Update

OK, so I'm getting a bit behind. There is a reason. I won't get into details other than to say it involves a parent entering a nursing home and us kids getting a house ready to sell. For now this is a "Photo Whenever", until things get back on track. Hopefully sooner than later.

Frame Thirteen

I spent Easter afternoon with family. After a wonderful lunch I went with one of my sisters and her son and daughter to watch my niece ride her horse. This is Racheal and her horse Ringo. They're getting ready for this years competition's. This is their second season together and the do quite well. Rachael worked all last summer to afford her part of Ringo's purchase, which wasn't small change. Not bad for a junior in high school. Who owns the other half? Her Mom who I think enjoys Ringo as much as Rachael. He's a pretty cool horse with a lot of personality.

Canon 20d - Tamron 28-75 2.8 - @75mm - f5.6 - 1/6000 - iso200

Frame Twelve

I awoke to find my street had been turned into a running course of some kind. I have no idea what the race was for. There were all ages of runners and some groups that looked like whole families. This is actually taken about a block from my house. And to think, just a couple weeks ago we had a foot of snow on the ground and the temperature was in the teens. It was around 70 degrees when this shot was taken. A very nice day for a run.

Canon 20d - Sigma 70-300 4~5.6 APO DG - 100mm - f/8 - 1/250 - 100iso

Frame Eleven

This is part of Iowa's capital city, Des Moines. I was born here and have lived here (West Des Moines) my whole life. With the surrounding suburbs the population is roughly 500,000 with Des Moines proper being roughly 200,000 of that. It has a lot of big city activities, just on a smaller scale, which is fine with me. The tall building on the left is 801 Grand and is the tallest building in Iowa at 45 stories. On the top floor is a restaurant where I have on occasion tuned their piano. It's quite a view on a clear day.

Canon 20d - Sigma 70-300 APO DG 4~5.6 - 100mm - 1/250 - f/8 - 100iso

Frame Ten

This week I'm cheating. I need a dose of spring so I dug back into the hard drive and found a shot taken last spring that I'd never done anything with. I also picked this because it was taken at the same spot last weeks shot was taken (notice the stone wall?). This is one of the many Swan's that make this area home during the warmer months. This is kind of a cool spot in that you can sit on a bench or right next to the ponds edge and these birds will hardly notice you're there. It's a wonderful little spot for photography.

Canon 20d - Sigma 70-300 apo dg 3.5~5.6 - 300mm - f/5.6 - 1/1600 - 100iso

Frame Nine

OK, so the warm weather didn't last long. We got hit with a nice combination of ice and snow over the last 24 hours. I decided to brave the streets and take a drive while the snow was still fresh. There were a lot of downed power lines and many a tree had lost some branches. You can see a few branches laying under the large tree to the right/center of this shot.

While driving along I came over a hill and was greeted by a bunch of "road closed" signs as there were downed power lines laying across the street. I decided to take a detour through this rather scenic cemetary called Resthaven. That's where this shot was taken. Near a pond that in warmer weather is populated by Swans and Ducks.

Canon 20d - Tamron 17-50 2.8 - 24mm - f/8 - 1/250 - 200iso

Frame Eight

After a few weeks of very cold weather, we got into the 50's today. I took a drive and ended up at a park north of Des Moines called Jester Park. It has access roads to Des Moines River which is where I came upon these dead trees sticking out of the ice. I thought they were pretty cool looking so here's my shot for this week.

This part of the river and park is part of the Saylorville Reservoir Recreation area. This shot doesn't hint to it, but, it's quite large. In warmer weather this is where you'll find people enjoying a day boating, fishing or laying out on the "beach". Well, Iowa's version of a beach. Not this day, though. While WAY warmer than it has been, today all I found of interest were these trees.

This is also a first experiment using Adobe Lightroom. I must say I'm impressed, especially with b&w conversion. It's like channel mixing on steroids. I'm using the 30 day trial while trying to convince myself to make a purchase before the $100 off "new product" special is over in a few days. I'm almost convinced.

Canon 20d - Tamron 28-75 2.8 - 67mm - f/8 - 1/640 - 200iso