Fabulous Mushroom

Typically a mushroom on this same tree at the same time of year.

Simplicity

Fishin' chair on river sandbar:


Fishin':

Sand Tracks

River is low, lots of sandbars out there now.

My fav:


More:

Boat

Loved the boat water pattern on these:

Train Bridge

On the dirt bike trail.
Different views of bridge.
It was an interesting photography subject.

Full bridge view:

I like how it curves around instead of a typical straight across view.

These next few feel like aerial views, but they're not. Maybe that's why I like them.





The next one was done with telephoto zoom. We did not walk on the bridge. Signs said danger and no trespassing.

Autumn Colors On Dirt Bike Trail

Right now, it's the perfect outdoor weather.
I love the autumn sun.
I love the cool crispy mornings.
I love the colors.
Is there anything I don't absolutely adore about autumn?
I don't think so.

Nothing I like better than to wander a new outdoor trail on a cool calm clear crispy autumn morning, with my camera, of course.

The trail:


But first,
Wild turkeys:

I thought the turkeys at alert attention with their heads in different directions made it such an interesting photograph. Perfect autumn leaves background too.
This was a situation where the DSLR gave a much richer higher quality photo than my little point and shoot. Not always that vast of difference between the two.

And then the climb up the steep hill:


Biker was going down the hill:


Pretty tree:


Sunshine in the trees:



More autumn colors:

Cute Little Sparrow

I'm just going to appreciate this cute little sparrow.
And I don't even want to try and hunt down what kind it is.
Sparrows are tough to identify.

More Caterpillars

I'm sure seeing a lot of caterpillars this year at this time.

Zebra caterpillar (Melanchra picta):


Probably considered a garden pest, but I thought the patterning close-up was wonderful to look at.

bugguide
Order Lepidoptera - Butterflies and Moths
No Taxon Moths
Superfamily Noctuoidea
Family Noctuidae - Owlet Moths
Subfamily Noctuinae - Cutworm or Dart Moths
Tribe Hadenini
Genus Melanchra
Species picta - Zebra Caterpillar Moth - Hodges#10293

Another caterpillar:


I think the brown and orange one is some kind of tiger moth again?

bugguide
Order Lepidoptera - Butterflies and Moths
No Taxon Moths
Superfamily Noctuoidea
Family Erebidae
Subfamily Arctiinae - Tiger and Lichen Moths
Tribe Arctiini - Tiger Moths

Blogged Previously:
Isabella Tiger Moth (Isia isabella)
Virginian Tiger Moth (Spilosoma virginica)

Clouds

More photos of clouds.

This one is a "moose" cloud:




Always fun to get the moon in the clouds:

Moon

Full moon in the morning western sky.
I was playing around with different effects in Paint Shop Pro and liked this softborder effect.
It looks like it could be water in the background.
Or it could be looking out a window.

The Harvest

Lined up, ready to go:


Trying to come up with something different for the typical field bales photo. I like it. Gold morning sunlight.

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.

Surprise Under The Bridge

The big event this weekend was discovering a great horned owl sitting high up under a bridge.



Closeup:


We found him about 8am during a morning walk and took a bunch of photos with my S3 Canon.
Then we came back with all three of my cameras about 11am.
Still there.
None of my/our photos turned out very well (poor close up detail) because of the lighting, angle, distance, etc.
I think that's the first time in nature that I thought "tripod" because my subject actually stayed put.
My arms, neck, shoulders ached from holding a camera high up in the air, taking pictures, but also just plain gawking at him thru the viewer. I tried a video on him also.

He had his eyes closed a lot of the time, but if there was noise, he would open them.
Besides observing his eyes open and close, which is quite fascinating to watch on an owl, we also saw him turn his head way around, lift his huge clawed foot, ruffle feathers, and mostly just sit there and tolerate us humans.



Here's a size comparison with a pigeon, because there were lots of those perched up there as well.



What a privilege to observe!
Before we left, I thanked Mr. Magnificent for the photo shoot.