Cropped from a larger photo, I watched this couple as they seemed unaware of the battle that was playing out just one field away.

The battle was always the main point of interest of the crowd watching the scene play out before them. I found my interest straying from the firing lines to the more subtle human interactions scattered throughout the rollings hills surrounding the action of the battle. The participants were not just actors, they were part of something they really believed in...making history come alive...not just the smoke of the muskets and the thunder of the canons but how this war or any war must have affected real people... perhaps seeing their loved ones for the last time.

I found myself wondering what was in the box...memento of a life lived together...again opening the chance for us to imagine.

The French during most of the Revolutionary War period were not fighters as much as they were fur traders and explorers. Many times both the British and the Young American colonies would call on the French trappers to scout for them or to lead them through unexplored areas of the Frontier.

That was the role of this re enactment actor. He always stayed out of the action...always in the background observing the movement of both the British and the Americans. The photo was post processed to look like a woodcut or printed page from the newspapers of the time.

Dan

Don't forget to visit Simply Heather's new Photo blog today. I have the honor of guest posting...thanks for the opportunity Heather!

Dan

Partners for over 50 years...both in spirit and in their craft.

I spoke in depth to this couple as they used their their mid 1800 vintage loom. They were truly a throwback to a time when lovers entered marriage with no thought of prenuptials or trial periods. Partners in life, Artisans of a lost art...each piece of cloth produced was a creation that only together they could have brought to life. He on one side feeding in the thread, her on the other slowly...lovingly...together.

How appropriate...the art of weaving paralleled their life woven together in a bond every much as strong as the pieces of art they produced. The blanket will provide warmth and comfort for multiple generations of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as it is passed from one generation to the next.

Their legacy together will survive in their art...long after they are gone.

Simply Heather has begun a new Photo Blog. She was a guest post on my blog a couple of weeks ago and tomorrow I will be posting on her new blog with a photo. Her blog can be found at :
For the Love of God's Creation. If you have the chance drop by her blog tomorrow (Friday).

I have included both a black and white and color version of this shot...I couldn't decide which I like the best.

This is one of those serendipitous moments when you curse yourself as a photographer because you missed a great shot and then when you view it later...you are thankful for the mistake! This type of image may not be popular to most but I have always liked photos that are not in perfect focus...they leave so much room for the interpretation. I am not going to describe the setting here...I will leave that for you to create with your imagination.

Later in the week, I have a couple more photos along this line that I will post as well.

Was this a wedding? An escape? A chance encounter? It is whatever you want it to be.

Shot during a battle for Vincennes, a historic site in Indiana.

It all came together on the Wabash river in the 1700's. Regimens of the French, British, Scottish and early Americans fought bravely...each for what they believed. This particular image is of the Scottish regimen. What is not seen in the photograph is the British firing line just 50 feet away facing off against the Scottish. I am going to have to read up on why in Heaven's name they fought like this during that time. I have never understood the suicidal mindset of facing each other in an open field, point blank against your foe.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial day with family and loved ones.

I had a great holiday...On Monday I was in heaven! I went to my first Revolutionary War re-enactment. Everywhere I looked was one great image after another. I took about 8 gigs of pictures...probably about 800 or 900 photos. All the participants of course were in character and stayed in character the entire time.

I thought this was one of the more interesting moments. I was actually trying to take a picture of another subject but when the mother and her daughter passed by, they stopped me in my tracks and I was memorized. It could not have been better if I would have posed them. Such a perfect moment of how the children of the time had to help with the work, even the youngest of the family had their burdens to carry. The saturated colors reminds me of an old postcard.

I will posting pictures of the re-enactment all week so put on your three cornered hat, grab a quill pen and get ready for trip to Revolutionary America. It's gonna be a great ride! I am even going to post some accident photos...out of focus and blurry but sometimes what you don't see let's your imagination fill in the blanks.

Happy Memorial Day to the U.S. visitors! To our other blog followers, today is a holiday for us.

It give us the chance to remember all those who have served in the military and have preserved our liberty over the past 200 plus years. Also thanks to our current military serving all over the world...thanks for all you do and do so professionally.

Dan

When I saw this house, I knew it had to be black and white. The Victorian lines and surrounding tress reminded me of a southern house of out a Faulkner novel.

So many rooms and hallways and dark rooms for children to play in, hide in, get lost in... it had a foreboding feeling to it. It seemed to me to be a house that is hiding something. Stern and truly a Victorian personality. I noticed that the house is presently being lived in but some of the windows are shuttered tight. Is there something in this house more than meets the eye? Probably not, maybe it was just the mood I was in when I took the picture...a dreary threatening storm was heading in just west of the river.

Two photos of the same hummingbird...the first is approaching the feeder and the 2nd is feeding.

The approach was taken using a very fast (3200) shutter speed in order to freeze the wings. The birds are getting tamer but I have yet to have one land on my hand...my goal. Maybe by the end of the summer.

Enjoy your weekend!

Dan

The house was a patchwork of lines, textures, shades of yesterday and today...a bit baroque, Victorian and contemporary.

It dates back to the early 20th century when my hometown was in it's infancy. Built on the banks of the Ohio river, it must have been owned by a family of considerable wealth...wealth perhaps earned from the import/export business. River transportation was thriving at the Port of Evansville. Goods were loaded south in New Orleans or Memphis on the Mississippi and transported to Evansville via the Ohio. The merchants of the day would flock to the port with each arrival and buy the exotic wares from far away.

Over the years, the house was remodeled several times and refurbished in the fashion of the day. This must be the reason for so many different designs are within one house. It almost reads as a history of trends in this Midwest community as it grew and thrived...then like so many other small Midwest towns...declined as river traffic became less and less necessary over the years.

24, Lost, Prison Break, Fringe...all these series share their pedigree with the Alhambra...the Cliffhanger.

Every small town has one...the old movie theater. My Dad is 85 years old and this is the theater he went to as a kid. I use to love hearing the stories about how he would spend his whole week's allowance for the Saturday afternoon matinee...10 cents. What kept him coming back for more? The serials like Buck Rodgers. Each week the serial would end with Buck about to crash into a planet or his girl about to die at the hands of an evil alien. Dad would have to come back next week to see how Buck saved the day.

Even during the depression, the movie houses flourished. They were the only escape families like my Dad's had from the depression. At least for those two hours, they could forget about the job hunt, the bills, the drought and the War. This is where they got their news as well, aside from the radio. The newsreels would take them to far away places that they had only read about in a comic book late at night before they went to bed. The Alhambra is closed now but inside those doors still echo the sounds of rocket ships, Atlanta burning, Kansas tornadoes, Bogart, Gable, Indians on the warpath and a whispered "I love you" coming from a now empty seat in the 2nd row from the front. This is where my Dad dated my Mom.

I have often wondered if this is my release from some of those same things. My photos and narratives can take me away if only for a short time...I do so need both of them. Thanks for coming along with me.

Another visit to Penny Lane. You can see the yellow chair to the right that was in an earlier post.

A great place to spend a rainy afternoon. A day that might have been wasted on complaints and boredom. Time really does pass quickly in a place like this. So many thoughts that stirs the mind. Books to browse, conversations to overhear and also participate in, the aroma of a freshly drawn espresso waiting to be slowly sipped. Just outside the windows by the yellow chair is a whole world passing by but in here...off the sidewalk...my time is my own.

On the farm where I was raised, there stood 2 of the largest oak trees I have ever seen. Both are sadly gone now.

I posted an image of the other oak a couple of months ago. This particular tree gave shade and shelter to our horses and other's livestock for centuries before we came to the land. The photo was taken with film in 1965 with my first small camera. I am in the process of scanning in my old photos because time has begun to deteriorate the film.

I am certain that my fascination with trees and nature came from these early days growing up with the horses on our small family horse farm.

They're Baaaack!

Each year, I think I have enough pictures of hummingbirds, then they return and it is like I have never taken a picture of them before. So many options to catch these beautiful creatures. Do I use a fast shutter to freeze their fragile but powerful wings mid flight? Do I shoot them while they are feeding? Do I capture them in mid flight? Yes to all! These creatures of God are one of my favorites to photograph. I swear, they act like they enjoy being in front of the lens. Before the summer is finished, you will have seen enough of these pictures...I tend to overdo it with Hummingbirds! Hey, we all have our faults!

A visit to "Penney Lane"...a coffee house in the old section of Evansville.

The coffee house is surrounded by 18th century "old money" homes on the banks of the Ohio river. I sat at the table enjoying an espresso and taking pictures to my heart's content!

The coffee house is very inviting not just to drink a coffee but to stay a while. Coffee houses are my favorite places to unwind. They inspire conversation...often between strangers who otherwise may just pass each other on the street without even as much as a nod. This particular venue has a great selection of books to browse while there.

The chair was such a bright yellow that the sunlight reflected off it and colored the entire corner in a pale yellow. A happy yellow...it left me with a great attitude to start the weekend. I will be posting more photos of the coffee house in the future.

Obviously an enhanced photo. It was my chance to take a farmhouse and recreate a childhood memory I had last weekend.

The weather was uncommonly warm and humid for this time of year. I've seen that full moon before. Many times actually as a child. I seemed to notice things like that as a child. Part curiosity and part a child's imagination.

There was nothing better than playing outside until dark with my friends and cousins. Sometimes it was tag, sometimes it was hide and seek. Always however, it was exciting. Rolling in the grass wet with the evening dew, being a bit scared hiding behind a barn or just under the storm cellar doors with the moonlight filtering through the cracks...behind me...darkness.

Finding my way with only the glow of the lightening bugs...I am still troubled as to why we loose this innocence with age. Put me back in that yard on a clear summer evening just one more time. I will spend more time observing and less time hiding.

While living in Missouri, I passed this farmstead many times on the way to the nearby wine country.

The barn with it's unique design always grabbed my attention. The area of the Missouri wine country was settled by German immigrants and many of the families are descendants of the early settlers. This barn retains the distinct early German influence with the stone walls and arched doorways.

On this particular day with the early fog rising...the scene might well have been transplanted from the banks of the Rhine or Black Forest.

Windmills have long been a staple of farms all across the country. They have provided life sustaining water to families down through the centuries.

This windmill is near my home in Southern Indiana. It stands alone against the storms that roll through this time of year. A symbol of the ingenuity and how the phrase "necessity is the mother of invention" applies to so many leaps forward in our civilization.

The windmill, especially with the backdrop of an ominous wall cloud brings to mind the Kansas Prairies of the Wizard of Oz. I tinted the photo in sepia to add to the vintage look of days gone by.

One of our fellow bloggers, Cynthia, recently stated a blog with her daughter in home decor. On the wall of of one of the rooms photographed was an Oklahoma windmill. That was the inspriration for this image....Thanks Cynthia. Her blog is: Cyndeelyn's.

The weather has taken it's toll. Table and chairs abandoned...no longer useful or is there no longer anyone left in the group who used to gather here?

This is not a random trash pile, it is obvious that at some time in the past, there were conversations here. Perhaps with the neighbors on the next farm over or a place for outside dinners from the farmhouse that is just outside of view.

Time spent around a table in conversation is an art that should be revived for today's neighbors and families.

A few days ago I posted "Mrs. Woodpecker" and today I would like to introduce you the man of the house.

The male is much more visible and less shy but you can see by the feathers on his back that the two are related. From the angle of this photo, it doesn't look like it but the male is much larger than the female. There is one strange thing about this shot...you don't see the woodpeckers on the ground much...usually they are climbing up the trunks of trees. But as you can see, he found a morsel on the ground that looked pretty tasty to him!

Simply Heather has a great video (2 videos) of woodpeckers in Vermont...they make them a lot bigger up there!... check out Simply Heather's Videos.

To the visitors of the blog..

Happy Mother's Day. This day is for you and I hope you know that a Mother is the noblest undertaking one can take part in. Have a stress free day...you deserve it!

For those who are not yet mothers, for those who for any reason will not be mothers, always consider adoption. For 14 years we were one of those couples who always felt a little uncomfortable on Mother's Day. We adopted and never looked back.

To all...here is hoping the weather is perfect...wherever you live!

Dan

Last week Dani was kind enough to "Guest Post" on my blog. I am returning the favor today with a guest post on hers...Dani's Blog. Be sure to visit her blog today and while you are there, take some time to read some of her past posts. She always is able to share some interesting insights. Her other blog is : Golden Tears of Joy and she has some very interesting writing that she shares.

A bit of a change of pace...too much wooded forests, streams etc...gets boring! Just kidding...for me those things never get old but I realize there are others here looking at the pictures besides me!

This is a picture of a pristine Sycamore tree. One of my favorite trees, their bark is snow white and when leaves come out in the Spring, the green of the leaves contrasting with the white trunk is gorgeous.

The process I used on this is called Solarization. It is a technique often used to create fantasy images. They look realistic but at the same time, look unworldly.

In the days before digital, this technique was created by turning on the light in the darkroom for an instant while developing the print and the light "burnt" the image. Today with digital, there are filters that create the same effect.

The nicest thing about photographing in a wooded environment is your office has no walls, no telephones and no one to interrupt your work. Your hours are flexible and in bad weather, you don't have to show up.

Seriously at least for me, the nicest part as photographer is the light that always filters through the canopy. Without the different shades of of light, the the forest would look flat and uninviting. The light can draw your eye into areas that you would not go into alone.

The one element I miss that a videographer can use is sound. The sound of the rushing water in this image really added to the mood. If you had the elements of sound and smell with the crisp pine aromas and musky fragrance of the wooden trough...you could truly experience in entirety the beauty that nature surprised me with that day in the forest.

Like many of you, this time of year we always feed birds and we attract all kinds to our yard. This is the first year we have seen this one. I have talked to others who say it is not uncommon to see this bird but for us it is a first. We have always seen the male woodpecker with it's bright read head but never his wife!

She is a very beautiful bird smaller than the male but none the less beautiful.

Last month I posted a photo of Salt Lake city as the sun was setting behind me to the west. This photo was taken the same evening from a different vantage point.

This photo is about contrasts. The striking contrast of the setting sun on the white buildings caught my eye. The grandeur of the mountains in the background added to the contrast as well. Not only contrasting colors but man and nature contrasted as well.

I have thought about the exhilaration I feel when I breathe in the salty ocean air, the beauty of the high dessert in spring, the freedom I feel when looking out over the endless prairies of the Midwest but, not speaking for anyone else, I must at some point before I leave this earth...live in the mountains.

I stood captivated looking through the viewfinder. Seeing the house accompanied by only sounds of birds and the occasional rustling of leaves here and there. Off in the distance was the crisp multi-layered unending rush of stream water over the rocks. Taking the picture from the darkness of the thick canopy, I felt like a voyeur of sorts. Once out into the open where the house stood, the trees opened up to nothing but a robin egg sky. Whoever, built this house so many years ago must have surely shared my love of nature.

Later I read about this house...built in the early 1900's...it was a Sears and Roebuck kit! In the early days of Sears and Roebuck...they actually did offer house kits though the catalog. True to Sears's early mission statement: Simple, affordable and available to all. I am guessing that if Sears would have stayed true to it's original mission statement, they might still be a force to reckon with. Just my opinion.

Amidst the sweet fragrance of cherry blossoms and the busy humming of spring bees stands an old brick house on Church street.

The house has been painted several different colors over the years perhaps by different owners but the present owner enjoys both privacy and beauty. Windows shuttered and blinds pulled to give the appearance of emptiness within. Recluse, though the owner may be, he certainly has a need to be noticed. His yard is beautifully kept with small pathways winding through the ground cover, now spread over the entire area within the fence.

If his inner beauty even somewhat approaches the outer beauty, he would have many friends to help in the yard...if only he would let them in.

It is Friday so that means it is Guest Poster Day! I would like to welcome "Simply Heather" to the blog today. She has been kind enough to take her time to write a post for us. As usual with Simply Heather, her words come from the heart. Be sure to visit Simply Heather's blog at : http://joyfulbussin.blogspot.com/ . A visit on any given day to Heather's blog will leave you with a peace to start the day. By the way...I did not pay her for any comments she made! Without further adieu...Simply Heather...

It is truly an honor to be welcomed onto Dan's Blog today. I have learned, and continue to learn, that Dan is like a treasured book with a beautiful cover. His blog is full of beauty, wonder, intrigue and life - this is the cover. His heart is caring, warm and welcoming - this is the treasure. Life has a way of creating pathways into a new world of brotherly friendship. I am blessed that our path's have crossed. He better post this, too. I know it may not be easy - as he is quite a humble man, but these things should be shared with the world - and I can say them ;o).

These Hands

These hands you see, hold gently for

A little bug, with feet galore

Scurrying quickly, a place to fly

Wanting desperately, just to hide

This little bug, may have no clue

These gentle hands, with heart so true

Beating quickly, thrilled to care

Wanting desperately, love to share

These hands you see, are of a child

Seeking friendship, in a world gone wild

Hoping, needing, seeking, sharing

The heart connecting, forever caring

This little bug will wander away.

These gentle hands are here to stay.

~ Heather, from Simply Heather

This photo is one that I took last weekend. It may not be of grand nature but it speaks more than enough meaning to me; I hope it's done the same for you. These are the hands of my eight year old son; who spent an hour that day, digging the earth, searching for worms, finding leaves and other things to build a habitat. He wants to create a similar (little version) of compost and allow the worms to build it. On my blog, I share life through the eyes and heart of a "grown up" child...that's me. You're always welcome for a visit or stay awhile.

Happy heart blessings to you, Heather

Would you like to know my daily thoughts? Read my ramblings on My Blog)