Portrait Day

Today is portrait day, and I thought I might take this in another direction. Admittedly, this is a little thrown together.

The first is my wives little dog Minnie, named after the mouse, because she's not much bigger than a mouse. She's very high energy. I can just picture her saying in a nervous frantic sort of way,
"Mom....hey mom...look mom...wwwwhat's that thing?...Can't you see it?? Rrrrrright over there...Iiiin his hands. Hey, what you doing with that thing....Whoa.....What was that flash...Hey....hey mom did you see that...That bright thing....Ooooooh no, now I can't see. Hey mom hey hey mom....."


The next picture is simply a run down old tired shed wall. It's not what you would call an action shot, and it certainly says a lot about my outdoor cares. But it does have a lot of detail in it. I thought it was kinda interesting.


THe last one, I tried something a little artsy. I had a very detailed walnut tree in the foreground that I had the camera focus on and then I moved around to add an interesting but out of focus background. It turned out ok.

O.K. so it's macro night. This is a good one. I do this a lot with my ebay listings as I sell many coins on ebay. You'd be surprised how many email I get about the pictures that I post. They want to know how I got so close to my subjects. I tell them it's a macro function. Unfortunately, some don't have that setting on their scanner. Ha, ha. I was surprised to find out that all macros are not alike. My "fool-around" camera is a Nikon Coolpix 2100, and it has a macro focal length of about 40 mm or around an inch and a half. Some of my other cameras don't quite focus that close. It's great for what I do most, and I bought it off ebay for about $20.00. What a deal.

Well, enough about me, on with Macro night.

My first subject is a little toy I have setting on my desk. It's a Lesney bulldozer. Or for you younger kids, a Matchbox bulldozer. I found it in a flea market about 2 weeks ago. I collect these cute little cars from England. I had many as a kid, and seeing them reminds me of those days. I've placed it in the arms of my Purdue Pete, for all my Boilermaker friends. Pete was just thrilled to be asked to pose for this picture even though I cut off his head in the picture.



My next picture is what Pete looks at every day; my desk. Sometimes it's busy and it's never neat. Sometimes I even leave a little lunch there for him to clean up. He never complains about the temperature, but I think he'll be needing glasses soon.




Next is a picture that I've taken often; a coin. This coin is the reverse or back of a Jefferson Nickel. They made 4 commemorative backs for the Jefferson nickel in 2004 and 2005, to commemorate the 200 anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. This symbol depicted the "peace" that the explorers wanted to bring to the native people of this new land. It was a nice design, but was overshadowed by the later buffalo nickel reverse that came out later in 2004. When it comes to coins, condition is everything and having a good macro function, leaves no doubt what the condition of the coin is. Don't you agree?

Finally, as you might have guessed by now, I enjoy old things. This next item is a picture of an old illustration from a history book that I found at another flea market. No, no I won't tell you where the flea market is; it's like your favorite fishing hole. It's a secret. Anyway, this book caught my attention as it had a rather in depth discussion of the Revolutionary War. It touched upon some items that I had never heard or heard and forgot over the years. The last president it discusses was Grover Cleveland and the last paragraph in the book talks about the people of great significance that died in 1886. I've enjoyed more than a few evenings thumbing through this little treasure. This illustration depicts the Colonists revolting against the Stamp Act prior to the Revolutionary War.

Please forgive me if I go on about a few of these pictures. I know this is supposed to be an exercise in photography, but as anyone who knows me, knows that I love to talk. And besides this is a blog space as well. I hope you've enjoyed my pictures and stories.
Have a pleasant evening and keep those pictures coming.

Today is Landscape day. Scapes of Indiana

I am thrilled to be entering our second week of challenges.

Now for my entries in Landscape.

First, where would we be without a depiction of agriculture in Indiana.
I've tried to make the picture a little more interesting by framing it a little bit.
I give you a nearly matured bean field across a stream ravine.




Next we have a little something that our "green" folks will cringe at, but many years ago, all farms across the state had one of these. It was where farmers took all their old implements to die, or in this case rust away. Who's to say all landscape should be appealing. It's a glimpse into what once was down on the farm.


The next entry is what I call the "End of the Day August 31st 2008". These were the final fleeting minutes of sunlight on the last day of August 2008. It was a beautiful sunset, the end to a wonderful day. The thought that this day will never be available to us again, made me stop and think about how wonderful and yet how sad the picture really was. Did we use that day wisely. Was it a date to remember, or just another one of those dates on a calendar that we will never remember.


The last entry for this theme, Landscape is a little morbid. With the last day or so being a bit gray, I had an idea for a grey landscape. Once I thought about the subject a little bit, I started to wonder about the images I really saw. I put a pen to paper and in the tone of "Flanders Fields", I've penned a little poem. It's not very good, but I hope that you feel and sense what I felt with this picture.

Cold, lay we here among the elm; silent 'cept for the lone bobwhite song.
Be we great leaders of industry or servent to man; in search of great wealth or tillers of land.
Be we married or single, husband or wife, our entire life are reduced to just these few lines:

"Devoted Father and Husband"
"Zachery St. John"
"Born 1836"
"Died December 15, 1901"
"May God Rest your soul." Amen

You'll not know my voice, or the look of my face;
whether I'm tall or I'm small or even my race.
My hopes and my dreams;
disappointments and despair.
Good man or bad it's all just the same;
to you I'm a stone on top of this hill,
I'm Zachery St. John
died nineteen hundred and one.

GC

Here's a picture from the June 2007 flooding in Indiana. This is the state highway past our home. It does this a few times a year when we get a heavy downpour. THis is the worst flooding we've seen locally since the August 1994 flood which drenched us with 12 inches in 12 hours. What a mess that was.

More Cool Pics

Here's some cool pics that I took at the St. Louis Zoo last month.

This one is of a bronze statue of a pair of cape buffalo. This statue is life size and massive. It's real cool

A close up view of the statue.

Do you like dinosaurs? I do and when I heard that the zoo had dinosaurs, I say show me the way...

Life size and animated. It's something you don't see every day.

Did I mention they were life size. Wow...

I always love the Historic Hill district of the zoo for it's architecture.

The zoo is always a good time. I love a good zoo.