Proj 365 June 30th

Let's hear it for the state of North Carolina. The highest gasoline tax in the southeast and they are raising taxes 2.5 cents. This is the old tax rte off a pump on the last day of the old tax rate. It is higher as of July 1st!

They couldn't tax liquor or tobacco (Oh No! not tobacco in NC!!) They have to place a tax on the working man and their struggle to survive.

Proj 365 June 29th

Yeah, my new sectional frames arrived!  www.decor-frame.com The standard size ones I ordered are #120, the wide one is @119 Click on #119 and see the colors. It probably looks wicked in Frosted Copper but all we use for shows are black. We had a group buy so that we got free shipping for having an order over $200.

Proj 365 June 28th

OK, mystery challenge time. The bottle at the right is a Nehi soda bottle. (presumably grape). BUT the top says Tab. What is inside the bottle without opening it?

BTW I know only because I worked on the bottling assembly line downstairs where we pulled bottles from the cardboard cartons and replaced cartons as needed. Most likely the reason I have a hearing loss. (Back then nobody wore hearing protection as nobody really knew or cared.) We  estimated we heard over 100,000 bottles going "Clink" at any instant on 7 different lines. You had to yell / scream "Whhooo" like an owl at somebody 5 feet away to get there attention. Beyond 5' it was useless.

Proj 365 June 27th

Yeah, I know, only one today. These are beagle prints left on me after I fed my girls (Lana and Guinevere) dinner.

Proj 365 June 26th

Strange, this is the 2nd or 3rd post in the last hour that I click publish and it disappeared instead of publishing. 

 Here are some sunset shots of a tobacco field near my house that I took the next day.













 I think I like this one the best.

Proj 365 June 25th

 Some shots from my outing with the Raleigh Outdoor Photography club at Lake Crabtree to photograph the sunset.


































 I liked these as I caught the jetliner crossing the sunset.

Proj 365 June 24th

Sorry I got behind in my posts but among other things, I lost a crown on a tooth and the tooth will not be able to be saved, my primary 1 TB External Hard Drive was accidentally erased as I tried to format a different drive. It takes a long time to recover a 1 TB HD that is half full, especially if you are not willing to leave it running for 39 hours while storms are in the area every afternoon.

Anyway, Here goes. Spotted this in the parking lot as I left work. Can't say it looks too drivable with the low windshield etc. Can't imagine a lady in a dress trying to get in with no doors. Apparently you step up on the step behind the door area and climb in through the bed of the truck.

Proj 365 June 23rd

Excuse my typing but my fingers are cut too. This is one of my arms and my face after I went out in the name of photography but Hey I get paid for it! A plane went down in Red Oak NC and I went out and got some photos. I will post the photos as soon as I can. When I got the photos back to the Rocky Mount newspaper, they liked them and said they would use two or three of them. They were surprised to et any photos as the crash was so far back in the woods.
I look like I got into a fight with my daughter's car Ripley and lost big time. Oh well, got to run and get back to pulling off ticks. Neighbor spotted 4 on my t shirt when I came in. I have pulled off about 25 - 30 so far.

Proj 365 June 22nd

 Some more neat clouds as a storm approached (but failed to provide much needed rain). Dissolved before it got here.

Guess what this is? Know y'all saw one like this a few months back but this time it is from the right side instead of the left. It's another one of my crowns. Leaving for the dentist in a bit.

Proj 365 June 21st

The fires in Dare County NC and tow other places have created an incredible amount of smoke. My wife, like many others, is staying in and I am carrying my inhaler (allergy shots for both of us, trees are high on the list).. Look at the cars that have passed under the sign structure.

Proj 365 June 20th

It took a while even for my musical friend to get the last part of this one. It reads - "Be Sharp, Never Be Flat, and Always be Natural"

Proj 365 June 19th

Almost caught up with posts (whew!) Hey, It's Father's Day and here's what I got. Two air cushioned 8' lightstands, 2 convertible umbrellas (shoot-through with the black cover off or reflective with the cover on), and a carrying case. That and some really great cards. I like the Photoflex umbrellas as the ribs are plastic instead of aluminum and look to hold up better.

Proj 365 June 18th

The moon was still up later than I thought it would be and I loved the way it was barely there. 

Proj 365 June 17th

Another mailbox flower.

Proj 365 June 16th

Don't know what the plant is but it looks like something out of an old horror movie that is about to reach out and engulf you.








Oh the buddies you meet out walking. Spry little fellow, surprising how quick he moved. (Most of my mailbox shots this year have been stopping the car but with the last three days off in a row, I decided to get out and do some early morning walking.)

BTW - Some states now have banned pet turtles because of diseases they carry. I didn't know that but I wouldn't pick one up anymore.

 

Proj 365 June 15th

Nothing was striking my fancy today and I love clouds. 

Proj 365 June 14th

We didn't get to see the lunar eclipse some of my friends overseas got to sea but here is what we did se. Loved the way the clouds drifted across the moon.

Proj 365 June 13th

Sorry but the 13th to the 22nd couldn't be posted as blogger wouldn't load them. They were posted on line at Facebook in the Creative 365 Project. I realized I hadn't loaded them here and so now I am.

Another 2 for day.

This caught my eye with the vines growing up the pole.

 

I pulled into this entrance to a closed business to turn around. Look at the locked gate and then follow the path through the missing section around behind the gate. Looks like quite a bit of traffic has bypassed security!

Proj 365 June 12th

 You often hear the advice to photographers to look what's behind you. In this case I kind of knew. I had been outrunning the storm for some time and when I got near home I had been thinking about how bright is was in front of me (relatively) and so dark behind me so I got out and took a shot of the clouds in front of me and then

a shot of the storm behind me. We would up getting very little rain where I live as the storm kind of dissolved around us. We got some but not like all around us.

Proj 365 June 11th

Somebody got a haircut.

Proj 365 June 10th

 Some roadside flowers that I had to get.

Proj 365 June 9th

It is surprising sometimes how challenging it can be to so something like line up an image so you are precisely centered. Usually it doesn't matter but here I wanted the center row to be in the center. Thought I was at the time but obviously I missed a little. Mitigating factors - Use of my P&S with LCD screen instead of optical viewfinder and my not wanting to move a little more due to the urgency of getting to work. The second photo is the same field at an angle and it makes for an entirely different photo.

Both will be added to my on-going work on tobacco barns.

Proj 365 June 8th

A neighbor teenager had a "little" birthday party. I found a Jack Daniels bottle, a cardboard container of a 18 pack of beer, and a half a dozen beer bottles of various varieties. My next door neighbor had a beer bottle, the neighbors on the other corner had about a half a dozen beer bottles. Here is the photo of one of those houses. (I had already picked up my yard before thinking to take a photo.) Oh yeah, among the bottles, I found a School receipt for a parking permit with the students name on it. Gotcha.

Proj 365 June 7th

Well my daughter bought a home. Here is what will probably be the last of the mailbox flowers for the year. A nice note to end on.

Proj 365 June 6th

 The insulation on the wires was burnt off!! Lucky it didn't start a fire. BTW, out water heater is under the house in the crawl space.

 The top is rusted out. 6.5 year warranty.

 Remember how they way to drain your water heater to flush the sediment out once a year. Well here is what builds up over time.

Oh well, the average life of a water heater is 6 - 7 years and this is 7 years old. At least it failed in June and not January!!