Proj 365 July 14th

Another reason I hate living in Rocky Mount. Usually its farm tractors and vehicles pulling flatbeds of tobacco to market creeping down the road and I have to get to work!

Proj 365 July 13th

The Raleigh grease trucks that handle recycle grease to keep people from putting down the drains. BTW Raleigh outlawed (kitchen sink) disposals in houses.

Proj 365 July 12th

Another one of those going down the road and I have to get a photo. This place is the motorcycle bar! Use your imagination and the rest looks just like you imagine! But it has cheap beer!

Proj 365 July 11th

Going down the road and saw this. Had to turn around and get this. I blacked out the last part of the internet address. The sign is too small to read here but it says "LEARN ABOUT LAND" www.Landinvestment...

Look at the barren land sitting undeveloped.

Proj 365 July 10th

The intense heat and the lack of rain is making the ants build their mounds higher. My yard is covered with mounds like this. So are my neighbors. Ant killer doesn't work as we aren't getting the main nest with the queen.

Proj 365 July 9th

 Had trouble getting this shot. This is the final shot. Glare from light somewhere was reflecting off the mug. (See bottom photo). Photographing irregular shaped objects with a glaze or glossy finish on them is difficult. If you use flash, the light reflects horribly. Only thing to do is block off the offending light and use a low light lens.

Here is the second shot I took after I block off the light. Shutter speed was way to low. Side issues, tripod and monopod are in the back of my Pilot and I didn't feel like going out to get them. Likewise to using my Nikon D300 which would offer greater flexibility. Laziness was doing me in.




Here is the first shot that clicked it off. Ok but for the glare.

Proj 365 July 8th

A shot they used for a time capsule. The town of Cary is filing a cornerstone in the the new Arts Culture building soon and they asked Cary Photographic Artists to submit a photo of the intersection to see how things will change in 50 years. I was asked to do the photography. This is the shot.

Proj 365 July 7th

OK I promised I would do some more black & white and I thought this was a good opportunity.

Proj 365 June 6th

 Nice view of a lake through the trees. Of course with the heat hitting near 100, the humidity and all makes me glad I have a car with A/C to return to.

Proj 365 July 5th

 Meet the girls

Gwen - The princess. Dainty and proper (unless digging a hole!)

Lana - The tomboy, always there to give a face full of loving licks and only asks for a bellyrub.


Both are saying its hot! Humidity is soaring and rain moved in shortly after the photo.

Proj 365 July 4th

I have the gas grill, my son just got a charcoal grill. Now we can really cook!

Proj 365 July 3rd

 Why are they called June bugs when they never show up until July? Just appeared the other day, maybe June 29th?

Proj 365 July 2nd

 OK, I have been saying I wanted to do more B&W. I found a way to "see" black and white. Change your camera to Live view and set it to monochrome. The captured image will still be color (I shoot in Raw) but the image \on the back LCD screen is a JPEG and will be B&W!! Post processing will produce a better image usually but this will allow you to see a general idea of the image. The only problem is that when you use the local brush adjustment in LR, you can't access all the tools in greyscale below as the image is still a color image.

Proj 365 July 1st

Mailbox walk. I am surprised how long the flowers are lasting in this heat.

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.