I’ve decided not to continue to contribute to this blog anymore since I haven’t had much interest in it lately. Instead, I set up a new showcase website of my best images over at http:\\www.photoskunk.net (may need to clear/refresh browser history if that link just brings you back here to WordPress). Additionally, I’m still on Flickr, Instagram, and 500px. Thanks for reading, the nice comments, and all the interest in my photos.
London Chinatown at Night
Shoreditch Street Art 2
More street art photos from another business trip to London in October. Once again, I only had the Canon S95 with me and not as much time to shoot as before in May, but still managed to find some new street art. Many of the pieces I had seen in May were gone and replaced with new art.
Fall Flower Show 2013
Of the 5 seasonal flower shows at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in Como Park, the one I visit the least is the Fall Flower Show. Now I know why – it’s boring. Some ordinary mums mixed in with some chili peppers and olives. Since I didn’t feel like there was much to shoot, I decided to process the photos in a more dramatic style. It helped, but there wasn’t much else I could do with them.
Black & White Desert
In October I was at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and only had my Canon S95 point & shoot camera with me. I shot in shutter priority mode in RAW and got a few nice photos. Spent a lot of time in the Desert Dome which was all fairly uniform in color so I changed some of those shots into black & white images.
The Last Leaf
The Last Leaf, a set on Flickr.
Was inspired to create this set while shooting outside in a Japanese garden in mid-November 2013.
Pictures of Jellyfish
Last weekend I went on a road trip to Omaha and visited the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium. Since it was a quick trip and I was there to see “The Book of Mormon” I didn’t bring the “good” camera, the Canon 7D. I only brought my Canon S95 point & shoot camera and of course I was regretting not bringing the 7D once I got to the zoo. But I did the best I could and I think I did get some OK photos.
Among other animals, I ended up taking a lot of pictures of jellyfish. For some reason, I love to take pictures of jellyfish, even though they’re pretty much the same no matter what zoo or aquarium you’re at. I love the way they move and their tanks are usually lit so that they glow bright against a pretty blue background. They are almost constantly moving and end up either bunched in interesting formations or stretched out by themselves. I just never get tired of shooting them. Here are a few I took with the S95 in Omaha.
Changed colors on this one to make it more interesting
Sweetland Orchard
Last weekend we went apple-picking at Sweetland Orchard. We’ve been to several orchards in the area and Sweetland is our favorite because it’s just apples, nothing else. There are no hay rides, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, playgrounds, etc. While those things can be fun, they sort of take away from the experience in a way. We like Sweetland because the people are friendly, the apples are plentiful and they have a great dog named Fletcher who always wants to play. This year they also had some tame chickens & turkeys that were hanging around looking for food. It was a perfect fall day to pick apples.
Dog Day Afternoon
The St. Paul Parks & Recreation Dept held its 2nd annual Bark & Rec Day a couple of weeks ago at Harriet Island Regional Park. We dressed up our dogs Mikey (Pomeranian) & Lilli (mutt) as a cop & robber (Mikey looks good in black & white stripes being a gray & white dog) and headed out for some doggie activities. The event was really fun – we got swag bags for each dog full of bowls, treats, food, and toys. There was a dog parade, an agility course where you could try out the various stations, an off-leash area, a fashion show (yes, for dogs!), some games for both dogs and people, and a very energetic demo of the Minnesota Disc Dog Club. Our dog Mikey ended up winning 3rd place in an underwater hot dog eating contest (the hot dogs were underwater, not the actual dogs) in the small dog category and his prize was a ribbon and a toy. Several vendors were there also, including some people who sell beer for dogs (Mikey had 2 cups!) and our friends from The Woof Room who were excited to see Lilli & Mikey again. I wish we had stayed long enough to get some fashion show pictures but I did enjoy trying to get some good shots during the disc dog demo. Those dogs are fast and some can jump so high that it’s amazing.
Mikey enjoys some beer for dogs
Lilli in her police costume
The dog is so high, he’s barely in the frame
Flying dog!
Minnesota State Fair at Night
The Minnesota State Fair was open for the last 2 weeks in August as usual and it was the hottest 2 weeks of the entire year. When the weather finally cooled down for the last couple of days of the fair, they set an attendance record for the highest single-day attendance. I went twice this year, once when it was so hot you could hardly stand it, and once in the evening when it was a little bit more bearable. I was there in the evening to try to get some good night shots of the lights, the rides on the Midway, and anything else that looked interesting. While I didn’t get to stay as long as I’d hoped due to the fact that my daughter was coming down with a sinus infection and didn’t feel well, I did get some nice shots. Plus I ended up with my first pictures of our local “Captain Jack Sparrow”,
thanks to my friend Craig who often shoots photos of Captain Jack and always knows where to find him.
Kansas in Summer
Made the annual trip down to Kansas in August. Although often very hot at that time, it’s always nice to go down when the weather is good and we don’t have to worry about driving in snow and bad roads. Plus we end up having a better visit with family since we’re not all too busy with holiday activities. And when we go in the summer we end up doing things we wouldn’t normally do in the winter or during the holidays. This trip we went back to the Old Cowtown Museum, Tanganyika Wildlife Park and also visited the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center for the first time. So it was quite a wide variety of experiences and I was happy to get some more photos of some of our favorite places in Kansas.
Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center – Hutchinson, KS
Old Cowtown Museum
Scenes from around Wichita, southern Kansas and just over the border into Oklahoma
Tanganyika Wildlife Park
PhotoSkunk Images 