Photo of the Week - From the Archives

I haven't had much time outside over the last week or so, so I haven't taken many photos. I had to go digging in my old photos for these two shots. Both are from a trip to Swallow Falls State Park in Maryland. As I recall, it was a chilly, gray weekend, and there'd been quite a bit of rain the week before, so the water was high. These were taken with my old Nikon Coolpix.

Falls!

Easy to Cross, Right?

If you've never been to Swallow Falls, and you're in the area, it's well worth a visit. There's a network of trails, and a campground available, though energetic walkers could see most of the sights in a day-trip.

Images copyright Mark A. Thomas
Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0

Photo of the Week - Mantis Makeover!

Today's photos were taken in my back yard. The first is about a month old; the second I took just a couple days ago. I'm fairly sure both these shots are of the same praying mantis (it's not like my yard has a ton of hiding places for big insects.

Young Mantis on Sage

Older and Wiser Mantis on Basil

Images copyright Mark A. Thomas
Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0

Photo of the Week - See?

I told you Indiana was kind of flat.

I took this on the drive out to one of my favorite little nature preserves, Weiler-Leopold / Black Rock Barrens, part of the Niches Land Trust. It's obvious Autumn is on the way. Lots of old and dying flower heads around.

But not everyone has given up on summer yet.

Images copyright Mark A. Thomas
Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0

Photo of the Week - Weeds

It's been hot, humid, and generally not very good for walking about with a camera weather the last couple days, so I had to dig into the archives to find a couple shots for today's post. The theme is weeds, which are everywhere. These shots were taken at Fort Ouiatenon Park, at the same time as last week's shots.

Photo of the Week - The Birdhouse

Almost forgot to post something today. This is a really crusty birdhouse I found along the edge of an open field at Fort Ouiatenon Park. It's seen better days. Perhaps it's occupied by undead birds?

Also, a happy little butterfly.

Images copyright Mark A. Thomas
Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0

Photo of the Week

I took today's photos at Celery Bog, a wetland preserve in West Lafayette. It's a great little park with a variety of terrain. Most of the time you think of Indiana as flat and open, but there's surprising variety in this little park. Aside from the obvious wetland area, which despite the name is actually a marsh, there's wooded area (Indiana used to be mostly forested believe it or not), and a section that's been allowed to revert to prairie grasses. This is what the bog looks like right now. This is why wilderness exploration is slow!

Celery Bog in August

Most photographers that visit the site focus on waterfowl. I've seen the usual geese and ducks, plus bald eagles, osprey, assorted herons, kingfishers, woodpeckers, and a host of others, but without a long lens most bird photos turn out pretty bad. I tend to go smaller, like this little dude. Found him in a small stand of milkweed just at the edge of the marsh. Sadly he was all alone.

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar

Finally I decided to play around with Gimp and G'MIC again, using the bog image above. This is the result of applying pencil sketch to the image above.

Sketch Mode

Images copyright Mark A. Thomas
Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0

Photo of the Week

In an effort to A) force myself to take more photos, and B) to post more often, I'll be posting a picture or two each week from recent photo sessions. Most of these will be nature/outdoor stuff, with some macro stuff in the mix. In some cases, like today, I'll be including GIMP-processed versions of the image as well.

Today's image is of a giant horsefly that decided to do some sunbathing on my patio.

Original image

Cropped and sfx'd using G'MIC in Gimp

Images copyright Mark A. Thomas
Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0