Spring is here.....

with that being said so are the prettier pictures. I have been super busy. The more green the grass gets and the more flowers I see popping up I am out of this house ! Rick has been so good about driving me around in search of old houses and barns too. The other day I came home telling him about a house I wanted to take pictures of. I asked if he would go with me ( in case I needed an escape driver for trespassing ) and sure enough he did. Well we got to this house and a farmer was there feeding his cattle. Rick asked the man if I could take pictures and he said sure just don't go in the house. Dang it ! I wanted to go in but - it did look a little snaky around there. The old farmer was telling us that this house was built in the early 1800's and used to be a show house. People would ride there horse and buggy and tie it up to the end of the lane, walk the path and marvel over the house. ( this makes me want to sneak back over there sometime and check it out.)

Well enough babbling about houses and barns ! I just got some new software and have been doing alot of edits on pictures. Some of these are dreary looking but it is too much fun to stop. Yes, I'm addicted now ! I sat there today and edited 10 pictures. Sure you say 10 - geez - well that takes a lot of time when you are slow as me :) Here are some of my latest pictures and as always you can see more on my Flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/harleypass/ Save that to your favorites cause I ain't gonna put it in here all the time :)
Woody is hungry.

Mating season.
My tulip & Lilacs.

These flowers are in my yard !






































This picture above is of the show house I mentioned earlier in the post.


Soon Rick and I will be going on vacation to Tennessee - look out then cause I'm going to take hundreds of pictures of the mountains !

Portrait Photography

Well this has been a busy week. My nephew Trevor, is getting up there in age :) Well, really his Aunt Tina is getting up there in age. He will soon be 18 and possibly off to the Marines ( after he passes his tests ) so I wanted to get some pictures of him first. At first I told him this was his Senior pictures and he said " Aunt Tina, I'm not a senior, I quit school ." well, I told him these could be his GED pictures since he is going that direction. Highschool is not easy for a 17 year old that is tired of school and doesn't get along to good with the teachers. BUT - I bet he will get along with the officers in the Marines, or at least he will by the time boot camp is over.Me with my camera and him with his 10 gallon hat. We set out on Saturday morning to Fort Madison to shoot.By noon we had over 100 pictures. WOW, was he done taking pictures. I will not post them all here, if you want to you can see them on my Flickr page. By the way- he is not a big smiler so these are very natural. We are going to get back together and take a few more with smiles since his mom wants to see that grin he has :) Here are a few of them. Some of them have been edited - but mainly these are straight from the camera. Now of course he had to have one funny one- can you figure out which one it is ?

Warmer Weekends

WOW ! It is finally Spring and I can see the grass. I can't wait until I can get out and start taking pictures of something other than dead looking landscapes.

We got up early Saturday morning to go out for breakfast ( like the old people do ) then on the way back Rick actually took me to an old deteriorating structure. I'm not sure if this is a house or barn. I got a few good shots and some Springy shots of flowers coming through the leaves and this cool fern picture as well.

On Sunday Rick and I did take a pond fishing day today since the temperature reached 68. I packed up my backpack with camera gear while he got the fishing gear ready. We started off riding the 4-wheeler to a pond near the house. This way the dogs could go with us.

After there for a little while I was getting bored so I reeled in and what to my surprise- I had caught a bass ! It was about 4" long if that. Rick just had to get a shot of that.

Well needless to say the big fish weren't bitin'. But the tree did- as you can see I snagged a big one :)

So after my 2 catches I decided it was time for me to get out the camera and start shooting. Since Rick wasn't catching anything either I thought I would give Harley ( my Lab ) a workout with a game of fetch.

I tossed the stick in and she was like a fish - swimming ( OK - dog paddling) out to the stick and back. She didn't want to stop, she loves the water ! Our arms were getting tired of tossing it out and she was panting like crazy so we started packing up to head out.

Rick knew of another spot that he thought would surely be a great fishin' hole. So back to the house to get the truck then off to pond 2. HA ! This is where Rick caught his big catch of the day- a 3" long Blue Gill. I had already got bored so I started walking around to see what I could find to take pictures of. Not a lot out here except dead looking stuff. I did like the bright blue sky and of course had to get one of the fisherman in here.

You can check out more of my pictures on my Flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/harleypass/

This is a paragraph from "How The Mind Affects Happiness" It sounds alot like me. Or at least the imagination part. I look forward to taking more fun filled facinating phographs in the days to come.

"As humans we live in two worlds. There is the external physical world of work, family and friends that we travel in. Then there is the world of our mind and imagination. It is a virtual reality that can appear and feel just as real. When it comes to your emotions the virtual world of your mind can be more real."