I was heading out to get some pictures in tonight after the gym, and on the way to my original destination, I saw a huge pile of railroad ties and pieces of track along the road so I took a detour. I loved how the setting sun made the tracks look really bronze and how you can see the sections of track laying on the grass.
I am sorry for being gone for so long, as some of you may know my camera had a small little issue which required a trip to the Canon Repair Center in Pittsburgh (mirror decided not work anymore - kind of an important piece of the functionality!). After 2 weeks (and $200), I have it back and it's working again - woo hoo! So we are back on track for posting every day - or at least shooting even day and posting as quickly as I can. The good news is that during the last 2 weeks, I've been getting my photo libraries in order via Lightroom (which was a CHORE in and of itself), so the time was not wasted! 
Friday at Irish Fest and I had my camera along. I ended up with a number of fun shots. I particularly liked this one with the crowds of people around the beer tent, the light from under the tent, and the sky gliders in the sky. It tells a great story of tradition of summer festivals in Milwaukee. Slainte!
Had a lovely evening tonight sitting on the patio, grilling some kabobs, drinking wine and Facebooking (my latest addiction)!
I decided to go out at lunch today and get some "real" pictures - instead of finding random things around my house at 11pm! This is a shot of the Milwaukee Art Museum's Calatrava. I love how clear and blue the sky is against the white of the building. I did a little tweaking in PS around curves. 
This pic was the result of a last minute scramble to find a subject this evening. Nothing too exciting here - I did do a few edits in PS - a little in curves and a touch of sharpening.
It was a horribly humid night and my wine glass had a ton of condensation on it. I thought it would be an interesting pic to try and get the water bubbles. I ended up having a hard time getting them in focus! I take quite a few pictures of wine, so I did like how this was was a bit different.
Visiting friends in Door County and low and behold - they live on Rocky Road! Actually, not only do they live on Rocky Road, but they live on the corner of S. Rocky Road and W. Rocky Road! I'm actually not a fan of this particular flavor of ice cream, but I loved the signs! I did some playing around with actions in PS on this one.
Saturday in Door County and a bit hazy and overcast - but not a bad day to take pictures. We stopped at Cana Island Lighthouse on our way south and of course I got a few shots in. The lighthouse is pretty much black and white anyhow - but I still did a little B&W magic on this in photoshop before posting. I'm actually loving this picture after I did the PS work on it!
Played mini golf today and had some fun with my camera too! This is a picture of the waterfall in the middle of the course - well actually it's the top of the waterfall where the water starts. I had tried some of these pictures at the bottom of the fall, but the sun was too bright there and I couldn't get the smokey, smooth feel of the water that I wanted. I tried again when I was here at the top and in the shade and it worked much better. Definitely a technique I will need to continue playing with!
We are up in Door County for a long weekend, and on the way to Sister Bay, we stopped at Stones Throw Winery to pick up a few bottles for the weekend. For those of you who received my Christmas cards last year, there were 4 winter scene pictures that I used. One of them was an old tractor covered with snow. That was taken at this winery in December of 2008. So I thought it would been cool to get a summer picture of it - but when we got there, I didn't see it and thought it was gone. Upon closer look - it was just surrounded with grass and plants! So here is my "summer tractor"!
These are letters that sit on my dresser. I like the contrast of the sliver against the dark wood as well as the focus on just a few of the letters.
Mini theme this week of me taking pictures of me. Nothing overly exciting about this one - just something different to do!
Trying to find some new and interesting things take pictures of - I settled with my hands tonight! I thought the depth of field on this pic was interesting.
Ahhh today was a fantastic Sunday! I started out with at 5.5 mile run, then headed out to the Firefly art fair in Wauwatosa. Then down to the Tosa Village for some shopping and picture taking! The sun was still pretty high in the sky so not the best photo conditions, but I was still having fun. This is a great French Cafe in the village and I just loved the reflection of the flag in the window! No PS editing.
After being away for what seems like forever - I spent the whole day working in my yard! Boy o boy did I have some weeding to do! After a long day in the sun, I was lacking a bit of inspiration but figured the flowers in my yard deserved the attention! No PS editing on this one.
Whew this week was a tough one... I had a terrible time getting back into the routine of home after a weeks vacation! Good thing Friday led us to Vino 100 for a few glasses of wine (and cheese) on the patio! I just LOVED the color contract of this photo with the orange building, dark blue sky, green tree and lighter blue umbrella! No PS editing on this one.
We had a charity golf outing today and once again, I did not get any photos in. I was going to take my camera to the outing, but it was supposed to rain all day (which it did). By the time I got home it was time for bed! This one is from our San Fran trip - in Chinatown. I adjusted the exposure slightly and ran a color boost action on it twice. I love the colors and textures in this photo!
Tonight we had Ray's brother over for some brats on the grill and I was trying to get some cool pictures of shadows from my garden on the garage - but there was just not enough light and they did not turn out. So I turned my attention to my blooming hostas that faced my house (which was throwing much more light!). I like the focus on this one of the strand of buds against the brightness of the patio area.
As I mentioned earlier, this week has been slow on the creative juices - as well as the time to get photos in. Today is another cheater day. This was a pic from Fathers Day weekend that I jut loved - I tried it in black and white, but liked it even more in the subdued colors. 
So I've been struggling to be creative with my photos since I've been back from vacation. I almost didn't get one today - its nothing special, but I did take a few shots. 
One of my favorite places to stop in San Fran is Kara's Cupcakes (www.karacupcakes.com). In the very simply shop, the cupcakes are displayed under glass like jewelry - SO fun! We of course stopped and enjoyed one right away - and took two to go. The to-go boxes even had holes cut out of the bottom to keep them from sliding around. Well apparently it was not enough to withstand being hauled through the airport, a 3 hour delay, a 4.5 hour flight, and a car ride home, as when we opened them - they looked like this :-( 
We took the redeye which left CA at 1:00am on Friday - needless to say that I was off all day trying to recoop from a crazy flight and the 2 hour time difference. I did not get a photo in today so I'm using another one from the trip! While we were out in Wine Country, I really wanted to get to the coast one night for a pacific sunset. Bodega Bay was our destination for this adventure. They aren't kidding when they say it's "cooler" at the coast - it was darn near COLD and windy! It was all I could do to stand outside in the whipping wind to take pictures for the 15 minutes the sun was setting. Unfortunately, my skills at taking photos of sunsets pretty much sucks - so I chose this picture - which was taken at dusk just before the sun set. I did some minor editing in PS in curves, as well as slightly bumping up the saturation.
Our last day of vacation and we spent the day in San Francisco seeing all the sights we could in a day! Just as the day we arrived, we had heavy fog for our bridge viewing, so we just had to work with it! It actually does make some pretty cool pictures. We walked to the first "tower" and as you got closer, you were able to see more of it. I liked this perspective of the structure. I did some adjustments of the reds in PS along with bumping the exposure down just slightly.
We visited 3 different wineries today and all of them were fantastic. They all included tours and this particular one included their barrel storage caves. Mmmmm just look at all fantastic wine... one barrel produces about 25 cases of wine or 295 bottles! Heaven in a cave! I was using my 50mm lens as it does much better in low light without having to use my flash. I had to bump up my ISO quite a bit as you can see below.
