Lightning

 

I took this last night during the lightning before the rain. Photographed with a tripod and 5-second shutter speed and just did it over and over again until the lightning flashed while the shutter was open. Post processed with some highlighting and blue tinting as the original was pretty gray.

Here's the original without any processing:

This is the only other lightning streak I captured:

And most of the photos looked like this (with lightning behind the clouds, which is still kind of pretty!) or completely dark:

Sunsets

I've fiddled around some with the Sunset challenge. I don't have anything earth-shattering yet, but I do have a few to review.

This one is my favorite so far - my neighbor's flying pig! I think it's cheeky! (And I like the moon up in the corner.)

Since I live in the city, it's difficult to get an unobstructed view. I did get a few nice shots out at the farm over Christmas with my brother's iPhone.

Tonight I experimented with taking some abstract style shots through the trees. First off, though, colors were gorgeous tonight!

I got one abstract that I like:

Then I took one of these and inverted colors, and I like the texture of it.

Challenge card:

Door Knob

Photo Challenge: Photograph a Door (Knob)

I took this one in 2010 while on the Artist Studio Tour.

Texture

Photograph Texture: This is the bucket of my wheelbarrow after rain stood in it for a while and then rust spots (or something!) started to form. I've always like this picture.  2010

 

The "before" picture - ha ha!

Lone Tree

Shuffling through the Lightbox Photograph Cards deck, there were several topics which made me recall previous photos I've taken, so I'm going to upload some of them even though I wasn't deliberately doing the challenge, lol...

I took this one at the farm with my brother's phone.

Geese

I bought a deck of the Lightbox Photography Cards, and today I did the "Wildlife" challenge. Gotta say it was more difficult than I expected, lol...!

This is my favorite pic from tonight:

I went for a walk at the park and then took pictures of the ducks and migratory geese during the sunset hour.

 

My attempts at using Manual mode were a complete bust, so I ended up switching over to Sports mode and that seemed to work better. Most pics were awful, but here are a few that turned out okay.

I love the texture of the water in this one.

This picture isn't so great, but I love the color and flapping wings!

I thought I was done, and then I noticed the geese nicely silhouetted against the lake.

Higanbotham Park on 19th Street where I shot these.

UPDATED 2/11/2022

Made a second attempt today after work when there was more light. Shooting birds is hard!

Circles

Tapping this one into Lightbox Photo Challenge for circles. It's not a full circle in the picture, but I think it still counts!

 

 (Rust on "Aurora" with lens flare halo, untouched, 1/8/2022)

Patterns

I'm re-categorizing this one into the Lightbox Photo Challenge for patterns.

 

•  Cross process

(Ice on patio chair, 1/29/2010)