Going HOME!!

These were shot in the car driving home from Rochester, MN.
We left at the crack of dawn and nature put on a glorious sunrise show for me.
Thank you Nature.
I adore sunrises.













Free Fallin' Clouds:


I was Happy, in the moment:

Sunrise Moon Nature Show

In the East - fabulous sunrise:


With the tele:


In the West - moon in trees:

I like how the tree branches seem to be holding up the moon.

Moon in clouds:


Moon again:


October's full moon is called Hunter's Moon.
Googling tells me it's supposed to be the smallest full moon of the year 2011, or furthest away from the earth.
Well, it was really beaming forth into the window right before the sun came up. Hard to ignore.

Photo Walk

Some photos I like from a photo walk.



(Continuing the into the sun tall tree shadows photography study.)



Red Admiral Butterfly. I like the angle and the wood texture background. I thought it might be unusual to see butterflies this late in the autumn? Captured another one on camera but could not positively identify.

Clouds

More photos of clouds.

This one is a "moose" cloud:




Always fun to get the moon in the clouds:

Clouds

Falling Wolf Cloud:


Hot Air Balloon Cloud:


Those birds in the clouds are pigeons(?):



These next ones were tone mapped (psp9 clarify) at maximum once in Paint Shop Pro X3 which greatly increases cloud definition.
I like the nifty dramatic texture this creates on clouds sometimes. More realistic at lower settings though.

October Autumn

Got out for a photo walk. Perfect autumn day. Calm, Clear, Cool Crispy jacket weather.
Beautiful colorful autumn this year.
Still plenty of color out there, which is a little later than usual I think.
I'm glad.

Just pretty red:


At the right place at the right time:


Still some flowers out there:


These leaves were gorgeous in various stages of color. I call them gradient leaves.


This one house along the river always has something out for the different holidays and seasons:


Birds were active this day. I even managed to capture a chickadee photo since many of the trees don't have many leaves.
I saw robins, a sparrow, a woodpecker, and chickadees.


This is a not very good photo of a downy or hairy woodpecker. I'll post it because it's all I have so far of that bird.


Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
cornell
Downies and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master.
enature

Nifty Striped Clouds:


Pretty gold on the river:

Bench in a bed of leaves:

Scenery

A few scenery pics that I liked from the photo drive.




I call them "grand sky" pics.
Fabulous ever changing cloud patterns that day.
Lots of rain, everything is lush green.
The gravel road really is that pretty reddish color. Scoria? It had just rained, so not dusty.

More Clouds

Different days.


These are sunrise clouds, but to the North:

Clouds

How about some land with that, heh—our land/place.