A Thanksgiving Feast for the Eyes

Hope everyone is having a good, relaxing holiday. Hope you didn't eat too much. And I hope you have enough left overs to enjoy over the long four day weekend.

One of a collection of blown glass balls on display at Southern Allegheny Museum of Art.

Another example of glass art on permanent display at the museum.

Goldfinch sitting in a tree.

This photograph and the following four were shot the morning of the 15th in a very weird, foggy sunrise. Although they may not look like it they were all shot using the available light at about 7:30 in the morning.

Being one who leaves things where I used them so I'm able to find them again, this chair is sitting in exactly the same place as it was for the family portrait that we shot several weeks ago.

This shot was originally set up to catch a picture of the bird at the feeder, but just as I snapped the shutter the bird took off. The bright orange in the left of the picture is actually two ears of corn in a feeder that the blue jays are fond of.

Bird house, 20 years old.
Stump, 17 years old.
Mushrooms, fresh.

This is what the fog and sunrise looked like after I applied a little artistic finesse.

Ferns in the crook of a moss covered tree.

A dove searching on the ground for food.

A squirrel taking a lunch break in a tree!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS!

From Oats to Arts

The two venues for this week's blog issue couldn't be further apart if I planned it.

The first set of photographs are from the Garman Feed Mill in Garmantown and the second set covers our visit to The Southern Allegheny Museum of the Arts in Ligonier for the artist's reception for the 15th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition.

You can drive on Route 219 for 50 miles in either direction and not see another feed mill. We stop at Tractor Supply for bird feed and suet when we're in the big city but when I can, I go to the feed mill to get what I need. There's nothing like the smell of fresh ground corn, oats and the like. And the old wooden floor creeks as you walk across it.

Natural light fills the building so there is no need to shoot inside with a flash.

The electric grinder sits covered in dust.

As each bag of feed are filled it is weighed, tagged and sewn shut.

Bags of feed waiting to be picked up.

Filled bags of corn.

The shelled corn is fed into the bags while the cob is moved by conveyor belt to the pile outside.

Over 160 years old and this scale still works.

Relatively new is this 60 year old bag filler.

It takes longer to say Garmantown that it does to drive through it.

It's not often that I'm out after dark or even in the position where I can shoot some of the sunsets that we get to see in some of the open spaces around us. I captured the next three shots as we drove down to Ligonier on Saturday evening. They were taken over a four mile stretch of highway, from three different positions with a time span of about 8 minutes.

While stopped at a traffic light in Jennerstown, PA I pulled out the camera and shot this photograph of Turillo's Steakhouse and Bar. It's one of the fine restaurants along this section of Route 30, the Lincoln Highway.


Welcome to the 15th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition at SAMA, Ligonier, PA.

I was hoping to get a shot of just my entry in the exhibit hall. But these ladies spent a few minutes discussing my print as they made their rounds of the 75 art pieces, so I took this shot instead. It's a lot better than what I was going to shoot. My entry is titled Leaves on a Pond and was shot at the Indian Steps Museum in York County.

Obelisk by Richard Hower

Bishop by Ronald Nigro (on the left) and Coming Out of Her Shell by Ceres M. Rangos.

Unfortunately, I don't know the violinist's name but the mixed media art piece titled Regal Duo is by Elizabeth Asche-Douglas.

There was just something that drew me to photograph these three women together.

Guests signing in during the event. The photograph in the background is Desert Tree by Skip Allen.

Looking at the main salon through a glass display case of paper weights before leaving at the end of the evening.

Chilly, but Not Cold

The weather is slowly getting colder as evidenced by our first dusting of snow of the season. It wasn't anything to write home about.

The first series of photographs this week were shot on a road trip to Ligonier to drop off one of my prints for an art exhibit. I was lucky enough to be chosen this year to have one of my pieces in the 15th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition at the Southern Allegheny Museum of Art in Ligonier, PA. The exhibit will run from November 12, 2010 to February 12, 2011.

I like to photograph this storm drain pond several times a year to see how it changes from time to time. On this day there was still frost on some of the tree stumps that hadn't been exposed to the early morning sun yet.

This is one of several power plants that dot this portion of Pennsylvania driving south on Route 22 towards Ligonier.

I found a "new to me" Mail Pouch barn along the way.

Another barn that time has passed by.

When I got to SAMA and dropped my entry off I saw this table sitting along the wall and took a few frames.

Last remains of an old dog house.

Showing off his stuff a male grouse struts across the under brush.

An early morning phone call from a friend lead to this shot of 2 Whistling Swans taking a break from trying to fly through a dense fog.

Barn on Route 160 near Wilmore, PA.

Play ground at Wilmore Dam.

Wilmore Dam and Recreation area.

As I said earlier our first snow was nothing to write home about.

It was just about the time the sun went down, the flurries picked up just enough to play with in the fading light.

Marine Corps wind chime.

The last set of pictures for this week were all shot between 4:28 and 4:43 on Friday afternoon.

Along Route 36 looking toward the North West.

St. Boniface Church.

Taken from the same spot as the shot above, this one is looking West.

These 4 pictures, which are part of the 4:28 to 4:43 pictures, were all shot in the same general area in a 5 minute time span.

Bikes sitting along Murphy's Spring Road. We have no idea or reason for these bikes to be sitting here like this. There are no occupied houses nearby. They just happened to show up one day, spent a week camping in the area and a few days after I took this shot, someone came along and took them away.

Over the last several years I've shot a lot of pictures of this old farmhouse. I continue to shoot this view to document how long it will take to change. The weeds grow high in what use to be the grass around the structure and, if left alone, the structure will be overun by trees and will eventuallly decay. Or the land owner could upgrade the house or tear it down to make room for a new strucutre.

Trailer, now falling apart.

Murphy's Spring Road, heading toward Slickport.

One of two does that walked by the window Sunday morning.

If you have time on your hands, visit this exhibit at SAMA in Ligonier, PA