In the ballpark,

but not a homerun.

Remember my Kelby Photowalk entry from early October?

He did the judging, picked a Grand Prize winner.

Wasn't me.

Also picked 10 Finalists.

Still not me.

And finally, 15 Honorable Mentions.

Again, not me. :(

But its not all that bad. It's very subjective, and one judge makes all the picks. 

If there was a bird flying by, reflected in the glass on one side, THEN maybe we'd have a winner!

This year, there were 614 images entered in the competition from all over the world.

And my entry came in at #41 for 'likes' by people looking through the entries. 

41 out of 614 isn't too bad. I'll take it!

I'd post a link to the site, but you have to log in just to look at the images for some reason.

As for the contest, maybe next year...

K-01 WG

 Huh?

Time to upgrade my Pentax K-01 mirrorless DSLR. With a custom made wood grip. WG!

The Pentax K-01 is a very good, if quirky camera. With horrible ergonomics due to Pentax's unfortunate decision to let it be designed by a 'famous' industrial designer. It feels and handles like holding a brick. I planned to do something about the clunky design for some time, and I finally did.

The basic body. This is the ugly duckling. How to make it a swan...

My initial idea was to stick on a rubber grip extension on the front, along with a smaller one on the back. Bought some stick on grips. But never put them on. They'd both need a lot of cutting and trimming. While it would probably work, I kinda shelved the idea for a while.

Just recently got back to it. But, using wood! Much easier to work with. So using some high grade plywood for a base, a piece of a large dowel for the front grip and a piece of scrap wood for the side. Along with some small screws and some Gorilla glue. And a lot of sanding and rounding off of corners. Finished with some walnut stain and matte urethane. I think it ended up great!

The small bolt in the bottom screws into the tripod socket to hold it on. Cut a slot in the bolt head with a Dremel so it could be tightened and removed with a coin.

The finished product! I now have a considerably larger front grip to hold on to. Plus a place on the back to rest my thumb against. This is a pretty good result, for making it out of scraps. The only thing I left out was a hole in the grip. In the first photo you can see the small red IR receiver port. For the handheld remote shutter. I could have drilled a hole in the wood but I didn't. The remote would mostly be used if the camera was on a tripod. And the wood grip has to come off to do that.

It feels pretty good, and is MUCH easier to hold. The wood is slightly slipperier than the rubber-like body of the camera, but overall a great improvement. The wood finish will wear over time, but that's just to be expected.

If Pentax made this camera body with a larger front grip and a back thumb grip, it might have been a much more successful camera for them than it turned out to be. And they'd still be making a mirrorless camera. Which is one of the hot markets for cameras these days.

A flip/swivel back screen (a personal preference of mine) and a more professional, less Playskool finish to the controls wouldn't have hurt at all either!

Walk Five

This year Scott Kelby held his Worldwide Photowalk. But due to Coronavirus, they changed it. Instead of joining a group in selected cities, and wandering around with that group for a couple hours taking photos, now it was a solo event. Anyone could join it (for a small charity donation) and do their own walk, anywhere, at their own pace. But all on the same day. It actually opens it up to a lot more people, though you do miss out on the group aspect of it.

I entered it, and wandered around several location to snap photos. Most of the pics just end up as random snapshots, but a few can always be considered a bit better. I narrowed it down to three contenders for this year. Plus a couple extras.

This shot is under a large river bridge, with concrete supports. Depending on where you were, there was quite a bit of graffiti. This wasn't one of my three favorites. But its very close to the first of them...

This was one of the three. And its actually in the first photo. When you continue on towards the river, you come to this point. Where the supports have this neat repeating affect across the river. But on to the next almost...

A straight up shot standing under a large high voltage power line. That's a lot of metal framework. High powered, but still not the ultimate selection. That goes to the next photo...

Here's my pic for the Photowalk entry. A nice perspective shot on a glass walled room on the side of a local building. Not exactly perfect in proportions. But overall for the day I felt it was probably my most interesting shot. 

Have to see if I win any prizes in the competition. I seriously doubt it.

Closing off with a late in the day sunset panorama. So long to the day of the Photowalk!

Post-walk awards update - All the winners were picked. Grand Prize? Nope. Runner Up (10)? Nope. Honorable Mention (15)? Nope. But, I got enough likes from participants to be a bit over 93% in the list of most liked of all the images entered (about 615 total entries). I call that a success! 

Creepy Crawly

It's summer now. The snow and cold have left us for a while. And in their place, we have greenery and wildlife of all kinds. Some big, some very small.

Here's a few I've captured with a macro lens.

A tick! That I found crawling on me. It didn't last long after this photo was taken. Wasn't a very cooperative subject either - wouldn't sit still. There's been a fair number of these pests around this year. I've found more on me than I like. All on the move, not settled in for a snack. Fortunately.

Ants. Lots of ants. There have been large numbers of them crawling all over these flowers as they got ready to bloom.

Look at those cute puppy spider eyes! Actually a very tiny spider, working on a meal from the looks of it. This was my most cooperative subject. Just sort of sat there while I got in for the closeup.

Amazing the details you can see of something when its enlarged a little!

Aaaaaaaand

It's winter again.

That was fast.

As soon as spring and the birds returned, winter decided to say "Don't you, forget about me!"

Very windy and snowy and cold. Feels like mid winter. :(

Fortunately it's not. And in a few days the snow will be all gone and we can get back to spring.

Spring Sprung

No Foolin!

Even though today is actually cold and wintry, it's spring!

Because the Robins have returned in force. That's a good sign.

This one was hanging out on the birdbath yesterday, getting a drink

and doing a little spring cleaning.

Lots of smaller birds have returned as well. So even though we're all cooped up with Corona, the birds, and spring, are back! Excellent!

Froze Out

Winter finally drawing to a close. It started off looking rough, with a lot of snow and very cold. But the second half of it moderated a lot in temperatures, and much less snow. Still winter, but not a bad ND winter. Which I certainly appreciate.

As Spring is returning to the prairie, its time to take a short look back at Winter...

A foggy, frosty night leads to a very frosted set of tress. Looks interesting when everything has a icy white coating. Never lasts very long though.

Just another cold foggy day, power lines fading into the horizon. Gray days.

A sharp division between the frosty ground and the sky. Kind of makes me think of being on the edge of a cliff.

After all the gray and white, time for a splash of color on a winter evening sunset, through the clouds and the still standing old weeds from last summer.

Glad to have Spring. Not glad we have to deal with this Corona virus issue. This is bad, but seems we are taking measures on it a bit 'extreme'. I hope this settles down quickly. For everyone. The economy doesn't need this, and I most definitely don't either!

Head In The Clouds

Interesting cloud formations and colors are something I've always liked. And as luck would have it, I have a few from this year I haven't posted elsewhere, both from my old homeplace and my current new home. So here they are to enjoy!

A glowing sunset at my old place. Quite a beautiful sky that night.

A oddly colored sky, from not long before I moved. I didn't really alter the color, it really was kind of a strange reddish tone that stormy evening.

Fall heading into winter. The fence won't keep winter at bay, but looks good against the dark and menacing sky.

A brilliant sunset in the early winter. Just enough clouds to give a colorful backdrop to the evening sunset. Maybe the power lines 'sparked' the color?

A solitary watcher as the colors fade.

Falling Flat

Fall has been a bit flat here. No big changes, new jobs or other events. And the fall colors weren't the best, kinda spotty, just didn't get much this year.

But I still got some interesting photos to post!

A field of dried weeds, on a cloudy fall evening.

A closeup of a wet barbed wire fence. Old and rusty but still hanging on. I'm feeling more like that myself some days.

Some black and white drama! The railroad bridge across the Missouri river in fall. In the summer this place is a beehive of activity with lots of boaters, people fishing, cyclists and walkers along the trails, you name it. As it gets colder, that pretty much ends except for a few hardy souls on the trail. 

The fall season changes to winter too quickly here farther north. And the winters are definitely too long and cold. I'm used to milder winter weather for sure.

Double Tramps

or, 2 hikes, 1 day.

Last ones for a while too.

Why? Well, due to the work and family changes this year, I'm relocating back north to Dakota country.

I usually like to go for hikes to a couple spots in the fall, getting some nice fall color photos. But this year I'm leaving in August. Won't be here for the fall colors. So I did a twofer - went to my two most favorite hiking areas in one day. Did some quick hiking and photo shooting to see them one last time.

Since it's August, everything is green. But hey, that's ok too. Was a pretty warm day overall, even though it was somewhat cloudy.

A shot from the top of a high rock I like to climb up on. Gives a nice view of the area. I'm probably 75 feet or so above the ground level. Nice, as long as its not too windy!

A rock spire and lots of trees along the trail. There were a lot of people out hiking on the loop trail today. Pretty green, but the little creek with waterfall was almost bone dry. Odd, as its been a pretty wet year.

Finished up here, moved on to my second hiking spot-

A final big 5 shot panorama. From the 'scenic overlook'. You can see the interstate and traffic in the distance on the center right. Was pretty breezy up here, but the clouds were breaking up at least.

What's that? A rock cairn I started building in a secret spot, years ago. Every year I go back, and rebuild it. Usually its a collapsed pile of rocks. I'm not sure if the weather is doing it, wildlife or somebody coming along and knocking it down. This year it was completely in pieces. Though a few times in the past it was pretty good. And once it was nearly intact! But I rebuilt it for what is likely the last time, for a long time. Someday I'll get back to check on it. And rebuild it again!

Can't fence in that wide open sky...

Done hiking, time to head out. Not nearly as many people hiking at this trail today. 

Nice to get one last visit in. Was hoping maybe one more moose sighting, but wasn't to be. Too bad I can't see the fall colors this year. But perhaps I'll get some for a post from the north country.

Coming up soon - the big white and orange truck...

War Birds

During the Annual Cowpoken Daze Festival (Not the actual name. But one I have used for years, for a variety of reasons), one of the only interesting events of the whole thing happens (in my opinion) -

The Air Show!

Headlining every year is the Air Force Thunderbirds. This year, for the first time in ages, I went to the Air Guard base to see the static (parked old planes) show, along with the Thunderbirds.

The Thunderbirds on the ground, ready to start the show. The actual air show WASN'T over us, for safety reasons since there's too many homes in the area. But we saw them flying around a lot as they did their routines.

The weather was very nice for it. Too many years we had clouds or stormy weather which greatly reduced what they could do.

It sure can be loud when that many F-16s go zooming over your head.

But just as interesting was the static air show. Some interesting and iconic older prop planes, many veterans of WWII.

P-51 Mustang, one of the most famous fighters from WWII. Probably one of the most recognizable planes from that era.

A F4U Corsair, another famous fighter plane, often used in the Pacific against the Japanese. Made more 'famous' by the 1970s TV show Black Sheep Squadron. I saw this plane as it flew in, but didn't get any good photos of it. A very good looking aircraft, IMHO.

A Grumman Avenger, a plane designed to drop either bombs or a single large torpedo.

This is a T-6 Texan, a trainer aircraft used to train military pilots before going off to war. This plane was also flying and putting on a few shows.

Doing lots and lots of loops.....

Something a little newer - an A10 Thunderbolt. Also known as a Warthog. Not the best looking plane, but very formidable on the battlefield.

It wasn't all war planes though. There were a number of stunt and private planes, and biplanes like this one-

This plane did several flight shows, including one with another smaller biplane.

A very good day, seeing a bunch of really well preserved old aircraft, along with the big Thunderbirds show. It stormed later in the day, but it held off long enough to give everyone a great day.

Surreality

July 4th. Independence Day! BBQs! Parades! Fireworks!

Actually it was kind of a strange day. Very warm and very humid. Kind of cloudy much of the time. Though it cleared off later, seemed like weather would be good for the night's big fireworks show.

Got my gear and went to the park. As I was getting closer, I could see big dark clouds coming. Lightning and thunder too. And I didn't bring a raincoat!

Biggest surprise was how deserted the park was. It's usually a big crowd of people waiting for the show. But with threatening weather and sprinkles I guess people went home early. Then it started really raining and thundering, lots of lightning. I got to a safer place to hide out. Was seriously thinking of calling it and going home. But waited it out.

Rain tapered off to light sprinkles 20 minutes later. I could hear cheering in the auditorium where they put on a music show. So I figured stick around, might get a show after all.

And we finally did!

 I decided to experiment a little this year. Everything was pretty much shot with me changing the focus during the couple second exposures. Usually in focus to getting out of focus. Got some interesting results overall.

Pretty colorful one here. I think this is one of my favorites from the night.

I think this one looks like a big green dandelion.

So the show ended. And I, along with the maybe 15 other people in the park headed out. It was very humid, still wet from the rain, and a bunch of lingering drifting smoke from the fireworks.

Just created a perfectly surreal environment to finish off the day.