Red barn with attitude.

Colors turned up.


I'm still experimenting with my new camera. This was a little barn (shed) off a back road just north of the Illinois Wisconsin border. I used a program called photomatix that allows you to combine different exposures of the same picture.

Or you can create..

HDR pictures: you load and combine differently exposed shots into a High Dynamic Range Image. You can then manipulate it with tone mapping. Much more intense colors, shading and detail. The blues in the sky tend to darken though.

The above shot was taken about 6:00 in the afternoon. The picture below is basically the same one without any editing. The HDR version catches one's eye, but for a desktop background I like the natural one. I especially like the blue sky.


All natural.

Gray hawk down.

Hawk with a hurt wing.

He was just outside a window at work.

Dark matters.

Moon and star dots.




Looking SE toward Crystal Lake.

It takes a newly rediscovered hobby to get me outside taking pictures of the moon at 11:00pm. On a work night no less.

I got a couple decent night shots - out of way too many attempts. I think that's why I dropped the hobby many years ago. Film and developing costs. Not any more. Flash memory = many chances.

I can't see crap at night and most certainly couldn't see the settings on the camera. My flashlight had new batteries but the last time I used it, I set it down on it's lens while still on. Dead.

So basically I guessed. I'm not Ansel Adams by any means but I'm somewhat pleased with these results.




Moon rays in back yard.