Adirondacks: Venturers Ride-In

I attended (as a guest) the Venturers club Olympic Region Ride-In this past week. I was invited by and attended with my friend WOWSkunk (Cindi). I'm very glad I went. I had a good time and made some new friends. I also shared a lot of laughs with Cindi's friends (who are now my friends!).

House Guest

This woodchuck has been residing under my porch. He/she seems a little less wary than it used to be, but still ducks and runs if I try to go outdoors to take its picture. So I took the photo through my screened window. I was amazed how well it came out under the circumstances.

On my way to John's today for the weekend. If my motorcycle buddy doesn't need to change plans, will be leaving Tuesday from John's for the motorcycle rally in the Adirondacks.

Today's Photo Post

Beautiful Flower - Hibiscus

 

I took a photo of this huge and beautiful hibiscus at Cornell Plantations. I removed the background and gave it a totally black background and added a golden shadow. I used a program called Fluid Mask Lite and another by Serif Software called PhotoPlus X2.

I also took the next two photos at Cornell Plantations. Using the same software programs as the hibiscus, I produced the following images.

Curves - VFXY Theme of the Week

Cornell Plantations and Cornell's "Hole-y Cows"

VFXY Theme is Water

 

 

My Grandson, the Hare Scramble Racer

This is a picture from a year or so ago. Came across it in my photo files and decided to post it here.

I Love this Time of Year

Yesterday and today, I took some photos of the nature in my yard.

When I changed my blog format, I lost my list of links. I will reconstruct them one of these days. I'm off to John's tonight. He has a gig at Big Kahuna's in Auburn tonight. I didn't see him this past weekend because he had a bad cold and didn't want to risk infecting me with it (which I appreciate immensely). I will leave Auburn on Friday to go visit my friend, Cindi, (who lives just outside of Buffalo) for the weekend. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post next week.

Today's Finds

Here's a fun magazine cover I made using my photo of my granddaughter. Check out magmypic.com

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com


Another John Reilly:
Step Brothers

Business Card for John Reilly Band

Here is the business card I created for John's band.

The John Reilly Band of Auburn, NY

Saturday night I took a new photo of John's band to use for P.R. and announcement flyers. We were at Dilaj's Motor Inn on route 34 on the other side of Auburn because the guys were gigging there that night. We decided the lighting would be much better outside. Great decision! Look at that sunset background. I also used the photo in a new business card design for the band. It was another fun night. Lots of dancers on the floor.

The following afternoon they had a gig at a birthday party. The people in attendance really seemed pleased and happy the John Reilly Band was the entertainment for the party. John plays standards, rock, and country from mostly the 50's to 80's eras. He also has a few of his own originals that the people like to hear. They also love to hear his saxophone playing. He sings, plays the guitar and the saxophone, and writes his own music--what a talented man! Course I'm just a little bit prejudiced...possibly.

Glorious Spring!

What wonderful weather this week! These are the days I've waited anxiously for for many cold, dreary, wintry months. Last year I didn't even get my motorcycle inspected, so therefore did not ride it at all. This year will be different. Riding my motorcycle is a big morale booster for me. Today I took it to Wal-Mart to pick up some prescriptions at their pharmacy. While waiting for them to be prepared, I went to the Subway in the store to grab a quick lunch (it turned out to be lunch and supper since they have the foot-long sub for $5). While there, I saw an old friend (someone I've known for quite awhile--not someone old). It was great seeing her again. As I was about to leave Wal-Mart, I saw a different-looking motorcycle pull into the parking lot. I watched to see where he parked and walked over and caught up with him walking toward the entry to Wal-Mart. I was able to chat with him about the motorcycle (Piaggio 3-wheel mp3 scooter). What caught my eye was the fact that it had two front wheels and one back wheel. While talking with him we exchanged names and he then asked me if I was related to (fill in my brother-in-law's name here) and he said his son worked the same place as my brother-in-law for many years. Small world. I decided from there to stop in on Green Street at the old Ithaca Photo place and visit my friend, Diane, who is the owner of a print shop there (On Paper Plus). I hadn't seen her for several years. She and I rode motorcycles (Harleys at that time) to a Women On Wheels(R) Ride-In in Minneapolis, MN in 1996. We went by way of Canada. Anyway, it was great to see her again and she may throw me some graphics work down the road. I tell you all of this to tell you how uplifted I was feeling on this wondrous spring day. This is the perfect weather for me. Warm enough to be comfortable (for me anyway, others may disagree), without being too warm.

Wouldn't you know it, on the way home, I took my first spill on this motorcycle! It was in the city on a hill with a traffic signal and a long line of cars both ahead and behind me. I've never had any problem here before, but somehow after inching forward for the umpteenth time, (I probably squeezed the front brake too hard) (because I had both feet--tiptoes--down) and the pavement on the right-hand side was lower than I expected so down I went (but kind of in slow motion). I picked myself up immediately and turned the bike off. I then surprised myself and was able to pick the bike up and I held it and reached over the seat and reached the sidestand and put it down. Some gasoline had spilled out on the pavement, but there was no damage whatsoever to the bike. I motioned for the vehicles behind me to go ahead and then just got back on and started the bike (didn't start on the first try, but popped off at the second try) and rode safely home and parked it in front of the garage door. Even this did not put a damper on my day. I'm still feeling great. I love blue-sky sunny days! And I'll be back on the bike tomorrow.

My Photoblog

I have a couple of other places where you can find some more of my photos:

Wendysworks

That site shows a photo per day. These photos are then collected (and linked back to Wendysworks) at this site: I'm VFXY. This site enables me to sell my photos if someone wishes to buy. I haven't sold any yet...but you never know!

Snake in the Water

John and I went to Cascade and the Owasco Wetlands yesterday. It was a great day. The weather was so perfect and we got to see some special sights. The best image of the day was lost to weakened batteries in the camera, however. I had put fresh ones in when we first got there, but I saw so many things to photograph that they were too weak to zoom in to get a picture of the beaver we saw. John spotted it and pointed it out to me. First it was in the water swimming, then got out on the opposite shore and rummaged a short while and looked like it had a stick or something in its mouth and slipped back into the water and swam back to our side of the shore just a little too far ahead of where we were standing and disappeared into the underside of the bank. It was a huge beaver!

Earlier we had climbed up the bank off the side of the road so we could get a better look at one of the "cascades" and there was a cool piece of "driftwood" in the water. While investigating that, John spotted a snake in the water. I thought it was a little strange because I thought snakes liked to lie on a rock in the sun--not submerge in cold flowing water!! Guess he was just cooling his jets.

It was great to see a family (and their little dog) out enjoying nature together.

I was amazed by all the skunk cabbage growing in the Owasco Wetlands. I guess it's edible, but only after complicated methods. I never knew they had flowers either. Here is a link to provide more information (if you are so inclined): Stalking the Spring Harbinger, Skunk Cabbage

When I took this picture, I wasn't sure if there actually was a great blue heron perched on top of a mound sticking up out of the water (it was too far away and too small in the camera's viewfinder), but I got lucky.
We also saw quite a few trees with interesting "blossoms". I would guess that maybe they are some kind of willow, but not sure. I found them interesting though.

House on French Avenue

Lighting was right, so I just wanted to photograph this nice looking home.
Check out my VFXY page: wbpics

Almost Missed Opportunity

When I first saw the deer they were right out front next to the road. Even though my camera bag was right next to me on the car seat, by the time I got the camera out of the bag and turned on they had moved to the background and turned around to look at me from a safe distance.

Odd

Long Time...No Write

Guess I've been pretty neglectful of this blog. I have been concentrating too much on my photo display site (http://photos.vfxy.com/photoblogs/3905) and other photo sharing sites.

I don't feel too badly though, since I don't think I have much of a following, except maybe my little brother Kerry. Speaking of Kerry, he was in NYS for the first time in about 30 years just a couple weeks ago. He's been gone from the US only a week and I miss him and his wife already. This was the first I'd seen him in about eight years, and the first I'd seen his current (and I think, final) wife, Lisa. She is originally from the Philippines. Well, don't know why I'm writing this, since he already knows this stuff! Anyways, I love her, and I think the rest of the family loves her too. I am looking forward to seeing them again soon, I hope.

Time for a New Look

I found a new template to use for my blog. I like it better than the old one. I think its more pleasing to look at. Though I lost some things (like my list of interesting links), but maybe I can replace them in time. I love the rainbow in the background. Hope you like it too.

Funny Pictures and Myspace Layouts at pYzam.com