3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

country

Mockingbird Sun Opens for Huey Lewis

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Normally opening bands are forgetful, but Huey Lewis would only have a band that was worthy of sharing their stage. Mockingbird Sun fills this requirement. During the Celebrate America concert in Omaha Nebraska Mockingbird Sun was a great start to the evening. Click on the streaming media button below and give their music a listen.

How would you describe their style? I’d say, clean, summertime country rockabilly with a good mix of tight harmony (including banjo). The lyrics and songwriting tells a story and the melody makes me want to cruise the countryside in a convertible with the top down, or sit by the lake with a cold drink.

Mockingbird Sun in concert in Omaha Nebrask
Mockingbird Sun in concert in Omaha Nebraska
Mockingbird Sun in concert in Omaha Nebrask
Bret kicking it up in Omaha

Mockingbird Sun in concert in Omaha NebraskI love outdoor concerts, somehow it makes the music sound better, They were very good and definitely worth a Music Monday shout out. Now to find some more outdoor concerts. Bands are fun to photograph, the instruments, the action and the sheer fun the musicians have playing off each other when they get into a good vibe. 

Lately I have rediscovered Mockingbird Sun and pull up their streaming music and listen to them while I’m working on the computer. It’s nice to rediscover good music.

Corn, Knee High by the 4th of July

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The old saying “corn knee high” by the 4th of July has been a moniker of farmers for a long time.  However, if the corn is ONLY knee high by that time the farmers are in trouble and won’t get much of a harvest.

Corn Field in Eastern Nebraska
Corn Field in Eastern Nebraska

This corn field just east of Murdock, Nebraska is about chest high on me, almost five feet tall. Granted it has been a very early season in the Midwest, we are about 3 weeks ahead of schedule.

Western Nebraska is not so lucky. Quite a bit of the state is still in drought conditions and if the crops aren’t under a center pivot it is withering and dying. Some isn’t even a foot tall and the leaves are curling and drying up.

The view of the Farmers Co-op might look familiar as it is the same location as my Skyscrapers post a last year.

Save On Gas, Use Horsepower

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I think gas prices are a little high when the department of roads starts using horsepower the sides of the road. This is a sight you don’t see very often, a team of horses mowing the grader ditches. I know the Nebraska state budget isn’t in that dire of straits, but I wonder if gas prices have just gone up a little too much?

Draft Horses (SOOC)
Draft Horses (SOOC)

My husband and I spotted these Belgian mares north of Lincoln Nebraska mowing the grass and also saw them four days later, raking the same ditch to turn the hay. They do not belong to the state of Nebraska, nor are they doing the county’s job of maintenance. Of course I had my camera with me, you never know when you will find a photo opportunity, and talked to the farmer. They had just mowed over two miles of grass and would go back in a few days to bale the hay. He believes that horses need to be exercised on a regular basis, especially draft horses, and what better way to do this than put them to work. 

 I don’t remember their names, but they are full sisters, one a seven year old and the other other eleven.

Team of Belgians Mowing
Team of Belgians Mowing

Edits were done in Lightroom 4 with a decrease in exposure, increase in clarity and opening up shadows on the horses to bring out detail. The sky was still washed out so I used the adjustment brush and decreased the exposure in the sky to get a better balanced image. Voilia! Clouds appeared.

 

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Severe Thunderstorms in the Midwest

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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.