Scenes From a Hotel Room - Day 334

10:30 at night with no picture.  Here you go!

I had so much fun, I took two ok pictures:

The Smokies - Day 333

On my way to Clemson, SC.  I learned why they call them the Smokey Mountains.  There was really cool fog.  I wish that I could have stopped more and taken pictures. But, this is all I could do on the side of the expressway and at a rest stop.

This is a little dark, but I just couldn't get exactly what I wanted....

Hornworm - Day 332

This is really disgusting.  First, the hornworm itself is really impressively cool - its body looks like it is braided.  The white spots are eggs that a wasp laid on the hornworm.  The eggs will hatch and the babies will eat the hornworm and any more that are around.  So, we didn't kill the poor worm - we left it to die a much more gruesome death.  Take that as a lesson - don't screw with our tomatoes!

Jackson - Day 331

My sister, her friend and I went to Jackson today and took a bunch of pictures.  I have not taken many pictures in the middle of a bright day.  Further, I have not taken many pictures in an industrial setting.  So, giving all of these caveats, here are some of the pictures that I took:

Up the stairs:

A chain (Joe pointed this out to me):

This is what I thought Jackson would really look like:

Creepy wall:

Trains:

My sister, the photobuff librarian:

Butterfly - Day 330

This was actually taken on Sunday instead of Friday.  My photos for Friday sucked.

Barns - Day 329

Stopped a few times on the way home to take some pictures.  Here is one.

Fields of Green - Day 328

When I first saw this group of pictures I thought that they were really good. Then I looked closely at them. I was pretty stupid and did not close down the aperture. I am so used to taking low light pictures, that I stupidly forget what it is like taking pictures in bright sunlight with large depth of focus. Grrrr. This is probably the best picture of the bunch. It gives you a feeling of what I was going for, but not as good as it could get.

Fun With Candles - Day 327

I guess the title is pretty self explanatory.

The Whole Dang Family - Day 326

Caterpillar - Day 325

This was a painful experience.  Caterpillars do not stay still very much at all.  They move very quickly. When they do stop, they curl up in an uninteresting ball.  I took 67 pictures, with different varieties of lenses, hoping that I could come up with one good picture.  I got a few that are somewhat ok, but nothing that pops out as being spectacular by any means.  Sad.  It was a pretty cool caterpillar.

Bacon - Day 325

On the Way Home (again) - Day 324

Considering how much crap there was on the window, this shot turned out pretty well. If you zoom in enough, you can see the moon close to the upper middle/left of the cloud.

Chocolate Balls - Day 323

I took a tour of a candy factory today (don't ask).  In the store, they had all sorts of stuff for sale.  I was hoping for some really good shots, but many of the pieces of candy were individually wrapped, which made for terrible pictures.  This is the best shot I got.  I really like this shot.  If you zoom in enough, you can see a shadow of me on some of the balls.  Sweet!

Streetlight - Day 322

I didn't have much time to take a picture today, so after dinner, I whipped out my camera and just took a few pictures while walking.  This is the best picture I got, I think.

Flatirons - Day 321

This is from the backside of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Lab.

God listens to my cell phone conversations! - Day 320

I have been busy with the workshop, and haven't had a huge amount of time to take pictures.  So, I was one the way to the reception tonight, talking to my wife on the cell phone about how I needed to make more time to take pictures.  At about this time, the sky opened up and the rain just started pouring and pouring and pouring.  I commented that there was no way that I would be able to take a picture now, since I am in Boulder and the only thing you should take pictures of in Boulder is the scenery. I got off the phone, and headed up to the NCAR Table Mesa lab, when it stopped raining and the sun came out.  As I turned around a bend, this was my view:

So Close - Day 319

I have to be honest here.  I travel a lot.  Not like every week type of travel, but sometimes I am gone 2 weeks out of a month.  With this level of travel comes certain perks.  Sometimes you get used to those perks.  One such perk is that I often get bumped up to first class.  For the last few months, I have not actually flown in normal class, when there was a first class on the flight.  So, it was a sad day when I had to take a 3 hour flight without my first class! (I am actually serious here.... just to clarify....)  So, this is a shot of where I should have been!  This is a crappy picture, and it was the only one I took this day.  I wanted to take some shots out of the window, but I didn't really want to disturb the women sitting next to me in the window seat.  Besides, it would have been a picture of the sunset, and who wants to see another sunset picture here???  I should also mention that this was (obviously) without a tripod, with a 1/4s shutter speed.  I must have rock stead hands!

Fleetwood - Day 318

Every photo blog needs a picture of the Fleetwood, right?

Night Sky - Day 317

Again taking a walk with the dog near sunset....

Sand Hill Crane - Day 316

Railroad - Day 315

I have to go home a completely different way to run across these tracks.  Sometimes I bike home out this way to avoid the big hill.

Bridge - Day 314

This is at a park that is about 50 feet away from the road on the way home.  So, I stopped to take a picture. 

Ray of Light - Day 313

I saw a beautiful ray of light coming through the clouds on my way home.  By the time I could pull over and grab my camera, this is the best I could do.

In The Air 2 - Day 312

We went to a party today with an egg toss and a water balloon fight.  I took about 100 pictures, but none of then really captured what I wanted.  This, I think, is the best picture of the day.

In The Air - Day 311

Back at the skate park....

Stairway to Heaven - Day 310

This is a stairway at George Mason University, where I was at a workshop.

Let there be light - Day 309

Another long day. It is 10:45.  I took this picture 10 minutes ago.

Hotel - Day 308

Today was a long day.  At 10:30 or so, I took this picture, just so I could get something today.

My Kryptonite - Day 307

Marigold - Day 306

I was promised worms by my wife why says that there are a ton of them eating our tomato plants.  I went out to the garden, and immediately got eaten by mosquitoes.  I didn't find any worms, and lost patience looking for them.  I must have gotten bitten 20 times in the 10 minutes I was out there.  It was hard to concentrate or set up for pictures at all.  So, I shot a bunch of worthless pictures of flowers and dead tomatoes.  Very very few worth keeping.  Here is the best shot of the evening, which didn't turn out bad.  Just not what I was hoping for. Cropped and rotated 90 degrees, but otherwise untouched.

Skate Park - Day 305

I took my camera to the skate park today, but didn't get many great pictures.  I was hoping to see some more amazing moves, but a lot of the kids were a little awkward and they would only sporadically do some moves.  I was also hesitant to take too many pictures (I need to get over this).  This was the best picture that I got.  It is interesting in that the focus isn't on the main person, where the focus should be.  Instead it is focused on infinity, and you can clearly read the Meijer truck label.  If I knew how to use photoshop, I would take that out.... Well, next time CrabBoy wants to go to the skate park, I will do better.