Colorado Trip - Denver Botanical Gardens

On one of the days of our Colorado trip we went to Denver with Aunt Ruth and Uncle Nathan. One of our main stops was the Denver Botanical Gardens where they were hosting a huge collection of works by the glass artist Dale Chihuly. Chihuly creates amazing blown glass abstract sculptures with naturalistic, organic designs. They're really cool looking.

This whole display was so cool.

These little guys were everywhere there was water.

I wasn't completely sure if these planters were Chihuly pieces, but the looked like they fit in with everything else really well.

These were some of my favorites.

But these boats were my very favorite out of everything there.

Especially this one.

I actually have a lot more pictures from the Chihuly show, but I liked so many of them enough, that I decided they should go on my photo blog. You can find those HERE!

Chicago: Day 1 - The Arboretum

I am FINALLY getting to my posts about Chicago! I can't promise to get to them all right away, but at least I'm getting to this first one.

On our first full day in Illinois, At this point it was just Wheaton, not really Chicago yet, we hung out with the family for the day. The main thing we did was go to an arboretum. It was really nice. It was kind of like a zoo, but for plants.

Here, Shaina defies a sign that clearly forbade standing on the table. Bad Shaina. Bad. Shame. Shame on you.

Okay, I confess. I told her to. I'm the bad one. Mwa ha ha ha ha.... >:D

 
Chris and Shaina examine a tree.

Sasha was enchanted by a flock of tiny mushrooms.

I can't remember what these columns were, but they were kind of cool.

There were a large number of wooden insect sculptures all over the arboretum. Shaina posed with most of them.

Yes, I know this is not an insect. Go away, trolls.

And here is where my camera battery died. We left soon after, so you didn't miss much. The rest of the day was spent shopping, and visiting the library where Aunt Linda works.

I got a new battery in the meantime, but I only ended up taking two pictures.

Her library is huge! It literally had three floors! I could just live there. I love libraries. :)

And that's all for the first day. More to come soon!

The Measurer of Marigolds

Today mom wanted to make freezer jam, but she had to work at the Republican booth at the fair, so I got the rhubarb ready while she was gone. While I was picking the rhubarb I found an inchworm! It was a perfect time for more practice with my macro lens.

Today’s post title is dedicated to my cousin, Shaina. :)

County Fair Photos

The fair is almost here, and I am almost ready. The Hy-Vee where I work has a Kodak kiosk for making prints, so I took my jump drive there today to get my photos printed off. It was only $3.00 for all 10 which I thought was a pretty good deal. Until I got home and reread the rules.

“The size of each print is limited to the size of the mat board (11x14), but may not be smaller than 60 square inches.”

4 x 6 is not really gonna cut it with the judges I think. So I went back to get bigger prints. I’m sure that anyone familiar with those machines will probably know what happened next. I was not familiar with them, and next year I’m going to look at online printing options. $40.00!? For 10 pictures?! I was a bit shocked. I was thinking it wouldn’t be more that $15 - $20. Oh well, live and learn. I don’t regret it though because they look so good printed out! The little ones look good, but the big ones look amazing!
A friend at work helped me work the machine and she was amazed at how good they turned out She told me I should hang some in the coffee shop in town. Her daughter and son-in-law own it, and she will be getting it when they move. Nobody has ever offered that high of praise before, so I am pretty happy about that. :)
So I’m sure you’re all wondering, which 10 pictures did I choose? Well, wonder no more, because here they are.
There were 9 categories and I could only enter one picture per category. I am also entering one in the Contemporary/Creative Photography division, as it is the only place where digitally manipulated images are allowed. For that one I chose a shot of some leaves I had taken.

I took the shot from underneath so the light shone through them. The digital manipulation comes from the fact that I really boosted the color saturation. And really, this picture does not do it justice. It looks so much better in print! I’m sure that all my pictures would look better printed out.
OK, now for the main 9 categories. First up is “People”.

I took this at the zoo from far away with my zoom lens. It was a totally lucky shot, but it is one of my favorites.
The second category is “Scenic and Landscape”.

I spotted this pole on a walk once, and I thought it would make a good picture. The lighting and sky were perfect.
The third category is “Life in  Iowa”. If you read last night’s post you’ll remember what I WANTED to enter. If you didn’t see it click HERE. But I do have a great picture that I decided to enter. It doesn’t really scream “IOWA” but it was taken here, so it counts!

I took a whole bunch of pictures that evening, all of this tree with that sunset effect, but this one is still my favorite. I may have to do a post on my photo blog with all the variations so you can see them all.
The fourth category is “Flowers, Plants, and Insects”. I really don’t think that’s fair, because that cuts down three pictures I could have chosen, and limits it to one. I did find one that fit in all three though.

I hadn’t even noticed the ladybug until later, so this picture turned out better than I’d hoped.
The fifth category is another unfair category. “Animals and Birds” really needs to be two separate categories. It’s hard enough to choose one animal and one bird, but then to have to choose only one single picture?! Come on people! I want to show more of my pictures than that! I finally decided on a picture that I just took on Saturday on my most recent trip to the zoo.

I thought it looked like the pink parrot was whispering in the cockatoo’s ear. :)
The sixth category was also hard. “Miscellaneous”. That could be anything! I finally decided on a picture I took of a flamingo’s tail.

I have a bunch that look pretty similar to this, but I chose this one because I thought the fact that the head was in the background added just a little something extra, and made it a little better than the rest.
The seventh category had me stumped for a little bit. “Action Pictures”. I don’t really take action pictures, but I wanted to get a picture in every category. Then I remembered. DUH! The PBR Challenge! *Facepalm* How could I forget that?! I went into my folder of pictures that I am saving for my photography blog.

Since it didn’t allow digital manipulation, I had to take it back into the program and undo the color adjustments I had done to it, and it’s now cropped slightly differently than the one that I will be posting on my photo blog, but it’s essentially the same After it was printed out though, I didn’t care. It looks amazing!
Number eight is “Things/Still Life”, and it was also a bit of a challenge for me to find a good picture. I don’t really do still life photography, so I didn’t know what to enter. I went WAY back to when I first got my camera at the beginning of the year. I had experimented with it the first night I had gotten it, and I had come up with a pretty silly picture.

I figured it may not win any awards, but it might give people a laugh. :)
The last category is “Structures”. I knew instantly which photo I was going to enter.

I just took this one on Saturday as well. It is the inside of the Desert Dome at the zoo. I thought it looked really cool with the clouds outside.
I took the photos to a friend to get them matted for display, so I’ll do another post when I get them back. They’re going to look so good! :)
I am planning a few other entries as well, some artwork, a couple paintings and a drawing for sure. I’ll keep you posted on what I do. :)
By the way, Be sure to check my photo blog later too, I am going to post large versions of all of my entries so you can see the details better.

EDIT: The photos are up on J. North Photography. You can check them out HERE.