New Mailbox

With a Fall theme

Bank Street Beach

Just before the sun set at Band Street Beach in Harwich, MA. We were staying just up the road in Chatham and this was a close by beach for some late afternoon and early evening photos during the “Golden Hour”.

Blue Heron

Seen this afternoon at the Decatur Cemetery. I couldn't get too close and only had my prime lens. The picture has been considerably cropped as a result.

Cole Sings Cole

At a show in Marietta Georgia last night where Ingrid Cole sings a medley of some 19 Cole Porter songs.

Boats at Rest

Just before sunset on a fall evening in Chatham MA and looking across Oyster Pond River from a parking spot next to the Chatham Kayak Company. This was one of those times when every second counts as far as getting a good picture.

Shedding Maple

This tree can shed its leaves overnight and I was keen to capture a photo at the height of it's color. Today was a good day for doing just that.

After the Flood

These shots were taken at Medlock Park here in North Decatur after flooding. At this point just the paths are a little muddy but conditions a few days ago were probably more like what can be seen here.

Berry Crop

I saw these in front of a neighbor’s house earlier today. Not sure what the plant is, but it was definitely colorful and also rather tiny. A bunch of these was only an inch or so across.

Sunny Bird

After days of dreary wet weather here in Atlanta we finally got to see some sunshine. This photo received some image processing in Affinity Photo as well as an early version of Lightroom.

Asheville City Hall

It was a very pleasant Spring day for a photo walk around the city of Asheville. I enjoyed manually focusing the Minolta 50mm 1.7 lens and this is a typical example of the quality I'm getting.

Blossom in Rain

This shot it taken from the porch of our Asheville AirBnB accommodation on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I was glad to have the protection and elevation of the porch to get this short of seasonal foliage in bloom.

Pizza Fountain

We ate at Slice and Pint this evening at Emory Village and since I had brought my camera, I took a picture of the fountain in front of the restaurant while we still had some decent light. This is another shot with the Minolta prime lens on my Sony a6000 and I'm pleased with the result. It's definitely a sharp lens. This shot was at around f5.6 aperture.

Jane Art

My first picture with a Minolta Rokker 1.7 lens attached to my Sony. This lens is about 40 years old but seems to work pretty well. You just have to manually set the aperture and then manually focus. Totally old school. Focused on right eye at about f2.0 There's no electronic connection for aperture of course so that's not showing in EXIF.

On Your Left!

We were walking along the Eastside Beltline Trail a week or so ago and needing to be aware of these bikes coming along behind us. There's no separate bike path so pedestrians are sharing the path with the bicyclists. Eventually I decided that I could try out the focus speed of the Sony a6000, although I could have done better by using the 11 shutter actuations per second setting to ensure captured focus - maybe. Anyhow, I kind of like this shot. By the way the title of course refers to the warning we would hear as a rider approached from behind.

Percussion Fever

The percussions section of the band dressed up just a little bit this evening and so I decided to bring along the camera to record some of the antics. This is at our weekly Seed & Feed Marching Abominable band rehearsal.

Spring Color

Our next door neighbors' front yard is definitely alive with color. This is a picture that I uploaded from my Sony (shot in jpeg format) to my iPhone 6 plus (in this case) and then processed using the very capable Leonardo app. Finally I uploaded the jpeg exported from Leonardo to flickr using Photogene. All processing therefore occurred on my iPhone 6 plus. I have to admit that I did turn up the vibrance in Leonardo just a little for this photo!

Fern Rising

Just an opportunity to make sure my Sigma 30mm lens is still working and up to the task. I used focus peeking to grab a specific focus since I shot this at a relatively wide aperture. I'm not particular happy about a certain stiffness in the manual focus on this lens and I gather this is a common complaint. Still the lens itself is good and I'm happy to have it in my small collection of Sony E-mount lenses.

Broken Bridge

Aftermath of a storm (strong winds, hail and rain) that came through the area around Medlock Park this past Friday night. This is on the S Peachtree Creek Trail looking back towards Medlock Park. This is at the first of the new bridges and luckily the damage is not too severe - I think.

Under Freedom Parkway

Both the tiny door and the "Object of Wo(man) by William Massey are to be found within a few feet of each other during a walk along the Eastside Park Trail as it crosses under the Freedom Parkway in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward.

Tulips in Closeup

At the Lake Claire Community Land Trust a week ago.

Volleyball

This was an entertaining Saturday morning for Jane and I. Jane’s grandniece was participating this weekend in something called “The Asics Big South National Qualifier” which is an excuse for 10,000 girls and their families to come to Atlanta for many Volleyball games. We met Stephanie and her family (Jane’s newphew and his wife and younger daughter) down at the Georgia World Congress Center (where this photo was taken) and watched a couple of the games.

BaconFest 2015

Yesterday the band was up to its usual tricks at the (by now) annual BaconFest fund raiser for Dad’s Garage. We are at the so called Masquerade Music Park which is just a stretch of land behind the building housing the Masquerade on North Avenue. We entertained the crowd for a while and then beer and bacon were consumed.

Beltline Trail

I took this photo last Saturday afternoon after Jane and I had walked along the Atlanta Eastside Beltline Trail from the Krog/Irwin Street intersection. This is where the paved section of the beltline starts at this time, and it heads north. The photograph shows Jane on the bridge over Ponce de Leon Avenue and this is where we decided to turn around.

Patiently Waiting for their owners

The band is at a favorite watering hole waiting for the St Patrick’s Day parade in Atlanta to commence. Drinks all around except for these instruments.

St Patrick's Day Gig

Our band performed in the St Patrick's day parade in midtown Atlanta last Saturday. Katherine is getting into the swing of things, although the feathers were only temporary.

Shivering Flute Player

This just past Saturday at noon our band played at the grand opening of the new Springbrook Park and it was quite chilly. Jenny turns up not really suitably dressed for the occasion and is obviously shivering when I took this photo. She did get something to cover her arms later, so her situation improved.

I thought I’d show this picture as an example of why I really need to remember to bring my wide angle lens hood to these events, particularly when it’s a sunny day. I think it’s obvious what’s going on here where this ultra wide angle lens captures some of the suns rays even though I’m not directly facing into the source. The internal reflections weren’t bad enough for me to not include this picture in my photo set, but I did make sure that I had the sun behind me for the rest of my photos on the day.

Nooksack Falls

Just off the Mt Baker Rd in the Northern Cascades to the East of Bellingham.

Mary and Beth

At America's Mart with the Seed and Feed Marching Abominable Band.

Winter Garden

Wandering around the area of Mason Mill Park yesterday. This place should be blooming in another couple of months, but at the moment the garden is a little bleak looking.

A cold Day

It's only reaching the mid 20s or so Fahrenheit here in Atlanta today so I figure this image is an appropriate one for the occasion. I took it at Heather Lake not far from Seattle a few weeks ago. We'd hiked up the trail from a parking lot and had intended to have a nice picnic lunch once we reached the lake. Unfortunately the lake was frozen, the temperature was around 20F, the whole area was in shadow from the sun and our sandwiches were crunching from being frozen! And so our lunch was truncated and we hurried to return down the trail and to the warmth of a car.

Band Practice

This is the first practice for the Seed and Feed Marching Abominable band in 2015.

Little Tower

Earlier today I walked along a little bit of the Atlanta Beltline in the area where it crosses over Ponce De Leon. This is at the back of Paris on Ponce. There's now an entrance to the store on the Beltline itself.

After the Rain

And the water has drained somewhat from this morning. At least this is all at the bottom of our yard and far away from the house.

Wine Glass

I'm testing my wide angle zoom lens again. This time focussing down a wine glass.

Jane's Studio

The UPS man finally arrived today with my wide angle zoom lens. This is the first shot with the lense just attached to my Sony a6000. That's Jane in her workspace at 10 mm (15mm 35 mm equivalent) wide angle. This is straight out of the camera with no Lightroom corrections - just a jpeg with Sony correction for lens distortion. I should have had this thing at a party we went to yesterday.

Trail Rail Bridge

I took these shots from across Burnt Fork Creek. I gather this particular structure had something of a delayed opening when they realized that it would have to be built high enough to accommodate the various rail traffic. The actual bridge is just behind the wood structure and does have a metal structure.