Ryan's "Growing"

Slightly dehydrated but still growing catnip:

/rl

Cory's Growing

It's springtime, so now is the time to plant vegetables.  Lis got things started a few weeks ago, and here are some peppers she's been growing from seeds.  Someday they'll be big enough to transfer to the garden boxes I posted a couple of weeks ago.

Fred's "Growing"

I really like the tulips around our house.

Mike's "Growing"

If this picture looks a little familiar its because every year Sandra asks me to take a picture of her snowball bushes.

In the spirit of Earth Day, here is something green and growing.  We have two of these monsters and no matter how much we cut them back, it rains or not, they grow over the fence, through the fence and produce these giant blossoms.

In 2010 this bush did not bloom until May 16th, and I did a B&W of it then too!

Next week: "Dinner"

"Growing" is due tomorrow. /r;

Cory's Alphabet

A while back, Maddy got this fancy set of embossed blocks as a Christmas present. They were so fancy that Quentin even used them for some artistry, so I figured I could use them too.

Fred's Alphabet

If I had an available "A," I'd be able to spell Theocrat.  Oh well.  I may end up with something simpler, like CAT.

Jim's "Alphabet"

From a car show this weekend...

Mike's "Alphabet"

I'm not certain which alphabet this is.
Surrealic?

Next week: "Growing"

"Alphabet" is due tomorrow.

/rl

Fred's Purple

Being Easter weekend, I thought this was appropriate.

Ryan's "Purple"

I ran out of time to take a "purple" picture. I got close, but it wasn't quite done:



/rl

Jim's "Purple"

Is color blindness genetic?

(Thanks for letting me join in the fun!)

Next week: "Alphabet"

"Purple" is due today.

I posted this yesterday, but it seems to be gone. I must not have saved it.

/rl

Cory's Purple

It's springtime, which is also time for purple flowers to appear!

Mike's "Purple"

When I really want to give my triceps and biceps a good workout.
I use these purple weights we keep in the living room.

Mike's "Best of Q1"

This is from my January vacation to see my daughter.
My son and I spent 26 hours in airports, changing, planes trains and automobiles to get to Washington State that week. Worst ice storm in 40 years there. By Nebraska standards... a little ice and snow.

Fred's Best Of Q1

Snapped this shot of frost on my car's side window in late January, just as the sun was shining through.

Ryan's "Best of Q1"

I really haven't taken many photos in the last three months. Took a few last night at a lake with friends, though:




/rl

David's "Best of 2012 Q1"

I don't know if it is my best, but it's my most whimsical despite spending a few hours trying to capture it.

Cory's Best of Q1

Back in January, I got up one morning and saw the moon just starting to creep behind the mountains as I ate breakfast. So I grabbed the tripod, went out in the front yard, and took a bunch of shots as it went down. I think this is one of the better ones.

Next week: "Purple"

"Best of Q1" is due tomorrow.

/rl

Fred's Memories

This week, I traded in my trusty Accord Coupe (foreground) for a used S2000 (background).  We generated a lot of memories in the Accord's 108,000 miles, but we're looking forward to lots of new memories in the zippy S2000.

Cory's Memories

Springtime has arrived (for now), so I built Lis some garden boxes in our back yard. Here she is with Maddy, creating some memories of planting carrots on one end of the box.

Also, I succeeded in taking the picture I wanted to post last week.

Mike "Memories"

Sometimes things, symbolize memories.  These 45's remind me of the rockabilly band I was in during college.  When Bob Kerry was Governor,  we recorded a funny song called Rock'n Bob. 
I found someone at work who can digitize them for me, so they came out of storage this week.  Just seeing any vinyl record reminds me of my youth.

Next week: "Best of Q1 2012"

Post your best photo taken Jan 1, 2012 to Mar 31, 2012. It doesn't need to be a photo taken for this contest - anything taken in the first quarter of 2012 qualifies.

"Memories" due tomorrow.

/rl

Fred's Horizon

This was the view over the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers earlier this week (Tuesday morning).  The Mississippi River is barely visible through the fog.

Cory's Horizon

No, this isn't a picture of a dusty lens. However, it also isn't the picture I really wanted to post this week.

Way out beyond the horizon are lots of stars, and ever since I moved to New Mexico two years ago I've had plenty of them to look at in my back yard. It started getting warm out this week, so I decided to break out the barn door star tracker that I built last year just in time for the cloudy season to arrive. My plan was to capture a stunning picture of the Milky Way to post, but Saturday and Sunday nights ended up being insanely windy and quite cloudy. So instead I have to post one of my test pictures from earlier in the week. I wasn't pointing at anything in particular in this shot, so there isn't really much to identify. I've marked a couple of recognizable stars in the flickr image though.

I'll have to come up with an excuse to use this thing again when the weather is a little more predictable.

Ryan's "Horizon"

The western horizon as seen from the hills overlooking Council Bluffs, Ia.



A front was blowing in right as I arrived. It didn't help the lighting any. I blended about 6 exposures to try to make up for it, but the result was rather flat.

/rl

Mike's "Horizon"

Well.  Like I said last week, I was shooting for the wrong week, but I think our two weekend rule is still in play?  A bunch of us got to hang out at a YMCA camp last weekend.  Weather as beautiful as this weekend.
This was the view from the back of our cabin.  I realized, at this point, that the further away the horizon is, the easier it is to get flood insurance.

Next week: "Memories"

"Horizon" due tomorrow.

Voting is a bit out of sync - I somehow failed to post the poll until Thursday. The "Dunk" poll will be active until Thursday.

/rl

Ryan's "Dunk"

Flowers appreciate a good dunking....



/rl

Cory's Dunk

I don't personally dunk cookies in milk, except when I'm trying to take a picture of it happening. In that case, I dunk an entire package of them to get a shot that looks alright.

Mike's "Dunk"

Well, I kind of messed up and was taking pictures for next week's topic this weekend.  I did get this picture on my iPhone though.
We were all sitting around and I noticed these two had on the same two pair of shoes.  The best thing you can do with Nike shoes, is go dunk a basket ball.  For me that basket has to be at 7 feet.

Next week: "Horizon"

I may be out of reach of the internets tomorrow, so I am putting this up a day early.

"Dunk" is due Sunday.

/rl

Ryan's "Down the Street"

This is a monument to the people that once drove street cars down the street in Dundee.



/rl

Fred's "Down The Street"

Paul drove by to help get this shot.

And, yes, that's a rocket ship in the park.

It's an old piece of (now unsafe) playground equipment that has been turned into a large sculpture.

Cory's Down the Street

If you go down the street far enough in any direction from my house, you end up in a canyon. Trails run up and down most of them, and the different trails all have their own unique sights. For example, in Graduation Canyon we find the remains of a car that have evidently been there for a long while. Alas, there wasn't enough there for me to recognize what it originally was.

Here's another angle to help any car buffs out there that want to take a crack at identification.

Mike's "Down The Street"

I didn't get real creative with the topic this week.  If you go "down my street" there is a commons area.  Beyond that is the creek that separates our subdivision into two parts.
There must be rabbits living here because the dogs noses worked over the dead grass pretty well.

Next week: "Dunk"

"Down the street" is due tomorrow.

/rl

Cory's Float

This is a float. It could be used to smooth concrete or apply grout, but I doubt it would actually float if dropped in water.

Ryan's "Float"

Little tiny helicopters float:



/rl

Fred's "Float"

Mike's "Float"

Paper or plastic?  A plastic bag will float just about long enough for your auto focus to work.
Technically, this isn't buoyant, but at the risk of melting the bag or burning the house down, this is what I settled for.

Next week: "Down the Street"

"Float" due tomorrow.

/rl

Cory's Race

Sorry I'm late this week - I had been out traveling the midwest since last Thursday, and I just got back this evening. I didn't have a lot of time to find the perfect race picture, but I did manage to get this one of Maddy racing around the room at one point.

Ryan's "Race"

This is Cory racing face first towards the ground during the Standing Long Jump portion of our first Feats of Strength competition.

Cory will have to relate the story of why we had this competition in the first place.




/rl

Fred's "Race"

This is turn #3 where Dale Earnhardt lost his life in 2001.  Well, if your a go-cart racer at Funplex you can pretend it is!
Sweet Baby Jesus, I can't wait for spring!

Next week: "Float"

"Race" is due tomorrow.

/rl

Ryan's "Picture"

Back in the film days I really liked shooting Fuji's Velvia 50. It was a beautiful slide film (and presumably still is). It currently sells for $7.00 a roll at B&H. Processing and mounting at a decent local lab runs $7.50 for a 36 exposure roll. Ignoring shipping and driving to the lab that's $0.40 per exposure.

Below is approximately $70 worth of CF cards. They will hold around 1,900 RAW images out of my camera, for a cost of about 3 cents per exposure. And they are reusable!

Making pictures sure has changed in the last 10 years...




/rl

Fred's "Picture"

We found this photograph behind the cabinets when we remodeled the kitchen last year.  The black-and-white picture isn't that old -- maybe 10 or 15 years old.  We don't know who the kid is, or what he's holding, or why there are police cars down the street.  All we know is that it was taken a few houses down from our home.  I've seen this technique a few times and think it's pretty cool.

Cory's Picture

Alas, I don't actually have a transparent laptop screen. Instead, I had to take a picture of my picture, set part of it as my background, and then take the actual picture of my picture.

Mike's "Picture"

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the tree my wife killed to print out this document for proof reading is few pictures.
She starts a new job tomorrow and just wants to make sure she has something useful to do.

Next week: "Race"

"Picture" is due tomorrow.

/rl

David's "Not Quite Right"

It took me a while to figure it out but I think the sofa is totally blocking the energy flow of the room from the rear bedroom into the kitchen.

Cory's Not Quite Right

Something's not quite right with Legoland's water supply.

I built this a few weeks ago and took a bad camera phone picture of it, but I felt pleased with the juxtaposition enough that I wanted to do a slightly better version. Get it? It's a fire hydrant!

Fred's Not Quite Right

While the title of this post is definitely accurate, there's also something not quite right in this shot.

Ryan's "Not Quite Right"

The owner of this flash drive carried it in his pocket every day during a combat tour in Iraq. He came back and broke it while going to school.

I think the name of it is not quite right.



I soldered a hacked up USB cable to it so he can recover his homework.

/rl

Mike's "Not Quite Right"

We all know that Mike is not quite right.  This is an old Colman "left handed" compound bow.  I bought it so I could target practice with friends.

I am right handed, but I don't see that well out of my left eye, so I have learned to do some things left handed.  You hold this bow with your right hand, but you aim with the left eye and release with the left hand.

Since I had little experience shooting a bow, learning with the left was not as difficult for me as relearning to shoot a shot gun with my left side.

Next week: "Picture"

"Not Quite Right" is due tomorrow.

/rl

Not Quite Right by John Baker

There is just something not quite right about my roommate sometimes.  He's a good sport though!!!