Weird Bug

This deserves to go on both blogs. I have no idea what this thing is. It was on my garage door yesterday evening. If anyone knows what this is, please post it in the comments.

UPDATE: The folks at the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology say it's a Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio Troilus) and pointed me to this page. This caterpillar is usually bright green but turns yellow for only a few days before it pupates. Its false eyespots and other markings help protect it by making it look like a small snake to predators (especially when it is green).

Slow Posting

I haven't been posting much on here lately, because most of the posts have been over at my other blog that I'm trying to update every day. (Or at least take a photo every day and post them whenever I get a chance).

Flower details

The Ocean

ISO 200/ f29/ 2.0 second exposure with ND 8 filter.

Swimmers

Japanese Beetle

Not to try and blatantly copy this post by Rick Lee, but I saw this Japanese beetle in my yard yesterday evening and couldn't help but try my own pic of one. We always referred to these guys as June bugs, but I guess those are actually something different.

World's Nicest Parking Garage

We were at Miami (Ohio) University for a swim meet this weekend, which is a beautiful campus. The building in the background is actually a parking garage. You can see more pics here.

Maggie

A very big, yet very friendly, dog.

Silver Surfer

A cool display in the lobby of the Pullman Square theater in Huntington, W.Va.

Say What?

Does anyone know what this means? Seen on the back of a truck on U.S. 60 near Grayson, Ky. Click on the photo for a larger version.

Open Spaces

Wet Step

Problems capturing color

This is from Tuesday when I spent a great amount of time trying to figure out why the color in these two images look so dramatically different from two different cameras when they had the exact same settings (ISO, White balance, shutter speed, and aperture). The one from the much less expensive Canon Digital Rebel is actually the correct color, but for some reason, when I use a blue gel on a black background, my Nikon D100 captures it as purple. If anyone out there has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Bird on a Jaguar

I posted this on my other blog as well, but thought I'd put it here, too. Wonder what this bird is thinking?

Honeysuckle

More flowers

...more from my mother-in-law's in Greenup County, Ky.

Ants

These are a couple of shots I took at my mother-in-law's on Sunday. She lives on a farm in Greenup, Ky., and has tons of flowers, so the place is a photo goldmine. I'll post some more of my shots from there later, but for now here's a couple of close-ups of ants crawling on some of the flowers that are about to bloom.

Neat effect

This photo of an award sitting in a mirrored case looks pretty neat because of the type effect. Normally, in a reflection, the type is reversed, but the mirror is picking up the back of the glass (which is also reversed) so the reflection shows the text correctly again. Little things like that amuse me, I guess.

Shiny New Building

To crop or not to crop...

Here's a flower pic that I shot with the intention of cropping really tight to get a really zoomed in close-up, but I think I ended up liking the original shot better before cropping.

Taking over the yard

I don't know what this stuff is, but it is taking over our yard and flower beds. It's some type of ivy-like stuff that in the spring has these little purple blooms. In summer, it just grows like crazy and gets thick fast.

More Patterns

Patterns

Dandelion

No wonder my allergies are acting up.

B&W Barn

Cool flower on plant

I can't remember what this is called, but it's some type of flowering houseplant at my mom's house.

Blog No. 2

While I'm still posting stuff here, I'm putting a lot more stuff over on my 365 Project blog, in which I'm trying to take a photo a day every day for a year. Needless to say, most of the new stuff is there, but I'm still trying to keep this one up as well with as few duplicates as possible.

HDR Sunrise

I've been fooling around with some new software that creates High Dynamic Range images, which is basically one composite photo from multiple differently exposed photos. In this sunrise photo from yesterday, normally if you expose for the sky, you get nothing but silhouettes of the trees and houses and such, or if you expose for the trees and houses, your sky completely burns out. This photo was made by taking three photos at different exposures, and then the good areas of each photo are combined to make one image.

Clouds and Moon

Really nice sunset last night with a really cool cloud formation. As I was out shooting it, the moon peeked from behind the clouds.

A Bug's View

A common rule for flower photography is to not shoot down on flowers, because that's the way we normally see them. Instead, try another view. In the first shot, I'm at eye level with the flowers, but in the second shot, I thought I'd try something different, and put the camera on the ground to shoot up at them. The problem at first was the bright sky in the background made silhouettes out of the flower shapes, so I added and flash, and got a pretty dramatic effect.

Daffodils

Yesterday must have been a good day to shoot daffodils, as photographer Rick Lee posted a shot of one today as well.

Bubbles

Tree Moss

Tree and Clouds

Apple Glow

I also put this on my other blog, but thought I'd post it here, too. It's a 5-second exposure of my PowerBook with the camera sitting on the countertop.

Time for Wine

Possum Blogging

We saw this critter outside the house yesterday. I'll have to credit this photo to my wife, she shot it out the van window.

Not-so-happy Valentine's???

Perhaps the worker who etched this candy heart was feeling a little disgruntled.

A new blog

I've started a new blog to do in addition to this one. A lot of people are doing a 365 project, where they take and post a photo every single day for a year. It sounded both challenging and cool to me, so I thought I'd give it a try. You can click here or on the link to the right in my sidebar to go there.

So far, it's day one completed.

Aerodynamic Chevette

Being a former Chevette owner myself, I always appreciate seeing on that's properly accessorized.

Snow on the Holly

We just don't seem to get many good snows around here anymore. Today, we're up to almost an inch, but it's supposed to heat up and all melt away later this afternoon. The Onion has this article with a pretty good take on our lack of winters around here anymore. Anyhow, here's something I shot while walking around earlier today.