Too much!

This is what happens when you go way overboard with the contrast and hue controls. Don't do this at home, kids! It has a certain sick but fascinating quality. Like looking at the flora of a different planet....

Froggie goes a courtin'

Isn't this a handsome frog? He looks to me like he's all dressed up for courting some lovely green girl frog. Or is he a toad? I've got pictures of toads and they're usually uglier...

Cold January Morning

Here's another cold Winter morning kayaking picture. I've used this one occasionally as my desktop wallpaper. I like the hint of mist over the water and the docks in the deep background.

I took this picture at the end of a morning of kayaking so it was probably around 10am and starting to warm up a bit. Since there was still mist over the water I suspect it was below freezing but probably not by much. It was taken in South Carolina in the region near the mountains -- they only have weather like this a few months of the year. Usually it's hot and humid but for a while in Dec-Feb you can get pictures like this.

cold paddling

Here's a picture from last December when I was exploring a rocky shore in sub-freezing temperatures just as the sun was coming up. This is the best time and the best conditions for photography of landscapes near water since you always have mist rising from the water and the rim of ice on the shore can make for nice detail.

On the other hand, it's damn cold out there! LOL

look both ways

I think this must be a high traffic area 'cause I caught this bird looking both ways before he crossed the air-way. I think caution is a good idea in this case. Too many birds have fallen prey to cats around this area. This little fellow seems like he's too smart for that fate.

sailboat

Here's an overexposed picture I took a while back while kayaking. I wanted to bleach out the background but keep enough detail on the sailboat to make it attractive. I took the picture intending it for my desktop wallpaper but I don't think I ever used it for that.

another flower

Isn't this pretty? It's bloody huge as well. I wish I'd put something in the picture to add perspective so you could see how big it is.

There's a clump of these growing behind the building in which I work and I walk by them each day as I make my way from the bus into my lab.

an old joke

This reminds me of those old jokes involving waiters and bugs:

Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup?
Um, looks to me to be backstroke, sir...

Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!
Don't worry, the spider on the breadroll will get it.

Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!
Keep it down or they'll all be wanting one.

I guess I just need to change the word "soup" to "kibble"

day lilies

The picture above was taken near a cafeteria I sometimes go to at work. There's a small field with these across the road which I think spread from these here which were deliberately planted around this tree.

...and naturally the picture below is a close up of one of the blooms. I love day lilies. They're so pretty--and they grow wild in this area.

baby bird

Granted it's unfortunate, but not all baby birds make it to adulthood.

I found this one on my back sidewalk Sunday afternoon. I suspect that nasty cat got it and I scared it away when I went outside so it wasn't eaten yet. The bugs were quite willing to take over.

I took a number of pictures and this was one of the easier ones to look at. Some were kinda nasty. Poor bird.

A long tall climb

Two bees, making their way up a very tall plant. They're searching for nectar and incidently spreading pollen far above the ground with the newly mown grass of my yard as a backdrop.

I took this earlier this week along with a large number of other pictures of bees. Most of them didn't turn out because bees just don't hold still for long.

Alert and speckled

I took this picture in my backyard 2 days ago. I love how alert the bird looks and those speckles on its front look great. The out of focus yellow flower in the lower left adds a nice bit of contrast to the somewhat monochromatic aspects of the picture.

I also like how thin this bird is. Some of the birds that hang around my house are getting so fat they're not going to be able to fly much longer! I guess maybe I'm feeding them too much--which might explain why that neighbor's cat keeps hanging around. Fat birds that don't fly so well.

go away, bug

Does this damn bug think I'm running a hotel for peculiar looking chitonous critters? Nuh-uh. I sent that bug packing! Hit the road, Jack!

Of course it did look kinda cool--and check out that waistline! No girdles needed there.

faded rose

There was a song, maybe 30 years ago, by Helen Reddy titled "Delta Dawn" and it had the line in it "Could it be a faded rose from days gone by". That's what I thought of when I saw this poor flower. Despite the chipping away at its beauty, there's still enough left to see how wonderful it must have looked a few days before.

I guess "Yellow Rose of Texas" would be a more obvious choice but that song never got under my skin in the same way. :-)