A beautiful day to go to Grand Haven

Yesterday was one of the first full days with sun which made it a perfect day for me to pack up my camera and head out to Grand Haven for sunset. One of the great things about living on the west side of the state of Michigan is that it is relatively easy to get to the lake in about an hour. The roads were clear and it was not too cold so I took off for the lake. I was rather surprised to see all the other folks at the lighthouse although given that it was the first day of sun in ages, I think people wanted to get out. While it was more crowded than I would have liked, it was good to get out and see the sunset. It was very red and pink, even more so than some of the summer sunsets. While that warmth in color did not translate to the air temperature, it was good for the soul.
Here are two of the pictures I shot yesterday. I will post more later.

Snow, snow and more snow

It is snowing (again). While it can be beautiful, I must say that I am already tired of it and it is only mid-February. We still have a good 6 to 8 weeks of this stuff left. The news says that we are already above our yearly average for the Grand Rapids area at 80" as of Sunday. It is now Tuesday as I write and we continue to get snow.
Before the arctic temps came in Saturday night, I decided to get out in the snow and walk around the park by my house. There were lots of people cross country skiing and there was evidence that people had been in the park with snow-shoes, but I didn't see anyone with them on. I just took my camera with me and walked the cold trails. It was really quite beautiful since the trees were all snow covered from previous snows. The trail was surprisingly easy to walk as long as I stayed on the cross country skiers path. Otherwise, I would have been knee-deep in snow. I ventured off path a few times for a shot or two, but mostly stayed on path. I don't like being cold. I felt very fortunate to have two pairs of socks, pants, and shirts on underneath my big down coat. The gloves I had on were not much help but did OK.
When I got back from my hour long walk, I decided to take some pics of my piles of snow. Below are some of the pics I took. I am standing in front of the tallest pile in my driveway. I am 5'6" so I am guessing it is piled up about 5'? Anyway, the snow plow guy told me that he is running out of places to put my snow. My driveway is 476' long so there should be plenty of places to put it. Oh well. One of these days, I need to make snow angels. I think it would be fun. : )

Me in my old coat (for the walk)

Me in the new coat.

part black and white, part full color.

This pic was taken in my driveway Sunday morning. It was minus 3 degrees not counting windchill. BRRR!

This tree was found at the park; a lot of the pine trees look like this these days.

Project Iris

Being a photo "geek", I frequently have a camera in my hand. After getting a macro lens last fall, I started playing around with it and shooting various things up close and personal. One of those things was the eye. While eyes have actually creeped me out in years past, I've found them pretty interesting recently. I guess I was trying to see if those in my family had a similar eye shape. What I found most interesting was the variation in color within each iris. Some had a dark circle around the outside, some were just pure color. The youngest eyes were very dilated and the older folks had lots of spots in their eyes. It seems as though our eyes change over time. Some of the patterning from the elders showed up in the youngest children. It was pretty cool. I am sure some of the folks over the holidays thought I was a bit odd, but....Oh well. I am a bit of a geek.

Happy Valentine's Day (early)

My friend Lew sent me this great gift today. It was a simple Valentine's heart but it made me happy and reminded me of the decorations the teachers put up in school. Below is an updated photo of me with the heart on; I had to play with the image in Photoshop (Photoshop is my "video game"). Anyway, it has been far too long since last I blogged, so...here goes.

Happy Valentine's Day. Thanks Lew!