Moving Water
The stream next to my office was flowing fast and furious today, with melting snow. I took a bunch of pictures of the stationary waves and this is my favorite of them.
Tagged With: Water
Tree Reflections
Tree Reflections
I took a lot of good pictures today of people, mostly friends from church. I couldn’t pick one as being better than the rest so I’ve decided to put them up in their own gallery and just put this picture up as my Project 365 image. I’m undecided as to whether it would look better if the pavement was in focus as well as the trees but I Like it, anyway.
Chandelier
Chandelier
We stopped at a lighting store in Rockville today. It was raining very hard and the light from this chandelier through the water soaked windscreen was beautiful. The chandelier is slowly turning, which made the lights move and sparkle.
Rushing Water
Rushing Water
After the rain on Sunday the stream in the field next to my office was high. It was still high today (and the ground was very wet). I took quite a few pictures of moving water and like this one best.
Rain
Rain
That’s pretty much the word for the day. It rained all day, sometimes softly, sometimes quite hard. This is the brake light of the car in front of me (stopped at a light — we’re not moving, don’t worry), through the rain on my windscreen. Need to turn on der drizzleflippen.
Ripples
Ripples
I admit that I have a thing for ripples in water. I can just sit and watch them. I don’t really know what it is about them that I like, but I think they are cool.
Sedum Jewels
Sedum Jewels
We saw dem jewels so I took pitchers o’em. So, now you can sedem, too. These are water droplets in the emerging leaves of a sedum in a pot in our front yard. More water droplets in Extras.
Rain
Rain
It cleared up later in the day but this symbolizes the day for me.
Horseshoe Falls
Horseshoe Falls
On the way home from Toronto we stopped at Niagara Falls. It’s right on the way and we figured it would be worth the time. We paid to go on the “Journey Behind the Falls” tour (which is really just access, not a tour). For anyone interested, the actual “behind the falls” portion is fairly anti-climactic. The observation deck right beside the falls, however, may be worth the price by itself. Plan to be wet by the time you are done, though, unless there is no wind at all. I had my camera in a plastic bag and pulled it out for a couple shots, of which I think this is the best. There are similar viewing areas on the US side and it would be interesting to compare them to this.
Categories: Travel
Tags: Horseshoe Falls, Niagara Falls, River, Water, Waterfall
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Ocean Isle Pier
Ocean Isle Pier
It’s been pretty hot but this is the beach. I like this nearly monochromatic image of the ocean and the pier to the east of our house.
Categories: Travel
Tags: Beach, Ocean, Ocean Isle, Ocean Isle Beach, Ocean Isle Pier, Water, Waves
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Rain
Rain
We’ve had a bit of rain lately. Dampness prevails. Pretty, though.
Raindrops On A Pond
Raindrops On A Pond
It continues to be quite busy at work but today was something of a turning point in the project I’m working on. I made a lot of progress and it’s starting to come together. There is still plenty more to do, but I’m a little less panicked now. At about 4:30 I decided to take a short break and go outside to take a few pictures. I got a few that I think are nice but as I was heading back to my office it started to sprinkle a little. There is a drainage pond near the sidewalk, just through the trees, and I made my way to it and took this picture of the raindrops softly landing on the surface of the pond.
Categories: Miscellaneous, Sunrise/Sunset/Sky
Tags: Rain, Reflections, Water
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Croydon Creek
Croydon Creek
I mentioned the other day that Cathy has been looking at topographic maps of the area and that Avery Road used continue as far as Baltimore Road. When Norbeck Road was put in, the section from there to what is now the Croydon Creek Nature Center was abandoned. The last quarter mile or so north of Norbeck was realigned so that they would meet at more or less 90 degrees. Today, Cathy and I walked from the Croydon Creek Nature Center down the hill to Croydon Creek and then back up on the old road bed as far as Norbeck Road. It was a beautiful day. We had been to three stores and it was really nice to get away from the crowds for a little bit. It’s a pretty, little park and worth a visit if you want to get away briefly.
Great Falls, Maryland
Great Falls, Maryland
It was cool today (some said cold, but my scale is a little different to some). It was beautiful out, in any case. The sky was a deep blue and it was a perfect day to go to Great Falls and the C&O Canal. We walked out to the overlook, stopping along the way to enjoy some wildflowers in bloom. We saw lots of yellow adder’s tongue (Erythronium americanum, also known as yellow trout lily), although we only saw one or two flowers and they were not completely open yet. We saw some cutleaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) which I recognized but couldn’t name without looking up. We saw lots of spring beauties (Claytonia virginica), varying in color from pure white to fairly deep pink. After returning to the tow path, we found a few areas with lots and lots of Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). That was a particular treat and really made it feel more spring-like.
Categories: Travel
Tags: Great Falls, Maryland, Potomac River, Rapids, Rivers, Water
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Rock Creek After a Rain
Rock Creek After a Rain
It rained quite hard over night and into this morning. When I got to work, the drainage pond next to my building was full to the overflow. It was a busy day, though, and I wasn’t able to get out and take any pictures. On the way home I stopped and walked a little by Rock Creek. It wasn’t as high as it would have been this morning but still quite swollen. Also, this is just downstream from Lakes Needwood and Frank, which act as a flow limiter to the stream below them. The stream, seen hear over a fallen tree, is usually about three feet lower than this, though, so it’s still quite high (for a little stream).
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Rain, Rock Creek, Streem, Water
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A Fine Summer’s Day
A Fine Summer’s Day
I was across campus to have lunch with a few people today and then went for a short walk in the woods next to my office. I took some pictures of tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) leaves and then crossed the creek and went up to the more open part of the property. There were some areas that were still quite wet from the recent rains we’ve had. The ground around here is predominately heavy clay and water doesn’t percolate very quickly into it, particularly once it is waterlogged. This is a drainage catch basin and later in the summer it will likely be completely dry. For now, though, it’s a haven for birds and dragonflies and a small oasis in an otherwise built-up (although suburban) area.
Gloucester Harbor
Gloucester Harbor
We had a pretty busy day again today. We went out to Eastern Point Lighthouse and walked out onto the jetty to Dog Bar Lighthouse. There were cormorants diving in the water next to the jetty and we enjoyed watching them, as well as gulls and ducks. From there we went to Rockport and when we came upon a parking spot we took it and walked a while. I took pictures of Motif #1 and thought about posting a photo of that but decided to go with this somewhat abstract photo of reflections taken a short walk from our airbnb as the sun was setting.
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Gloucester, Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts, Reflection, Ripples, Water
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Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
I decided to take a bit of a detour on the way home, stopping at Upper Rock Creek Park along the east bank of Lake Needwood. I find it very frustrating that the powers that be they have put up barricades on Needwood Road that make it impossible to park there and enjoy that end of the lake. I don’t really understand that decision. It’s obviously something that was thought out and specifically decided, as some of the guard rails are not protecting anything except places that one might otherwise park their car. Anyway, I drove through the park and ended up parking at the south end of the lake. As I was walking I startled a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and was just able to get one somewhat blurry photo before it flew out of range.
Categories: Creatures
Tags: Ardea, Ardea herodias, Bird, Birds, Flight, Great Blue Heron, Heron, Water
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Lake Needwood
Lake Needwood
Cathy and I went for a walk on Lake Needwood after church today. It was overcast but pleasant and we walked part way around the lake. I took this picture from near the boat house at the southeast part of the lake, looking north, more of less. The trees are bare and with the overcast sky, they looked particularly stark and gloomy. That’s not to say they aren’t beautiful, though. I think they look pretty nice. The water was quite still, also, which added to the mood.
For the few of you who follow me here, I apologize for the brief hiatus. My main workstation has four hard drives (including a relatively small boot SSD). Two of them, one 5TB and the other 6TB are dedicated to photographs. Unfortunately, I have a lot of photographs and they two drives are full. That kept me from being able to “process” my photographs for about 10 days (not that I rushed to rectify that matter, of course). I ordered another 6TB drive so I should be set for a while now.
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: HDR, Lake, Lake Needwood, Trees, Water, Winter
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Watts Branch Tributary
Watts Branch Tributary
This is a small tributary of Watts Branch, which comes through a culvert under West Montgomery Avenue (before it becomes Key West Avenue). On the other side of the road is a small drainage pond build for storm water management and in which there were beavers living until a few years ago. It joins a larger creek that flows through another storm water management pond between my cuilding and the rest of our company’s campus. It goes back under West Montgomery Avenue again before draining into Watts Branch near the Interstate 270 interchange.
Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: Blue, Creek, Reflections, Sky, Tributary, Water, Watts Branch
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