Goldenrod

 "The fragrance and the color and the form, and the whole spiritual expression of goldenrods are hopeful and strength-giving beyond any other flowers that I know. A single spike is sufficient to heal unbelief and melancholy." ~ John Muir

Rural Roads

  On our way to Wayne, Ne. we decided to take back roads and I am so glad we did.  It was a beautiful, overcast day (giant softbox), so quite and peaceful and so rejuvenating for my photography soul, I really needed to just be outside, exploring.  I try to remember each and every time to ask God to reveal to me what he wants me to see, capture and bring glory to him in some way.  When we came upon these two barns on one farm, I felt like God was saying here you go, I know you need this right now.

Lake Crescent NWR

It has been quite awhile since I have undated my blog, seems like IG has been where I have landed with my photos but I miss the journaling about them, it is like a photo dairy of the trips, the learning curve, equip used and just overall fun with Dan.  We went out to western Nebraska for a long weekend to explore this NWR and were blessed to see burrowing owls plus numerous other birds.  There is nothing like the wide open spaces of the sandhills, blue skies and green grasses for miles.

Fall is in the Air

I have not been out too much with my camera do to my shoulder injury but today I just had to give it a try.  Went for a little stroll around Holmes lake and was so glad to see the sunflowers which to me speak fall, there was also a gentlemen with his faithful companion that was just wiggley to be fetching his "duck" out of the water.

Street Characters

Revisiting some old files and thought both of these images would lend themselves well to a black and white treatment.  I watched a tutorial using a faux Ansel Adams zone system technique and have been using it, I would love to understand and learn how to implement all 19 zones but for now this will have to suffice. 

Lemonade from Lemons

When your given a lemon and have three grandsons with you stuck on a country road for 1 1/2 hours, you let them run buck wild in the corn fields and take advantage of the fact that you had your camera with you and make lemonade!

Ahh-choo

The original "goose" from Top Gun

  I know they are only geese but they are so graceful when flying by.  Hand holding the 150-600 still is quite a struggle but I am getting better at it.

Sunrise on the Barn

Nothing like first light on an old Nebraska barn.  What a perfect start to a wonderful day with Dan, he took a day off to spend it with me, our cameras, driving country roads and visiting several state parks. 

"Old Red"

On a road trip earlier this summer we went to the NE part of Nebraska and South Dakota.  On our way home near Verdigre, Ne we came upon this old beauty, it had just rained and the colors really popped.  I decided to dress her up a little with a few texture layers.  I used LR, PSE and On1 and some free textures I found on Flickr.

5 Zone B&W

I watched a tutorial by Mark Wallace on the zone method of processing your B&W images and decided to give his technique a try. This technique was mastered by Ansel Adams and had 11 zones but this method worked basically with 5.  I was inspired to try it on one of my images from the Pow Wow we went to last summer after seeing Dave Black do a Native American print in sepia.  The bright, contrast of colors actually lend themselves well to a B&W image.

She was calling...

Coming home from Omaha this fall we took highway 75 out of Papillion and came across this barn, it was windy as all get out but I had to have Dan stop so I could get take her picture.


Original

2LO and Shadowhouse Textures
 

and the Oscar goes to...

  Our inspiration for photo forum this week and a pretty plain jane image of a hawk that I had so I decided to see what I could do with it.  Usually you apply the textures over the image but this time I applied the image over the texture and then masked it through.  I then added a layer with an image of a hawk tattoo pattern and found the Birdman font. I started in LR, then PSE, then On One and back into LR.   I definitely need to learn to use my Wacom tablet, this is incentive to get that bad boy out and learn to master it instead of letting it master me.  Ha!

Owl Prowl

 

Rowe had an Owl Prowl on Saturday night while we were camping at Fort Kearney and since we were only a few miles away decided to go and check it out. There were two volunteers from the Raptor Recovery center doing a presentation and these images are of their education birds. They have been physically injured or in case of one of them mentally disabled and not able to be returned to the wild.  By Federal Law they either need to be used as "ed" birds or be put down.  There were about 40 people present with several children, the volunteers did a great job at the end explaining to the kids how important school was if they were interested in working with the raptors.  We elected not to go on the actual walk since it got so late and there was no light for photographing. 

Remnants of Summer

There are fewer and fewer remnants of summer as the cooler temperatures and changing leaves are upon us but a few of the flowers are still hanging on and seed pods opening to start the circle of life again.

After the Rain

  I went out after the rain and captured a few macro images.