Tiny Bubbles

This morning the wind is howling on the ridge top. It doesn't make for very good bird photography which is what I had planned for today along with a bunch of paperwork that I need to get done. I went to the kitchen and played with bubbles. Here are a few of my favorites along with one water and oil.Now back to the paperwork.

God's precious love and genereous blessings to us all,

chris

Sunrise Silhouette

The sun climbed into the sky this morning through loose banks of fog and clouds. By the time I got downtown to drop off Annika to school most of cover had burned away leaving me with fairly bald skies. When I passed by the church on Main street I looked up to see that the sun would make a pretty decent silhouette out of the church bell tower. I stopped and created a few images before moving onto my morning workout. When I got home I played around with a couple of versions. One is more of a graphic than a photograph. Here are the two images.

God's light and love to all,

chris

On the Inside Looking Out

I'm still working on images from my long weekend in Sacramento. The state competition for the Academic Decathalon was held in the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. The Auditorium is an imposing reddish brick structure that covers a full city block. The first time I was in it was for an amateur boxing match way back in 1978. My roommate partook in a three round bout and got his clock cleaned by his opponent.The building was built in 1926 to commemorate those that died fighting for the United States. It is one of the most recognizable and famous buildings in Sacramento. It is listed on the National Historic Register. For over eighty years the Auditorium has drawn audiences to a wide variety of events,from Big Bands and violin virtuosos to the Beach Boys and the Harlem Globetrotters. It was closed for a brief time from 1986 - 1996 since that time the auditorium stage has welcomed artists such as Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Melissa Etheridge, comedians George Lopez, Mike Epps and Ron White and bands from The Doobie Brothers, The Moody Blues, and Duran Duran to Death Cab for Cutie and The Killers.
During the decathalon I had plenty of time to wander the venerable old halls and enjoy the building. I'm glad it was the stage for such a wonderful academic venue.
God's precious light and love to all,

chris

This Old House

While in Sacramento over the weekend we walked back and forth several times between the auditorium and the kids hotel. Along the route was the Governor's Mansion. It made for some fine on the go photography as it is a beautiful Victorian home.

The home was was built in 1877 for Albert and Clemenza Gallatin. Mr. Gallatin was a partner in a local hardware store. Later on in 1903 the state government purchased the house from Joseph and Louisa Steffens to use as the governors home for $32,500.I have toured it over the years a few times and it is pretty good tour. Tours are given on Wednesday through Sundays on the hour. I believe the cost is five dollars for adults and three dollars for children. The home is located downtown on Sixteenth and H Streets.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Julie's Clogs

I spent a very busy weekend in Sacramento California watching Jay and the Willits High School Academic Decathalon team compete at the state finals. There were sixty five teams competing and the competition was intense. I'm guessing that we finished somewhere in the the lower middle of the pack which is pretty good for a small school. What do you know about the "Age of Imperialism"?

We stayed at our friend's house in their backyard studio. In the morning I spotted Julie's clogs on the door mat and I really like how they looked in the early morning light.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Leftovers

Sometimes I'm just plain overwhelmed by the volume of digital images. I have to stop, process,organize,label and file all the images I have created. Yesterday I spent hours sorting and processing the bird images from the past three days. It's pretty cool to find some images that I missed going through on the first edit. Here are just a few.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

It's in the Details.

Yesterday when I was photographing Mountain Quail the Wild turkeys stopped by for a snack. Because I was photographing quail I had the photoblind rolled up fairly close to the bird feeders. As a consequence of that the turkeys were rather large in the viewfinder. You could easily pick out minute details in their caruncles, snoods and wattles. Wow, that was fun to write. The wattle is the bright red skin that hangs from a turkey's neck. The caruncle is the reddish-pink fleshy growth on the head and upper neck of the turkey and the snood is the The flap of skin that grows from the base of the turkey's bill and hangs over the bill.

I hope you enjoyed looking at a close up of a turkeys head and maybe learned something you didn't know before. I'm sure you can impress others with your incredible knowledge of turkeys when you attend a dinner at the White House.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris