My Life, my photography, my passions
My daughter gets tired of me bringing my camera to the softball fields and sticking the lens through the fence. So I thought I would give everyone the same view I get from sitting on the bleachers. A double header every Wednesday night, can you say bleacher butt?
So why did the snapping turtle cross the road? Why does any turtle cross the road for that matter? I don’t know, but he obviously didn’t do it so I could carry him across to the other side. If he did he wouldn’t have been so ungrateful to hiss and snap at me while I saved his shell from tires of a car. He was heavy guy, about 25 lbs and a good 18 inches in length. Didn’t want a car to hit him, so I carried him in the direction he was going, north across Holdredge Street east of Lincoln Nebraska.
There is an old wives tale that if you see turtles crossing the road it’s going to rain. (Within 12 hours of this picture it did rain by the way. ) This theory is true, or is at least true from my standpoint. In 1988 I was working a summer internship job for SafeGuard cattle dewormer in Oklahoma. We were in the middle of a heatwave and drought. Ranchers were asking me if I was bringing rain with me when I came to visit. I always had bad news for them.
Then one morning I started noticing the turtles crossing the highway, being familiar with the old wives tale I started counting them. I stopped at 73. When I stopped at the Farmers Co-op they asked the question, “Did you bring any rain?” I jokingly told them “Turtles were all over the road it’s going to pour buckets.”
That afternoon as I drove past the co-op again it WAS pouring buckets and I honked my horn as they waved from the doorway.
The next week when I stopped by they asked the same question. I could only shake my head and say, “Sorry, this morning I saw a tarantula cross the road, it’s going to be dry for a while”
So why do turtles cross the road? Probably for many reasons, it’s breeding season, it just rained and their homes got flooded and they have moved to higher ground. Or, like another blogger thought, it’s going to rain.
I’ve decided to take pictures of as many different types and colors of peonies I can this season. I did it with tulips and daffodils, so why not. There are so many colors and it peony season, although pink is the most prevalent. Only last a few short weeks so I think I’ll go out today and see what I can find.
Post Production Photoshop Notes: Used an artistic dry brush with a pink layer at low opacity. Gave it a softer yet detailed look I liked. Below is the straight out of camera.
A simple but elegant macro of a peony. They are in full bloom right now and just spectacular.
Photography Notes: Added a warming filter, sharpened the stamens, added a pale yellow mask then erased the inside, burned the white leaves for dimension.
My first award, or recognition, members of the Facebook 365 Day Photo Challenge voted my “Strutting Peaccok” the photo of the week! Yeah!
Peacock images have been overdone as well as roses, but what photography collection is complete without a strutting peacock. I did bump this up a little with posterizing in Photoshop and a green tint in the black and white layer. The effect I was trying to achieve was to get the “eyes” to pop and I believe it was achieved. Those eyes would get my attention
By the way, this male peacock did catch the female after a little chase. Just another photo from the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, love that place.
