Photo Blogging Challenge (November 2022): Instasnap

 

It's December and time for another installment of the Photo Blogging Challenge. This one was relatively easy in that lately most of my pictures are with my iPhone. I don't rely on the filters as much as I once did since the sensors have gotten so much better but I did play with some and messed about with some Presets I have in Lightroom too.

This was mostly just a saturation boost. The windscreen added the gradient. 

Foodstagram is my favorite instagram. The camera always eats first!

Oddly shaped pumpkin on the mantel caught my eye.

Tulsa is an oil town with a lot of mid-century modern architecture. Many building lend themselves to vintage type treatments.

A friend had us over to dinner and this was in her powder room. A bit of a color and shadow boost along with some negative vignetting set the mood.

Here's a bonus I took way back in 2012 with an old iPhone before the better sensors. I even had this one printed on canvas and hanging in my office. Back when a good filter saved a relatively crappy image, resolution wise.

There's my five+ This was fun to go a little more heavy handed with the editing than I normally do. Check out the others at a lil hoohaa blog and I'll see you next year!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!!

Photo Blogging Challenge (October 2022): Potpourri

Potpourri is the perfect description of my October. Fairs, Dallas, North Carolina, New York, Mexico, and Austin were some of the places life took me this month. It was a busy month but so much fun.

We were in Dallas for a conference so my sister and I took our new Pennsylvania employee and a client to the State Fair of Texas one evening. If you have followed me for any length of time, you know I have to get my Fletcher's Corny Dog fix. It runs in the family, my sister named one of her dogs Fletcher!

North Carolina was next, just for a day and nothing really exciting. From there, we went up to my mom's place in New York to help her close it up for the winter. I'd never been there in the fall. So many colors.

I love the moon. And try to get out there when they are full.

Off to Mexico for a few days of relaxation. Amy and I dove off Cancun at the Underwater Museum of Art. Started in 2009, over 300 statues made of coral friendly material were placed in several galleries. It's quite cool looking and also a bit eerie. If you are so inclined, you can check out the video I made of our dive on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/GKWVNR_tYJk  

The day after our Mexico return, I made a trip to Austin with some buddies for some Race Cars and Rock music at the US Gran Prix. Green Day and Ed Sheeran performed on Friday and Saturday nights respectively and Sunday saw a relatively uneventful race but a good time was had.  

There's my five plus two bonus from COTA. We had some football and some Halloween adventures too. You'll just have to check out the rest of my flickr for those. Thanks for the visit and we'll be back next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge (September 2022): Road Trip

It's time for a road trip, or two, as the case may be. My September and October are both heave travel months this year. I fortunately was able to have some fun as well.

We started out the month with a small group of us meeting up in North Carolina for a meditation retreat. For some, it was the first time we've met in person but have been friendly on Zoom for the bulk of the Corona ordeal. It was odd meeting people for the first time when you've known them so well for the last two years.

The house is wrapped by a beautiful river that drowns out road sounds and makes for a wonderful setting. 

Moss covers the ground and the trees are thick. It's essentially a temperate rain forest, so there was at least a little rain every day. We had a very relaxing three days with nothing more than a gentle stroll to break up our days.

The next weekend, another group of us headed to Kentucky for a four day music festival. Noon to midnight Thursday through Sunday; we saw a lot of good music and had a lot of fun. Brandi Carlisle, Pearl Jam, Kings of Leon, and Jack White were some of the big names but a lot of new to me bands filled out the day.  

 

There was a smaller Bluegrass stage. After following her for years, I finally got to see Sierra Hull in person. If you like bluegrass at all, look her and Molly Tuttle up. Molly is to guitar what Sierra is to mandolin. Really good stuff.

For a bonus, we did squeeze in a management meeting while we were there!

There were so many to choose from this month that I had a hard time with it. Take a look at my flickr page for more or take a look at the Kentucky set:

Photo Blogging Challenge (August 2022): Pooch

I thought this would be a nice and easy one but I think easy ended up being a little lazy. I need to break out my big camera more often and stop relying so much on quick snaps with the phone. Maybe next month! :) 

Here's what I got. Starting off without Rosie at all...

Here's Will with my sisters crew: Biscuit, Fletcher, and Luna. I love the Luna side eye.

 

Rosie in her natural habitat. She lets me sit here sometimes.

Rosie hates the thunder. We have to open the pantry for her to hide in when the storms come.

She had a friend, Tyson, follow her home from a walk the other day. Tyson had escaped both his collar and his yard but Facebook to the rescue found his family quickly. They had a good time together though.

This is Rosie showing her displeasure that I have blocked her kitchen spot while loading the dishwasher.

There are my five. I've seen a couple of the others already and like what I see. I'm looking forward to checking out the others at a 'lil hoohaa post. And hope to participate in more in the future.

Photo Blogging Challenge (July 2022): Get Low

I'm back. But I didn't really leave. The last two months, I sat down to pick out photos to use and came to the conclusion I was just trying to back into the theme and that wasn't much fun. This month, I took photos specifically with the theme in mind. So here we go.

I caught this little Hummer taking off from the fountain in the front yard. They are fast!

OK, so I did leave. We got out of Texas for a few days and headed to Colorado for some much cooler weather. Got out on a hike that the boys and I had backpacked a few years ago. I forgot how rocky the trail was.

Found these 'shrooms along the way. Did not eat.

More sights along the hike.

I got low and high at the same time. But I didn't get high even though it's legal here.

There's my five. Here's a couple of bonus pics. If you've never been to one of the Meow Wolf installations, you should go. This is the only one I've visited but there are 2 more, Santa Fe and Las Vegas. I hear Dallas and/or Houston soon. It's indescribable.

   

Hope to keep going for next month. Thanks for looking.

Photo Blogging Challenge (April 2022): Enjoy Life

 

Enjoy Life was a perfect theme for me for April. I'm just barely squeezing this in because we have had quite a busy end of the month. For the first time since the summer of 1999, which, if you follow me at all, can sort out that was about a year from our first born, Amy and I were able to take a big trip sans kids. A trip that took us overseas for the first time since that 1999 trip, a new continent for us, Asia Minor, and two new countries, Turkey and Greece, We were a little afraid that the trip would be cancelled after Russia invaded Ukraine; Turkey isn't too far away, but our fears were unfounded. We were also a little nervous about traveling on a cruise ship in this day and age but we were a little under 50% capacity, proof of vaccine was required, masks were required in public areas, and the tested us before boarding. On to the pics!

 

We planned an extra day in Istanbul to get a taste and a we got a huge meal! We had a wonderful tour guide that met us at our hotel at 9am and got us back at 7pm. We walked a bunch. Our first stop was Topkapı Palace. We spent close to two hours looking at all to be seen there.

We had a few hours to kill before boarding our ship so I pulled up the Geocaching app to see what was nearby. I found one at the terminal to The Orient Express and it was just a few minutes walk from our hotel. I snagged that and we walked around a bit more. We found our ship and some fishermen and enjoyed the view for a bit.

There is so much ancient history in this part of the world. This is the Library of Celsus in Ephesus. It is one of the sites there that have been uncovered in my lifetime. Truly amazing to walk through the same paths that people have walked for thousands of years.

In Bodrum, Turkey, we stayed at port until 11pm and that allowed us to try out a Wine Tasting dinner at a local winery. The wine and the meal were fantastic. These three guys, along with a cat friend, provided the entertainment.

In Santorini, we rode this gulet to an island with an active volcano. We hiked to the top of it to check out the crater. We later sailed to another island close that had hot springs from the volcanic activity. I was able to swim over the hot springs and enjoy a tiny bit of warmth from the very cold ocean.

It was an amazing trip. We ended our cruise in Athens on May Day. It was just about impossible to pick just five photos. If you have the inclination, take a look at my Flickr Album and enjoy the rest of my trip! I know I did,

Photo Blogging Challenge (February 2022): Photographer’s Choice

It's a photographer's choice for this month's photo challenge. I ended up seeing quite a few animals this month. A few that live with me, but some others in the wild. Let's take a look.

The weird Texas weather brought some snow again this February. Fortunately we didn't have the major power outages this year.

 

Sheriff Jem Bizness looking handsome on the stairs.

Rosie voted: Steak for dinner. It was soundly defeated by the incumbent Kibble.

I found myself at a cutting horse competition. This was the warm up area.

We had a visit from our house deer. I tried to get them away from the barn as a background but they didn't want to cooperate.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the other choices were for this month. Hope to see you again next month.

Photo Blogging Challenge (January 2022): Black And White

Welcome to the first Photo Blogging Challenge of 2022. And it's already February! This month's theme was Black and White. One of my favorites as I did so much of it back in my early film days. Let's get cracking!

 

This angel is part of a Nativity that I got from my mom who got it from her mom. I actually keep it up in my home office year round. 

 

I think black and white allows for a different view of mundane objects.

I had originally planned on all five being shot on some old expired Fuji instant that I have in the fridge but my camera was giving me issues. This was the only image that came out while I was testing it.

The weather was nice enough to get out some hikes this month.

 

With all the black and white cats we have running around this house (3 b&w, 1 solid black) how could I not include at least one of them. Penney was happy to oblige. 

There's my five. Looking forward to seeing the others and what fun February will bring. Thanks for visiting.

Photo Blogging Challenge (December 2021): Holly Jolly

Another year come and gone. And another weird one as well. I think we are all ready for some kind of normal. I am for sure. I was happy that family at least got to spend the holidays together and we are all still healthy. My photos this moth are pretty self explanatory so I think I'll leave them to speak.

 

 

 

 

I'm looking forward to another year of photos and another year of photo challenges. I always enjoy everyone's photos; it's a treat to see your slices of the world. I wish you all a Happy New Year and we'll see you on the January challenge.