My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
I admire the patience of Blue Herons or any wading bird. I sure have learned to accept patience as a vital part of keeping my serenity. This image as taken almost five years ago just after purchasing my first DSLR and was shot in jpeg format. Now that time has presented the opportunity to practice and learn, I know to shoot in RAW format. So, it’s good to be patient and good things will come to us.
…to morning coffee when this scene presented itself. This day started around 3:00 am when I woke up tossing around in bed. So, I showered and headed for coffee. That’s when this happened. Pulled off to the side of the road and shot it without a tripod. Pretty steady hands before coffee.
Walking the streets of Westerville you will find red brick walls, antiques in windows and an empty bench. The only thing missing in this image is someone on the bench.
So, what do you do when you have a Saturday overnight in Manchester, NH? Well, you tootle to old-town scouting for restaurants, shops and anything else you could discover for the first time.
The van driver dropped my c-worker, Jeff, and I off along Elm street and we walked the streets from there. I was in awe of the massive brick cotton and wool mills along the Merrimack River. If you walk up the hill you will encounter brick row houses used to board the immigrants working in the mills. The Amoskeag Mill companies were instrumental to the growth of Manchester, not only acting as a magnet to its growth, but also providing the early services, such as stores, fire and police to the early city. It is reasonable to state that without the mills, Manchester would not have grown to be as large and prominent as it is today. There’s a lot of history and stories in those buildings.
For the evening meal we settled on a restaurant called Jillian’s, found here. They had a nice patio area along the river and the day was gorgeous. As soon as we walked in we discovered things were a bit different. The waiters and waitresses were dressed in costumes and outfits from another time. Our lovely waitress, Victoria, informed us they were to dress in a disco theme. Well, some did and some didn’t but it was sure fun. I took a few images, met some really neat people, had a good meal and would most likely go back. When I asked Victoria if I could take her photo she hesitated then agreed when one of her co-worker joined in on the fun. I immediately noticed Laura had a professional presence and after talking with her discovered she is a wife, mother of four, and professional model. She works hard to stay in good shape and health.
Nadine was eye candy. There was no way you were going to miss Nadine as she had on some eye catching high heels. First of all they were orange. I mean orange! And, she had a tatoo. Once you refocused your eyes and started working your way up those legs you discovered a very beautiful woman in those orange high heels. So, in between serving beers and burgers to customers, I asked if I could to take a few images of the shoes. Luckily, I got both the shoes and a quick portrait. Did I mention the shoes were orange and matched her top? Sorry if I missed that part.
Brian was the first one we met when arriving at the restaurant. The hat says it all! I really had fun with the shots I took of him and he really got into the role. In fact he was into the his role even as a waiter, strutting around with his cane, playing the role!
Speaking of playing,they had some live music with a guitarist name Chris Gardiner. Not bad! He played some oldies and brought back a few memories of past days. He played some nice toe tapping music, at least for a man my age but not for this young lady. She bouncing to the music while eating in her high chair next to us. After satisfying mom and dad that she had eaten enough, she hit the dance floor. So I hit the floor also and grabbed a few quick shots. She was having fun and people were sure enjoying the entertainment she provided.
It was definitely a beautiful day for motorcycles, you could hear them rumbling in the distance, so it was no surprise to have a few bikers show up? These two ladies came in and joined in on the fun and I was able to get this image just before they left. Heck we all fun! Just tootling in Manchester on a Saturday night.
I wanted to post this image as like the colors but there are thousands cone flower images like this. I asked myself how I could I make this image different? If anyone has followed my photography over the past few years you will notice I do very little post processing. After some tweaking around with Lightroom 2 this is what I came up with. What do ya think? Hope everyone is having a good weekend.
Morning haze makes for some interesting sunrise images. Visibility is decreased and colors change. They can be difficult to correctly expose. But, don’t you love them? I could be wrong, but it seems my home state of Colorado does not have as many mornings of haze as I find here in Ohio. My curiosity drove me to google-it for an answer.
Haze is caused when sunlight encounters tiny pollution particles in the air. Some light is absorbed by particles while other light is scattered away before it reaches an observer. On days when there are more pollutants in that air, light is absorbed and scattered more. When this happens, visibility is reduced as well as the clarity and color of what we see. Some types of particles such as sulfates scatter more light, particularly during humid conditions. Haze is caused from a variety of natural sources such as wind-blown dust or soot from wild fires. Man-made sources include cars, electric utility plants, and factories.
Have a super day!
Have you ever watched a dragonfly? I mean watched them without lifting your camera to your eye. They are so elusive, always on the move, requiring patience to get a shot. They live a very busy life. I confess to chasing them to get an image and I’ve also stood, for what seemed like eons, waiting for one of them to come into my frame. Today I found a couple of them who landed on a fence rail and posed for me.
Just as this dragonfly moves from plant to plant, I’ve found my mind moving from this thought to that thought. But just as this dragonfly, I also need to stop and be quiet, find a fence post to rest. Let the sun warm me. Relax my fluttering wings. Rejuvenate and get ready to move on.
“An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.”
Walter Bagehot