nature

Our trip to Asheville took place over the Memorial Day weekend. We decided to hit the road as early as possible Friday afternoon knowing that it was going to take us over five hours to arrive at our destination. The goal was to hit the road between 1 and 1:30pm. Naturally we didn’t hit the road until closer to 2:30pm.

The weather for the drive was perfect and we weren’t anticipating any traffic for our 400 mile journey. Of course that didn’t work out either and we ended up in stop and go traffic for about an hour. We made a few pit stops for food and gas and so Oshie could do his business and stretch his legs. He loves being in the car but he gets a little restless on longer trips. I did the driving so I didn’t take many photos but I did manage to get a few at one of the rest areas we pulled into. There was a nice open field with some cows in it and the sun was beginning to set. It made for the perfect backdrop. Admittedly my sunset photos still need a little practice, or I just need to work on editing the bright/blown-out areas a little more. I think they came out nice though.

road trip-2 — Oshie was feeling patriotic all weekend.

The road trip ended with us reaching our destination just before 10:00pm. We stayed at the Asheville Green Cottage. It was an awesome little B&B that I found on Airbnb. We knew we had to stay there when we saw that the owners had two Golden Retrievers and one had just had a litter of puppies. Unfortunately the last leg of the trip was pretty dark so we missed some of the mountain views we would have seen during better light. As soon as we got in we crashed in order to get plenty of rest for the next day.

I am still trying to decide what the best method for posting all the pictures from the trip will be. I think I will stick with this format to prevent myself from posting too many at once and causing loading issues with the page. It will also give me an opportunity to write a little in each post about the photos. I hope you enjoy.

Photos were taken with my Canon 7d Mk2 and a rented Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC lens rented from LensRentals.com.

“After a storm comes a calm”

-Matthew Henry

Yesterday we had some pretty crazy weather and so did many other folks on the east coast. Some areas received snow while we endured some crazy thunderstorms. At one point in the afternoon Nancy informed me that she was seeing quarter sized hail where she works.

When I left my office for the day there were rivers all over the place that shouldn’t have been there. It was also unseasonably cool. Anyway I love crazy weather like that…except for the hail. Here is an image from yesterday afternoon when the weather began to clear up.

On different note, the neighborhood Hawk was back this morning. I still can’t get close enough to take a decent photo. He sees everything but here is my best attempt from this morning.

Today was the third and final day of the quote challenge. I appreciate Tippy Tales challenging me and I propose that SATechs and The Nighthawk Project complete the same challenge.

Have a great weekend!

The Cormorant is a very odd looking bird. I found this one lounging in the sun on a pylon at a marina. They have a somewhat prehistoric/pterodactyl look going for them which is more noticeable in flight or when their wings are spread in. The eyes are what drew my attention, the color is very interesting and unlike any other bird eye I have seen. From a distance you might mistake them for a duck floating in the water. Of course there are obvious physical differences but from a distance you can differentiate by noticing that they float much lower in the water. Cormorants are related to Boobies and are found all over North America. They eat fish and catch them by diving underwater.

Cormorant Cormorant1 Cormorant1-2