and above all, watch with glittering eyes
…the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
— Roald Dahl
Discovered the above quote recently and it jibes nicely with my philosophy ‘o life.
Just realized that it has been two years since I took this photo of the mystery baby crib that appeared in the park (story can be found here.) I remain vigilant for that next surprise!
breezy wildflower
Placing the camera too close to the flowers to focus properly led to a dreamy effect. Relaxed and easy, just like the weekend!
blue jay
I had to crop this. I get mixed signals as to whether that is a bad or good thing to do with your photos. I try to minimize the need to do so, but sometimes I feel like I have to, since my lenses can’t always pull this type of photo off on its own.
another day, another deer
They got pretty close the other day! A couple of deer crossed the path about five feet in front of me and headed off into the woods.
seed pods
Finally blue skies and somewhat warm weather has returned to the great white north! Drank my coffee outside in the sun today, though it was chilly and could only take it for about ten minutes. Should be enough to get my freckles to pop out!
I took this at the park yesterday, and something went wrong, because if you look closely at some of the little seed heads, they have this weird green artifact around them. I took a couple of pictures of these and they all turned out that way, and I couldn’t seem to get rid of them in processing either, so they’re here to stay.
stump
In my 41 years on this earth I have been over every inch of Side Cut Metropark in Maumee, Ohio – even the places you’re not really supposed to go. Still, every time I visit there is something new to see. I had to climb down into a ravine to take a picture of this blue stuff growing on the side of a stump. Getting down there was easy, but getting back out was a problem.
squirrel
Migraine, so no photos today, but I also don’t want to blow the 365 only 21 days in! This is from about a week ago…see you tomorrow. Thanks again to all of you who have been stopping by to take a look or drop me a note of encouragement – all are appreciated!
chewing stems
Oh, Side Cut metropark…you never disappoint. Never ever.
So many good ones today, it was hard to pick just one to post.
don’t get excited
Hold your horses there, Buttercup. While I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing with my new crazy-awesome camera I may post an old photo or two. This is one taken on the river side of Side Cut back in February, 2009. Other than the exposure seeming a bit low, I was pretty proud of this one.
Is it normal with a new camera for all your pictures to get worse?? I spent the better part of the evening taking tons of test pictures and installing software and twisting dials and pushing buttons. So. Many. Buttons. The learning curve – it will be STEEP. Still extremely excited about the potential, though.
A little very nervous about inadvertently screwing up the camera. In my imagination I push the wrong button and the camera collapses into a big pile of money which then bursts into flames and touches off the apocalypse. I’m going to need a few days of adjustment time, I think
promenade
Got some really good advice this week from someone who knows a lot more about photography than I do. I was doing both my usual bitching AND moaning about how I get in a rut in the fall and consequently don’t take many photos at this time of year. I was told that now is the time, then, to go back and revisit some of my older photos and take care of anything that needed to be fixed on them. This concept is so forehead-smackingly simple that I can’t believe this had not occurred to me before – but it hadn’t!
The picture above is an old one that had been bugging me for a long time. Love this crumbling abandoned stair to nowhere at Side Cut but the final photo looked so washed out and gray. I went back and got the colors more in line with reality – and voila!
Regarding the post title – Promenade is a really old U2 song, natch! It’s not one of their top ten (or twenty or thirty for that matter!) but it’s not too bad. It makes reference to a spiral stair way to higher ground. Fitting, amiright???
thistle fireworks
This is another photo from earlier this year that I liked, though it came out a bit blurry.
Still ruminating on new photo ideas..and if you listen closely, you can hear crickets! It’s like a ghost town in here…
thistle
Today’s photo challenge was hard. The assignment – take a “bright, cheery outdoor photo.” The problem? It was cloudy and gray here for most of the day.
The sky partially cleared later so we went to Sidecut to walk in the meadow. There are all kinds of yellow weeds flowers out in the field, along with the most vivid violet thistles and other assorted foliage. Well, I love green/yellow/purple palettes and it looks fairly bright and cheery. Problem solved.
gray skies and cracking ice on the river
River Ice, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey
Not much that is colorful or pretty about January! Had a good (yet muddy) walk at Side Cut yesterday. It was an ice, stone, mud and old leaves extravaganza!
river ice
River Ice, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.
You keep breaking up, ice…
Harbinger of spring or just some freaky warm days in January?
out for a walk
Meadow, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.
took this a few days ago at Side Cut. Always think its interesting when clouds move in and the sky goes from light and cloudless to gray heavy clouds. The grass on the path was so green, even while everything else is beginning to turn to fall colors…
meadow
Meadow, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.
More early fall colors from the meadow at Side Cut…I don’t like this one quite as much as the previous post of the red and green leaves from earlier today…
fall color
Fall color, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.
Out at Sidecut on Sunday for a 4 mile hike extravaganza…not sure what these plants were…red leaves on tall stems with light green undergrowth and the light filtering through…love the colors!
pond near the meadow
Pond near the meadow at Side Cut, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.
Full disclosure: I burned out the lower part of the sky when I took the picture so I tweaked the colors to restore it and make the picture look closer to what we actually saw…
after the ball
After the ball, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.
A small group was watching this guy cast our repeatedly to try and rescue a ball that some kids had lost in the Maumee River at Sidecut. He did eventually get it to shore.
abandoned locks/waterfall
Lock Waterfall, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.
Our park system is a never ending source of cool, yet inanimate, objects for me to take pictures of. There used to be a canal system (which is now one of our main roads) and a series of locks connecting it to the Maumee River. There are a few parks in the area (Side Cut and Providence) that still have remains of the lock system, and they are kind of cool to look at – you can stand at the top of one and look down the line through three others headed toward the river. This is down at the end of one, the trickle of water that still sits there makes a small waterfall and I experimented with the settings to see the resulting effects on the flow of water.
