On This Day - July 2020

Babler State Park 007, 07/31/2018

I couldn't help but hum a few bars of the old Bill Withers classic song 'Lean On Me' when I initially walked up on this scene. It was targeted for inclusion for a project I've been working on for several years. Thus far, that project seems to be stuck in first gear.

Tishomoak 010, 07/26/2013

Another one from the 'I spent my summer chasing wildflowers on my own property' year.

Forest Park 009, 07/22/2006

Forest Park is the large city park in St. Louis, MO and has a plethora of photo ops in numerous genres. On this particular day, I spent most of the session seeking out the abstract qualities in the various grasses that can be found in the park.

Tishomoak 004, 07/18/2013

I can't say I was astute enough to notice the four out of focus flowers forming darn near a perfect square surrounding the one in focus flower at the time I captured this, but it was the first thing I noticed when reviewing shots for this day's entry.

Bodie Island Lighthouse 001, 07/10/2015

The first capture I'd ever made of Bodie Island Lighthouse on the Outer Banks. In fact, now that I look at the catalog again, it was the first capture on the Outer Banks...period. Part of a workshop with the Mountains To Sea Workshops team with Athena Carey as a guest instructor. And though it may lack a little 'wow factor', I see a gentleness to the overall vibe of the image that I hadn't seen previously.

Forest Park 011, 07/09/2006

This one might turn out to be a seed for a new project. I love the incongruity of how 98% of the reeds of grass are pretty much vertical, but every now and then one breaks out into a rhumba and dances it's way through the shot.

Don Robinson State Park 9353, 07/02/2020

I have to wonder what it was that leaned on this young oak long enough to permanently bend it's trunk to almost a right angle yet not kill it. I would hazard a guess it must have been another large tree, but there's nothing in the vicinity now that would have created such mayhem.

Memorial Hospital 006, 07/29/2006

I had been visiting my parents on this day and hung around their place a little longer than I'd originally planned as a storm blew through the area. It was approaching sunset by the time I did leave and noticed the sky just beginning to show some interesting color. Being a heavy residential area, I had to quickly skim the mental rolodex to come up with a location where I might shoot without a bunch of rooftops, utility poles, and/or power lines imposing their presence on a shot. And the only place that came quickly to mind was the campus like setting of one of the local hospitals with this scene being right along the entrance drive to the hospital grounds. It turned out to be one of the most vividly colored sunsets I can recall. And while I've never been able to process this one to my satisfaction in color, I'm pretty tickled with this b&w version.

Castlewood State Park 0022, 07/25/2019

I guess it should come as no surprise that the propensity for ferns to thrive in largely shaded and damp (or at least damper than norm) locations would suggest using a fallen tree as a lean-to for protection.

Tishomoak 023, 07/21/2013

It would appear 2013 must have been an 'Out My Front Door' year for shooting wildflowers captured on my own property...typically on the edges of the wood line that surrounds the house. The spiky ones don't look familiar to me now. They must not be very common.

Tremont 0008, 07/16/2015

If you see a waterfall image posted from me, you'd be right more often than wrong if you thought it was from Great Smoky Mtn National Park. Not always the case, but far more often than not. I suspect I've driven by this location at least a dozen times and most often there's not much more than a trickle flowing down this 'falls'...if that much. To have this kind of water volume in mid-July would seem to indicate they had had a very wet spring and early summer in the park in 2015.

Avalon Pier 0106, 07/11/2015

Another image from the July 2015 workshop with the Mountains To Sea Workshops team with Athena Carey as a guest instructor. We had arrive at Avalon Pier on the Outer Banks in time to capture sunrise on this morning. And I wore out the camera shooting that sunrise. It was a great session. By the time this image was captured, the sun had risen fairly high and we were beginning to wrap up the session. I recall capturing this image and a handful of others that are variations on this, but at the time wasn't terribly thrilled with any of them. And I don't recall the fog having set in this heavily, but that wasn't added into the shot...it was there. Which adds another degree of interest because, were I to encounter the same situation today, I'd be much more interested in capturing these foggy scenes than those of the pier with the sunrise.

Forest Park 009, 07/08/2006

I believe this is the first shot in this 'On This Day' project I would definitely shoot differently today than this capture from 2006. It's from a man made waterfall in Forest Park (the main St. Louis, MO park) where the city folk go to get a little 'nature'. I've shot this falls several times primarily to capture these small intimate scenes rather than the entire falls in one shot. The way it was constructed, there is quite a variety of ops where the water flow can be viewed moving in multiple directions all in one 4x6ft scene. Not sure if I didn't have a tripod with me on this day or what, but of the 25 or so captures from this session, 1/30 sec is the slowest shutter speed I used this day. Were I to chase a do-over, that would be the fastest speed I would use and would have made multiple captures with progressively longer speeds to see how the water flow's appearance would change with each change in shutter speed.

Lake Tishomingo Fireworks 004, 07/04/2014

In times past, our community's POA would sponsor an Independence Day fireworks show. Not a huge show, but very nicely done small community show. in addition, it wasn't uncommon to have a private resident or 2 put on their own show that would generally start a half hr or so prior to the POA sponsored events. And occasionally, it seemed like a private resident must have spent more on their own display than the POA show. This shot is a composite of 3 displays from one of those resident displays. The fact they started launching their display while the last remnants of the evening's sunset were still available gives it a little extra punch.

Red Bud IL 001, 07/28/2003

Shot at my sister's place of the time. They had an old house with several outbuildings on the property. This capture is the corner of one of those outbuildings. Though I shot this in it's native vertical format as well, I thought the deliberately angled composition was much more interesting. Between the diagonal lines, various textures and the little organic snag of some vine clinging to the wood corner piece, there's a fair amount going on here.

Tishomoak 0002, 07/24/2018

I find the early period of an orchid's post bloom decay at least as interesting as the full on peak bloom period. Not being anything remotely close to resembling a botanist, it surprises me they hold so much color as they decay. At least that seems to be the case with the variety of 'grocery store' orchids I have purchased.

Nottingham Ave 001, 07/20/2006

This one is unquestionably a stretch for inclusion in this photoblog. Much more a 'personal history' interest. I opted to include it here only because it captures both my car and residence of the time. My house was under construction at the time and I would move into it only several months after this occurred. Captured right after a heck of a storm passed through the St. Louis area and wreaked havoc with many trees in the area. How it managed to tear up the sycamore behind my car and leave the vehicle unscathed is anyone's guess.

Roanoke Light 049, 07/15/2015

Yet another image from the 2015 trip to the Outer Banks. While the large majority of my shots at Roanoke Light (sometimes referred to as 'Manteo Lighthouse), have been from the boardwalk area surrounding the marina in an attempt to isolate the lighthouse/sea/sky, I was intrigued by this scene when I stepped back from the water's edge.

Jockey Ridge State Park 004, 07/13/2015

The workshop that had been the impetus for this trip to the Outer Banks had ended. And we had not visited Jockey Ridge State Park as part of the workshop. But I had opted to spend several additional days on the Outer Banks after the workshop ended to see what other photo ops might be available. And because I'm a sucker for sand dunes, I decided to pay a visit to JRSP. This one caught my attention simply for the 'tracks' left in the sand from by the reeds of grasses as they flailed about in the wind. I had seen a similar effect at White Sands National Monument some years earlier, and was intrigued to find it here as well.

Lake Tishomingo 013, 07/07/2009

We were in the midst of a terrific sunset on this day and I had been trying to incorporate the lake's old patrol boat into a shot with the sunset in the background. Rather than go for an expansive view of the boat, lake, & sunset, I opted to shoot the sunset through a boat window.

Lake Tishomingo 0001, 07/03/2019

These backlit seed pods had a bit of an alien vibe with the seeds visible inside each having somewhat the shape of a human head. So, rather than play it straight, I opted to go a bit alien with the color palette as well.

Missouri Mines State Historic Site 020, 07/27/2013

The Missouri Mines State historic site is a very unusual place to visit. Once upon a time, southeast Missouri was sort of THE lead mining capital of the US (Yay! Missouri... :) ) and produced lead for ammunition for every war the US has participated in since the Civil War. As a state historic site, much of the plant's structures are off limits. Probably a good thing given the probabilities of lead still permeating the area. Interestingly enough, those areas of the site that are still accessible are rather colorful for an 'industrial' facility. I couldn't pass on this one given the unique color palette complementing the textures and shapes.

MO Botanical Garden 015, 07/23/2006

One piece of the Chihuly Glass exhibit installed in a fountain at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The exhibit included pieces in virtually every portion of the grounds of the garden for much of 2006. Seems hard to believe it's almost 14 yr since it ended. A few pieces of the massive exhibit remain, but unfortunately, this is not one of them.

Lake Tishomingo 003, 07/19/2009

And....we're back to the lake I call home. It was the pointilist like cloud cover of this early morning shot that made it a worthy choice for this day's entry.

Avalon Pier 005, 07/14/2015

The 2015 Outer Banks trip was when I started to get 'serious' about long exposure photography. This one I've processed a few times, but was never truly happy with the result. This I think I can live with.

Roanoke Light 049, 07/12/2015

The first visit to Roanoke Island on the Outer Banks with the July 2015 workshop group. Another sunrise session for the group. You can (barely) see several other members of the group setting up to shoot from the walkway out to the lighthouse. I had already capture some shots from that walkway and was just wandering around other areas of the marina looking for other vantage points to shoot.

Shaw Nature Reserve 0007, 07/01/2019

Though I've not yet found a presentation for this one that would fit into my ongoing 'Ferns' project, I do like the sort of chaotic arrangement of this group.