Silos.

Like a painting,

Sentries, standing still

A pair of silos,

Stoic art on a hill

Snow in Woodstock.

It's been a mild winter (knock on wood). 

These photos are from the first week of March.

Woodstock, Illinois. Kimball and Lake avenue, right in town.

Grand Kids.

Enough barns for a while. 

Layla and Colton. 

Grandkids. Both current photos. Fall of 2012.

Saturday Barns.

Right across the street from my son (Clint) and Jenni's house are the best looking old barns. 

I took Saturday afternoon, 11-03-12. Day was cool and a bit overcast. 

Top picture from Sony camera with a bit of HDR processing to get that look.

The bottom picture from my android cell phone. Not bad!!!

Trail of History 2012.

About clouds.

A Break in the clouds by Raymond A. Foss

In the driveway this morning
gray clouds, lowering sky
a break in the clouds
bright light, a shimmering dove
hanging there, only momentarily,
a thought of the words of this poem
starting, a title, a line or too
a feeling of a need to remember
to capture the thought
The break closing,
before time for a photograph
frozen only in my mind
Reappearing, going with me,
at the town dump, unloading recycling
reminding me of your presence
of the grace, the dove descending
captured in flight once again
brighter now, hanging in sky


September 12, 2009

Copyright by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.

Nothing gold can stay.

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. 

Robert Frost.

Fireworks 2012.

One really good capture, probably four okay captures, about 10 bad shots.


Nice party at Clint and Jenni's with fireworks. 


This was in their backyard. 


Camera phone. 

Tilt-shift.

"Tilt-shift photography" refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras, and sometimes specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene.

Local Dari, Hebron Illinois.

Clint and Jenni walking in park, Crystal Lake, Illinois.

New house, back yard.

Monster trucks, real people in stands (they look fake).

Prairie Avenue Hebron Illinois.

Cattle in field west of local bar on edge of town (Rumors).

St. Albans street after a storm. (Hebron, Illinois)

Monster trucks at Allstate Center, Feb. 2012.

St Albans street.

Local Dari. Four corners, Hebron, Illinois

Barn and clouds.

Stateline Barn. Just over the border in Wisconsin.

Strawflowers.

Took Sunday afternoon, 11-16-11. Beautiful day, big clouds.  I will add more pics later. 



Late in coming, these strawflowers are really taking off.

The winds are coming.

September 29th, looking northeast. High winds were moving into the area. 
(After the fact, it wasn't too bad a wind storm.)


I just got home and caught these passing overhead just before all turned dark and sprinkles started.

From fun

Clouds on Raffle.

I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to be a lot of good cloud days lately.


I took these Saturday on the way home from work and errands.


In town they looked like a range of white mountains. 


I had to get out in the country a bit to really appreciate.

From fun

Lily bunch.

 


Amy's gift to me a couple years ago. Gets better each year.

Storm day 2011-07-11

Monday morning the 11th of July , 2011, we had a derecho pass through Northern Illinois.

We didn't get it as bad as neighboring towns - 800,000 people affected. Scores of trees and power lines down.

As of Friday there were still a few people without power. I was lucky to only be without power Monday.

This was taken Monday evening. The storm was long gone but after a sunny and pleasant afternoon and evening, the eeire looking clouds followed. Plenty of time to take pics since with no power there wasn't much to do inside.

Fall Night and Dark Pets.

Dark Night and Fall Pets would work too.

Saturday night Clint and Chad stopped
by for a visit. Holly too (a little later).

Drinks in the driveway with
a fire keeping the chill off. Nice night.

Thanks Clint for bringing beer.
Thanks Chad for only bringing
lemonade for your mixed drinks. 
Bastard.

I later took this picture of
Cubbie (the lab) and Teddy (the cat).


Cubbie never likes looking at the camera
(thinking it might steal his soul?)


Teddy never photographs well
because he's so black.


I set the camera to b/w mode and
used the flash - since it was pretty dark.

I like it overall except for the leaves.

With the black and grays,
they almost look like layers of burnt ashes.

An illuminating fall.

I usually associate fall with bright autumn colors and shorter days.

This should brighten (and lighten) things up;

Moon flower pods and Chinese lanterns.

Straight from the garden.

I picked as I was cleaning up brush so I could find and dig up my dahlia bulbs.

As much as I try to keep order, by end of summer my dahlias are entwined with moon flowers,
morning glories, and new this year, thunbergia vines.

Save the rows.

High winds through the midwest blows.

Corns ready for harvest. Save the rows.

We had really strong winds on Tues and Wed, October 26-27, 2010.
I took this on the edge of town just after work.
Can't see the wind and the clouds were more ominous the day before (26th) but I like the low light and winding country road.

Signs.

Theme is signs. First thing I thought of was M. Night Shyamalans' movie, Signs; well filmed with a quaint farm and it's occupants surrounded but not protected by a corn field. Great looking farm. I would rate the movie supernatural lite. Loved the visuals.

Back when Mel was only an actor,

And Phoenix not yet a rapper,

a Culkin, not Macaulay,

played an asthmatic son.

It was Bo the daughter,

who turns out at the end,

had left clues all over,

and who would have guessed,

They looked quite invincible

but that wasn't the case,

turns out the alien's weakness

was something home based:

WATER...

(I love the baseball reference. Ha, you had to watch it to understand.)

Taken tonight, edge of backyard. Cornfield.

From Butterflies 07-11-10.

From 2010-07-30corn-etc

Mudding on the 4th weekend.

4th of July 2010 (actually Saturday July 3rd.)
Party at Clint and Jenni's.

Lots of good music, drink, and later fireworks.
A common theme all through the day was the 4-wheeling mudding in the adjoining flooded field.



Above is Clint in his Toyota.
There were a lot of people walking around with muddy arms and / or legs by the end of the night.



Clint above taking a break.


Above: Some friends of Clint took what I thought to be an almost stock Jeep through the mud.

Made it.

Clint and Matt taking laps around the pond.

Later that night they had an almost surreal look because all you could make out were the headlight(s) moving slowly through the darkness.

(Reminded me a bit of Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid where they couldn't shake their trackers - they could see them in the distance carrying torches).

HERE is a link to Marseilles, Illinois for the off-road track they visit many times a year.

In the dark.