Lens Artists Challenge – Home Sweet Home

Most of our travels are confined to the east coast, primarily Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. We typically head to the beaches or mountains during these times with an occasional trip to DC and a few other places. The beaches in North Carolina are very well known and quite popular. Here are some of the sites you may see:

In the fall, the mountains can be bursting with color and if you’re lucky you will observe some of the wildlife.

There are 2 places in Florida that I can recommend visiting; one is Cape Canaveral and the other is Disney (although I believe that Disney is quite a bit more expensive than when we went years ago).

I’d be remiss if I did not mention our military bases on the east coast of Virginia. Norfolk Naval Station is not only the largest naval station in the U.S. but also in the world. The base was created in 1917 and has a total of 3,400 acres as part of its territory. This is where the Atlantic Fleet lives. Its facilities house and service 75 ships and 134 aircraft. There is plenty of opportunity to see the big ships docked in harbors around the area.

Thank you for wandering with me through the places we live, visit and love! If you would like to join these challenges – you can find the info you need here.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Weathered Wood

This week on CFFC the topic is weathered, burned or burning wood. I am sharing a photo of some very weathered wood. In August of this year we visited DC and went to the Museum of American History. The pictures below are of Gunboat Philadelphia and it is the oldest surviving American fighting vessel. Built in 1776, it was sunk in Lake Champlain during a naval battle with the British in the same year. The Philadelphia rested on the bottom of the lake until it was discovered and recovered with much of its equipment intact in 1935 by Lorenzo F. Haggulund, a civil engineer who for many years exhibited it as a tourist attraction. It came to the Smithsonian museum in 1964, complete with the 24-pound ball that sent the gunboat to the bottom. It was amazingly preserved for all those years.

Lens Artists Challenge – Wildlife Close to Home

We moved into our new home August of this year. The area is known as Currituck County, North Carolina and our town has water on both sides plus we are about 20 minutes from the beaches of the Outer Banks. I am getting to know the area and places to go for pictures of wildlife. Here are a few that I have taken – most of them at our home with the exception of the pelicans.

In the summer, I had a lot of opportunity to photograph dragonflies and butterflies. The ladybug was taken this fall.

To my delight, we have been able to attract hummingbirds and bluebirds to our backyard.

We had one special visitor in our garage – non-poisonous.

This photo was one of those right time, right place ones. We were sitting out back and saw these geese heading in our direction. I waited patiently then snapped away when they went by the moon.

The last photo is from a trip to the beach today. Luckily while I was there, these pelicans came by.

Our neighborhood is surrounded by maritime woods and marshy/swamp areas. There is a bear that lives in the woods and has been sighted by neighbors; I hope to see him someday soon. I’m sure as time goes by, we will see some different animals especially next spring.

If you would like to join this challenge, you can find the info here –

https://annegeephoto.com/2022/11/12/lens-artists-challenge-225-wildlife-close-to-home/

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Bikes or Motorcycles

The pictures I am sharing for CFFC are of a mountain biker taken on Skyline Drive. You have to admire these athletes as they wind their way up and down the mountains.

Lens Artists Challenge – Topic – Exposure

This week Sophia is leading us through a study on exposure. I must admit, many of my exposure changes take place in Lightroom. There are times where I may purposefully go for a high or low key exposure “in camera” but most often it’s just a slight exposure nudge to the right or left depending on the image I am taking. Here are some examples where I used Lightroom to tweak exposure. The original is on the left and edited version on the right.

The first is a slight increase in exposure/highlights creating a more high key image.

The second image is a water/sky abstract. In this case the image was darkened to create more contrast.

The last image is a white flower on a white background. For me, these images almost always need work in Lightroom to get the white balance correct as well as the “whites”.

If you would like to join these challenges, you can find the info here

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Catching Animals Unaware

The first 3 photos are from a recent visit to the DC Zoo and the last is our little Gidget on the run!

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Lens Artists Challenge – Flights of Fancy

Many of you know that we sold our beloved home of 33 years in April 2021 (pictured below). It was more space that we needed, 2 stories and we wanted to move closer to our daughters and their families.

Little did we know that the price of lumber would delay us to the point where we lived in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment for over a year. During this time, building a new home definitely seemed like a flight of fancy plus since we are both over 70, I did not expect us to be doing this at this time of our life..

In December 2021 we started clearing the lot, finalized our plans and worked on colors for walls, floors and cabinets.

After a LOT of planning and waiting, construction began and we have decided that this has been the best decision ever. We got to plan our new home from the ground up and there is little we would go back and change. Plus it’s wonderful to be less than 30 minutes from our daughters and families. Here is a peek at our new home.

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Cee’s Mid Week Madness Challenge – 2 R’s in the Word

I hope this qualifies because it is 3 words which is the name of this bird

Red Winged BlackbiRd

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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Catching People Unaware

I usually don’t take photos of strangers however I have one from our recent trip to Skyline Drive. These folks along with some members of our family (not pictured here), were climbing the rocks at Blackrock Summit.

Here’s our granddaughter at the top of Blackrock Summit

Mom and stepdad watching her from below

If you would like to join these challenges – you can find the info here

Lens Artists Challenge – Mountains Are Calling

This week’s topic came at the perfect time for me since we just returned from a fall trip to Wintergreen, Skyline Drive, Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smokies. We took a short hike to a waterfall in Wintergreen which was near the house we rented.

We also did some hiking on the trails of Skyline Drive. We have been going there each fall for about 50 years.

There is a fun place to pick apples – Carter’s Mountain – located in Charlottesville, VA. It has gotten so busy over the years that you have to buy tickets to get in.

Our last stop before coming home was the Great Smokies. We spent some time in Cherokee and Maggie Valley as well. This photo was taken on our way up the walkway to Clingman’s Dome. It’s a steep, steady walk but the views were well worth the hike.

If you would like to join this challenge – you can find the info here