Only a Picture Stops Time

You cannot fault Google for not being innovative, from self driving cars to photos of your street. I like to use them for sharing photos, both privately and publicly. Of course I realize nothing is really "private" but I'm willing to make that bargain for the infrastructure they provide. Recently they have introduced a fun feature that looks for similar photos creates an animated GIF. It might be sparkles around a bright spot, or simulated snow around Santa. I tried to take advantage of this by creating a series of similar Kaleidoscopes. These are my results. This form was created by incremental rotation of the base image, which yields the twisting effect of the segments For this effect I did incremental scales of the base image (which is the same as the first) My first effort is a little jumpy, but it gave me an idea what could be done with this

Meow Happy Caturday I have an Olympus  70-300mm telephoto lens which gets little use. It's heavy, has problems with focus and isn't fast enough for sporting events. It was designed for the E-series camera bodies, but as an experiment I tried it with a micro-4/3 E-PL5 mirrorless body using a 4/3 to u4/3 adapter. The lens weighs in at over one pound and dwarfs the camera body. It looks ridiculous but it works. Paris was looking through a window when I snapped this shot. The muted colors are an artifact of the sun shining on the glass. This shot was taken a 1/800sec at f5.6 (ISO 320). The lens was fully extended to 300mm.

Give us this day our daily bread Ornamental Bread work by Angelika Weber Whole grain bread - Angelika Weber Memphis Tennessee - 1968 or 1969 Keeping with the "Bread" theme

Happy gloomy Monday. Today's photo theme is Leading Lines Monday, hashtag # LeadingLinesMonday This October day was a bit too chilly to sit Bangor Packet - design of Joel White

Autumn is shaping up for 2013, starting to see some nice colors in New Ipswich. Here a few panoramic shots from Damsite 35 in Smithville. These are hosted on Flickr. Open them in full screen mode to get the full effect. Double click on photos to open them in Flickr, then click a few more times to open them in full screen mode Damsite 35 On top of Dam facing downstream from spillway Top of Dam

Here's a recent photo for #MountainMonday featuring our own Mount Monadnock. This shot requires an explanation, stay tuned to blog.poltrack.net for answers

The marsh boardwalk trail at Parker National Wildlife Refuge , great location for the photo theme #GrassTuesday. What is missing is the sound of the wind blowing through the rushes. This is a great location. I chose this photo for my Facebook title page. Marsh Boardwalk

Happy muggy Friday, a few flower photos for #FloralFriday. Kousa Dogwood Hydrangea I think this is a May Apple flower

Bee Happy

My pick for #FloralFriday is a Alstroemeria. This variety survived the winter (mulched heavily). It came from Mason Hollow Nursery . Peruvian Lily - Alstroemeria

Went on a tour of mansions in Memphis Tennessee. I was going for training in Avionics at the Naval Air Station located in the town of Millington. The Navy barracks were not quite as nice as this. This is a 44 year old scanned slide

Paris keeping watch on birds

Peasant girls. [Russian Empire] (LOC) , a photo by The Library of Congress on Flickr. Color photography in 1909?

Helenium - "Retirement Garden"

Rainy day today, good for the flowers. Today's photo theme is #FloralFriday. Elecampane Echinops

Eventually the novelty of infrared will wear off, but right now I'm having fun with it. Cathedral of the Pines

Johnny Kowaleski PMC - 2012  For the 28th year my cousin will be participating in the Pan Mass Challenge  raising funds for cancer research. His dad was cured of throat cancer and I still remember the rough sound of his voice when he would visit my dad for their fishing outings. I don't know anyone that hasn't been affected by this disease. I had my turn this year with a squamous cell carcinoma which thankfully was treated with a 75 year old procedure developed by Dr Mohs . Cancer seems especially cruel when it attacks children and I'm very proud that my cousin has done this for so many years as a "heavy hitter", meaning one of a small group that is in the top fund-raisers. I'm including his message to me in this posting, I'm sure he'll be okay with that: On August 3 rd  and 4 th   I will be cycling in my 28 th  consecutive Pan Mass Challenge to help fund treatment of childhood cancer and cancer research at the Dana Farber Can

You may notice a change in the the blog's format. I rolled back to an earlier template when the one I was using stopped working properly. You'll notice a lot more activity in the right side column, including some advertising (which helps support the blog). On of the Google+ daily photo themes for Saturday is Bench Saturday  and I have a few shots to share. A view from Bell Island in Norwalk Connecticut. New York City skyline in the distance. From this spot the smoke of the burning towers could be seen on Sept 11, 2001 Benches at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Taylor Road, New Ipswich "Taps" bench at Veteran's Cemetery Boscawen, NH New "Old" bench

I've decided to try something a little different for today's photo theme Floral Friday . I have so many flower photos that I've selected just ones of a single color. The choice today is purple which does have a dedicated theme page called the Purple Circle . A new addition to my garden. Clematis almost looks artificial doesn't it? I have so many photos of crocus and I understand why. After a New Hampshire winter, it's wonderful to see any signs of color. The first ones to emerge are some small orange ones followed by these reliables. At some point I need to plant some autumn crocus - Colchicum autumnale . A water hyacinth, Eichhornia   is an interesting aquatic plant with an extensive filtering root system. The roots have a distinct purplish hue which I have tried to no avail to photograph. It is an invasive species in the south but is sold here as an ornamental for ponds. I usually place one in a bird bath. Orchid at the Mason Hollow Nurser

There is a tree located off of Witt Road in Jaffrey that I find as an interesting photo subject. I have visited it in all the seasons and times of day. I also gave it a variety of "treatments". Here are a few for Tree Tuesday . The tree with no embellishments. It has a great form and having Mount Monadnock in the shot is another big plus. Jun 22, 2012 After converting a camera to IR, it was inevitable that I would visit this tree on a July day with plenty of clouds July 7, 2013 Tonemapped HDR shot - Jan 1, 2012 Redfield Fractalius plugin for Photoshop Jan 25, 2012 HDR processed shot (3 exposures including the first image on this posting) Jun 22, 2012

One of today's photo themes is Lily Monday . A friend Wendy Grippardi is an avid gardener who has a number of water features on her property in New Ipswich NH. She has created a raised water bed with a number of water lilies at eye level. A very convenient height to observe these beautiful blooms and catch their subtle perfume. hash tag for today's theme is #LilyMonday Subtle colors These blossoms almost appear to be fake I prefer the name Lotus flower These flowers winter with no problems in New Hampshire Wendy's "flower bed" is perfect for these flowers.

I dug deep into the archives for this group of photos for #WindowWednesday. These are scanned transparencies taken from 1969 to 1972. Apologies for the dust and film deterioration. I suspect this was taken in Spain. What a great window I don't even know why they bothered with a window in my cheap hotel room. This was either  Gastown, Vancouver or  San Francisco. I remember that the elevator was off level with the floor. In a five star rating this place didn't register. I was in the Navy and didn't have much money. A tour of Mansions in  Memphis Tennessee (1968 or 1969) I was attending Avionics school in the Navy in nearby Millington Tenn . I still regret not visiting  Garceland  while I was there. I have no idea where this is, but once again, I can't resist shutters I imagine the light to be amazing inside I would like to revisit this spot if it is still standing with a modern camera. I'm fairly certain this is one of the abandoned res