Harvest

"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." [Genesis 8:22]

This piece of nostalgia  from one of my favourite artists, Neil Young, came to mind as I pointed my camera skywards this evening (click the link below the photo to listen).

[I've been doing some harvesting of my own - more kitchen photos, which has kept me away from my blog and yours. Last kitchen shoot is scheduled for tomorrow.]

Under the full moon

I don't know whether statistics back it up but folk lore has it that strange things happen under the full moon. I was out in the wee hours last night and caught some strange apparitions.

(SOOC:  10-22mm  f5.6  120sec  ISO200)

Pause for the cause

Dear visitors,

I will be away from blogland for the next week and a half. Enjoy a nostalgic trip into outer space by clicking on the clip below. Note that I didn't have the advantage of close proximity for my shot which I took from a distance of about 250,000 miles/400,000 km (give or take a foot/metre or 2).

I will drop by to see what you've been up to when I return ...

(70-200mm with 2x extender  f5.6  1/100 sec  ISO200)

Not forgotten

To all the heroes of 9/11
Who look upon us from highest heaven
Whose memories we'll ne'er forget
On whom the sun will never set.

Dedicated to all the men and women who gave their lives in the valiant rescue efforts of that tragic day. "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13)

A glorious sunset followed by the rising of the full moon marked the closing of this day of remembrance.

(10-22mm  f8.0  1/50 sec  ISO200)

click on photos for larger image

 (18-55mm  f8.0  1/50 sec  ISO200)

(10-22mm  f8.0  1/15 sec  ISO200)

 (10-22mm  f5.0  1/20 sec  ISO200)

 (10-22mm  f6.3  1/13 sec  ISO200)

 (18-55mm  f6.3  1/2 sec  ISO200)

Easter 2011

I hope you all had a joyous Easter. I trust that the lyrics in this song only serve to bring you back to another time, and that none of them were applicable today.

(70-200mm  f14  1/125 sec  ISO400)

And although I missed the stroke of midnight, I'll post this for Sunset Sunday.

(10-22mm  f18  1/25 sec  ISO100)

Over the moon

That's how I feel for having recently been honoured by 3 fellow bloggers who awarded me the

Thank you Darlene at My Life For A Year
                   Joseph at CarreraCaballo's
                  and Cat at The Whimsical Gardener

Now according to the 'rules' I need to reveal 7 things previously unknown about me - that's the tough part because you know I've been like an open book ...

1. I try to avoid politics (here on my blog) but let me just say that I don't like how we're letting ourselves become ensnared ever more deeply into a nanny state
2. I hate having those 'senior moments' where I temporarily set something down only to have it 'disappear' in an instant - I'm still searching for a pair of glasses I set down a week ago
3. psst - promise not to tell ? ok. I like speed - the car type. Nothing really crazy mind you, just driving at the speed that's 'appropriate' for the road conditions e.g. not feeling limited by the posted 'guidelines' on an empty highway on a sunny day. I have a little Tiburon GT in the garage back home (you should see it corner !) and we just bought a Mustang GT convertible here (I would really love to have had the Shelby, but ...)
4. I think I have developed patience, although I will admit to having a little less of this on the road with drivers who obviously got their licence out of the cereal box
5. I'm an unabashed night owl; years ago I learned to operate on less than 6 hours of sleep (6 is nice though); hence sunrise shots are rare on my blog
6. when I travel to places I find it hard to sit still - I like to explore wherever we go; a real punishment would be to force me to lie on a beach doing nothing for more than 15 minutes
7. I rarely watch TV but love to read a variety of history books (recent ones: The Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, The California Goldrush of 1849; currently reading The History of Coffee; on deck - The Great Depression). I also just read this fascinating online book.

Ok, that was probably more than you bargained for. I'm also supposed to give this award to 15 (?) newly discovered (by me, I think) bloggers. But you already know that I'm not always that good at following 'rules' so I'm splitting this assignment into 2 parts. Part 1 I completed above and I promise to do part 2 this week.

(70-200mm  f11  1/250 sec  ISO200)

(Day 355) It was a dark and stormy night ...

Well, it was dark at least but "the moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas ..." and it looked like it was really snowing out. Sometimes photos can distort reality.

I went out looking for a night time seasonal scene this evening. The combination of the full moon looking pale behind the clouds that were scudding along the darkened sky, and the snow in the headlights, made things look worse than they were. In fact, it wasn't a bad night to be out at all, by Canadian winter standards.

(both shots made with a 18-55mm lens at f9.0, ISO1600 and shutter speeds of 1.6 and 2.5 sec)

click on photo to enlarge

(Day 313) If you believe ...

I recall, when I was young, being told about the man in the moon. I'm sure many people have similar recollections. I don't know what made it seem plausible at the time, but then again children's imaginations usually haven't been blunted or stunted yet by the realities of the world. A lot of things were quite possible for me to believe - and they weren't limited to the tooth fairy, Sinterklaas (Santa Claus), and the sandman (remember him ?). Eventually most of that 'magic' is lost.

I was reminded of that tonight when I looked into the evening sky. I'm old enough to remember the moon landings, but apparently there are people who are convinced that they were faked. Perhaps they still believe in the original man in the moon. I was reminded of this song which you also might remember (no, it's not as old as the moon landings).

(70-200mm  f5.6  1/20 sec  ISO200)

(Day 262) 20,000 leagues under the sea ...

Sunday Sept. 19, 2010

Well, not quite, but under the sea these creatures live. We visited the aquarium in Rhodes town today and saw some of the creatures that inhabit the waters around here. The aquarium is an impressive building from the era of the Italian occupation (1912 - 1943) on what appears to be the most northerly part of the island. I'm not quite sure what this particular sea creature is but it caught my attention as it caught the aquarium lights.

(50mm  f4  1/25 sec  ISO800)

(70-200mm  f8  1/10 sec  ISO400)

It was difficult finding the time and a place to post during our vacation and I couldn't make Sunset Sunday a few times. I did manage to capture some sunset scenes, however, and will post some of those over the next few weeks. But here's one for this Sunday - could either be sunset or moonrise.

(Day 201) Night moves

Tues. July 20, 2010

I decided earlier today that I wanted to do some night shots, since it had been a while. I liberally covered myself in mosquito repellent (I'm not sure what my blood type is but it's grade A as far as mosquitoes are concerned) and took the tripod and remote shutter release out with me. The moon was not quite full but it cast a nice light on the clouds.

You can see the effect of a small aperture on the moon in the first shot. And no, the second shot is not of the northern lights - that's the effect of a long shutter speed on moving clouds.

(18-55mm  f14  20 sec  ISO400)

(18-55mm  f6.3  100 sec  ISO200)

(Day 145) "Fly me to the moon"

As we sat near the pond early this evening, we watched dozens of dragonflies racing around, undoubtedly keeping us from the usual swarms of bothersome bugs. Before long, a froggy suitor's serenade started whereby he hoped to entice a comely froggy maiden to join him for a pleasant evening side by side on a lily pad. I could make out the strains of that old lover's song "Fly me to the moon". I thought that if I could catch him performing his repertoire he might make a suitable subject for today's post. And so I did, and he did.

Well, it so happens that we're almost at full moon time (close enough when I looked up at the moon), and I haven't posted a moon shot. I decided that I should at least try. I made a few photos and as I was making them I heard the droning of an airplane. As luck would have it, the pilot's flight plan also followed my theme for tonight (you'll have to enlarge the photo to see how).

(70-200mm  f11  1/50 sec  ISO400)

(70-200mm  f8  1/400 sec  ISO400)