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Here and There…Now and Then |
BUGSGON
Do you enjoy vanity license plates? I do and often think about having a collection of photographs of them but of course I usually see them while driving, which isn’t really the best time to be taking pictures. Here I was stopped at a traffic light.
Sunset
There was another awesome sunset this evening. I tried to find a good spot to get the whole sky but actually I like this taken through the trees pretty well.
Obgarch, Pakistan
This isn’t a new picture. In fact, it’s from 1988, taken on Cathy and my great around-the-world adventure. I’m posting it because I’ve switched my banner for the site to use an edited version and thought you might enjoy the full frame. The banner has also been flipped horizontally so that the little note with my name on it doesn’t cover the mountain but this is the way the original looked. It was taken from a little village called Obgarch in far northern Pakistan. When I say little, I mean there were two or three people there. You can find it on Google Maps here:36° 38′ 15″ N, 74° 55′ 30″ E. We’re at about 9,000 feet in the Karakoram mountains which are really spectacular.
Cheeburger Cheeburger
Dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger this evening. Green olives are not a hit with the girls so I get them. This is my three-eyed cheeburger monster. Yummy.
Honey Bunches and Matt Brown
Christy Danner had a concert and release party for her EP No Script (which you should buy) this evening. The Honey Bunches were there, as well as three of the McGoff clan and Matt Brown and others whose names I don’t remember. This is Amanda, Erin, Carrie, Josh, Ben, and Matt.
Dramatic Sky
I drove to Germantown this afternoon to pick up Dorothy from a friend’s house and the sky was all cloudy with shafts of light coming through. Very dramatic and beautiful.
La Lune
It’s hard to take an original photo of the moon. Oh, I suppose you can catch different phases and of course different foregrounds, but one full moon looks much like another. So, here we have a nearly full moon.
Flag Through The Trees
I pass this flag going to and from work every day. Some days it’s hanging straight down while other days it’s stretched out in the wind. Today was a windy day and I took this picture through the trees waiting at the traffic light (I was waiting at the traffic light, not the trees, they were just standing there).
Snow Storm?
You know how beautiful snow is on the branches of spruce trees? I look forward to that and though it’s better with a whole forest of trees, there is a Colorado spruce in our front yard and a Norway spruce outside my office window so I have something specific to look forward to. So when the forecast is for snow I get my hopes up. Not, perhaps, as much as a kid hoping to get out of school the next day but still up. Eventually we did get a little frozen precipitation but mostly this is what the “snow” looked like. Kind of a let down compared to snow, but liquid water is pretty nice, too.
I took some pictures at band practice this evening. Dorothy didn’t want me to take any of her so I didn’t but here are a few that turned out well.
Dorothy and Kendra
There isn’t a lot that needs to be said about this picture. It is what it is.
Drowning Trumpet
Or maybe it’s just being washed, I’m not sure which. I thought about calling it “The Death of the Trumpet Marat” but that might be a bit too obscure.
Recording Session
The Music Guild had its first recording session today. I only went in long enough to see what the place looked like and to take a few pictures. This is Erin at the microphone.
Light Snow and Cool
There was a light snow overnight and it was quite cool this morning. Our thermometer said 19°F (-7°C) when I got up although it wasn’t as breezy as it was last night, which made if feel colder when it wasn’t.
Winter Sunset
Driving home this evening the sunset was quite beautiful so I found a place to pull over and got a nice photo of it.
Another Sunset
I was just leaving work today when I saw this in my rear view mirror. I found a place to stop and got a few nice shots. It looks similar to yesterday’s but every sunset is different. Also, since I was in a different place, even the same sunset would be different.
I was taking pictures of the piano keyboard this evening, with the camera on a tripod and with a two second delay. Dorothy had a good time trying to photo bomb my efforts. As you can see from the second of these pictures, she succeeded.
I went to the grocery store while Dorothy was at her art lesson this afternoon and when I came out I noticed the two signs and how different they are.
When we first went to Alaska we’d be out and about and were constantly looking for bald eagles. We’d see a big bird and get excited only to get closer only to find it was a raven or sometimes not even a bird at all. It’s one thing to know you’re looking for a big bird but another thing once you’ve seen how very big they actually are.
I was out at Brighton Dam today, taking a few pictures and enjoying a fine, warm winter’s day when I looked up and saw this bird overhead. I really wish I had a better long lens—this is pretty fuzzy—still, it’s a bald eagle, which isn’t something you see every day around here.
We think of winter as being without flowers but at least in our zone 7 climate that’s not really true. There are not nearly so many, of course, but there are blooms to be found. We have snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) blooming at various places around the yard. We only have one Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis) but we should get more. The one we have is a lovely claret color that’s quite cheery on a cold winter’s day (or even a warm winter’s day like we had today).
Gerber Daisies
These are in a vase in our dining room and though they are wilting a bit, they are still quite cheery and bright.
<em>Colias philodice</em> (Clouded Sulphur)
Cathy and I took a walk at lunch time today and I saw a few sulphur butterflies. February seems like the wrong time of year for them, but for all I know they are active throughout the year. Anyway, it’s been a fairly mild winter, so it isn’t too surprising, anyway. This isn’t a particularly good picture but we were on a walk together rather than me being out specifically to chase butterflies. Also, no tripod.
After seeing the butterfly yesterday and with today being even warmer, I decided to go out specifically looking for signs of spring. I hadn’t realized that the red maples were starting to bloom but as you can see, they are. It’s not too late for a surprise snow storm but spring it definitely approaching.
Sunset Out Back
I didn’t get out to take any pictures this morning and it was raining all afternoon. Fortunately it stopped raining and began to clear as the sun went down so I was able to take this picture out of our back door.
Dorothy had her second session in the recording studio this afternoon so Cathy and I took the opportunity to visit Brookside Gardens. The flowers in the greenhouse where lovely (much prettier than these poor photos show, I’m afraid). We also walked outside a little but the wind was pretty chilly. Still, there were some nice winter flowering plants in bloom that were worth seeing.
More winter/early spring flowers today, taken in our back yard.
<em>Ardea herodias</em> (Great Blue Heron)
As I pulled into the parking lot at work today I saw this heron down by the water. I parked, slowly opened the door and squeezed off three shots before he got spooked and flew away. The lighting was a bit rough and this long lens of mine is really not very sharp. Gotta save up for something better. Then again, I want something new on the wide end, as well. So many lenses, so little money.
Sunset
More precisely, the lack of wide open spaces. There are fewer places to get a good picture of a sunset than you might think. As I came home today I tried to find one but this was the best I could do. I got a couple that don’t have the power lines or tower but they aren’t as good of the clouds. So, the open, westward facing photo spot still eludes detection. But I’ll keep looking.
Traffic In The Rain
We had a very rainy day today, with it coming down quite hard for a good while. We haven’t actually had a lot of rain lately and nothing as strong as this so it was kind of nice, in a dreary, cold, gray sort of way. I love days like today, actually, but I’m pretty busy at work and didn’t get a chance to go out in it. On the way home, stopped at a traffic light, I did take a few pictures of the colored lights reflecting off the wet pavement.
