Holiday Spirit

Went downtown to watch the nighttime Christmas Parade tonight.

It's held just after dark, and all the entries whether they are cars, floats, people on foot or on horseback, bicycles, you name it are decorated with christmas lights. That's what its all about.

It's pretty hard to get good photos with everything being so dark. Most turn out a little blurry from long exposure times and movement. But here's a couple that aren't too bad.

Fortunately it wasn't too cold or windy, as it sometimes is. Was around 32 degrees with a very light breeze, so for once it wasn't completely numbing. Even though I was pretty cold by time it was over - it's a pretty long parade!

 A vintage fire truck pretty well covered with lights.

A old Yellowstone Park tour bus covered with Christmas lights.

Twisted

Just a few shots from a fall hike. But no fall colors in this set! I promise!

How did this pine tree manage to grow like this? It has a huge twist out and around in its trunk, and ended up growing up straight again. Maybe someone twisted it up when it was young and flexible till it got like this. I'm not sure. It's dead now, as are many pines in the area thanks to the pine beetles. But its still standing, twisted though it may be.

A silhouette of the sky. The clouds look threatening, and it was mostly cloudy today.

Big Bangs

But they're not theory - they're the real thing!

Shot a bunch of July 4th fireworks tonight. Many could be posted, but I'll just post a couple.

This year's 'new' idea was experimenting with adjusting focus during the long exposures on some of the shots.

Just a nice capture of multiple bursts in one shot. Nothing experimental in this shot.

This shot had some of the focus experiment. I think I started with the lens set to focus on infinity at first, then started bringing focus closer during the ~5 second exposure. A lot of this ends up being guesswork. So I have some in focus, some out of focus. I kind of like it, definitely worth trying again. Fireworks shots are a great experimental medium. Unfortunately you don't get very many opportunities to shoot them in a year. And they never last long enough.

DHCBWOCHO

Huh?

It will be clear(er) in a moment.

Went to another car show. Took a variety of photos, but just posting this one -

DHCBWOCHO!

Otherwise known as another in my Dramatic High Contrast Black & White Old Car Hood Ornament series!

Back On The Trail

Got out for a spring hike. Things have been wetter this year, so that's a definite improvement!

Just going through a normal cycle of seasons. Some years dry, some wet, some somewhere in the middle.

A bit of a motion-blur long exposure shot of some water running in a river. These photos are always fun to take, if you can find a good angle to shoot from. And use a tripod or something to keep yourself steady.

Skeletons! These trees have been dead a long time. Silent sentinels of their past lives.