I just realized my camera will shoot multiple exposures, automatically. I therefore can actually achieve TRUE HDR photography. And what fun it has been playing with it today. I cannot believe the day is half over.

This is really exciting, although the subject matter is different. It was just THERE when I realized what I could do.

For sure, I’ve spent many hours thoroughly entertained, taking pictures of Mt. Garfield from my balcony, as well as processing the photos afterward.

I played with this one until it’s almost unrecognizable. But, it’s so much fun to sit in front of this machine and watch the picture change, depending on filter applied. It’s always just a question of which effect turns my crank at the time — and that’s the one I go with.

Although I’ve given it an inverted glowing edge treatment (multiply blending mode), I think the color here is a little more true than the golden hue I always want to apply.

It’s such a beautiful day in Western Colorado.

I have no explanation for this except that it was fun after the stress of the annual Christmas light “ceremony.” E-freakin’-gads! Whoever thought of that tradition?!

My Christmas lights were a nightmare.

What brainiac designed a whole string of lights to malfunction when ONE tiny glowing light stick expires?! I’m old enough to remember when Christmas  lights were actually “bulbs.” When one of them burned out, you knew which one, you knew which color to grab to replace it, and then you were back in business.

No more.

I checked each of four strands. (I only needed two.) They all lit. What I didn’t notice (or they broke as I strung them on the railing) was the RED bulbs were not working. I got 1.5 strands up AND down before I finally had two strands up that worked — all colors — all flashing.

Then, stringing them on the railing of the balcony was a special challenge, to say the least. I had the whole string of lights detangled, until I started to wrap them around the railing. I finally had a flash of brilliance — I’d wrap the string of lights around something — then UNWRAP them as I guided the lights through the rails. In theory that would work. But the “special” mind that I possess had me wrapping them in the opposite direction I needed them wrapped. What I needed to unwrap first was buried under the stuff that needed to be last.

So. There’s that.

And it was cold out there!

I unwrapped ’em and got them wrapped ’round the box correctly, and it worked famously. It’s just that the red bulbs did not.

The residents of the group home probably learned some new words tonight. They’ll certainly need them if they ever try to string Christmas lights.

It’s done though. But, I decided to take pictures of the lights; I guess to prove it got done. That, the long way around, is how I got to taking this picture. This was a lot more fun than those “safety” lights.

Black and white seemed to appeal after my misadventures on the cold balcony. You’ll notice there’s no R in this either. Or G. Or B.

I like scraggly old trees. This one’s old, but probably not quite as gnarly as it looks in this photo.

This tree looked like this as the sun set one evening in August, 2006.

There’s a storm brewing, I guess. Meantime, there was some pretty clouds to capture.

A little piece of serendipity: See the bee?

Post processing in PhotomatixPro and Photoshop CS3.

I stood for about a half hour at my fence, hanging over into the neighbor’s property, trying to get a good, full-on shot of one of the many sunflowers that pop up over there every summer. I got better shots than this one, but it’s my favorite because of that bee.

Took this 11-23-10.

Was late for bowling while I froze on the windy balcony.

I do love living in a place that allows me to see stuff like this on a fairly regular basis. Yum!

I took this picture on Glade Park in the Fall of 2003.

These little purple flowers covered the ground in an area that had been devastated by a wildfire the year before. I took lots of pictures, but couldn’t capture the starkness of the landscape. What captured my imagination most was how soft the lavender carpet was underneath those charred trunks and limbs.

This was the best picture I got; just a wallpaper shot of a clump of purple flowers.

I liked this angle looking at the switchback at the top of Serpents Trail hike on the Colorado National Monument.

Actually, this isn’t a glow, but it was a bright orange. This is what I get to see many mornings. It’s like a kaleidoscope; ALWAYS different and ever-changing.

For this, I took several shots with different settings. The sun rises so quickly, I think it might be a good idea to get some setting worked out, then save the custom setting. Perhaps that would then require fewer adjustments.

This is better than yesterday’s effort. I used the real cam, not the phone. I’m not displeased with this one.

Happy Monday!