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clouds

Western Nebraska Sky Country

June 22, 2014 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Who needs mountains and oceans when the skies of Western Nebraska can give you all the scenery  and glorious vistas you could want. So many people drive down I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska and say they don’t see anything except cornfields and flat land.  I say slow down, take a detour on a country road where and actually look at the world around you. The open skies of the Midwest give a 360 panorama of blue sky combined with the action of the clouds.

Western Nebraska
Western Nebraska

This is the view from the back of my in-laws farm house outside of Palisade Nebraska. Every night the pheasants fly overhead and you can hear the male roosters crowing in the CRP grass surrounding the house.

Nebraska Off the Beaten Path®: A Guide To Unique Places (Off the Beaten Path Series)Along the Edge of Daylight: Photographic Travels from Nebraska and the Great Plains (Great Plains Photography)

Nebraska wheat field
Nebraska wheat field

In June the wheat fields of Nebraska start to ripen and turn green. Rain is critical at this point, it helps fill out the berries and increases the yields. The farmers in Nebraska have been luckier in 2014 than the wheat farmers of Texas and Oklahoma. It seems the drought has broken. Southwestern Nebraska had 3 inches of rain one day, it was the most rain they have received at one time in over five years. To say my father in law was happy and smiling was an understatement.

Many people think of Nebraska as fly over country, a place not worth stopping as there is nothing to see. That couldn’t be further from the truth. What makes an ocean awe inspiring? The waves and the sky. Nebraska has waves of wheat and corn and a sky with personality and magnificent clouds. There is plenty to do and see in Nebraska if you just look: Omaha Zoo, Holy Family Shrine, rodeos, country fairs, football games, apple jack festival, and plenty more.

The Complete Roadside Guide to Nebraska, Second EditionNebraska Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series)

IMG_8266-307You can even see road tracks in the dirt road. I’ve been visiting my in laws for many years during the summer and have never gotten mud on the car. We drove around through the canyons and it was very apparent the wildlife enjoyed the moisture as well. We spotted over 30 deer, a coyote, turkeys, and TWO jack rabbits. My husbands hasn’t seen jack rabbits out there in many years.  IMG_8363-313 Here is just one of the mule deer we saw that night. Notice the deer path on the ridge. This is a sight you never see driving 75 mph down the interstate. So next time you take a cross country trip. Take the road less traveled, slow down and enjoy the sights. The countryside has a lot to offer if you just want to look.  Bring your camera, don’t be shy. Most people in the area are proud to show off their lovely state and are friendly as can be, as long as you smile and say “I didn’t realize Nebraska was so beautiful!”

Fun Things to Do in Nebraska

Nebraska event puts bison pies in the hands of determined competitors – Omaha …

CHADRON, Nebraska — LaRissa McKean walked into the competition circle in a pink dress, open-toed platform shoes, a Miss Northwest Nebraska sash and a generous portion of bison excrement in her hand. Earlier in the year, McKean, of Omaha, had won …

Fair keeps focus on all Nebraska has to offer – The Grand Island Independent …

UNL Extension staff members and volunteers have been transforming the outside of the Nebraska Building into a visual representation of the various crops, plants and trees the state has to offer. Inside an outline of Nebraska, all the state’s major …

State Games: Speer family continues tradition with Nebraska stop – Lincoln …

Shannon Evans and her daughter, Ava Haimes, and son, Dylan Evans, carry on a family tradition by participating in the State Games of America, this year with Shannon as a coach, Ava competing in gymnastics and Dylan in skateboarding.

Nebraska fun | Nebraska Passport 2015

Nebraska fun. Posted on May 29, 2015. My daughter lives in Minnesota. I always vow to stop at points of interest when traveling to see her. After receiving my passport I made up an agenda. Before leaving I visited the local attractions, Sew …

Chadron Intermediate School: Nebraska Fun Facts

Nebraska Fun Facts. Nebraska was once called “The Great American Desert”. In 1927, Edwin E. Perkins of Hastings invented the powered soft drink Kool-Aid. J. Sterling Morton founded Arbor Day in Nebraska City in 1872.

NO-Nebraska : Fun Facts

Nebraska is a really interesting state! There are a ton of facts that I didn’t know about Nebraska. I’m going to list a few of them right here! Did you know that 911 was developed in Lincoln, Nebraska? Now it’s used all over the …

Guide of 10 Things to Do with Kids in Omaha, Nebraska …

It is the largest amusement park in Nebraska, and the site of the only roller coaster in Nebraska. Fun-Plex is established in 1987. Rides at Fun-Plex include a slick track, bumper boats, and go-gator kiddie coaster. There is a …

Filed Under: Photography, Travel Adventures Tagged With: big sky, big sky country, clouds, country, deer, midwest, Nebraska, nebraska fun, palisade, photographs, travel, western nebraska

Severe Thunderstorms in the Midwest

June 14, 2012 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Thunderclouds in Nebraska
Thunderclouds in Nebraska

Just thunderstorms tonight in Nebraska, but note the circular rotation in the clouds overhead. They were definitely moving in different directions.  No tornado, the clouds quickly merged into each other, but we did get a wonderful thunder and lightning storm. I love weather, ok, dramatic weather.

We really needed the rain too, it was getting very dry.

Thunderstorm in the Midwest
Thunderstorm in the Midwest

Shot in RAW, processed in Lightroom 4, used adjustment brush over the clouds to increase the clarity and shadows between the clouds.

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: Atmospheric Sciences, clouds, country, Meteorology, National Weather Service, Nebraska, Severe weather, sky, storm, Thunderstorm, weather

#20/52: Nebraska Corn Fields with the Clouds a Brewing

June 12, 2012 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Nebraska Corn fields during the summer
Nebraska Corn fields during the summer

The clouds in Nebraska take on a life of their own and offer a landscape panorama that takes your breath away

Related articles
  • Drought fears spread east across Nebraska (omaha.com)
  • #19/52: Buffalo on the Prairie (ndjmom.wordpress.com)

Filed Under: Project 52 Tagged With: clouds, country, midwest, Nebraska, Project 52, rural, scenery, sky, summer

#16/52: My Favorite Country Barn, Edited with Lightroom

April 30, 2012 by info@3QuartersToday.com

I love country barns  (okay, it’s really a corn crib) in Nebraska is one of my favorite photography subjects, yet this shot is my favorite. I pass it at least twice a day and it sits in the middle of a field with nothing around it, solitary, no trees, just in the middle of a field with either corn or soybeans growing on all sides. It has different moods depending on the light and looks different in the early morning and at night with the sun setting behind the western sky.

My favorite barn gets my attention every time I drive past and have often taken photographs to capture the mode. They never come out exactly how it looks in real life though. But with the help of Adobe Lightroom this has changed, I can actually say that this is truly what the barn looked like that day.

Photographing Country barns
Barn against a Cloudy Sky

From what I understand in reading various photography blogs and sites a camera has difficulty collecting all the dynamic ranges of lights and darks. In simple terms you expose for the sky or your subject. That leaves the other parts of you picture over or under exposed.

The newest version of Lightroom 4 has an amazing capability of pulling out shadows, highlights, whites and blacks without leaving artifacts in the image. This was shot in RAW and I’m very impressed, puts my Photoshop CS2 to shame. The later versions of Photoshop do have more advanced algorithms that achieve the same thing, but I can only compare the programs I use.

I will still keep using Photoshop, Lightroom is only another tool to use and does not have text or graphic design capability. I still love adding drop shadows, borders and creating custom layouts.

Stay tuned for more Lightroom 4 examples, and possibly redo’s of previous photos as a comparison.

More Historic Country Barns

Barns of New York: Rural Architecture of the Empire StateBarn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail MovementBarn Find Road Trip: 3 Guys, 14 Days and 1000 Lost Collector Cars DiscoveredThe Barn: Memoir of a Family during the Nazi Occupation of Holland in 1940-1945

Country Roads and Friday Finds – Keeping With The Times

A Drive in the Country, barns, country, country living, keeping with the. Later in the day I visited Star Lake and ran into this fellow who was pretty much minding his own (business) … A Drive in the Country, barns, country, …

Barns along Polling Station Road | Hoof Beats and Foot Prints

Drive along with me on a windy country road. Polling Station Road in Harwood, Maryland offers views of a variety of country barns. Most of them from a past era of tobacco farming in southern Maryland and stand in the …

D.L. Marriott » Blog Archive » Living in a Fairy Tale

It draws up images of pumpkins and scare crows, hay bales and country barns framed in russet leaves. I grew up in the city, and although my husband and I have spent all our child raising years in the suburbs, pretty far out in …

Filed Under: Project 365 Tagged With: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Systems, barn, clouds, country, country barns, Elmwood-Murdock, Lightroom, midwest, Photography, Photoshop, rural, sky

#13/52: Sun’s So Bright, Gotta Wear Shades

April 12, 2012 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Blinding Sun in Nebraska Big Sky Country

Whoever called Nebraska a boring fly over state has never really opened their eyes. I see such spectacular scenery every day driving home from work it takes my  breath away. Made me think of the One Hit Wonder song.  “Futures So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades” by Timbuk 3.

Enjoy this video blast from 1986, back when MTV actually played music videos. Can anyone remember where they were when they heard this song?

Filed Under: Project 365 Tagged With: clouds, country, farm, music, Nebraska, rural, scenery, sky, Timbuk3, video, YouTube

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