December 18, 2018

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Excellent clouds on Dec. 18, 2018.  We thought this one was like looking up at the bottom of a mushroom.  Or a jellyfish.

Broader view, same clouds on right.

Moss on top of a wall.

Little round clump of moss on a wall.  This is the original shot, so you can get an idea of the scale.

Cropped.

Cropped again.  I think these are fruiting bodies, or whatever you call it for moss (different from other sorts of plants?  Do mosses have true flowers?  I can't remember but I kind of think not....).

More moss, different wall.

More clouds, with jet trails.

The neighborhood rock-painter was still at work, in mid-December.

Fairy Lane assemblage.

Dwarf knight, with bunnies.  And a giraffe and a gnome.

Maple leaf.

Sunset.

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November 14, 2018, part 2

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We decided to go to Star's Cafe for supper.

Moonrise in the November 14 sunset.

One of the lovely things about digital photography is that the incremental cost of taking one more photo is about nil.

We can go ahead and shoot, without thinking about how each shot costs 75 cents (or whatever).

And sometimes the shots from a moving car, say, are ones we are glad to have.............

Turning west on Huron.

Same shot as above, with all human lights edited out.

Sometimes a pic is full of mess, but one keeps it anyway...........

So glad we went out, the evening of the 14th.  From home, surrounded by trees, we might have noticed the sky was pink, but we would have missed at least 95% of what there was to see........

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June 22, 2018

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West Park under a cloudy sky.  It was really a lot lighter than this at ground level, but the (phone) camera exposed for the sky, and this was as bright as I could get the ground without it looking totally weird.

Hmm.  Why did I take this pic?  Ugly trampled ground (stupid humans too cool to stay on the pavement, grrrrrrr)..............  ???  (Well, at least this shows how light it actually was, at ground level.....)

Wait, I remember why I took it!   Teeny tiny baby bunny!   A mere handful of itty bitty rabbit!  The mown grass was higher than her little shoulders.

I need a zoom lens.............

Back at home.  My day lilies.

Breaking out the filters....  This is a layer of "underpainting" and a layer of "colored pencil" with a "multiply" blend.

Probably a bit over the top as to saturation, etc, but I kinda like it.

And now for "glowing edges" -- I kinda like this one, too...........

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October 12, 2017

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My rose.

October 12, 2017, was another wet day.

Tiny maple leaf.

Regular size maple leaf.

Redbud leaf.

Layered redbud leaves.

Let's boost the saturation, shall we?  Just because we can?

Sedum "Autumn Joy"

Day lily.

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September 29, 2017

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Pink yarrow.

In cold weather the crows gather in hundreds to spend the night in a single tree (or in a few neighboring trees).  In the late afternoon you can watch them overhead, dozens or hundreds of them, all heading in the same direction.  The weather was still warm in early fall, but they were gathering for the night on September 29, 2017.

I don't know why they gather.  When I've seen multitudes of crows in a tree, they've not been huddled together.  It was early evening (several years ago) when I was nearby as they settled into a tree.  Maybe they huddle in the deep dark middle of a frigid winter night?

I've watched them in the afternoon, choosing a tree.  One will stand in the top of a tree, cawing.  Others will stand in other trees, cawing.  Others will wheel through the sky, trying one tree and another.  Somehow, they all end up very near each other for the night.

I wonder how the decision is made............  I wonder who gets a vote...........  I expect that, as with humans, some are more likely to strike out on their own and make suggestions as to what to do, and others are willing to go where everyone else goes.............



The same pumpkins we've been watching.  The plant's leaves have given up the ghost.

(Editing these pics in February -- I am enjoying soaking in all of this color!)

These Michigan pics don't require nearly as much editing as the pics from the southwest, but I still am editing essentially every pic to one degree or another.  Crop some distracting branches out of this one, photoshop out some distracting dirt or shadows or whatever.

Lighten the ones that were exposed for the sky to the extent the ground is all dark..................

The next image was cropped out of the previous one, and lightened so we can see the park at dusk.  See the moon in the upper right corner?

The next one lost some distracting foliage in the upper left quadrant, and was lightened so we can see the road.

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