Penning Photography Daily

This is the second time I’ve been here. This time I put myself in the photo.

This is a bridge over Spring Creek on the North side of Springfield, Illinois. It provides a way through for Camp Lincoln Road.

I had discovered it by taking a way never traveled before, and I plan to get back to it in other seasons, especially during Autumn colors.

I have my ultra wide angle lens on, to get both me and the beauty of the creek.

Last time I was here, there was little traffic. This time, I had quite a few cars to dodge – or they dodge me.

On Farmingdale Road, at the Eastern portion of New Berlin, Illinois, stands Starwest Stables.

I was out taking photos with my new lens, and saw the name of the stables written into the roof of one of the barns with darker shingles.

Not a sight seen every day, unless you live nearby.

The sky was overcast much of the day. It did sprinkle once or twice depending on where the rain decided to fall. But it never rained steady. Just looked like it was going to all day long.

I like the “into the distance” look to the road at the right, and the mood of the sky.

The “Starwest” stands out, as it is meant to, pointing to the equestrian riding stables.

On occasion, i take my dear daughter-in-law Jennie to work on Saturday mornings.

This was one of the occasions. =)

I’m happy to do it, and it gives us time to catch up.

I asked her if I could take a photo of us both, when we had arrived at her shop. She was gracious and accepted.

I set the exposure and put on the 2 second timer. Set the camera on the dash, and put my right hand up as a focus target. Set the shutter, and smile.

Just the two of us.

The large maple in our back yard, right outside our sunroom.

I had been taking a self portrait and saw the bark.

Trees are beautiful from saplings to fallen down husks of their former selves.

This one has see our family grow and age over 22 years.

When we build on our sunroom, we had to adjust for the tree. The sunroom could only go out so far.

The tree also gave something during that construction. One of the large branches was cut so the sunroom could be built. So far, it’s worked out well for both of us.

The tree stands tall, giving shade and delightful color through much of the year. In the mighty winds which blow on occasion, I worry, but so far to naught. The tree bends but does not break.

I hope we enjoy each other for many more years.

Okie Dokie Smokie!

Papa’s got a brand new lens. The Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 DC EX. Ultra-wide-angle lens on my Pentax K20D.

I beat the UPS driver home to sign for it.

My son Chris called on my way home. We were talking photography and lenses, and I told him about trying to get home to sign for the new lens. As we were talking, I made it home, opened the front door and only had to wait about 2 minutes for the Big Brown Truck to come down the street.

I had my phone on speaker phone, slipped it into my shirt pocket and went out to greet and sign.

Chris congratulated me and asked to borrow it! =) Sure, I said, in a bit. I told him he could borrow my Tamron 70-300mm tele-macro first. =)

I set the camera up on the doors to our sunroom via the handy Gorillapod. Set the exposure and timer, held my hand out to get a reasonable focus, and stepped into position. I had the pop-up flash on to give me a bit of fill light. I had the flash dialed down -1.5 ev so I wouldn’t look spooky bright.

Do I look happy? You bet.

Do I know the name of this flower? Nope.

I do know that I like the color: Lavender. My Mom’s favorite part of the color spectrum.

This lovely specimen was gracing our front flower bed as I was heading indoors.

I gave a quick look to see if anything was new in the bed, before I went inside, and here this and her sisters stood. Proudly displaying their colors and soaking up what sun they could gather.

I had my Tamron 70-300mm lens which has macro capability in my bag. I swapped it onto my Pentax K20D and flipped the macro switch.

Hand holding this long lens and doing a good macro shot is tricky. It’s trickiness was compounded by the brisk breeze that was blowing. Good thing I have image stabilization built into the body of my camera. Every lens is stabilized that way. Even, the lowly Tamron which I bought used. =)

I took three shots, and got this reasonably good one among them.

One reason I usually don’t erase any photo: I might use it, no matter how odd it seems.

Today’s self portrait is a case in point.

I had switched lenses and was confirming all was well with my camera by taking a quick snap. No matter that the camera was pointing up at my nose. I’d just delete it.

Not.

I kept this one and revisited it today.

I never gave a thought to flipping the orientation. Just worked at making black & white conversion. Threw a bit of vignetting at it.

Portrait of the photographer, checking out his equipment.