Bluebird (of Happiness?)

Not a great shot, but a real live bluebird, spotted yesterday at the Watershed Nature Center.
Listen to my bluebird laugh, She can't tell you why.
Deep within her heart, you see, She knows only crying. Just crying.
There she sits, a lofty perch. Strangest color blue.
Flying is forgotten now. Thinks only of you. Just you.
So, get all those blues, Must be a thousand hues.
And be just differently used. You just know.
You sit there mesmerized By the depth of those eyes
That you can't categorize. She got soul.
She got soul. She got soul. She got soul!
Do you think she knows you? Do you think at all?
Soon she's going to fly away. Sadness is her own.
Reverse of a death of tears And go home, and go home.
. . . (Buffalo Springfield)

Filtered....

OK, a little example of the effects of a polarizing filter, which the only filter I use. I like to think of polarizing filter as sunglasses for your camera; they cut glare, reduce reflections and can deepen colors. A circular polarizer has 2 discs, and rotating them can adjust the effect.

Here’s the “before shot”, noontime sun on the water….

Here’s the same view, with the polarizer adjusted for maximum effect.….

I Never Asked To Be A Citizen....

I wish I knew the story behind this, but it’s just something I came across today, while walking with my son…; . .

Yellow Grid, Revisited

An abstract look at a bench. First posted 1 year ago today (4/7/5). Nikon D70

Next stop... MTV

On this date (4/7) in 1927, the first simultaneous telecast of image and sound took place. Herbert Hoover (then Secretary of Commerce) read a speech in Washington, DC, which was transmitted to Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City, where an audience saw and heard a tiny televised image of Hoover, less than 3 inches square. Courtesy of the HistoryChannel.com

Seems Like A Dream

It’s the same kind of story that seems to come down from long ago
Two friends having coffee together, when something flies by their window
It might be out on that lawn, which is wide, at least half of a playing field
Because there’s no explaining what your imagination can make you see and feel

Seems like a dream, (they) got me hypnotized

Now it’s not a meaningless question, to ask if they’ve been and gone
I remember a talk about North Carolina and a strange, strange pond
You see the sides were like glass in the thick of a forest without a road
And if any man’s ever made that land, then I think it would’ve showed

Seems like a dream, (they) got me hypnotized

lyrics from the song Hypnotized, by Fleetwood Mac (Bob Welsh). From back before they became superstars... This is one of those songs that really captivates me....

Tiger Pride

One of the flags around the drop-off circle at Edwardsville High School. We were there last night for my younger daughter’s induction to the National Honor Society.

Thanks For Noticin' Me....

Wow!! Over 5,000 page views in March, up 543% since March of 2005. I've been doing this little blog for 19 months now, and have had over 40,000 visits. Thanks to everybody for stoppin' by, and I hope you're enjoying the show. Now if I could just get a few click-throughs.... (I'm joking, of course)

Barn, Early Morning, Early Spring

OK, just a fun little exercise in Happenstance. I shot this from my car window, on the way to work (while driving 60mph +/-)... Not exaclty the "right" way to do it, no tripod, no careful composition, nothing. Auto settings, Aperture priority, wide open to get the fastest shutter speed. On a dark, looking-like-rain morning. I posted this to the “before and after” discussion area at BetterPhoto, if you want to see the “before”, click HERE. .

"A man's errors are his portals of discovery."

James Joyce

Daylight Savings Time

It's funny the things that will bug you. A little over a year ago, we bought an inexpensive wall clock to put in the kitchen. You know, 10-12" diameter, analog (moving hands), runs on a couple of AA batteries, 15 bucks or so... Anyway, I'm reading the box, and it says it automatically detects daylight savings time. Sure enough, this silly little clock, with no evident means of communicating, does indeed spring forward and fall back. My $600 Bose waveradio clock/CD player doesn't do that, nor any of the other alarm clocks in the house. But the dorky little WalMart clock sure can. This fall, I think I'm going to stay up till 2am, and see if it stops for an hour, or winds it's hands backwards, or what. But it doesn't set the time, or do anything else funky. Just that spring-forward, fall-back thing. errrrrr

Art!!

As we approach the end stages of a long running backyard project, the time has come to get the birdfeeders back up. After some discussion, we decided that we'd look for something cool, new and different, to supplant our "normal" feeder. A little internet investigation brought me to the backyard bird company, and this VERY cool Copper feeder from Vogeli. Handmade by this guy in the western VA. Hopefully it'll hold up to the midwest winds......

Take It Easy

from R'n'R Hall of Fame site: on this day in 1971, Linda Ronstadt recruits Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner for her touring band from among a pool of musicians centered around the Troubadour, a Los Angeles club that is the center of the nascent country-rock scene. Thus were the Eagles born...

High Contrast

High contrast for BP’s April theme : “Black and White”. It looks better in a larger version…
. .

Art??

Quote of the day, from Thinkexist.com:
"What distinguishes modern art from the art of other ages is criticism. " -
Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, writer and diplomat 1914-1988