Weekly Header Challenge -- Textures

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 ~ Textures

Chosen by Mac.

Popping in with a quick blog post for this week's theme!  We just returned home from a week's vacation in the Adirondack Mountains, at my parents' summer home on Lake Bonaparte.  All of my featured photos today are from our trip.

Here's my header image, uncropped:

This mushroom, as you can see below, was at least 10 inches in diameter--as big as a dinner plate!  My macro shot above shows the interesting texture.

Who can resist the texture of ice cream?  And whipped cream?  Not I!  We visited the local ice cream parlor, Treats 'n 'Tiques, for dessert one night.

I love the old textures in the sign below, which was hanging at Treats 'n 'Tiques.  The "'Tiques" is short for Antiques, and they have several on display, including old memorabilia from the area.

In town--and I use that word loosely because the main area of town is literally one block long--there is a park along the Oswegatchie River, next to the bridge at the end of the one block "business district."  You can see the bridge in the image below.

Above, I used a shutter speed of 1/250th second to achieve a stop-action kind of shot.  The texture of the water appears hard and crisp.

In the below shot, my shutter speed slowed to 4/10 second, and the texture of the water changed to a soft, flowing one.  Cool effect, huh?

Water can also appear calm and smooth, and I leave you with this final image of one of the sunsets.  It was a mostly cloudless evening sky, but I loved the orange radiating out from where the sun had set earlier.  The longer exposure (6 seconds) created the smooth, calm effect, which goes nicely with the peaceful sky.

That's all I could manage today; but, I will have more time to dedicate to next week's challenge.  See you then!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Big Bird

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

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 ~ Big Bird

Chosen by Tom.

These are my latest bird images; I took them just before Thomas was baptized last August, in the DuPage River.  Mallard are surprisingly large, and typically very used to humans.  After flying in, they swam right over to the shore to pose for this picture, which is my header image:

They seemed to have no qualms about us invading their space that day, though when our little crowd showed up, they swam or flew off.

I caught one of the females coming in for a landing, below; I love the crispness of the image.

They even stood there, preening away while I crept ever closer with my 24-105mm lens--no macro or telephoto lens, this was!  They didn't mind having their pictures taken at all.

Those are my big birds for the week!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Signs of Fall

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

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 ~ Signs of Fall

Chosen by Lew.

I love this week's theme.  Then again, that was easy, since I love all things autumn, and I tend to break out my camera and go exploring in a big burst before the really cold weather hits us here in Chicagoland.

Here is the full image of my header:

Red leaves, McDowell Grove, Naperville, Illinois.

Fernando and I went for a walk at a local forest preserve.  I hadn't been there in ages, and although there wasn't a lot of color because most of the scenery is scrub trees and "natural" vegetation, there were pops here and there.

Here are more signs that it's fall.

Brown, crinkly leaves...

More opportunities to warm up the house with baking...

Pops of color along the river...

A harvest moon...

Autumn colors on the prairie...

Ladybugs congregating on our south/west windows...

And my favorite image, which I see every day for just a week or so through my kitchen window.

Jacob's tree.

This is a very special tree.  My dad gave us this little stick of a tree for Arbor Day the year Jacob was born.  We put a little plastic fence around it--actually, there were two trees but one kept getting mown over by the lawnmower!--and it grew two or three feet tall.  Then we moved, and we took the tree with us.  But, we moved to an apartment while we waited for a house to be built (or not--long story), so my parents transplanted the tree into their back yard.

We ultimately moved into our current house, and that autumn had my dad re-transplant the tree into our very own back yard.  It's a small tree for 23 years of age, but it has always been called Jacob's tree, and for a mere handful of days in autumn, it is a beautiful reminder of the glory of autumn, and of God's faithfulness to us in our family's journey together.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - Anything Goes

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

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!

Group Theme ~ Anything Goes!

Anything Goes = I Get to Choose My Theme. Which is:

The Color of Winter

Since we've been entrenched (literally and figuratively) in winter, in this seemingly interminable January, I figured I'd make the most of it.  So, here is my header, full-shot mode:

Since there's no way I'd go out in minus-11-degree weather to snag some winter weather images, I'm sharing images from a winter walk that Fernando and I went on earlier in January.  The above header image is actually the last shot I took on our walk.  As we crossed the footbridge on our way to the parking lot, I looked to my left and saw the rocks wearing their hats of snow as the brook emptied its not-quite-frozen contents into the river beyond.  I took the shot kneeling way down to get between the floor of the bridge and the lowest rail.  The perspective was beautiful.

I love those white-capped stones, and the starkness of the trees.  I almost converted the image to black and white, but there was something about those two splashes of gold from the dormant grass that adds an extra warmth and beauty to this scene.  It was a perfect image to end our walk on.

Here are my favorite images from our visit.

At the start of our path.

I edited most of these in black and white mode, which I felt lent itself to the starkness of the season.  Both black (all colors) and white (the absence of color) work together to create beauty of their own, and help me to see that winter is also about shapes and mood.

I love the shape and contrast of winter trees.

Winter prairie scene.

The next image below lent itself to sepia tones.  Although I love the same image in black and white, the sepia adds a little more warmth to the scene.

On the bridge at the river.

In case you wondered, below is the same shot taken a few Octobers ago, with the same tree branch framing the shot (I knew I liked that frame!!).

I vaguely recall that we're supposed to include an image featured in a past header, so here's my header image from January 2:

Toldja we've been entrenched in winter all month!!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Summer Evening Walk

July began with early June weather, and Fernando and I took advantage of the beautiful temperatures by taking an evening walk at one of my favorite portrait session sites.

This bridge is located right at the parking lot, so it's a logical place to start.  There's also lots of park to the left (of this image), with fallen logs and really cool-looking trees.

Of course we stopped along the bridge to capture the river scenes.

Looking west along the DuPage River.

 Looking east along the DuPage River.

Then there's a little paved path to walk along, accompanied by bicyclists, joggers, and other walkers.

 

Without a tripod, it was a little tricky shooting in the darker interior of the woods.  I managed to get a great shot of the sun peeking through.  You can see the bridge we crossed in the extreme right of the image.

I love shooting up into trees!  It's a super cool thing to do in the winter, when there are no leaves to block the view, and the image becomes about lines and shadows against the sky.  But in summer, there are some really neat lines and shapes with branches and leaves, and the below tree was the perfect candidate for my camera lens.

We walked a ways down the path, then cut over into the field to see if we were in time to catch the sun setting.  We were.

I pretty much brought only my kit lens, which isn't the best, so I had to really work to get a good shot in the lowering light as the sun set.  Fernando was a sweetie and posed for me, too.

This one below is my favorite, since I was able to capture the sun, some rays, and some lens flare in the fields.  It looks like a nice prairie sunset!

Once the sun set, there were still opportunities for some great shots, and clouds always help make things beautiful.  They give the sky shape and form, and they do a lovely job reflecting the colors of the sun as it goes down for the night.  The below is my standard shot when the sky is really pretty like this.  I like to put the horizon low in the image to capture more of the beauty of the sky.

Note--if the sky is plain blue (which is also beautiful!), I usually put the horizon smack-dab in the middle, which isn't something you'd normally do, rule of thirds and all.  But with a plain blue sky, it can make for a very symmetrical, and therefore peaceful, image.

To change things up a bit and capture some of the foreground in my sunset image (below), I got down low to shoot.  This way, I was able to capture some of the grasses sticking up into the sky, silhouetted against the beautiful orange of the sun.  Love this shot!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Winter Stroll

Knoch Knolls Park.  I've visited there before (see here and here).  Now, on a warm Sunday afternoon at the beginning of December, Fernando and I decided to take a stroll down some of the paths here.  The scenery did not disappoint, even at the beginning of winter.

Looking across the bridge

I spied a fisherman fly-fishing in the river!

I think the below image is worthy of a card.  I may just have some printed.

I'm not a big fan of shooting into the sun, although some photographer achieve great results using this effect.  I must say, though, that the below image turned out beautifully!

I took several shots of the sun as it set.  I just couldn't choose one; the colors were so pretty on this winter day, and the trees stood as stark spindly shadows against the light spread across the sky.

We headed a little farther along the path, then turned around and retraced our steps.

In one clearing, there were picnic tables and a chiminea backing to the woods.

We came to the wooden footbridge across the river, and it presented a pretty scene.

At the middle of the footbridge, the view was sweet and peaceful.

Looking in the other direction, the other bridge stood out against the colors of the setting sun.

I think that I've collected several images which will be turned into cards.  *happy smile*


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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