Day 293

Alex pointed out several spiders that have made our windows their home.

Day 292

While we were at the post office, we encountered several geese.

Day 291

Since we didn't have power, I went to my parents' house to charge my computer, camera and cell phone. After they had finished charging, dad showed me the damage near the house.

This tree fell in between their house and a neighbor's. It fell over the drive way of the next neighbor. By the time that I saw it, someone had cut it up to unblock both driveways. There was a pile of trunk cuttings and a large root ball. There was so much debris, that I didn't want to risk falling on the acorns to get closer to the root ball.

There were acorns and berries scattered on the ground. This cluster of acorns was in a triangle.

In the evening, at our house, a red spider was making a large web on a lower window. However, my camera had a lot of trouble photographing it clearly, so the color of the spider and detail of the web showed nicely. Also, it was a quick moving spider. This is a photo of it resting after finishing the web.

Day 290

The morning after the tropical storm, the ground was covered in debris from the trees. There was even a leaf clinging to living room window. Later in the evening, there was a large insect caught in a spider web. One of the large spiders was staying by the roof waiting for it to die. Unfortunately, it wasn't dead when the spider descended and the spider was thrown by the insect while it spun in a panic.

Day 289

Today, Hurricane Irene brought us a tropical storm! It was scary to watch the largest tree sway around in a 20 foot radius! Thankfully, we know that trees don't get that large without being strong. It's nestled with several other tall trees. I took photos from safely inside my house. We are supposed to stay away from windows during the storm, but honestly, it wasn't that impressive of a storm compared to others that we've had. However, it knocked out the power lines in mass for several day. This my friends, it a back dated post. We didn't have power from Saturday night until Thursday evening. I frantically had to use my parents house, Friendly's and Noah Scalin's house during that time to recharge electronics and access the internet for my business. Craziness! Ok, on to the photos and videos!

Day 288

There is a tropical storm headed this way tomorrow. The hurricane portion will hit the coast line, but since we are not on the coast, we will just have a severe storm. I'm not looking forward to it, but today has been relatively calm and a bit wet. Since the rain had stopped and the outside temperature was cool, I decided it would be a good chance to photograph wet leaves on the Camellia bush.

Day 287

While we were walking around an outdoor mall, I saw this fuzzy bud on a tree.

Day 286

While at my parents' house, I noticed this type of tree had started changing colors. Their tree was too hard to photograph well. This one is between two driveways in a cul-de-sac by their house. The wind was blowing the tree around while I was trying to photograph it, but I managed to get these two nice photos.

This is a panoramic of the cul-de-sac from the top where we were standing, across the clouds and down to the road where the trees overlap. This neighborhood is slightly over 30 years old, but it was farm land before that, so the trees are very tall and old. I love older neighborhoods like this because privacy is fantastic, especially during foliage heavy months.

Day 285

I love photographing the sun in the morning as it shines through the trees in the back yard. Sometimes, it has a prism effect with colorful rays and spots. Sometimes it's a soft glow with high contrast. It's all unpredictable and that's what makes it more enjoyable to see.

Day 284

I have kitty duty this week, so I took some photos at my parents' house of their foliage.

Gumball tree

A few fallen leaves were red.

Tall fern like plant

Day 283

The ferns on my hill have sprouted yellow flowers.

Day 282 - Photo Effects

This photo was a favorite by several people, so I decided to play with it and alter the colors. I used Picnic effects to change it. The effect is listed above each photo. The original photo is at the bottom.

HSL Filter

Cross Process

1960s

Heat Map - Thermal

HDR-ish

Boost

Holga-ish

Adjustable Threshold (looked the same as Black and White)

Original photo

Day 282

Today we went to Busch Gardens theme park.

Rescued eagle

This is one of 5 that live at the park. They were rescued after being injured in the wilderness. They can't fly anymore, due to the injuries, so they live in the park. The park houses many rescued and adopted animals.

One of the Kookaburra birds that lives in the aviary.

One of the Rainbow Lorakets that lives in the aviary.

Sun through the aviary screen

Real squirrel. Fake tree.

Daisy

Moth on yellow flower

Sunset on the way home.