What's Better Than A Full Moon?

A full moon with partial cloud cover!

 

Not too bad for a shot taken with my cell phone. 

Sharing with Friday Skywatch

Do You See What I See

Sometimes we can see what others see even if we aren't looking in the same direction thanks to reflections like this one in my grandson's glasses. 

"Do you see what I see?
Way up in the sky, little lamb,
Do you see what I see?"

Okay, I know Christmas is way off but this sky photo reminded me of this line in the Christmas Carol 'Do you hear what I hear?"

While looking for the exact line I came across this song I had never heard by an Australian rock band titled "Do you see what I see?". While the meaning of song doesn't fit with my photos it's a pretty good song so I thought I would share it.

 

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Jame's Weekend Reflection

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Friday Skywatch

Quiet Beauty

Two very different locations caught during a quiet moment. 

 

The Terry Redlin Art Center is a very beautiful place but can be very busy.

 

The Empire Mall parking lot, taken this morning before the mall opened. 

For me the lack of people in these photos add a quiet beauty to the already beautiful scenes.

What do you think?

 

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Jame's Weekend Reflection

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Friday Skywatch

The Wonderful Thing About . . .

Who can resist Tigger, not me, especially when he comes with this wild orange tiger strip reflection. If you would like to see what created this fun reflection I posted a different shot earlier this week that shows more on Hot Nights N Hot Corvettes.

Yesterday I went for a long photo drive, 274 miles long. It was a terrific day and I captured a lot of great photos that I will be sharing eventually. But here is one from the end of the day. Storm clouds and sunsets make for such beautiful skies.

 

Have a Tiggerific Weekend!

 

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Jame's Weekend Reflection

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Friday Skywatch

Oh What a Beautiful Day

This week we had a number of very beautiful days.

Both of these photos were taken with my cell phone.

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Happiest Seat at the Car Show

There was a great deal to be happy about that day at the car show, beautiful cars, great friends, gorgeous skies and Funnel Cake!

 

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Friday Skywatch

Winters Twilight

A golden warmth bathes the land,

as the sun sets on winters twilight.

 This photo was taken early in April. 

In the Midwest April is more of a winters twilight,

 because it is not quite winter but it isn't really spring either.

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Jame's Weekend Reflection

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Skywatch Friday

If you have enjoyed this image you may also like the one I shared HERE.

Have a great weekend!

Afternoon in Rapid City

A bit of Reflections

The Pennington County Courthouse is a gorgeous bit of architecture and those arched windows do such a lovely job reflecting the afternoon sky.

One thing that still amazes me even after so many years living in South Dakota is the appearance of the moon in the mid afternoon sky.

Dramatic South Dakota Skies

I am pulling from my archives for today's Friday Skywatch photos.

 October Sky

I can never resist a game of hide and seek with the sun.

November Skies

I loved how the ranch and hills were all aglow with the late afternoon sun coming from the clearer skies to the southwest but the storm clouds filled the sky to the north and northwest.

This photo was taken only a few minutes after the photo above but the road had turned slightly to the north and the photo is facing more easterly.

Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Share the sky watching love by visiting and sharing your sky photos with Skywatch Friday.

April 2014 Eclipse: Playing With The Moon

Like many others I stayed up late on the night of April 14th to watch and try to get a nice shot of the lunar eclipse. I set up my camera out in the back yard where I had a lot of room and what I thought would be a clear shot at the moon. It was fantastic to watch but my photos were not as nice as I had hoped. But here there are anyway.

This first image is a series of shots during the first hour of the eclipse. I was a bit disappointed for two reasons. First I thought it would be turning red and that it wasn't going to after all. Secondly, although I had thought I positioned myself in a good spot to get the full eclipse, the moon moved more than I had anticipated. First behind some tree branches and then completely out of the frame.

Here is a closer look at the shots through the tree branches. As I said I pretty much gave up and went inside and uploaded the photos. An hour later as I was headed to bed I looked out the front window and this next photo is what I saw.

Now that was what I was hoping to get photos of. So I grabbed my tripod and camera and headed out to the front yard, where I took a few shots as the eclipse waned. Here is a few from the end of the eclipse.

I did manage to get some pretty cool shots playing around, both during the first hour of the eclipse and after I discovered the moon had turned red.

My glasses had fogged up as I huddled into my sweatshirt, so I decided to use them as a filter and this is the result.

After that I decided to take one through the lens without it being all foggy. My glasses have prisms in them so they created some fun shots.

 Another fog shot.

Here I tipped the glasses slightly toward the camera lens.

And here I tipped them slightly away from the lens.

Here they are all together for a bit of an abstract.

This last is straight from the camera with no editing other than to reduce the size of the image. The shot red in the sky was created by using a long shutter speed and rotating a lit cigarette in a circle in front of the camera lens. Alright I know I shouldn't smoke but it did make for a really awesome photograph.

As you can see I am a little behind. Hmm, maybe a little more than a little, but I hope you still enjoy these photos.

Linking up with: Skywatch Friday

Sky Watchin

I have been pretty much in hibernation for a while now but I wanted to let everyone know I haven't forsaken this blog. After the New Year I hope to be back to my click happy self, but in the meantime here are a few sky shots.

Wishing all a very happy holiday season!

Capturing the light

Such beauty when nature captures the light.

Sky watch Friday Submission

Late afternoon thunderstorms make for amazing sunsets. This photo of the clouds capturing the light of the setting sun was taken from our front porch.

Weekend Reflection Submission

When a mid day breeze disturbs the water of the lake it may lose the mirror reflection but it gives us a glistening reflection as it captures the light of the sun, turning the choppy surface into a glittery blanket.

Linking up with:

Jame's Weekend Reflection

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Skywatch Friday

T.G.I.F.

Friday is here and I am so glad to be here taking part in two of my favorite blog hops. It seems like forever since I last took photos to share on Jame's Weekend Reflections or on Skywatch Friday. So without any more ado here are the shots I took today for this post. 

Today's inspiration came from my Son-In-Law's Harley

Carnival mirror Harley style

Sky reflection on the front fender

And now for a direct shot of the gorgeous sky.

If you enjoy reflections and watching the sky come join in the fun.

In Flight: Catch Me If You Can

For a year now I have been wanting to capture some shots of a cardinal that likes to hang out around our home. Either he is camera shy or he just doesn't like me because every time I go out and sit with my camera all ready, he goes into hiding only to come out again when I don't have my camera or like this when I am photographing something else.

I was taking this next shot when I saw a quick flash of red out of the corner of my eye and heard his sweet call.

Not wanting to miss out on yet another chance to capture the Cardinal, I quickly moved to a position where I could see him in the tree and captured the shot shown at the top of this post. Knowing that any shot would have to be taken in a hurry I did not take time to change my settings, I just tried to get the focus as clear as possible. Sure enough, he took off almost as suddenly as he landed. I did manage to get this last shot of the Cardinal and an airplane both in flight before he got away.

[Canon T3, lens EFS 18-55, f/8 1/320 ISO 200] Top Shot Submission

Although the Cardinal has a motion blur and I had to crop the image to get the frame I wanted, since I didn't shoot it with a zoom lens, I am still pretty happy with the shot.  

The perfectionist in me says the motion blur is an obvious sign of lack of skill, which I am not ashamed to admit my skill when it comes to action photography has a long way to go, especially with birds. At the same time the artist in me actually likes the motion blur, maybe even more than I would like it nice and crisp.

What do you think, would it be better without the motion blur?
To all of you bird photographers out there, any tips on capturing these lovely creatures is greatly appreciated.

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Skywatch Friday

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View From My Back Yard

Once again the week has flown by at break neck speed, delivering us to Friday. 

 With the tropical storm just off the coast we have seen some pretty awesome cloud formations. I hope you enjoy these photos of the view from our back yard.

 Last but not least a turtle blew in.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday and

Have a terrific weekend, and while your at it grab your camera and capture some great memories!