.

These pictures below have been taken over a couple of weeks, maybe close to a month, as my garden has been growing.  The don't represent that growth, but are some interesting shots I've taken.

This year I decided to try to grow some blueberries.  I figure it may be a couple of years before I get a good crop, and it looks like this year I may get enough for topping one bowl of cereal!



Also new for this year are beans.  That has been interesting.  I put in a new bed and I don't think the soil is "good" yet.  But the beans are finally starting to pick up and are now blossoming.  At least one variety anyway.  Will be interesting to see what I get.


 

For the past few years I have been trying to grow tomatoes.  This year I started them quite a bit earlier and also have a different supplier.  Last year I had plenty of cherry tomatoes but very few other tomatoes.  I planted some Heirlooms this year and wow, they are doing very well.  Its still early, I actually had to cover them three times to protect from frost, but it was 93F yesterday, so I think the risk of frost is long gone.


Finally, what is a garden without small creatures.   Spoiler, if you are freaked out by spiders, stop now!  These are on my lime tree.  I had a ton of blossoms and was expecting a great crop, but unfortunately not a single blossom germinated.  Oh well, maybe next year.