Saturday, June 30, 2012

Paine Falls




This weekend I got a new piece of fun photo equipment for my birthday!  (My actual birthday is not until Monday but you can't waste a perfectly good weekend for a photo assignment.)  I received my very first neutral density filter for my camera!  It is great for a variety of purposes....one of which is photographing waterfalls.  It can give you some really cool effects on motion pictures.  So here is my first effort experimenting with the filter at Paine Falls. 












It was forecast to be nice weather, but then they changed it to 50% chance of rain.  But then of course it cleared up to be perfectly sunny.  While sunny is nice in general, it actually makes waterfall photography difficult.  So the ND filter was put to the real test!  This pic to the right is a view of the cliff where I took pictures of the falls. The same goes for the pics below. 



A view of the top of the falls.  The layers of shale were so gorgeous!  It made me think of all the large thin, flat, hunks of shale we used to find up on Lake Erie's shores when we were kids.  They are perfect for skipping stones.  The guys used to compete for who could get the most skips on one throw....I think my Dad was the best at it.  ;-)
Very excited when two cedar waxwings landed right in front of me!!  But there were so many tree limbs this was the best quick snapshot I could grab before they flew away.  That is the cherry on top of a good photo shoot...getting at least one thing you didn't plan to see!!


Monday, June 25, 2012

Sunday Drive


 Yesterday was another perfect summer day.  Eighty degrees with sunshine and cotton candy clouds.  But for some reason I was in the house most of the day, so after dinner I thought  a nice drive out in the evening air would hit the spot.

As more clouds rolled in, I could tell the sunset had potential to be a great....or a total bust.  As it turns out it was a little of both.

The sunbeams were breaking through the clouds and could be seen perfectly from a freshly threshed (say that ten times fast!!) straw field.  After inadvertently disturbing a lovely doe from her leisurely graze in the field, I snapped some photos of the early setting sun.


It was a pretty nice set up for a roadside photo op, and just behind me out of view is a little pond at the bottom of another hill.  Gotta love those rolling hills of farmland!  

After exhausting all possible viewpoints at this location, it was time to get back in the car and head down the road to find another potential spot to see the sunset.

Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in thicker, and there was no commanding view to be found facing the west on the country road we were cruising on.  Finally we reached the big local fairgrounds and decided to stretch our legs....and those photos will make up tomorrow's post!

Until then enjoy a Sunday sunset from behind the lens.

 
By Horatius Bonar:  
Excerpts from“His Sun”

"He maketh his sun to rise."—Matthew 5:45

 
He keeps it burning. It is not allowed to burn low or to go out. He supplies it with all that is needful, and says to it, Burn on, burn on. He leads it up each morning, and over the arch of noon, and down into the west. All this rising and setting, this daily shining and shading, this coming and departing, are his. It is his sun emphatically. Were it not for Him it would go out in obscure darkness.
 
It fructifies It makes all living things to grow and bring forth fruit. No sunshine, no life; no growth, no fruit. For man and beast, for herb and tree, for flower and leaf, sunshine brings growth and fruitfulness. Such is God's love in sunshine. Ah, yes, it is his sun! It does his work.










Old barns a plenty around our town.  Couldn't tell from this photo but this one sits on one of the busiest state routes in the region!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Watering Flowers


 
 





Yesterday was a beautiful summer day.  Sunny, breezy, blue sky, and finally nice and warm after a chilly morning.  Since the forecasted quarter inch of rain earlier in the week inexplicably missed our house I decided it would behoove the flowers to give them a drink from the hose.  I snapped a few photos of our flowers along with some of my special assistant.


Coincidentally, the Spurgeon devotion I read (this morning because I was a day late!) seemed to fit nicely with these photos.  So if you missed it too....enjoy it now!










 
C.H. Spurgeon’s June 13th Devotion from “Faith’s Checkbook”

I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. (Isaiah 27:3)

When the Lord Himself speaks in His own proper person rather than through a prophet, the word has a peculiar weight to believing minds. It is Jehovah Himself who is the keeper of His own vineyard; He does not trust it to any other, but He makes it His own personal care. Are they not well kept whom God Himself keeps?

We are to receive gracious watering, not only every day and every hour "but every moment." How we ought to grow! How fresh and fruitful every plant should be! What rich clusters the vines should bear!

But disturbers come; little foxes and the boar. Therefore, the Lord Himself is our Guardian, and that at all hours, both "night and day." What, then, can harm us? Why are we afraid! He tends, He waters, He guards; what more do we need?

Twice in this verse the Lord says, "I will." What truth, what power, what love, what immutability we find in the great "I will" of Jehovah! Who can resist His will? If He says "I will," what room is there for doubt? With an "I will" of God we can face all the hosts of sin, death, and hell. O Lord, since Thou sayest, "I will keep thee," I reply, "I will praise Thee!"
Mini Pool - tell the bees it's a spa day!!!






Special assistant Houdini taking a water fountain break.  Please note the tooth marks in the hose....he punctured a hole in the hose before I even connected it last week. (I found out when I turned on the water and got soaked!)  Now I see it was a part of his plan to stay hydrated in the summer sun.

What I find funny is that he has no compunction about being sprayed in the face and soaked with water!  But I shouldn't  be surprised since last week he ran through sprinklers watering the backyard like a little kid, arriving back at the screen door sopping wet, as  though he had just had a bath. The other two hounds sat nearby...completely bone dry!  They are not so young at heart!















After he was done taking a drink, he decided to help with my end of the job.  Needless to say I didn't need anymore hose modifications and he lost his job as assistant.