Day 22 - Old

I found these and so much more wonderfully old stuff down the road a piece from the town that is closest to us. Of course, the town itself is nearly 10 miles away, but we do consider it part of our hood as we have to travel there to get most everything. On this excursion around my hood, I found old farm equipment, tractors, a graveyard and an old convenience/feed store, the LPMX...the Lonesome Prairie Mercantile Exchange. It was one of the few things that was already here when we moved here, but I absolutely love these.

Day 21_Loud

We arrived early and was able to sit right at the very front along the fence. The burners are extremely loud.
I loved all the color and patterns on the many ballons that were there.

These were taken within a short traveling distance to our hood, but we had one fly right over our house once. I think it was having trouble because it came over very low and landed in the pasture across the street. It sounded like I would imagine a fire breathing dragon would sound. Scared the bejeebies out of us. We didn't know what it was at first nor did we know which way to run!

Day 20-Progress

I wasn't sure if I would make this one. No ideas and a holiday weekend.
Then, lo and behold, I was bagging the corn on the cob to go in the sous vide bath and what did I see?
PROGRESS!
It even says Progress under the green lights although you can't see it too well in the small picture.

Day 19 - Tiny

This is a baby Texas Toad. That is a 1" diameter, curled up water hose that it is sitting on.
The image was taken with a macro lens. I love the gold and black pattern around its eye and the texture of its skin. There is no way you can see all this detail with the naked eye.

Here is one in my Granddaughter's hand.

Day 18_Contrast

The new is encroaching into the old. This is one of several barns on a farm that is catty-cornered across the main road from our house. The concrete pillars in the background support the automatic toll tag reader on the newly constructed toll road.

You can not see the toll road from our home, but we do see it on our morning walk.

This is only a small vignette of an absolutely beautiful horse farm. If you look closely, you can see the cars traveling the toll road.

I have mixed emotions about the road. Since we can't see it, I can pretend it is not there. But, it makes getting to often frequented places much faster. However, I fear all the beautiful pasture land that it runs through will soon be developed. Having never lived in a town or city except for one short period of time, I'm not sure if I am ready for all the headaches congestion can bring.

Day 17_Text

I don't know if this would be considered text, a sign or what, but this is a food truck. I do like the combination of the different fonts, sizes and colors of the text. Again not in my hood but in my town. There is a food truck park and it was such a pretty day we had to eat there.

This is a totally contrived image. I did take the photo of the magazine and of the magnifying glass....in my hood. Then I digitally created this image.

Day 16_Reflections

This is not in our immediate neighborhood. I took it on the way to town. We walk 3 miles every morning, weather permitting, and there just haven't been any reflections that tripped my trigger.

This one was definitely taken in our hood, in my game room. I spray painted one side of a piece of table glass with black matt spray paint. I broke the egg directly onto the unpainted side of the glass and the glass reflected the egg. The red color is from a red laser pointer. It is not, however, a recent one.

Day 15_Cracks

In this case it is a crack with a few scratches thrown in for good measure. Hubby wanted to know if I was taking this for warranty purposes. I didn't tell him it was supposed to be an art inspiration.

Day 14_Pattern

I believe I am beginning to see a pattern in my choice of images. I never noticed it before, but I am seeing a lot of rust (which I love) and shades of blue.

Day 13_Night

Lightning is not always detrimental to shooting photos. IF you are in a safe place!! This was taken from my front porch...waaaay back on my front porch with a telephoto lens. It is not the image that I had envisioned when thinking about a night image, but when all else fails...best laid plans...and all that.

The thing about photographing light...you don't aways get what you expect. I love the magenta and blue in the above photo and would use it as a color combination in my artwork. My eyes did not see that. I'm told it is because our eyes and brain work together to translate light into "Memory Colors". Memory Colors are colors that you have seen so often that your brain remembers them and automatically corrects what you see...like auto correct for your eyes rather than for your typed words.

My eyes did not see the colors of this image, either. My camera did and I am glad that it did.

I am learning to watch out for color auto correct just as I have to do for word auto correct.

Day 12_Trash

It has been raining but mostly lightning so it wasn't possible to get out and find some trash. It's not usually hard to do because people like to come to the country and dump things along side the road...furniture, mattresses, animals (that's how we got several of our wonderful pets), appliances, all kinds of things.
I used an older image for this one. I found it on the backroad going into town.

Day 11_Sign

A little incongruous don't 'ya think.
This was not taken in my immediate hood. Couldn't find a sign. Not one that interested me, anyway. It was taken at a public park.

Here is one that I created digitally from a rooster image that I drew then painted with alcohol inks. No such place exists that I am aware of.

Artful Adventure Day 10_Wildlife

We couldn't figure out why she was hanging so close to the house. Normally, they stay in the marshy, wooded area of our "wildlife" park. (Long Story)

Not exactly the best of photos because I couldn't get closer, but it does explain things. She had her kits in our camper shed.

My husband found this dude taking a bath under the water sprinkler. He came in and told me it was there so that I could get a photo. Such a co-operative subject considering I had to lay on the ground next to him to get at eye level. I do like all the colors in his skin. I seem to be on a gray and (whatever) color excursion at the moment, anyway.

Day 9_Plant Life

We have tons and tons of plant life that I could photograph, especially wildflowers which tend to be my favorite. But, it was so windy, I had to try and find something that was sheltered. Neither my husband nor I are gardeners. This iris plant was given to my husband by a friend of his. He planted it in the first place he could find, right in front of my studio. The location goes against all planting advice, but it is a survivor.

Day 8_Ground

The wind huffed and puffed and blew the nest down.

A Storm Is Coming-Day 7 Sky

Actually, I have two. I couldn't really decide so put both here on my blog.


This was taken from my front yard.

This one was taken a little out of the hood later in the day. Was on my way to the store and the birds were coming home to roost for the night.

6th Day Stroll Challenge_Window

Natalie Kalbach from N*Studio is having a 30 day Challenge...Artful Adventures – Stroll Through the Hood. She is an excellent mixed media artist. The challenge is to inspire concepts for a mixed media project.
This is my entry for Window.