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Hello! It feels like I’ve been MIA for awhile. We were in the Chicago Region for my Son’s wedding and extended our stay a few days to do a little sightseeing and birding.
They had both a professional wedding photographer and videographer for the day. Here’s one image of Big Baby Boy and the Dark Haired Beauty just after the wedding. May I present the Newlyweds!
#1 Grandson was the Ringbearer and what a handsome and stylish lad he was.
The whole wedding party were handsome and beautiful, and we’re so happy to been able to travel to be a part of their Big Day.
The following day I spent the morning birding around the Orland Park area. It’s a lovely area with lots of ponds, wetlands, and green!
I have to give a huge shout out and thank you to Pat from the Thorn Creek Audubon Society I reached out to them before the trip and he was very generous telling me about a few places to go to do some birding. I picked up a couple of bird lifers, and a dragonfly which I’ll share first. While waiting for one of the reserves to open He-Man and I stopped by a little fishing pond where I spied this beauty.
I think this is an Erythemis simplicicollis- Eastern Pondhawk. Don’t you love that color green and it’s common name? I do!
Photograph
The evening we got home I started feeling pretty achy and stuffed up, and the next day I tested positive for Covid and the following day He-Man did too. Sigh. Today I am finally feeling like I’m getting over it. I’m still weak and tire easily but I woke up feeling more like myself than I have in a week!
I hope this finds you all well and having a great week!
Dragonfly- Fuji X-T-3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 23.4.1
Last week-end we went down to SoCal to visit Big Baby Boy and the Dark Haired Beauty for several days. It was lovely walking on the beach and in the canyon with them and just hanging out. We talked about their upcoming wedding a bunch, and how that’s going. It’s coming up so fast! Less than 8 weeks to go now! I’ve got my dress and hat and He-Man’s good to go suit wise too, So far everything is falling into place so, it should be beautiful.
I also passed a milestone last Thursday…I turned 65 years young. There are many days my body feels 65 but, not my spirit! I’m still a kid inside. 😀
There were lots of cultivated flowers in late stages of their bloom around Big Baby Boy’s, some I’ve missed because they just don’t grow where we live. Here are a few;
HibiscusBird of Paradise? I don’t know what this is called
Sunday we had heavy clouds predicted and strong winds and sure enough they rolled in all day just in time for the Lunar Eclipse. I hoped there would a pocket or two of clear sky in the Moon’s path so I could see and photograph just one frame. There was a nice pocket along the mountain tops so I quickly made a few images of the Moon as it crested the mountains. It was already in Totality by then as well. It was very different from last year’s May Lunar Eclipse when there was a clear sky.
Totality Lunar Eclipse May 15, 2022
It quickly rose into the clouds and I didn’t see it again that night.
We’re going to see Baby Girl and the boys later this week to celebrate her birthday, my birthday, and Mother’s Day. I’m looking forward to that.
The weather has definitely warmed up here. It was 81 degrees yesterday and just as warm today, so I put out the patio cushions and spent a lovely hour out back chatting with the neighbor. How’s the weather where you are? Ready for summer?
I hope everyone had a lovely week-end. We shared our holiday with Baby Girl and her family and had loads of fun.
We dyed Eggs for the Easter bunny to hide and the colors came out so pretty. We used Baby Girl’s fresh from the coop eggs which are mostly brown eggs. We had to leave the eggs in the dye longer but it was so worth it. Look at these colors! I love the red and green ones the best.
Dyed Easter Eggs
Instead of chocolates we took the kids cookies to paint. We found the kits at Costco and it was fun. Even the teenage Grand-daughters enjoyed painting their cookies. There was enough for me to do one so I painted along with a couple of the kids. They ate their cookies as soon as they finished painting them so I didn’t get a photo, unfortunately.
Painted Easter Egg Cookie
Later in the afternoon the youngest Grand-daughter taught me how to drive the little red Quad and after two loops I was zipping around the property having a blast. I can’t wait to ride it again. I plan to go down the harder roads on their property then!
Me zipping by on the quad. Image courtesy of Baby Girl.
Let’s go back to my camping trip and look up at the stars from Mono Lake.
” Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.”~ Henry Van Dyke
Star Trails over Mono Lake, Tufas. 107 frames
There was quite a bit of airline traffic that night as you see. I took out a couple of airline tracks that were red and distracting I thought.
I hope everyone had a great week-end, and you’re glad of life this week and always!
I’m home from a long week-end of camping and photography with friends old and new. I’m still culling images, but here’s one from Mono Lake taken shortly after sunset. I was set up to shoot west but looking around I saw this cloud developing to the northeast so I turned my camera around and waited for this to unfold. This cloud formation and color were wonderful and a beautiful end to a fun day.
Mono Lake, Clouds, and Tufas.Friday April, 8, 2022
Nikon D810| 24-120mm@24mm| f/10| ISO 100| PS CC 23.2.2
Way back in 2016 a couple of good friends and I took a long week-end trip to Sedona, AZ and during that trip we went to the Grand Canyon and one of the things we did was taking a helicopter tour of the North Rim.
I was just telling someone recently that these images have been marinating on my hard-drive for a long, long time because I really didn’t like the images too much when I got home. My aerial photography “eye” needs a lot more practice. That got me thinking that I hadn’t even looked at these images in years so I dug into my archives to look at the images. With the passing of time I’m not as disappointed in them. Here’s one.
Grand Canyon, North Rim, Aerial View via a Helicopter
I’ll be working on more images from this trip so, you may see more in future posts.
I’ve been staying close to home these last two weeks because while visiting our Grandson’s we took them to the park and Littlest was afraid to go down the tube slide by himself so I went down with him. The second time we were going a bit fast so I tried to slow us down by putting my foot along the wall, but we didn’t slow down my body kept going something went crack and both my knee and ankle hurt. My knee is still tender and I haven’t made it as far as the mailbox and back yet. I may have to go see the doctor if this keeps up.
Did you happen to see the recent full moon? I did but, didn’t photograph it. I did go out to look at the moon close to its setting a couple of mornings later and made this image from my street.
I did go out for a little bit birding yesterday and saw some good birds. I’m still culling images, but will have a few to share in upcoming posts.
That’s all that’s new here. What’s going on with you? I do hope your week is going well!
February I was in the mood to dig out my paints and try some online tutorials. Here are two finished watercolor paintings, a study of trees, and one pen and ink line drawing.
My favorites are the horse painting and the pen and ink drawing. I did that drawing by hand no tracing! It’s wonky but it’s not bad for me. 🤣
I bought a new book on Urban Sketching for beginners by Liron Yanconsky so far so good. It was his book that motivated me to try to draw the Clark Administrative Bldg from an image I made of it. I’m not ready to go out with my pad and pen and try drawing on site yet, but I hope to one day. In the meantime I’ll be working my way through this book this month.
My week-end away birding with friends was so fun and we saw so many Bald Eagles! I’ll be sharing images from that trip soon.
We firmed up plans Monday to have #1 Grandson here for part of his Spring break…not Littlest though. Baby Girl isn’t ready for that yet, but we’ll take what we can get! 😀I’m making plans for trips to the zoo and looking at other things to do with him while he’s here. We’re excited! That’s all that’s new here.
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