Photohunters: Zip and A Vehicle

Having recently returned home from a road trip, I have photographs I took from a vehicle when I got to zip by scenery.

Our vehicle got to zip up and down hills in the NC mountains.

We had a mix of weather but it didn't interfere with our getting in some hikes as well as zipping by the sights in a vehicle.

We got out of our vehicle to hike up a trail and see the Elk River waterfall.

There's no way I would have the energy to zip by scenery on the vehicle in the next shot.

The next shot is from another hike where we got out of our vehicle to climb up to the Crabtree Meadow waterfall.

I was on the passenger side of the vehicle and managed the next shot across the driver.

I spotted a rock quarry below while zipping around in a vehicle.

Recently I've managed to limit myself to one shot for photohunters.

This week the two photohunt themes worked well for posting my vacation shots and is very long.

Considering how it's not always easy to zip around corners in the mountains, I don't see how the cyclists do it.

We saw quite a few people on bicycles that looked like they were training for a race.

There were also a number of people on motorcycles.

It would be easier to zip around the mountains on a motorcycle than on a bicycle. 

 I enjoyed the variety of clouds we saw from our vehicle.

One evening we rode off into the sunset to eat at a place with a great view.

Heading home there were large groups of motorcycles.

We zipped past roadside flowers in our vehicle as we got closer to home.

Click for the zip photohunters and click for the a vehicle photohunters.

Photohunters: Plant Close Up

The two photohunter themes: Plant and A Close Up, fit together very easily.

My first two choices are close-ups of my hostas.

The last plant close-up is of my butterfly weeds. These are all summer shots from different years. The first and last shots are macros as well as close-ups. I don't think I used a macro lens setting for the middle shot. I looked it up and macros are also close-ups although close-ups aren't always macros. I wouldn't want to see a macro of my face because it would show every wrinkle but a close-up might miss some of my wrinkles.

Click here for the plant photohunt and here for the close-up photohunt.

Nature Notes: the first week of October

The fairies are dancing in the sky.

The catbird came to my deck for a drink of water and a bath.

The bluejay is all fluffed out after a bath.

The male cardinal didn't want to share the bath with the mockingbird.

The juvenile rufous-sided towhee and the cardinal were negotiating who got to take a bath first.

Cardinals are in great abundance in my backyard.

I think the cardinal below still has some transitional feathers.

The sapling below has already begun to wear its fall finery.

I love how fluffy the female cardinal looks after a bath, like a little puff ball.

I think male rufous-sided towhees look very striking.

He's puffed out so much below he looks very wide.

The carolina wren was hopping around my deck so fast that half the shots I took were blurry.

The wren was puffed out after a bath in the next shot.

The brown thrasher below was getting ready for a bath.

There were a lot of ducks at Shelley Lake on Sunday when I went for a walk.

It always amazes me how flexible birds are when they groom their feathers.

The weather has been strange. October started off warmer than September.

It's beginning to cool down again which I like.

I love cloudy sunsets.

Although the oak trees aren't changing colors yet a few leaves that turned brown in the summer dropped off during the rain.

Click for the home of Nature Notes.

Today's Flowers and Weekend Flowers: Last day of September and first week of October

Monday I dropped off my new glasses prescription and photographed these flowers in planters in front of the store.

Friday when my new lenses were ready I was surprised that all of these flowers had been pulled out of the planters.

 

I suppose since these are summer flowers they pull them out of the planters before the first frost.

It seems a shame that they didn't leave them in a while longer since they were so healthy.

The shot above and below are flowers growing near where I work when I commute to the office.

The last shot is a late gardenia on my neighbor's bush. I was surprised to spot it since I thought the bush was through blooming for the season.

Click here for Today's Flowers and here for Weekend Flowers.

Photohunters: A spark of humor in photography

The two photohunt themes this week are Spark and Humor in Photography. I found this 1985 shot of me and my baby. I think it qualifies for a spark of humor in photography.

Click here for the spark photohunters and here for the humor in photography photohunters.