Peony at Sunrise - Close Up

I don't often take photos of flowers. Most likely, this one caught my attention due to the angle of the light. It was a couple of hours after sunrise and the Sun was still relatively low in the sky.

-GS-

Wicked Comes to the Orpheum Theatre

Just happened to notice the truck parked in front of the theater. The driver must have just pulled into town. Normally, they park in the back. -gs-

Government Flowers

There has been a small park with a nice walking trail near my home for over twenty-five years. This was a long, narrow area in the electric transmission right-of-way. The area was always well kept, mowed and often used as a practice field for soccer teams and the like.

Recently the nearby street was widened to accommodate increased traffic. As the park was improved (made narrower) it was discovered that it drained into a wetland area. Several new regulations governed the improvements. For instance, it can no longer be mowed.

So rather than let it go to weeds, it was sown with wildflower seeds. I have to admit, it looks very nice, though it can no longer be used for anything else. During the construction the walking trail was widened and improved. It's now very nice.

Click here to see a few more photos taken while on a walk around the area.

-GS-

Omaha Railroad Days 2008

Omaha's two day celebration of it's railroad heritage was expanded this year.

Lauritzen Gardens and the Durham Museum were joined by three museums across the bridge in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The Union Pacific Museum, the General Dodge House and the Rails West museum joined the Omaha attractions to repeat last year's very popular family event.

Click here to see more photos.

-gs

Fast Food Goes to the Dogs

I'd heard that fast food was going to the dogs, but I thought it was just an expression.

Do you suppose he can drive and eat his burger at the same time?

Go here to see more photos Caught On The Street.

-gs-

Animoto - The End of the Slide Show

You don't create slide shows with Animoto. Animoto creates short videos from your images. Check out these two short samples created from the same set of images before you read on.





The process is as simple as it can be. Upload your photos to Animoto's web site. Pick from their music or upload your own. Push the button and Animoto's servers generate a video presentation that fits the selected music.

If you want a lot of control you will be disappointed. You can designate a few photos to be given more emphasis. Other than that, Animoto's algorithms make all of the decisions. If you don't like the results you can push the button and generate new results.

Check out the details at Animoto.

Thanks go to Amber and Leo on the Net at Nite podcast for this tip.

-gs-

Spring 2008

What better way to welcome Spring than to pay mother nature a visit. In this case I visited the drive through version. No reason to leave the climate controlled comfort of the car just to commune with nature.

The Wildlife Safari is a great family attraction located a few highway minutes south of Omaha, Nebraska. It's run by the same people that handle the world class Henry Doorly zoo.

The standards are just as high at the safari park, but the atmosphere is quite different. Where the zoo is obviously a man-made construction designed to look natural, the safari park is a natural area modified to accommodate the slow moving autos.

Here are a few photos from my visit on the park's opening weekend. Not pictured are the aviary or the valley that is home to bears and wolves.

You can can see other photos of the Henry Doorly Zoo and older photos of the Safari park here.

-gs-

Railroad Days - 2007

The Durham Western Heritage Museum, Lauritzen Gardens and the Union Pacific Railroad Museum joined together for Railroad Days - 2007. A single ten dollar admission fee granted the entire family admission to all three locations for the entire weekend. Buses carried patrons from site to site.

A few locomotives were on display at the Western Heritage museum. Photos of these and the permanent railroad displays are here.

The new garden railroad was open to the public for the first time at Lauritzen Gardens. The large locomotives at Kenefick Park were available as usual. Here are photos a few photos.

I didn't make it to the UP museum during Railroad days. That will have to wait for another time.

-gs-

Invasion of the Fireworks Monsters

Every year, just before the Fourth of July, the suburbs of Omaha are invaded by giant monsters.

Fireworks, banned in Omaha, are legal in the suburbs. Stands like these sprout up overnight. Each location sells fireworks to raise funds for a different charity.

I've always appreciated the irony of selling fireworks to support the volunteer fire department.

For more random street scenes, click here.

Neighborhood Street Repair

After 25 years, many of the neighboorhood streets were in need of repair.

Large sections of the street were removed and replaced.

The construction made it difficult to get around the neighborhood for a few days. A little exploring was necessary, every evening, to find a new route home.

For a few more photos, click here.

-gs-

Downtown Clouds

Late one afternoon in June these clouds suddenly appeared in the sky.

No storm followed. Just the clouds.

Click here for more photos and larger images.

-gs-

Aquila Court Wrap-up

Just one more photo to wrap up the Aquila Court face lift.

This shot was taken a couple of days after the work on the front of the building was complete.

Quite a bit of furniture was delivered that morning.

Click here for more photos of the construction work.

-gs-

Coal Train Leaves the Tracks

The Fourth of July was exciting for the crew of this train.

Several hoppers of coal jumped the tracks and dumped their contents on the embankment.

More photos here.

-gs-

What are the Odds?

What are the odds of driving over a 3/8" bolt and having it puncture your brand new tire dead center?

The tire only lost a little air and was repaired the next morning. I wouldn't have immediately noticed it. The low tire pressure indicator on the dashboard brought it to my attention.

For you photographers, I took this shot with the camera held inside the wheel well, set in macro mode and soft flash.

-gs-

Shadow Lake Construction

Construction on the Shadow Lake Shopping Center is nearing completion.

Crews are using lifts like the one in the foreground to put the finishing touches on several buildings.

You can see four lifts in this photo. There are about in dozen in use around the construction site.

Quite a bit of work remains to be completed in the two weeks before the Grand Opening on Memorial Day Weekend.

-gs-

Pentax K10D - early results

Pentax has released a pair of Single Lens Reflex cameras with an upgraded version of the Shake Reduction feature introduced in their point & shoot line of cameras.

The K10D, a full-featured, weather sealed, 10MP, SLR hit the stores in the USA just before Thanksgiving. You'll find examples and discussion in all of the regular places.

The shot included here was hand-held at 1/8th second. Normally, I'd not be able to take a steady shot at any speed less than 1/30th second. This is a very significant improvement.

Unlike it's competitors, Canon and Nikon, Pentax chose to build the SR feature into the body. This makes it immediately useful with most any lens compatible with the K-mount.

The K10D has been an instant hit. The initial deliveries were sold out within a couple of days.

Here's a gallery of sample shots from the K10D.

-gs-

The Pentax A10 in Florida

I had to spend a few days in Florida last week. The weather was generally nice, but cool and windy. One unusual evening brought severe storms and a tornado.

A conference occupied most of my time, but I managed to get a few shots with the Pentax A10. The more I use this little camera the more I like it. It's a great pocket camera.

I was particularly happy with the shake reduction and low light performance. Those features helped me take photos like this one taken in a reception held in an aircraft museum. Flash would have been useless. The place is a huge old hangar. Not much light to work with.

Click here to view the gallery. Nothing artistic here, just travel snapshots, but that is this camera's place in life.

-gs-