First of the Month - Creek Abstracts

This year I'm focusing on Louisville's wonderful public parks for the First of the Month photography meme. In January and February I featured Cherokee and Seneca Parks. After an extremely violent weather day yesterday with high winds, rain, and tornadoes, I decided to stay in my neighborhood and see what was interesting in the park where Willie and I walk. Frankly, it wasn't very appealing except for these shots of a small creek that runs through the park. I was trying to shoot at a terrible time when the light was all wrong--almost high noon.

Still, was lucky enough to get what I'm calling "creek abstracts". In this one the sun was making sparkles on the water and rocks:

Here I was hoping to get shots of some moss covered rocks with water running over that I'd spotted in the last week or so. Unfortunately, it rained just enough to muddy the water, but still I was pleased with the result:


And finally, I spotted some wildlife. . .
First of the Month: the idea is that we look at our surroundings and record the changes from month to month. The host for this meme is Jan at Murrieta 365 .

First of the Month & Watery Wednesday - At Cherokee Park

For this year's First of the Month photos I chose Louisville's Olmsted Parks, a beautiful park system designed by the Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture. This month I went back to Cherokee Park to re-visit places I'd photographed in January.

For no more than ten minutes this was the way the sunrise looked on my way to the park:

The day quickly shifted to damp and misty. Here is Baringer Hill, a favorite place for people of all ages--and their dogs--to come and play. I hope to catch the hill snow-covered and covered with sledders before winter's end, but here's what it looked like today. Baringer Hill tree lace:

Cherokee Park has many gentle streams, creeks and stone bridges like this:

First of the Month: the idea is that we look at our surroundings and record the changes from month to month. The host for this meme is Jan at Murrieta 365 .

Want to see some more "watery" photography? Click here for the players.

First of the Month - Mistletoe Skies

Now that most of the leaves have fallen in my neighborhood, I noticed that, in addition to the usual squirrels' nests, some trees also have bunches of mistletoe clinging to their bare branches. How timely for the December edition of Kentucky Skies monthly photos!

All year long I've been scanning the sky, camera in hand, in order to participate in a monthly photography meme that attracts aspiring photographers from all over. The idea is that we look at our surroundings and record the changes from month to month. The host for this meme is Jan at Murrieta 365 . Here's how it works: "The goal is to capture one thing repeatedly on the first day of each month. It can be a landscape, a person, an animal, a project; whatever your focus is fine. It can be a record of where you are each first day of the month." So, just in time for the holidays, here's "mistletoe skies":

I had intended to learn how to do photo mosaics before December so that I could share a year of Kentucky Skies. That's still on the to do list, so I'll just post them the old fashioned way. It's quite fun to see what was photo worthy from month to month:

November - Leaf Peeping
October - Pastel Sun Flare








September - Norwegian Skies
August - Sun Flare








July - Rocket's Red Glare
June - Great Balls of Fire







May-KY Derby Balloon Race

April - Spring Greening







March-Sycamore Sky

February- Winter Skies

January - KY Sunset

Happy Holidays to all you First of the Monthers and readers! I hope you get caught under the mistletoe some time during the season!

First of the Month - Spring Greening

For the past four months I've been studying Kentucky skies, on the lookout for photo opportunities that capture the current season. In January I discovered an exciting blog photography meme started by Jan at Murrieta 365 . This meme appealed to me because I need to work on taking better photos, which do a lot to enliven and illustrate blog posts. Here's how it works: Jan is calling her new meme First of the Month. Here are her directions: "The goal is to capture one thing repeatedly on the first day of each month. It can be a landscape, a person, an animal, a project; whatever your focus is fine. It can be a record of where you are each first day of the month." Interesting exercise, right? I decided to photograph Kentucky skies. So, after a week of unseasonably cold, wet weather and gloomy skies with the occasional snow flurry, here you have Spring Greening on April 1. These trees are huge maples in my neighbor's yard. I love the soft yellow-green new growth against the pale blue spring sky: I could have shared photos of dazzling pink saucer magnolia blooms or white flurries of Bradford pears or even sprays of brilliant yellow forsythia against the spring sky. But being able to look up at this subtle green growth and see the sky among the still bare almost bare branches says springtime in Kentucky. If you'd enjoy seeing some more beautiful photography from all over and on many subjects--Norway to Australia--just click on Jan's web page for a list of other First of the Month Players.