So I finally got to take some pictures of fireworks this 4th of July after at least 2-3 years of not really having any opportunity. Lets just say that my first attempt at fireworks was a bit, shall we say... iffy?
I think I have 100+ images with only a handful of them resembling actual fireworks. Some of them in their blurry, streaky way did look pretty neat, so I decided to share these three that I wasn't terribly shamed of.
Oh well... you live, you learn to bring a tripod.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
A wiley visitor
Friday, July 10, 2009
In case you are bored....
and want to see some of what I think are my best pictures; here is a slideshow of them.
Based on a couple facebook comments I got today I'm thinking about having some note cards or prints made using some of them. I've always wanted to frame of of my photogrphy for our walls, but I was thinking maybe I could use them as gifts also. The only problem is that I'll never be able to decide and obviously some of them are not good choices, like saya closeup of my husband, lol.
Anyway, which five images do you think would work best for this idea I had? Let me know what you think!
Based on a couple facebook comments I got today I'm thinking about having some note cards or prints made using some of them. I've always wanted to frame of of my photogrphy for our walls, but I was thinking maybe I could use them as gifts also. The only problem is that I'll never be able to decide and obviously some of them are not good choices, like saya closeup of my husband, lol.
Anyway, which five images do you think would work best for this idea I had? Let me know what you think!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The rain finally stopped long enough...
...for me to finally get some nice pictures of some flora. I took these at the Mass Horticultural Society Elm Bank Car Show on June 28th. I have gone to this show with my Mom, Dad, and Brian for the past few years to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad, who is a 1960' Oldsmobile nut.
My Dad owns several Oldsmobiles including at 1935 F35 5 passenger Coupe Street Rod with some mighty interesting extras. You can see all the Olds cars he has ever owned at his site www.teds-olds.com
Dad has bought and sold several since he got into his 1960's Oldsmobile habit back when I was in high school. I can't ever seem to keep track of them all, but the ones that stick for me are the first one he worked on (with a little bit of my help), which was the white 1963 Oldsmobile Starfire Holiday Coupe and the first one he let me drive, the 1965 Cutlass Holiday Coupe (my baby).
I LOOOOOOOOVED the Cutlass and frequently give Dad lots of grief over him having sold it. To this day I have the sign he had made for the Cutlass when he brought it to shows and a mug from Zazzle (I think) with its lovely visage. You may laugh that I'm so attached to a car, especially since I am not really a car person, but Dad trusted me to drive this car and it was the first antique car I had ever driven. I was so petrified that I would run it into something. One time I followed him over to a car show (I believe the first day I drove it) and he decided to floor it in his car so I would have room and could open up the Cutlass to see what she had in her. I just didn't dare. I just kept driving at my sedate pace down 109, enjoying the ride.
Wow, that was a tangent.... anyway, back to the Elm Bank Car Show. Now, I know it's odd that I took pictures of flowers at a car show, but I was so happy there was sun out and I could take pictures that I couldn't force myself to focus on the cars. After we feasted on our Father's Day picnic (kind of a Loranz family tradition even though it wasn't the actual day), I focused on taking as many pics of the gardens on the grounds as possible. I mean, who knew when we would next see sun, or at least have a non-rain filled day, so I took advantage of the natural beauty that was the backdrop to all the old cars with their own man-made beauty.
My Dad owns several Oldsmobiles including at 1935 F35 5 passenger Coupe Street Rod with some mighty interesting extras. You can see all the Olds cars he has ever owned at his site www.teds-olds.com
Dad has bought and sold several since he got into his 1960's Oldsmobile habit back when I was in high school. I can't ever seem to keep track of them all, but the ones that stick for me are the first one he worked on (with a little bit of my help), which was the white 1963 Oldsmobile Starfire Holiday Coupe and the first one he let me drive, the 1965 Cutlass Holiday Coupe (my baby).
I LOOOOOOOOVED the Cutlass and frequently give Dad lots of grief over him having sold it. To this day I have the sign he had made for the Cutlass when he brought it to shows and a mug from Zazzle (I think) with its lovely visage. You may laugh that I'm so attached to a car, especially since I am not really a car person, but Dad trusted me to drive this car and it was the first antique car I had ever driven. I was so petrified that I would run it into something. One time I followed him over to a car show (I believe the first day I drove it) and he decided to floor it in his car so I would have room and could open up the Cutlass to see what she had in her. I just didn't dare. I just kept driving at my sedate pace down 109, enjoying the ride.
Wow, that was a tangent.... anyway, back to the Elm Bank Car Show. Now, I know it's odd that I took pictures of flowers at a car show, but I was so happy there was sun out and I could take pictures that I couldn't force myself to focus on the cars. After we feasted on our Father's Day picnic (kind of a Loranz family tradition even though it wasn't the actual day), I focused on taking as many pics of the gardens on the grounds as possible. I mean, who knew when we would next see sun, or at least have a non-rain filled day, so I took advantage of the natural beauty that was the backdrop to all the old cars with their own man-made beauty.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
keeping things in perspective despite how bad it looks
So, it's been an interesting day today. Last night we drove to the Cape to avoid any horrible holiday traffic that we would have encountered this morning.
This morning I woke up around 8:30 or so and walked out to the living room where the news was on the tv. I walked out sleepily just in time to see the image of the flaming spire of a church which had recently been struck by lightning. Shocking an image as it was by itself, I quickly realized that that lightning bolt had struck the very church my family went to when I was growing up.
I quickly called my mom, now home during the day since she retired on June 30th. Needless to say she was upset and had wondered if anything local had been struck during the intense thunderstorms this morning. She ended up going down to the church after we talked. It was so strange that I knew about the fire before she had, since she is less than a 5 minute drive from it.
Anyway, what is the most important thing is that no one was hurt. There wasn't anyone at the church at the time. So, while the steeple is pretty much a loss and the back portion of the sanctuary has extensive water damage and a collapsed ceiling, everyone is fine and things will be okay. I received several emails and messages today about the fire and there was one a great quote from them I wanted to share:
Oddly enough this kind of thing has happened to the church before. Since it was built in 1814, it has had three steeple incidents including this one. During a hurricane in 1938 the steeple fell off the top of the church, went through the roof and slammed into the floor of the sanctuary (you can see pic here if you scroll down and look at the bottom left picture). What's really neat is that you can still see where the top of the steeple hit the floor because it didn't break through the floorboards. To this day there is a layer of wood missing in the floor where it hit. Mom and I tended to sit near there and it always fascinated me that that scar was left there instead of just replacing those boards to rid people of the memory. I distinctly remember running my shoe over the obviously splintered dent where a centimeter or so of wood was gauged out depth-wise. The other event was when the steeple was hit by lightning in 1959. I couldn't find too much info on that lightning strike, but I think I'll look into it more in the future.
If you want to read more about the fire you can check out the news story from Channel 4 which has comments from people who live nearby or you can see a video done by them as well. Channel 5 did a good job and interviewed some of the church members that I know. You can see their news story here, but I don't think their video is up yet. I'll post that one when it becomes available.
This morning I woke up around 8:30 or so and walked out to the living room where the news was on the tv. I walked out sleepily just in time to see the image of the flaming spire of a church which had recently been struck by lightning. Shocking an image as it was by itself, I quickly realized that that lightning bolt had struck the very church my family went to when I was growing up.
I quickly called my mom, now home during the day since she retired on June 30th. Needless to say she was upset and had wondered if anything local had been struck during the intense thunderstorms this morning. She ended up going down to the church after we talked. It was so strange that I knew about the fire before she had, since she is less than a 5 minute drive from it.
Anyway, what is the most important thing is that no one was hurt. There wasn't anyone at the church at the time. So, while the steeple is pretty much a loss and the back portion of the sanctuary has extensive water damage and a collapsed ceiling, everyone is fine and things will be okay. I received several emails and messages today about the fire and there was one a great quote from them I wanted to share:
“Our building is damaged, the church is fine. Praise the Lord!”Instead of focusing on the negative, the person who shared this was just thankful that the church (as in the body of members) was intact. It's thinking like that that makes great things happen.
Oddly enough this kind of thing has happened to the church before. Since it was built in 1814, it has had three steeple incidents including this one. During a hurricane in 1938 the steeple fell off the top of the church, went through the roof and slammed into the floor of the sanctuary (you can see pic here if you scroll down and look at the bottom left picture). What's really neat is that you can still see where the top of the steeple hit the floor because it didn't break through the floorboards. To this day there is a layer of wood missing in the floor where it hit. Mom and I tended to sit near there and it always fascinated me that that scar was left there instead of just replacing those boards to rid people of the memory. I distinctly remember running my shoe over the obviously splintered dent where a centimeter or so of wood was gauged out depth-wise. The other event was when the steeple was hit by lightning in 1959. I couldn't find too much info on that lightning strike, but I think I'll look into it more in the future.
If you want to read more about the fire you can check out the news story from Channel 4 which has comments from people who live nearby or you can see a video done by them as well. Channel 5 did a good job and interviewed some of the church members that I know. You can see their news story here, but I don't think their video is up yet. I'll post that one when it becomes available.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Can I just say that I LOVE electrodynamics? Oh, yeah, and Tesla too.
Someone please tell me WHY I have never seen anything like this before?
I think Brian has been shirking his duties.... Here are a few other renditions via tesla coil for you to enjoy:
Theme from Zelda
Imperial March (bear with this one, it's worth it)
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Ghostbuster's Theme
AND if you want to get one of your very own for use at home check out this great demo:
Buy your own "Singing Tesla Coil"- The Zeusaphone
I think Brian has been shirking his duties.... Here are a few other renditions via tesla coil for you to enjoy:
Theme from Zelda
Imperial March (bear with this one, it's worth it)
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Ghostbuster's Theme
AND if you want to get one of your very own for use at home check out this great demo:
Buy your own "Singing Tesla Coil"- The Zeusaphone
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