Sky High

Just got back from a summer vacation trip to visit some family. Got a few interesting photos along the way. My favorites were a bunch of stormy weather, very interesting clouds I got one day late in the trip.

The all-seeing eye? Nope. Just a large roadside sculpture, leading down a highway with 6 more very large metal sculptures. Some are pretty nice, some are just - unique. But they're all big!

A nice train relief on a building (actually at a rest area!). I toned it, but the actual color of the building itsn't much different than the photo.

Catch the buzz! Nice close up of a bee on a flower at my brother's house. Besides the bees there were literally squadrons of big dragonflies around but I didn't manage to get any photos of them.

The first of my stormy day photos. They were all shot in HDR. I tweaked the color to make it a little more bluish. I really like how all the cloud effects really pop out in HDR. Though sometimes it can be a bit 'much'.

Another shot, in this one you can see part of a rainbow near the ground.

I was shooting in a yard that borders a horse pasture. And there were several horses and ponies out in the field. They weren't quite as interested in the clouds as I was.

Its a storm-o-rama! This is a 180 degree view, composited from 4 photos. Really interesting sky, in-between running for cover from rain showers, which there was no shortage of either! Some pretty heavy downpours in fact. But I didn't get any of those tricky lightning shots.

Plants Ablaze

Went out tonight to take July 4th Fireworks photos. Had a pretty good show, with a really good blazing, exploding finale. But the whole show overall seemed a bit shorter. Probably shorter to save money?

Took quite a few photos, I picked out a couple that all kind of remind me of plants. But plants made out of blazing trails of light!

This one looks to me like a big purple flower. With a stem and leaves.

Tumbleweed - that's what I'm calling this one! Big and spiky.

Wrapping it up with a nice, peaceful Palm tree. Time to head for the beach!

Supercharged

Summer under way, and one of the early summer events is the annual Superday. Like always, I mostly go just for the car show to try and find a few interesting cars to shoot, and maybe a few cool hood ornaments. Overall, I got both!

Starting off with a car I know. This '68 Dodge Charger belongs to a friend of mine. He completely tore it down and rebuilt it. Most of it looks factory stock. Other than the big supercharger he put on the 440 engine. He won best in his category. I shot in HDR, then photoshopped the background to get rid of other cars, people walking around, etc.

A front end shot of one of Ford's most infamous cars - an Edsel. This one was also a convertible!

A current generation Corvette hood/front end. Added a bit of an oil paint effect to the image (except the logo) to tweak it a little.

A logo from a Ford Lightning high-performance pickup truck. Truck wasn't anything special but I like the logo.

Got a couple new entries for my DHCBWOCHO (You know what it means) series at this show -

This was a really cool early 30's Buick sedan with wood spoke wheels. Car was in great shape, and had a nice big chrome ornament. Hood was open showing the engine, which you can see in the picture - the center hinged style hood.

My favorite from this shoot. A mid 50's Pontiac. The head was kind of an amber colored plastic, probably original as it had a lot of fine cracks in it. Car was black and white. Just a little cleanup and tweaks and it really pops! Cool unique hood ornament.

That was it for the car show. Very sunny, pretty warm. As always getting good shots is tough with all the reflections ( I keep seeing myself reflected in the cars!), overly bright sunlight, too many people in the way and too many cars next to each other. But, that's the way it goes!

Triple Threat

Got out for my first hike this weekend. With weather looking very likely to rain.

Partly sunny to start the day, even started getting warm. But this spring has been close to a record for the amount of rain we've been getting. And it continued today.

This is more HDR, as the clouds built up. There were a LOT of people out today hiking and biking. Till the first rain shower started. Then it seemed most of the people vanished. Maybe they melted? Fortunately I packed a rain coat, and had a good spot to wait out the rain and thunder for half an hour or so. Then it sorta cleared, and was nice again for a while.

Till the next batch of clouds rolled in. The rain forced to wait it out again. Turned this photo black and white for a little drama! The cycle repeated and it cleared up again, looked pretty nice and sunny. With more clouds on the way.

Just became the story of the day. Sunny and nice in between rain showers and cold, sometimes with thunder and lightning. Getting later in the day. After the third rain shower, it cleared more and I was able to finish my hike with some really nice weather. And almost all the people were gone. Too bad because the weather finally was the nicest it had been all day!

Getting ready to head out. As the next wave of clouds was moving in. But that's just fine - I was home bound for a hot shower and a cool beverage! 

Atroz?

What's that?

Not sure. Only definition I came up with online is its Spanish for 'Atrocious' or terrible. It also happens to be the name of my new Diamondback Mountain Bike! So I'm gonna go with "Dude, that bike is, like, totally atroz, man!"

Here's the whole bike. It a full-suspension bike with 27.5 inch wheels, the latest 'in' size between the old standard 26 inch and the new but too big for some 29 inch. Hydraulic disc brakes, 10 speed rear cassette with single speed front, aluminum frame, rock shox shocks. I've only added a couple accessories so far, have some on order. It's gloss black with bright green details, so I'm gonna go with that a little more, and call it my X-Bixe (along the lines of X-Box). Got it on sale for a pretty good price.

Rides pretty well, certainly a LOT different than my OLD mountain bike ROB (Really Old Blue), which is from the days of no suspension. But its still perfectly usable, and I still ride it occasionally. Curiously enough, that bike is a Supergo Access Comp, this bike is a Diamondback Atroz Comp. Both Comps. Coincidence?

One of the things I still need to get the most is a suspension pump. This bike has front and rear air shock suspension. Comes with some air in it but I don't know how much. But from riding it on some trails I know it needs a little more air in it. Suspension compresses quite a bit on bumps.

This is the trail in a park in town where I can ride off road. This is a pretty flat area, also has some areas with a lot of built up ramps, bumps, mounds and more to ride over. Due to the excessive rain this year, its very green and weedy and there are a lot of wildflowers. I wish the city would do a little more to maintain this trail, as the weeds are 3 feet high in some spots and have almost totally overgrown the mostly very narrow trail.

Time to ride some more!