Protecting the Cypress

This morning, during the Golden Hour, I went for a nice run.  Before the beautiful lighting was gone I went back home, grabbed my camera and sought out my daily photo.  I found this tree (I think it's some kind of cypress) behind a flimsy little fence with a backdrop of yellow leaves reflecting the early sunlight.  Even the browns and slight reds of the bark gain some vibrancy from the lighting...

Books, Bokeh and Beaches

The 23rd of October was rainy.  I already posted for it, but had been lucky on that day and got outside before the rain hit.  Once it hit it kept going until early on the 25th.  This forced me to stay inside on the 24th and find something worth photographing within my apartment.  

I have been reading (and greatly enjoying) Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.  In an attempt to keep a visual list of the books I've been reading, I have been taking a photo of each book.  Compelled to stay inside by the rain, I give you...something inside my apartment that is at least slightly worth photographing...

A good book

I grabbed my camera and my homemade tilt shift lens as soon as the rain stopped on the 25th.  I didn't know how much time I would have before it started again, so I ran around outside looking for something to shoot.  A train went by, I squeezed my plunger-like DIY tilt shift lens and pressed the shutter button.  

Not as tilt-shifty as I would have liked

My tilt shift lens was still attached on the 26th, so I used it again.  There are some pretty awesome "post boxes" (mailboxes) around here.  Here is one that is right outside of my apartment.  

Mail me things!

In an attempt to add on to one of my new projects (architectural photography that might not initially seem like architecture) I got this shot of a wall on Thursday.  I don't know if I can actually add it to the project (it is strange, but I think it is pretty obvious that it is indeed something architectural)  but I really like the angle.

Biggest cage ever

I woke up to the sounds of this happening on the 28th... 

I think they were trying to melt the road.  Is that normal?

I then took some pictures of my wife and her morning tea.

With only window light.  

In the evening we went to what was supposed to be a haunted botanical garden.  It would have been nice if it would have been free.  We stood in the line until finding out it wasn't free.  Then we left.

I absolutely love Halloween...but not enough to pay to walk through a garden with people dressed up in an attempt to appease crying children.

On the way back I was trying some low light shots...

...and ended up with some beautiful bokeh.

We went to Larne yesterday.  In an attempt to get people to use a new train that has just been added, they had a "try the train" day.  We tried it.  A free train trip?  Most definitely!  We got off the train and walked around...rather disappointed.  Larne seemed to be a very boring town.  With horrible crosswalks.  We almost died a few times.  What was strange was that we had looked into the town and found what seemed to be some interesting things.  Apparently they were farther away from the station than we had thought.  We chose a direction and walked that way...hoping it would take us somewhere interesting.

After a few miles we came upon a cute little park.  With a stone on the other side of it.  We made our way to the wall and slipped through a little gate and...

  much better.  We thought there was supposed to be some water around Larne.

We found the coastline path that we had read about.  We headed north on it, hoping to find a tunnel that had seemed rather alluring.

that little hole in the mountain...that's my tunnel!

We found the tunnel just as the rain found us.  We went up to the tunnel, looked around and turned around.  The half hour walk back was not much fun, what with the ocean breeze slamming the rain into our faces and soaking us thoroughly.  We found a little shelter, asked an old couple that was taking refuge there if we could join them, and they told us of a very nice little cafe that would hang our clothes up by the radiator and give us hot soup.  We went there.  The soup was good.  My roasted red pepper and mushroom panini was better.  But they didn't hang up our jackets by a radiator.  

This isn't the cafe.  It's a close up of the tunnel.

The Rain Begins

We got hit with some rain this morning...it may have been the beginning of Irene, or it may have just been some regular old rain.  Around 5:00 pm the real rain started.  It hasn't been crazy heavy, and it's been off and on, but it seems like we may have a good bit of falling water ahead of us.

Falling Water

Here is some pretty falling water.  This was taken just as Irene made her presence known in my mother's pool.

Staying Inside

The rain has kept us inside today.  This cute kid was made tired by the incessant raindrops that kept beating themselves against the window panes.

Ephrata's Caboose

Train tracks used to run through Ephrata, PA.  There are still signs of this...you just have to be observant....most of the time.  Sometimes you can just look for the massive thing in the middle of the town, which happens to be hard-to-miss and bright red...

The Reading Railroad

A soft, toy-like look lends itself nicely to the nature of the caboose.  The bright colors in the photo make it look like it should be part of a model railroad.

Sunrise

I knew that I would have a busy day today, what with moving the entire contents of my apartment to another location, so I brought my camera to work, thinking I might find something there...and thus get my photo before the mayhem began. 
I frequently pass a little stream on my way to work.  This stream is always overflowing, which has made the surrounding area seem almost wetland like.  Often, on my way to work a light fog can be seen rolling through this area.  My hope was to get a shot of this.  I did.  The mist was nice, but I metered for the sky instead, in that the sunrise was beautiful and created a nice back drop to the silhouette of the treeline.

Wetland Sunrise

I doubt it actually can be classified as a wetland.  But it is a nice area.  The sunrise made it even nicer than it normally is.