Getting in the last word

 

Winter blew in and left some snow. I'm really sick of snow, but it was pretty. Look, the tulips and daffodils are breaking ground. It's time, enough is enough already.

ASpring Showers

 

Today's showers were just what I needed to get out and make some photos. Spring has always been one of my favorite times for photography. It puts an end to my winter blues.

 

More from the long walk.

Along my Saturday trek from the auto shop to home, I came to Good Ground Antiques. They always change their large windows to match the season and today they were decorated with green items for St. Patricks Day. Hampton Bays hosts a St. Patricks day parade on this very street, so why not go green.

The old soda bottles were on the floor and I just had to make a photo of them. I always love to walk past this place, they have great stuff.

Along Yesterdays Walk.

Along the bank of the Weesuck Creek, I found this leaf shining in its place. It almost has a glossy appearance. I kept on thinking of that Four Seasons song, Lets Hang on, which stayed with me the whole walk home.

A block or two from Bill's

My car needed an oil change and I usually use the same shop for all my auto service. Bill will do an oil change while you wait, as long as you get your car in early in the day. Yesterday was an exception, he had two employees out for a wedding and he asked if I could leave it for the day.  No problem, I decided to walk the six or so miles back home. I took my Canon G10 and started my long walk through East Quogue and Hampton Bays to Southampton.

I walked roads I normally drive and when you do that, you see things differently. You notice things you don’t get a chance to see because you’re driving, hopefully. 

After a while I realized that I left my cell phone home, and if I got into trouble I couldn’t call anyone. I’m not sure there’s many payphones anymore. Thankfully, nothing happened, and two and a half hours later, I was walking up my driveway feeling a little like Forest Gump. I almost ran up the last two hundred fifty feet to the door.

Today, I ache a little, but it was worth it.

Snowdrops

Last year, March 6 to be exact, I posted photos of these flowers for the first time. I didn't know what they were. Lynne, a fellow blogger identified them as Snowdrops for me. Two years ago they just seemed to pop-up out of no where. This year I found them in another spot in the year.

What's weird about the whole thing is that we built this house and had to clear the lot. Our town has free garden mulch for the taking, I've been getting this free mulch ever since we lived here. This is where the bulbs must of come from.

Today's post are two different views after the rain this morning. Today started with heavy rain and ended with sunshine. I'm looking forward to spring.

Walk around Riverhead

I was early to work today, so I took a walk around Riverhead. It was a nice day for a brisk early morning walk. Unfortunately, I wasn't having a visually creative morning. Still in a bit of a slump.

Today's post is from a downtown diner in Riverhead. The back few windows are covered with this silhouette paintings. I always loved them, as well as the typical diner food.

I used the Canon G10 on my walk today.

HDR expained (somewhat)

I needed to photograph this house which is part of park on the former land of the Van Bourgondien's of the famous Tulip fame. So I made a HDR and a straight image for illustrative purposes, since some asked what it was.

I use a program from Photomatix Pro to process my HDR images, there's a few different programs on the market and I've seen incredible results from a few of them.

HDR stands for high dynamic range. In HDR, the photographer takes multi exposures of the same scene, a camera meter exposure, and over exposure and an under exposure. The program combines the

exposures basically filling in the lost detail in the highlight and shadow parts of the image.

With the control sliders you can adjust the effects to no end.

Mostly I just enjoy getting the most detail I can in an image. But, some photographers make some outrageous images with HDR. Google HDR images to see some of the more outrageous.

Spring is around the corner

We had a beautiful sunny day today, a little windy, but it was nice. It was enough for me to get out and do some yard work. The Pussy Willows are up and when I pushed away the leaves, the Sedum were breaking ground. Just what I needed to make a few photos.  The temperature is suppose to drop tonight and be around freezing tomorrow. March weather can be so up and down.