Weekly Header Challenge -- Looking Up

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Looking Up

Chosen by Tom.

For this week's header, I have fresh, new images to share!  These were definitely an occasion where everyone was looking up, and looking all around--we were surrounded!

Some big storms came through just a few nights ago, and we happened to be out on our front lawn at the perfect time.  Sometimes we're oblivious to the shapes, colors, and scenes of thunderstorms, and we didn't think about this particular storm until we went outside to say goodbye to Jake's girlfriend Allie and her family, who came for a visit.  Sunset was nearing, and the sun was reflecting the most brilliant colors off the clouds to the northeast.

Here is my header image, uncropped so you get the full effect:

When weather "happens," digital images usually don't do justice to the grandeur and majesty of the sky lit up with clouds and colors.  But, I did my best to capture the sky.  Below, our house was framed with blue-tinted clouds.

As we turned our backs to the house and looked northeast, these billowing clouds met our eyes.

A little later, as the storms continued to develop north and east of us, we saw the color display become even more dramatic.

Besides this storm, there were other recent images I took where I was looking up.  Here's one from last week's fireworks show in Naperville:

Also, as I was gardening last week, I heard a familiar tap-tap-tap, and looked up to spot this female downy woodpecker on a half-dead tree on the other side of our back yard fence.  Yes, I garden with my camera nearby, since you all know I blog about our everyday life!  I was able to get close enough to this bird and set my telephoto to 105mm to get the below image, with no cropping.

Finally, here's an older image at my favorite portrait session location just a few miles from my house.  These are the concrete steps leading up to the wooden footbridge across the DuPage River at Knoch Knolls Park.  In order to look up these stairs, I had to crouch really low on the ground.  It's a great perspective to use with stairs!

I will be out of town for next week's theme, so I will see everyone the following week with (Lord willing) lots of new images to share!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Happy Birthday, America!

We have awesome friends who go out at something like 5:30am the day before the fireworks show to lay out tarps for 40-50 of us to sit together and watch the fireworks, right in the front row.  With my camera and tripod, it's an awesome opportunity to hone my nighttime action photography.

I experimented with a couple of long exposures, just to mess around and get my camera ready for shooting fireworks.

I should have moved down closer to the corner and set up there for the actual fireworks.  The reason?  That truck in the above shot, which was parked there to provide after-show lighting.  You'll see that truck further on in this post.

School buses, shuttles for the Naperville Ribfest, constantly drove by until just before the fireworks show began.  I took the opportunity to "capture" one of them driving through my frame.

Then, it was time, and the fireworks began.  Naperville does a great job with its fireworks, and this year was no exception.  Most of my shutter speeds were four seconds, with low ISO (probably had it at 100), so sit back, scroll through, and enjoy.

The below one was crazy cool, with blue lines flying all over the place.  The captured image looks vastly different than what my eye saw.  And yes--I was actually watching the show!  I have a shutter release and pretty much never looked through the viewfinder.

There was a breeze which caused the drifting effect in the below image.

This green one was a really cool capture.

And this one was one of my particular favorites.

These ones below were low to the ground, and all sparkly and glow-y with lots of light flashes and booms.  I think I captured these well.  :)

The finale shots are below, and you'll get to see that lighting truck I mentioned at the beginning.  It wrecked these shots.  Grr.  I can always edit it out, though I saved only three images.

Yes, the last shot is really overdone and overexposed.  Four seconds was too long a shutter speed!  But I kept it because it was pretty much that bright, not to mention loud as all get-out.   We had a fantastic time together tonight!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

Visit my website
Stop by my family blog
Like me on Facebook