Taking a Wider View...

I have been experimenting with panorama photography recently, taking multiple images while turning the camera around, and "stitching" them together in Photoshop to make one big picture. These are my first efforts. They leave a bit to be desired, as I don't have a nodal slide, and a couple of them were shot handheld....

(Blogger has cropped these images, so you need to click on them to see the full width of the pictures)
This is the Western Skies Scenic Byway between Panora and Stuart in Guthrie County.
It's a composite of twelve images.

Next up is the magnificent High Trestle Trail Bridge between Woodward and Madrid, taken from the road bridge on Highway 210. This is a "first draft" for a picture that I'm planning. I shot it handheld, as I just wanted to get a feel for the scene, and didn't bring a tripod. The light was tricky too, as I was shooting into the sun. Fifteen shots went into making this composite.

Next time you're on the Highway 210 bridge, don't forget to look to the north too. This eight-image composite shows the beautiful S-curve of the Des Moines River. Again handheld, I think I'll revisit this shot as well.

Randomness...

A few more snippets from the past couple of months.

We saw the wonderful and talented Daphne Willis perform at a house concert. (I don't actually have a thing for girls with goggles - it's just coincidence that the model in my last post had gogs too)

And Dawn working her anti-Nargle force field...

I found time to do this shot for a magazine article on natural dyeing that Maggie wrote.

Autumn and harvest time is probably my favourite time of the year, certainly from a photographic point of view. Here are some pretty squashes we saw at Wills Family Orchard

This guy (probably girl) was sunbathing on the roof of a car at the Orchard.

Some random autumn shots: This is on the bike trail behind our house.

The old Raccoon River bridge at Adel,

...and Adel's beautiful Court House.

 Maggie's hair is green now :)

We had a lovely Yoga photoshoot at Gray's Lake Park with Paula.

And we went to Hanging Rock Park in Redfield this morning to do some more pictures of the beautiful autumn colours.

Hypobloggia

Only two posts in the last two months! It has been quite a time! To catch up, here are a few of the things that happened, with pictures :)

It all started on the 3rd of August, when my brother Colm, and my daughter Aisling showed up on our doorstep. Apparently, I was the only person on the planet who was unaware of the visit!
Here they are with Maggie:

Maggie, Laura, and Becky did a triathlon

We took our visitors to the Iowa State Fair. They got to line up to see the Butter Cow, eat incredibly unhealthy food, and admire some very expensive agricultural machinery.

We also went to the Adel Sweetcorn Festival. There wasn't much in the was of exciting machinery, but the food was better.

There was the Magic Sample Sunday at Prairieland Herbs.

There were two other visits of family from Ireland (these I did know about), completing what will go down in history as III11(The Irish Invasion of Iowa '11). My wonderful niece, Claire, called in on her way to Australia, and my parents came over too.

Some more random pics: The epitome of Iowa - corn and sky.

And pretty wildflowers.

Oh, and I did a fun photography workshop!

High Trestle Trail Bridge

It wasn't until Labour Day that we finally got a chance to go out n to the High Trestle Trail Bridge between Madrid and Woodward. It was a beautiful evening, there were lots of people having a good time, and the bridge was truly amazing. My pictures don't really do it justice....

How About a Nice Cup of Tea?

Prairieland Herbs are now selling a range of herbal teas...

More Work With Fire

Our good friend, Dawn Suarez put on a fabulous display of fire hooping in our backyard last night.

"pyrograph"

DNA - Dangerous Night-time Activity.

Ring of Fire.

Red, White and Blew Up!

We also got to go to the Perry, Iowa city fireworks show on the 4th of July

"...The Bombs Bursting In The Air"

Again this year we were treated to a fabulous fireworks display at Brian and Becky's farm in Panora, Iowa. The most excellent show was put on by Danny Moss, a licenced pyrotechnician.

Rent-A-Cow

The Our Iowa Magazine "Rent-a-Cow" open house was held at Picket Fence Creamery yesterday. The event was attended by over one hundred "Renters", who came to visit their cow, not only from all over Iowa but as far afield as Missouri, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas, and California! Here are some pictures of the day...

Iwo Jima, Iowa - Jeff raises the flag to start the events.

Nancy Wiebel of Our Iowa Magazine gets a kiss from Bonnie.

This is Bonnie's calf, Maxi.

One of the "renters",  Michael Bloom, came from San Diego, California to visit his cow with his daughter Emily and wife Melissa Swann-Bloom.

Aspiring cowboy Quinn Whaley from Eagle Grove, IA.

The star of the show, Bonnie!

One of the more unusual visitors at the event.

Enjoying the scenery. I wonder who these people work for?

There are more pictures here on my Flickr page.