Iconic?

So...   how does one take a new and compelling image of one of the best know sites in America?  I don't think you do.  Or at least I didn't.  Still, we enjoyed a recent visit to Mount Rushmore.  And I took a bunch of photos along all the other visitors.  And there were a lot of visitors.  It wasn't crazy, but I expect we saw more people at Rushmore than the rest of the trip combined.

This is from the parking garage, a long view.

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Landscape and Portrait, from the main viewing area.

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From the east side of the Presidential Trail.  This is my favorite, I like like the framing of the trees,,,

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This is a little bit different, except there was a line of people to get into the crack in the rocks where everybody could take the exact same photo!

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Another experiment with framing...  President George's tree wig and beard?

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Mt. Rushmore was fun, I'd recommend it if you're in the area.  But count of Badlands and Black Hills for the photo ops!

 

Diana Scour

 

During our recent travels, we made a quick stop at the Overton Bottoms North Unit of the Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, near Boonville, MO.  A chance to stretch the legs and look for a quick photo or two before continuing west.  

According to the map, this is the Diana Scour, taken from the Trail Bridge connection the Levee Trail and the Little Muddy Trail.  

I don't really know what a "Scour" is in this context, but I'm presuming this lake is backfed from the river during high water, rather than being spring fed.  Anybody know?

I went away for a while, but I'm back now...

Just back from a week of travel.  7 days, 2,800 miles, 8 states.  Visited friends in Colorado, went to Mt. Rushmore, Badlands National Park, Buffalo Gap National Grassland, Black Hills National Forest, and more.  Oh, and stopped by 12 quilt shops along the loop. And took close to 400 photos!

From Illinois through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri back into Illinois.  Approximate map below:

Here's a better detail of our Sunday loop through Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, which was my foavortie part of the trip:

Look for more on this trip over the next few days!

New England Aster

 

From Watershed Nature Center.  This one has some tweaking, below is a "Straight From Camera" version.

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Black Eyed Susan

 

These are great flowers, but I think I prefer them when they're a little past their prime...  like this one.

Black and White Challenge with the theme of Natural Framing

 So, I've been getting a lot of finalists in the various challenges I enter over at 365project.org.

The latest (today) was bw-56.  That's the 56th edition of the black-and-white photography challenge.  This round carries the theme "Natural Framing".  My image was selected as one of 5 finalists, selected from 31 entries.

Check out all of the finalists:

And my entry:

The black and white challenge is one of my favorites.  They've had 8 rounds this year.  I've entered 7, have 5 finalists and 1 win.  I couldn't enter the 8th, as I was hosting (as prior winner).

Viceroy

Bot too long ago, I posted a photo of a Viceroy butterfly, taken at Columbia Bottoms.  I thought it was a good, if somewhat "clinical" photo.  The butterfly was sunning on a rock, and the bright sunshine really showed off the wear and tear to the wings.

So... the other day I was up at Watershed Nature Center, late afternoon on a day with a solid, but thin cloud cover.  And I found this Viceroy being much more cooperative about posing, in a much more appealing settings, with more conducive lighting.

I quite like the results:  

 

September 1970

  Fifty years ago this month, what what happening on the music charts?

Well, during the 4 weeks of September 1970, there were 54 songs that spent time in the Top 40. Lots of great stuff.

Ony two (2) songs made the Top spot: Edwin Star's "War" and Diana Ross' version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" each spent 2 weeks at the top.

Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:

1. War - Edwin Starr - 1.5
2. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross - 1.5
3. Patches - Clarence Carter - 5.3
4. Lookin' Out My Back Door - Creedence Clearwater Revival - 5.3
5. 25 Or 6 To 4 - Chicago - 6.5
6. In The Summertime - Mungo Jerry - 7.3
7. Julie, Do Ya Love Me - Bobby Sherman - 7.5
8. (They Long To Be) Close To You - Carpenters - 9.5
9. Make It With You - Bread - 10.5
10. Candida - Dawn - 11.3

I made a Spotify playlist of the Top 10, if anybody wants to listen:  September 1970

Nineteen (19) songs made their Top 40 debut, here they are (listed by entering position):

• Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt -31
• Look What They've Done To My Song Ma - The New Seekers featuring Eve Graham - 34
• Indiana Wants Me - R. Dean Taylor - 35
• Out In The Country - Three Dog Night - 35
• Closer To Home (I'm Your Captain) - Grand Funk Railroad - 35
• Joanne - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - 36
• Peace Will Come (According To Plan) - Melanie - 37
• That's Where I Went Wrong - The Poppy Family (Featuring Susan Jacks) - 37
• It's Only Make Believe - Glen Campbell - 37
• Neanderthal Man - Hotlegs - 38
• El Condor Pasa (If I Could) - Simon & Garfunkel - 38
• Everything's Tuesday - Chairman Of The Board - 38
• Green-Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf - 39
• Express Yourself - Charles Wright And The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - 39
• Still Water (Love) - Four Tops - 39
• All Right Now - Free - 40
• I'll Be There - Jackson 5 - 40
• Lola - The Kinks - 40
• Fire And Rain - James Taylor - 40

Cleveland Skyline

 

Cleveland skyline, from Ohio City.  Maybe somebody can identify the landmarks?

Time In A Bottle

 

We recently visited my wife's sister's family just outside Cleveland.  We had a really nice visit which included hanging out on their rooftop patio, watching the sunset and catching up on our lives.  I snagged this photo of a water bottle, and ice bucket.  Simple little still life, I quite like it.

There's a different version I especially like over at my 365project, check it out!

Instant Party

 Well, Instagram...

I've had an Instagram channel since April 2014, lsqrd42.  But I haven't been particularly active there.   Over the first 6 years there, I had just over 400 posts.With 56 followers,  not exactly an influencer...

Anyway, around mid-July I decided to ramp up the site, and see if I could get some traction.  Over the past 56 days, I've had 49 posts, and added 4 followers.  And it seems that my "Likes" per post is up about 2/3.

Still, don't think I'll be going full time.  But it'll be interesting to see if it trends at all.

I'm not intending for this to take the place of this blog, and certainly not of my 365project, but for now, I'm having fun. I'm trying to vary the content between platforms, but there's going to be some overlap.

Check it out!

Here's a few recent photos

Counting Cameras

 So....  I was browsing around on 365project on a Saturday morning, which is not uncommon for me.  In the course of my wandering, I was looking at the Popular Cameras page, which lists the most used cameras on 365 Project in the last 30 days".

It would be nice if it had links to specific photos, but I guess they're still working on that.  Anyway, it's still  interesting.  A couple of things I notice:

• My Fujifim X-T3 didn't make the Top 50. Its predecessor, the X-T2, was the only Fujifilm on the list, at #34.  Not too surprising, though.  I had never thought about Fujifilm until I attended a session with Karen Hutton in November 2018.  She shoots Fufifilm (or was shooting), and was kind enough to chat with me about the brand after her session.  That kicked in my "I got a Nikon Camera" door, and after some more digging, I made the switch.  I haven't looked back.
• Phones made up 14 of the 50 spots, almost all of them iPhones.  It would be interesting to see the trend here, I suspect phone cameras are continuing to grow.  Besides the convenience factor, the quality has gotten really great.  Roughly 1/3 of the images I've uploaded to my 365project in 2020 are from my iPhone.  
• In the long standing Nikon vs Canon battle, Nikon gets an edge here.  Nikon took 14 of the Top 50 spots, vs Canon with 10.  In terms of photos, Nikon represented 26% of the images from the Top 50 Cameras, Canon 19%.  Nikon placed higher (5 and 6), but Canon had more in the Top 10 (3 vs 2).  Of course, I'll always have a soft spot for Nikon, they were my brand from 1982 through 2018.

Of course, this is all just navel gazing, but I couldn't resist.

Look Out Cleveland...

 Ohio sunset, from my sister-in-law's rooftop patio.  Ohio City, Ohio, just across the Cuyahoga from downtown Cleveland.

Butterflies, Flutterbies, Gutterflies?

 

From a midday vist to Columbia Bottom Conservation Area:

This is NOT a Monarch Butterfly.  My "Seek" phone ap identified it as a Viceroy, and some internet sleuthing confirmed it.  A subtle difference to somebody like me (aka ignorant), but pretty clear when drawn out.  See HERE.

Also seen at the same time, this Common Buckeye

Pretty cool!

Standing Tall

 

Just back from a quick trip to Pittsburgh and Cleveland...  This groundhog was hanging out in my brother's back yard...