Daily Image - May 2018 Archive

29 May 18 Roughly a 30 minute drive from the condo along hwy -287 is to be found Beaver Creek. It strikes me as being more than a creek but the difference between creek, streak, rivulet, river, etc seems to be more in the mind of the namer than anything else, so creek it is. As you walk along the creek it varies in size from location to location as it also does by seasonal rains and snow melt. The Rockies received a huge snowfall this past winter and the melt combined with a substantial amount of rain had all the rivers we encountered either at their flood levels or flooding. The water in most instances was literally roaring and had flooded much of the land as we drove along I-90. In all the years we've been driving back and forth to the condo we've never seen anything quite like it. Report from the folks in West Yellowstone was that the 2017 winter was bad; 2018 was MUCH worse with substantially more snow falling for a longer period of time. A week before our trip they had 5 inches and that is in May. Beaver Creek was showing the results of the melt and was putting on a real show. We drove along the banks for a while then parked and walked further. At one point we came upon the partial skeleton of an elk and at that point Maggie and I went exploring. We had to negotiate a small supply stream for which I looked for a log crossing over it and Maggie just forged. Once on the other side this is what we saw. Obviously water of substantially greater volume and force has passed prior; one can only wonder if such will occur sometime during this year's melt. I've adjusted the contrast a bit using Topaz Studio this time vice Photoshop. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/640 @ f / 9.

28 May 18 Today's submission on this Decoration Day is sent with respect for all those who have served in the armed forces and gone before us defending our nation since its inception. I believe nothing more need be said! Except for the text and a bit of contrast adjustment, this is straight from the camera. ISO 640; 1/640 sec @ f / 11 with the D300s. ========================================================= By now I'm imagining some of you are wondering what happened to the Daily Image mailings. It's a long story but here goes. You will recall I've been having problems with my Centurylink email and I've discussed different options in the past. So far this month I've been shut down 4 times for "spamming." Two mailings before we left for Yellowstone I was shut down; got it back up and running for the last mailing on 04 May. When we returned I sent out one mailing - the last one you should have received - and was shut down again! I had harsh words with Centurylink and finally received a call from a tech who took the time to explain the problem. In his words " spam has become such a problem that all the powers to be - think of them as email godfathers - decided they would determine how many mailings at a time constituted spam mailings and how many aren't." He couldn't give me a fixed number but suggested perhaps 25 or less might make it past the current spam filters. Otherwise his only suggestion was a commercial $$$$ account set to provide bulk mailing. I've priced these out and they range from $20 - $60 dollars a month. Here is where we are and there are 4 options as I see it: 1) charge for the service WHICH I DO NOT WANT TO DO!!; 2) break the mailings up into multiple sends which would require an extensive amount of time and I truly don't have the inclination to do that; 3) just send to the blog approach and let everyone look there daily for the mailings. It is the same place that the link takes you currently; or 4) I trim down the mailings to just those who confirm they still want them. Since I can no longer mail as I have been doing, even yahoo mail is now calling the mailings spam, I need to make a decision. For the near future, I will mail only to the blog; you can download the image from there if you like, at least for now. THOSE OF YOU WHO WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE RECEIVING THE MAILINGS IN YOUR IN-BOX PLEASE REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE SAYING KEEP ME ON THE LIST OR SOMETHING ALONG THOSE LINES. I will compile a list of you and see about still sending them out in batches if the number responding is as small as I think it may be. I apologize that it has come to this but it is beyond my control. I'm also open to any suggestions you may care to provide. ======================================================= The above message was mailed out on Thursday to 15 different groupings of 20 or fewer recipients. All the mailings were sent according to Centurylink with no bounce backs for spam. NO ONE GOT THEM!! Called Centurylink on Friday and had yet another detailed conversation. The tech had me send her two separate mailings, one as a group of 10 and another as an individual message; she got neither. According to her they are having to determine the problem and will be back to me when resolved; I've heard nothing to date!!!! Meanwhile I can't mail anything out to more than a couple individuals at a time but will be posting daily on the blog which you might want to bookmark if you haven't already.

01 May 18 From Buda Hill which I believe is on the west side of the river (it twists and turns a lot) one can look across at the Pest side of the city where things are really booming. In the primary tourist section of the city things are spotlessly clean, but as you go further away from the river section they become a bit grittier. But at its worst it is all very clean when compared with our major cities and truly a delight to navigate. As you can see from the photo there is plenty of building taking place - you can see at least 4 tall cranes - but what you don't see is all the renovations taking place. The small apartment building in which we stayed for our last two days was being completely restored and it was blatantly obvious by all of the construction litter in the courtyard. But we didn't mind being a part of it as it tended to make our stay more real after having spent 8 days on a luxury river boat. I think it would have been fun to spend a full week in it just wandering around the city on foot. I'll share several more images from the city before I'm through. This is pretty much what the camera recorded. Nikon D500; 18-200: Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f /10.

03 May 18 Hero's Square encompasses far more than just the grouping of life sized statues of both horse and horseman. There is a large museum and art gallery on opposite sides of the central stature area. This all sits at one end of a block sized park with an amusement park, huge outdoor skating rink, and much more! Everything is of course very ornate as you can imagine from just this one corner of the art gallery. As noted earlier with the shot of the opera house in the downtown area, there seems to be a pattern is hanging tacky advertisements of upcoming affairs in very close proximity to these lovely aristocratic buildings. There outta be a law. Nothing much to ramble on about with this shot as all I wanted to share was the lovely architecture which I rather feel speaks for itself. I've straighten this a little, cropped of a small amount off the bottom and removed some distracting text from the banner. Otherwise, this is what the camera saw. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/200 sec @ f / 9.

02 May 18 Today we are looking at the side entrance to one of the hotels in downtown Budapest on the Pest side. If memory serves me correctly this is the Hotel New York. The entire building from top to bottom end to end is adorned with artwork. The biggest challenge in recording it was to find a location with the least amount of abstractions in the form of guide wires, power lines, etc that compete for the eye. This shot had a minimum but still enough to be a problem. I've removed the easy stuff but gave up on that which remains. I likely could have eventually removed it but didn't want to spend a couple of hours so doing. Plus leaving in some of it gives you and idea of how it looks when you are there actually standing in front of it. I was on a street corner competing with auto, buses, and moms with strollers. It took the better part of 10 minutes to get this one shot but in the end I think it worth it. I've cleaned up a lot of distractions but otherwise this is what the camera saw. Nikon D500; 18 -200; Aperture Priority; ISO 1000; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

25 May 18 By now all of you should have received an email called Today's Image update which explains why there haven't been any recent mailings. If you haven't read it check your inbox. No need to repeat all that information here. My apology for the break in service. Returning from a distinct lack of spring flora and fauna in Yellowstone, the winter having been even harsher that last year's and according to the locals each winter getting more severe, we found our property to be bursting with color and fully overgrown with both desired and undesired flora. Last year we saw some pollinating activity; this spring the bees are abundant which should make for an even nicer spring next year. When we left for Yellowstone our hummingbird population was ingesting about a quart of "nectar" one every 10 days; now we are providing a half gallon daily and the mass of birds have yet to return. Hopefully an opportunity for a few hummingbird photos. Jan had planted her garden a couple days before we departed and upon our return everything was bursting forth. So what we lacked seeing this year on our annual pilgrimage was more than made up for upon our return, at least as far as the flora aspect. Think at this point I owe myself a return trip to the condo in the fall. Today's submission is from our front garden and features a pollinator buzzing around some winter heather. This is straight from the camera save for some small amount of cropping. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 400; 1/640 sec @ f / 7.1.

04 May 18 I do believe that sometimes we fail to appreciate what we have, regardless of what it may be. We live in a country with such wealth that it is easy to miss what is right in front of us and I'm as guilty of that as anyone I know. Earlier this week we had a visit from a friend we made during out tour in P-Cola and who now lives in N. Carolina and who was out in our neck of the woods for a talk and had a free day. He called early in the a.m. and we invited him out for the day. While driving him around the area he had many comments about where we live but the one that really struck home was his comment about our home and its location and how absolutely beautiful the area is. Made me think about it some. He was curious if this was the same house he had seen as just sticks a few years back and why I hadn't shared more photos of it. I thought that I had shared several images of the building progression, but not so many as to bore all of you. But since he asked I decided to share how it looks today as the last mailing before we depart. I've elected to go with a creative version just because I like how it makes the property look. The original was straightened a wee bit, some distractions removed, and converted to this painting look using Topaz Simplify 4. Nikon D500s; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 1000; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

31 May 18 Having weathered the storm from mid Idaho to the motel for the night, we awoke to very cloudy weather and raging rivers. A short distance east of the motel I stopped to shoot the flooded St Regis river when I noticed a couple of ducks navigating the obstacles floating down the river. One of them more or less completely ignored me but the other was having nothing to do with my presence and almost immediately took off walking across the top of the water until it got air born. This is the frame just before official lift off. It being Theatrical Thursday thought I'd go with a creative version of the capture. I've cropped the original for best presentation and obviously converted it to a water color like painting. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 200; 1/320 sec @ f / 5.6.

21 May 18 Back from Yellowstone where I took roughly one shot for each mile traveled and got perhaps one good shot for each good mile. There were lots of not so good miles. On our second day out we likely had the best day of the trip so today's image is from the end of that day at a location called Seven Mile Bridge as I was to learn mid-way in the trip. Never knew this specific location had a name but now I do. I've shared perhaps a half dozen or more photos from this location in the past but never a sunset like the one I'm sharing for today. I had taken a few shots and returned to the car to have Jan say don't quit now as it's just getting good, go back and shoot. She made the right choice!! I wound up shooting next to a pro from Canada and we chatted for a bit talking about what we did with our images; I got the feeling he wasn't too happy with me just giving the images away as he sold his for a living. But as we aren't from the same part of the world what I do shouldn't negatively affect him. At least I hope not. You are generally looking west towards the park's West Yellowstone entrance. There was a couple of ducks present but I chose not to include them. Perhaps I should have because other than Bison, we saw only a few other animals. This was the only sunset of this type we saw on the trip. I've cropped the base image some small amount, otherwise this was pretty much what the eye saw. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; aperture priority; ISO 1000; 1/1000 sec @ f / 9.

30 May 18 Returning from our visit to Boseman we were driving along a flood stage Gallatin River with the water raging along side of us and the kayakers apparently having the time of their lives. Our rental management company owner was in Idaho at the same time doing the same thing on the Snake River and he said it was a fantastic experience!! I would have loved to have given it a go but my back would definitely have said NO!!!!!!! So I just took a few snaps of those who were thoroughly enjoying themselves. After viewing the image you may have some warm thoughts of joining them. Based on the weather reports I'm seeing for the Rockies there should be plenty of opportunity for the next couple of weeks if such is your desire. Other than some cropping and a bit of white balance adjustment, this is what the camera recorded. Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/400 sec @ f / 9.