Photo's From The Archive: Water Fountain

"Photo's From The Archive" will be a new feature of my blog. I will be going through some of my photo's that I took before starting this blog. I will post one, two or three photo's in each article.

Some of them will be photo's that I think might be of some artistic value. Some of them will be photo's that are just pictures that interest me due to their content or memory they bring back. I hope you will enjoy them too.

At the west of end of the John T, Myers Pedestrian bridge there is water fountain.  Here are a few photo's I took of it this spring.

If anyone has any questions or suggestions about my photo's or articles please feel free to comment.

Still life in the dark

I setup a space in the basement this weekend to try some still life photography. I placed a large sheet of black acrylic felt on a table and tacked it up on the wall also.

Black felt backdrop

The basement is normally lit by the long tube florescent lighting. But they produce more light than I wanted. So I was going to try some of those spiral florescent lights in some small lamps so I could control the angle of the light. But those produce an orangish light. Looks interesting but not what I wanted.

Orange glow from spiral florescent lighting

As it turns out the long tube florescent light produces the whitest light. So I turned them all off except one. The one I left one was on the other side of a partition, so most of its light is blocked. None of its light is direct. The light only came in through a doorway. Looking at the photo of the black felt backdrop setup, the light came in from the left side of the table.

First up is the deer skull I found a few weeks ago. With the light coming in from the side I was able to play with shadowing. The last photo shows the skull using a clamp-on light with the spiral florescent bulb.

Next is a couple of photo's on a possum skull. I hate possum's for some reason. I am glad this one is dead. It was living in my garage.They were all done with a spiral bulb.

Next I tried leaving on one one long tube florescent light that was in front of the backdrop. As you can see not much shadowing.

For the next test I will be making some LED spot lights of different colors. Since they will be spot lights I will be able to control the light better. Hopefully LED's will photograph well. Here is a link to my Flickr page with the rest of the photo's from last night session.

The sunrise

While getting ready for work this week I looked out the window and saw this. The shots were cluttered with power lines, but the colors made the pictures worth keeping and sharing. The first two pictures were taken through a window.

Wildlife Along the Wabash

Destination: Wabash Heritage Trail, north end / Wabash Heritage Trail, South end
Miles hiked: 8/9.5
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikkor 50mm 1:18 non DSLR lens.

This weekend I came across more wild life than I normally due on the Wabash Heritage Trail. Saturday I drove to Battleground and walked the south end of the Wabash Heritage Trail. While there I hiked a small trail called Prophets Rock Trail. Its a short trail up a small hill. Its maybe about a mile or mile and a half loop. Its mostly just a steep climb.

After Prophets Rock Trail I continued on to the south end of the Wabash Heritage Trail. This trail follows and cross's Burnett's Creek which feeds into the Wabash River. At the begining of the trail off to the side is an open area with some wild flowers. Here are some shots of the flowers.

In the creek I spotted the remains of a turtle.

A green frog in a small swamp.

Some moss on a log

Sunday I walked from my house to the trail. I passed through the Downtown area and took a few shots.

This "beach" is where I was headed. It has gotten bigger since the last time I was here. This is the same place that I found all the dead fish. This time I found a skull of some kind. I am guessing its from a deer. I packed it up a brought it home. An other addition to my Halloween collection.

This was a surprise. It was moving along the edge of the river off of the beach. I have never seen a mussel in action.

Just a log in the sand.

Next are some photo's of some mushrooms I found. They were on a small mound leading up to a old tree stump. I took about 20 pictures but I was not really happy with most of them. I failed to capture the scene. Here are a few OK shots.

I found this molting Cicada..

And finally, this Garter Snake had just finished swallowing a small toad or frog. All I saw was the legs sticking out of the mouth. But by the time I had the camera ready the legs were gone. I got off a few shots then it stuck its tongue out at me and zipped off.

Two for one

Destination: Wabash Heritage Trail, South leg / Happy Hollow Park
Miles hiked: 8/6
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikkor 50mm 1:18 non DSLR lens.

No strong theme for this Saturday or Sunday's photo's and not a lot of photo's taken. So I will be combining the two days into one post.

This first photo is of a fish skull I found. I brought it home. I will clean up and use it in for some still life photo's later. Then I will add it to my Halloween collection. It is most likely an Asian Carp of some kind.

Stepping Stones

These flowers are everywhere this year.

Old Standard Oil Gas station next to where I work. It's a mini museum now. I plan on getting better shots of this later.

Night shot of one of the towers for pedestrian bridge.

Night shot of the Standard Oil Gas Station.

Some fungus growing on a rotting tree. I was disappointed with this. The color did not come out well. The colors were much brighter.

Some steps at Happy Hallow Park

Tree roots at Happy Hallow Park

One of these is not like the others. This is from my back yard

A bee came by while I was photographing the odd rose.

Exploring a different part of the Wabash Heritage Trail

Destination: Exploring a different part of the Wabash Heritage Trail
Miles hiked: 9
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX 18-55MM 1:3-5.6 GII

Today I was just trying out a different part of the trail. I started at a new park called Trailhead Park. Driving to this park instead of walking from home to the trail allows me to go further on the trail. I have only been on this part of the trail once this year. That's when I walked from my home, to the trail, all the way to the north end of the trail at Tippecanoe Battlefield Park, and then back part of the way to the Davis Ferry Park. That was a 17 mile hike. My longest recorded hike so far.

This is the "quickest" way to the the Buried Cars of yesterdays post. I did not time it but it may only be 30 - 45 minutes to the cars from Trailhead Park.

Here are a few photo's from the trail

A random picnic table a the side of the trail

Wood fungus

An interesting two armed tree. This is the left side

And here is the right side

Some rusting iron work from the old Davis Ferry Bridge

And a little more with a spider web.