Technicalities

September 27, 2009

Colors

Fall is here and the colors are trying to make themselves noticed.

The reds always seem to come out the earliest and then are gone the quickest. There is little overlap. Not sure why this is, but that's what seems to happen

We did notice on this walk, that someone had been verrry thirsty.

I thought these cute little flowers would be gone by now, but they still hang out in certain areas.

Of course the mums are out. They'll hang on til the bitter end of fall.

There was even a very hardy pansy hangin' in there.

Our burning bushes in Chicago never had these berries on them. Must be a different type here.

Not near the peak color yet. Still, it's looking nice.

There are lots of these poke berries (thank you Sissy!) along the roadside. Oddly enough the ones in the shade seem to be the ripest, those in the sunniest spots are mostly green . I did find 2 sets of different ripeness next to each other.

Colors, we have colors! (Maybe I should say - the people at this house have colors - it's not our place)

For those afraid that "someone" is reading their mail... I bring you this - the tin foil mailbox. Something to consider if you want to keep "them" from tracking you through the USPS... really.

However, the rays may be bouncing off the mailbox and creating problems elsewhere - have a look at this mushroom. Maybe we should be worried!

Nope - not gonna look! I'm gonna look at this instead...

Or maybe this...

Or even this...

I'm not going to say that life is like a bunch of flowers. (I have no idea what that would mean anyway), but I'm running out of things to say.

So, I hope you all had a great weekend.

Posted by: Teresa in Photos at 09:04 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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September 22, 2009

Chicago When the Weather is Fine

The best part about last weekend - the weather was just fabulous the entire time. Just as we were flying out, the clouds rolled in. Couldn't ask for better.

Out the hotel window we had lots of buildings creating lots of lines (please be assured that any curves you see in the building lines are lens distortions... no the buildings do not curve in real life - heh). Pretty cool looking...

Lots of people out even on a weekday. And lots of dogs! Lots.

Meet Annabelle, she was being walked without a leash and wanted to sniff everyone's feet.

Blue sky, beautiful water.

Bikes and... whatever one might call those things. They are rentals and we always see a bunch of them on nice days.

Everyone likes the view.

Or they like to sit in the sun. As for the guy swimming - that water had to be about 60 degrees - I think he's nuts. But we did see a few people out for a swim. (now I'm cold just thinking about it)

Of course it's an excellent place to fly a kite.

And oh how I wish for a sailboat on these days!

There appeared to be a sailing meet of some sort happening quite a ways off shore. Looks like they're lined up to start a race or something, but couldn't really tell.

This guy came in the closest, nearly to the marker buoys (they mark the area for swimming). In the background is Navy Pier. One of the new rides seems to be a helium balloon that takes passengers up and then pulls them back down after a bit.

And this last one is just because it looked interesting. We were on the way back to the hotel by then.

Ah yes, it was a terrific weekend. If you want the "culinary itinerary" it's over at the other blog. With all the places we ate and drank.

It would be wonderful if every trip turned out so well. I'll happily take the occasional few that do.

Posted by: Teresa in Photos at 12:15 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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September 16, 2009

Leaving You With a Few Pictures

I may blog just a bit while I'm gone, but probably not much. I'd be more likely to twitter, but you never know.

So here are a few pics to glance upon while I'm away.

It's beginning to look like fall.

Lots of these berries are out - I'm guessing they're poisonous or they'd be gone.

And here's a cat we encountered on one of our walks.

Everybody have a great weekend!

Posted by: Teresa in Photos at 10:08 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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September 03, 2009

Very Shallow Depth of Field

Because I wanted to take some pictures and because it's the end of the day... I ended up using my 50mm fixed lens because it allows me to use an aperture of f/1.8. This lets in tons of light so the shutter speed will be fast enough to hand hold the camera. But, the depth of field (the bits that are in focus) are in a very small area.

Here are my roses - still blooming. You will notice that only the flower closest to the lens is actually in focus. the rest start to blur out immediately.

If you aren't looking carefully, you could decide that these are pictures juuuust slightly out of focus...

For that matter, even looking carefully at the larger photos, these are busy enough I was beginning to think I hadn't gotten a single thing in focus. Heh..

It's easiest to see on this rose where the outside petals are in focus, but the center is not.

Okay got my photo fix of the day. I feel much better.

Posted by: Teresa in Photos at 04:11 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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September 01, 2009

Who Knew?

I had no idea that holly hocks could look like this.

Not sure why, but they remind me of those bath puffs.

I've always seen holly hocks that look like this.

I guess I should refer to these as "standard issue" and the others as the "deluxe poofs".