Week of April 7-April 11 , 2025

[Dave]

Yesterday's outing to the wetlands offered few opportunities for shots of the fauna, but as the footpath rose gently we were treated to a true "Golden Hour" moment, with the sun bathing these daisy-like blossoms (they continued on for at least 60 meters and also climbed about 25% up a very steep hill that was at least 20 meters high) in the rich golden morning light.

   

[Don]

Thanks for starting the daily, Dave. I hope you have your situation there under control and can get back to taking photos. This one is a nice, colorful one to start the day. It has been anything but colorful here, with bad storms continuing to plague the area. Cool fronts moving in to areas of hot weather is  not a good combination. I think the worst is over for now although the rain is still here.

A few more photos from the Natchez Trace trip.  The first photo is a replica of the building where Meriweather Lewis died. He is buried nearby with a monument to mark his resting place. Still a mystery about how he died, murder or suicide.  Then there is a photo of the historic hotel where we stayed the first night in Natchez, Mississippi. And finally a photo of a section of the original Natchez Trace. There are several places along the parkway where you can see portions of the original. Interesting history all along the route.

[Don]

Not a lot of activity from you regulars this week. Hope all is OK.

Weather has cooled off here significantly, down from morning temps in the 60's to upper 30's and lower 40's. 39F right now but will be sunny later.

Apparently my Lumix P&S isn't too good at close up shots, or more likely I just need to learn how to do it. It has a macro function that would probably work better than trying to zoom in on a flower. I did manage to get a couple of acceptable shots though, both along the Trace.

[Man From Ironbark]

Such lovely colours in this thread. I know the name of the white star flowers in the last image. Zephryanthes. You have heard of autumn crocus? Then these are Spring crocus for some. Zephyranthes /ˌzɛfɪˈrænθiːz/[5] is a genus of temperate and tropical bulbous plants in the Amaryllis family, subfamily Amaryllidoideae,[6] native to the Americas and widely cultivated as ornamentals. Following the expansion of the genus in 2019, which now includes the genera Habranthus and Sprekelia, there are about 200 recognized species,[4] as well as numerous hybrids and cultivars. Common names for species in this genus include fairy lily, rainflower, zephyr lily, magic lily, Atamasco lily, and rain lily.

The name is derived from Ζέφυρος (Zephyrus), the Greek god of the west wind, and ἄνθος (anthos), meaning flower, referring to the slender stalks.[7] From Wiki.

Don's photos are all so well composed and balanced. Which model Lumix? I'm also having difficulty getting my Nokon P 950 in close up as well. I probably should read the manual but it is possible that there is no macro function. Fantastic 83x zoom though. I've been getting some of my best bird shots with it.

Dave's daisies are such a lovely tone of light. I believe they are Zinnia?
Zinnia is a genus of plants of the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae.[3][4] They are native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a centre of diversity in Mexico. Members of the genus are notable for their solitary long-stemmed 12 petal flowers that come in a variety of bright colors. The genus name honors the German scientist Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727–1759).[5] From Wiki.

The Nikon has been capturing some nice sunsets.



Looking east, is where I live. Up where the trees are.



and sunrises.



So many more photos in my ends and beginnings Flickr album. Too many to post here.

[Don]

Thanks for the comments MIB. I really don't know much about flower identification - DW knows a lot more than I do.

I really like that first image of a sunset. Shots 2 and 3 are interesting as well. I haven't been over to Flickr in months, I need to get back over there and see what new things are posted.

I'll end my collection of photos from our little trip with a sunset shot looking west over the Mississippi river from our hotel in Natchez, MS. BTW, the Lumix is model DC-ZS200D, a 20 MP sensor and a zoom from 24mm to 360mm. I have an older Nikon P500 with a pretty good zoom lens but it doesn't shoot RAW so I stopped using it. This photo of the sunset has a fair amount on noise which I didn't bother to try to remove.

[Rich]

Beautiful Dave! Well composed and exposed!

Don, interesting photos. The Lewis building especially for me as they came up the Missouri river through Dakota territory.
Beautiful old hotel!
Interesting shot of the trace. Google says it is 444 miles long.
Lots of mid-ground interest in your sunset photo!
Love the flowers!

Lovely sunsets Peter, the last one looks really angry!

I might get out next week to get some decent photos. Been cool and very windy here nearly every day, 30 to 40 MPH (48 to 64 km/h) winds today.

[Man From Ironbark]

thanks for comments. The last one is a sunrise.

[Don]

While on our last camping trip I shot a roll of 120 in my Yashica TLR, only to discover too late I had the light meter set incorrectly. So I had underexposed the film by 1 stop. This morning I mixed up some homemade D23 and compensated the underexposure by increasing development time. Negs are drying now and I do have something on the negatives. Can't really tell until I get them in the computer though. Hopefully I can salvage some of the pics.

[Man From Ironbark]

If you still have an enlarger, some adjustments while exposing the prints will help.

[Don]

If you still have an enlarger, some adjustments while exposing the prints will help.

I don't print anymore with the enlarger. I photograph the negatives on a light table with my DSLR and use software to convert the negs to B&W. Then I use Lightroom to process the final image. Which reminds me, I need to go and cut the negs and put them in sleeves before I go to bed.