Krazy Non-Cat Pictures

Busch Pictures

2008-10-26T20:20:00.004-05:00

Pictures taken at Busch Conservation Area on a photo club field trip - got up at 5:50 AM!

2008-10-10T13:17:00.002-05:00

New Haircut

2008-09-26T20:53:00.001-05:00

Published!

2008-09-25T19:58:00.001-05:00

http://www.midriversnewsmagazine.com/

Flooding

2008-09-19T09:35:00.004-05:00

This is flooding at Barathaven, the stone wall usually looks out over the lake

These pictures were taken on Sunday, September 14th after we got hurricane rain. Yes, those are donkeys running down Highway K. I tried to help but by the time I turned around they were gone.

Audrey

2008-09-12T22:52:00.003-05:00

Bugs from our Kansas City trip

2008-09-02T23:41:00.001-05:00

This little spider was smaller than my pinky fingernail! Very cute little guy.

Flowers/Bontanical Garden

2008-09-02T23:25:00.002-05:00

Flutterbys in KC

2008-09-02T23:22:00.002-05:00

Bugs in KC

2008-09-02T23:20:00.002-05:00

Funky Caterpillars

2008-09-02T23:11:00.003-05:00

It was an amazing day for bugs and caterpillars! The green one that looks like a bird dropping with antenna is for a butterfly called "Red Spotted Purple". The rather large dark caterpillar is probably a Sphynx Moth and the third, while beautiful, seemed to be what was in all the "tents" on the trees - not good!

Golden Orb Weaver Spiders

2008-09-02T23:02:00.002-05:00

We have been lucky enough to spot these beautiful spiders twice before, imagine our surprise to find 3 in one day! The biggest one is shown from her topside and eating a ciciada. We were lucky enough to cross paths with her again at lunchtime. These beauties are female, the males are very small.

KC Caching

2008-09-02T22:46:00.004-05:00

We went to Kansas City so Mike could claim the "prize" bonus cache for completing the Delorme challenge. Little did he know that the final cache was a plaque with his name on it! After signing the logbook on the back, we went and did one of the guy's caches which is a mail box at a historic home. Like the name on it?

Not-so-grown-up

2008-09-02T08:25:00.001-05:00

Growing UP

2008-09-01T23:05:00.007-05:00

Doesn't Miranda look so grown up in this picture? Hard to believe that's my little girl! So I had to throw in a picture of a bug so you'd know it was her! This is a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, one of the weirdest things I've seen. Looked like a cross between a baby hummingbird, a lobster and a butterfly. How would Darwin explain that one?

Janene's Kids

2008-08-21T15:49:00.004-05:00

Milwaukee

2008-08-18T12:45:00.003-05:00

Here are the kids at Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. The picture of Nick reminds me of one that Mema has of when he was a baby making the same face!

Cave Point Park

2008-08-17T20:53:00.003-05:00

If I make it back to Door County, this is one spot I'd love to spend more time at! We stumbled on it by accident and it was just gorgeous. My pictures didn't nearly do it justice and I'd like the chance to shoot it again. This should be my last post about Door County, so if you're new to the blog, this is the start of the Door County part of the blog!

Caribou

2008-08-17T16:02:00.002-05:00

We interrupt this vacation for pictures I took this weekend. I'm considering doing pet photo shoots and so I practiced on my friend's dog. Hey, this is a non-cat blog, didn't say anything about not having dogs on here!

Missouri Bugs

2008-08-17T16:00:00.003-05:00

Nature

2008-08-14T21:42:00.002-05:00

I was disappointed that we didn't see more animals on our trip. The last geocaching mission was almost ridiculous with the number of animals we saw, really interesting bugs as well as a bear and a wolf! I actually kept a tally on how many animals we encountered in June. I haven't figured out what kind of bird this is, but at least he was kind enough to sit and let the waves crash over him while I tried to get a good shot!

Water

2008-08-14T21:27:00.003-05:00

Every stop was another view of Lake Michigan - and while sometimes it looked exactly the same, other times it looked like a brand new place. See the Ferry and the white sand beach, the rocky shore, and the different colors of the water!

Trees

2008-08-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

This is the area where I almost fell off the bluff - it was so cool and peaceful being in a cedar forest and the water was so pretty!

Overlook

2008-08-14T15:08:00.003-05:00

250 feet over Green Bay, 75 feet up - lots of stairs, I gave the camera to Mike on the way down, but it was too shadowy, so I turned it black and white to compensate

The Stairs of Gibraltar

2008-08-14T15:04:00.002-05:00

Mike looked for the cache by the "rock of Gibraltar" but the guy listed the coordinates at the rock and in the hint said now turn around and look for it by the stairs! They were neat old stairs in a tiny park that was no wider than the pathway leading to the lake with a big rock overlook at the end.

Cliffhanger

2008-08-14T00:00:00.003-05:00

I almost fell off this cliff when I dropped my 300mm lens and it started rolling for the edge! What photographer could've watched it go without trying to save it? Luckily the lens and I survived with only a couple of scrapes in the process. I was in love with the blue-green water along the shore!

Lake Michigan/Green Bay Sunset

2008-08-13T23:52:00.003-05:00

I took over 100 pictures of the setting sun, it was hard to whittle away until I had my favorites. I love watching sunsets and being able to catch one while I have a camera in hand is always a special treat. Even more special when I have such a fun setting to explore with the camera! These are all taken from one location except for the one taken through the trees - that was at a quick stop along Lake Michigan about 1/2 hour before the others.

Green Bay Monuments

2008-08-13T23:41:00.003-05:00

Here are some interesting combinations - part of photography is to look for interesting ways of seeing ordinary things. The Veteran's Memorial next to Lambeau just looked neat with the clouds and sunlight behind it - very inspiring. I liked the clustering of the Packer statue at the Titletown Brewing Company partnered with the American flag and the historic railroad depot. The final pairing was just an odd juxtaposition to me - the fanciful butterfly statue with the World Trade Center tribute in the background - it takes away from the respect the monument deserves.

Sheboygan Sunset

2008-08-13T01:56:00.000-05:00

We were fascinated by this water tower - luckily there was a cache nearby! I also loved the light coming through the trees in the park - shining only on the picnic table. The color of the barn was so super-saturated!

Leatherwing

2008-08-13T01:00:00.000-05:00

This is a Pennsylvania Leatherwing - a beneficial bug that is a pollinator as an adult and the larvae like to eat corn earworms

Earthcache

2008-08-13T00:41:00.001-05:00

Mike found an earthcache and I had to take his picture to prove it. He had to estimate the height of the cliff that he was walking to.

Leapfrog?

2008-08-13T00:31:00.000-05:00

For more pictures like this happy pair of milkweed bugs, check out http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ for their bug love page.

Algoma Lighthouse

2008-08-12T23:46:00.001-05:00

I'm jumping all over with whichever pictures strike me at the moment, here's one of the last ones I took on the trip - the lighthouse in Algoma.

Spiders at Sunset

2008-08-12T23:27:00.000-05:00

I took many beautiful pictures of the sun setting over Lake Michigan, but my favorites were of the spiders that I found!

Go Pack Go

2008-08-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

The frozen tundra, the cheesehead motherland, a voyage behind the cheddar curtain, long over-due!

How many Packer fans does it take to change a lightbulb? 3 - 1 to change it and 2 to talk about how great the old lightbulb was! It was a little bitter visiting right after Brett became a Jett.

Braces

2008-07-30T22:26:00.000-05:00

The last day of two kids in braces!

rescue ranch

2008-07-24T22:07:00.000-05:00

Pretty Woman

2008-07-24T21:32:00.000-05:00

Horsin' Around

2008-07-18T15:32:00.000-05:00

Butterfly Garden

2008-07-10T15:41:00.001-05:00

Buggies

2008-07-10T14:56:00.001-05:00

Bugs outside of the Butterfly House

2008-07-10T14:46:00.000-05:00

Butterfly House

2008-07-10T00:37:00.000-05:00

Ruthie

2008-07-09T21:01:00.003-05:00

Miranda and her new American Girl Doll on the train ride home from Chicago.

Fun with Lisa

2008-07-09T08:48:00.000-05:00

Sunset

2008-07-02T13:16:00.000-05:00

How could I do posts about up north without a sunset over Trout Lake?

Playing Around

2008-07-02T13:06:00.000-05:00

Trip Up North

2008-06-30T16:28:00.000-05:00

From here until the end of the blog is our trip up north for the summer of 2008. We'll start with pictures of birds taken from inside the house through glass windows. They cater to the birds, everything from hummingbird feeders, thistle for the finches, general bird seed for everyone, dog food for the blue jays and leftovers for the crows. They just have to be careful because they don't like it when they feed the bears!

Vandercook Road

2008-06-30T14:50:00.001-05:00

We stopped to do a cache along Vandercook Road. It's not far from Rocky Reef, as a kid we'd go there with a logging permit and load up the truck so that we'd have fire wood for the cottages.

Lake View

2008-06-30T14:33:00.001-05:00

This is on the Raven Trail in Woodruff

Warhol Dragonflies

2008-06-30T14:23:00.000-05:00

Playing with the editing features for fun effects on the same picture.

Cute Critters

2008-06-30T14:14:00.000-05:00

These were all taken at my parents' house. They get the cutest little black squirrels - this is one of this year's babies and they just scampered all over and climbed up the ladder. Miranda really enjoyed them. The goldfinches were really pretty, I took pictures of the birds through the picture window. The little moth was the most technically difficult to shoot. He's on the bathroom wall and I'm not sure what the red thing is. I used extension tubes on my long lens to make it macro and getting that close without a tripod is hard to keep it focused. Notice how shallow the depth of field is - the back of the moth is falling out of focus.

The last fall

2008-06-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

Funny how the last fall we saw will be the first fall for the reader since the blog lists this in reverse chronological order. After doing the hike in, I was determined to go home with a decent shot even though my memory card was so full that I had to delete pictures every couple of shots while standing on a stump in the river with rushing water all around. I couldn't get a good shot without holding the camera at arm's length and trying to get a shot!

I'm not sure what it is about waterfalls that we find so fascinating, but the magic was starting to wear off by the end of the day and I was ready to go back home to my kids!

Don't go chasing waterfalls

2008-06-26T23:48:00.000-05:00

We spent a day chasing waterfalls and doing caches that are part of the 52 pickup series. We met a guy taking a picture of one of the falls near a parking lot. He said he had stopped at a couple of others and when the sign said 300+ yard rugged hike, he gave up. We did the hike no problem (although the terrain was interesting), but the waterfalls weren't always worth it. It would be nice to have a guide to know which ones have the best vistas for taking pictures. This was as close as I could get to this fall. And as for the rugged terrain, I used the excuse of taking pictures of little green bugs as a reason to stop and take a break on the way back up.

Little Green Bug

2008-06-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

I was trying to take a picture of a bumble bee when I spotted this beautiful green bug! How cool is that?

Monkey Girl

2008-06-26T23:16:00.001-05:00

Monkey Girl always has fun hanging out! This is the public park on Brandy Lake where the kids ran around and Mike found a cache after eating a Wednesday night Fish Fry.

Front Seat

2008-06-26T23:05:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that the boy who just got big enough to ride in the front seat will be driving in 3 years! As a kid, riding in the front seat was the best. It's hard to fathom that Miranda has never done it and that it's strange to have Nick climb in next to me. Back then it was front seat, no seatbelt and for a really special treat, we got to ride in the back of the pickup truck!

Pony Boy

2008-06-26T22:03:00.000-05:00

This won't win any photography contests, but it is very special because this is Nick's first time riding a horse - ever! Not even so much as pony ride at a fair. The good news is that he's willing to do it again. Maybe there is hope for getting him to try broccoli sometime!

The Hills Have Eyes

2008-06-26T12:40:00.000-05:00

At first glance, the rock formations are just gorgeous, but then I had to hang around waiting for Mike to find the cache and things got creepy. The rocks were covered in modern graffiti, it makes you wonder if the faces are really natural or from early inhabitants? The first picture has an outer set of fangs and an inner set of teeth, the eyes are wideset.

The second set seems to have feet at ground level and faces just above my eye level. These can't be a coincidence! The last picture has a face but could be more natural and just incorporates a good imagination.

zoom zoom

2008-06-26T11:32:00.000-05:00

Not in Missouri anymore....

2008-06-26T11:17:00.001-05:00

STOP & look at the scenery

2008-06-26T11:06:00.001-05:00

Recycle

2008-06-26T10:37:00.000-05:00

A sight for sore eyes! This is for all the Missouri people who don't understand how common recycling is in other areas. This is an example of a typical rest area where you can get rid of all the cans and bottles floating around the car.

Indian Paintbrush

2008-06-26T10:28:00.000-05:00

I don't know if this is an official name, but it's what my Mom calls these flowers. They always grew around our cottage Up North. I remember liking the very fuzzy stems.

Going Buggy

2008-06-26T09:36:00.001-05:00

Some little girl has me finding bugs everywhere I go and I enjoy the fun challenge of trying to feature them and get them in focus.

Along came a spider

2008-06-26T02:55:00.000-05:00

I was taking a picture of the pine cone when I saw something interesting! These are the same picture, one is just cropped way in to help see our little friend!

Flutterbys

2008-06-26T02:08:00.000-05:00

This again is the same picture but cropped in 2 different ways, which do you like best?

Mama Turtle

2008-06-26T00:48:00.000-05:00

Imagine my surprise and delight to get out of the car for a cache and discover a snapping turtle laying eggs along side the road! She wasn't excited to see me, but was in her "trance" enough that she wasn't going anywhere either. She hadn't started laying yet, but we didn't have time to stick around and watch. I gave her some space and went to shoot pictures of "bug on a daisy" (keep scrolling to the next pages and you'll find it) If I was planning, I'd put this in some sort of order, but instead it's just shots that I like!

Friends

2008-06-26T00:34:00.000-05:00

Friends come in all shapes and sizes, why can't we take a page from them and all just get along? I loved all the pollen on the bee and the little guy just kept buzzing around! Guess who else likes these pictures? I again show 3 of the same photo, the first is the regular exposure, the 2nd is super-saturated color and the 3rd is black and white, let me know which you like best! I try to get the exposure right in the camera, so most of the pictures just need a little cropping and maybe some artificial flash, so I don't usually play with the color like this. My camera teacher was very firm about getting it right in the camera and that photoshop is for people who don't care about taking pictures but just like playing on their computers!

Timm's Hill

2008-06-26T00:05:00.000-05:00

After looking up the elevation sign, I realized I was spelling it wrong! These aren't really favorite pictures of mine, but they help to give perspective to the next two. This place is really mean, you have to walk up a very steep hill and then climb a lot of stairs! The worst part is that the view from the top wasn't very good. The trees around the tower are too tall for good photographs and it was so overcast that I won't bother boring you with the ones that I did take. Being that close to the clouds was more interesting than the scenery!

Tim's Hill

2008-06-25T23:49:00.000-05:00

Tim's Hill is not where my brother-in-law lives, it's the name of the highest point in Wisconsin. I always thought it was fun that Tim and Terri bought a hill though! This is the old ranger tower. I can't imagine having to climb all the way up there.

Woods Art

2008-06-25T09:31:00.001-05:00

There's a new photographer in the family! There was a display of art in nature along the Raven Trail in Woodruff.

waterfall

2008-06-25T09:18:00.001-05:00

This was one of the morning stops on our 18-hour caching run

The Bridges of Goodman Park

2008-06-25T02:59:00.000-05:00

The same picture in color and black & white - this is the park with paths and bridges that feature rapids. It was so much fun to explore! I was like a kid on a new playground eager to see where each new trail would lead me!

Mike Rocks

2008-06-25T02:51:00.000-05:00

Standing on a boulder overlooking a waterfall

Here's the chuch, there's the steeple...

2008-06-25T02:48:00.001-05:00

I loved the color of the sky behind the weathered old steeple. Mike was finding a cache in the cemetary behind the church.

Goodman Park

2008-06-25T02:36:00.001-05:00

The water is an amazing rust color. This park is set up to showcase a series of rapids, but I couldn't resist this little meandering stream. I felt like I was in another world of quiet old forest and that a hobbit would come into view at any time.

Strong Falls

2008-06-25T02:19:00.001-05:00

This is the same picture, edited 3 different ways to experiment with the effects

Bug on a Daisy

2008-06-25T02:10:00.000-05:00

Tollybrew

2008-06-25T02:02:00.000-05:00