Picture(s) A Day – 30 December 2009

What’s this?  Pictures posted in a semi-timely manner?  Something other than planes and reptiles?  No need to worry, I’m still OK

I’d have posted this earlier, but I was out until 2100 tonight with Kyleigh and Shady getting new cellphones 8)  Kyleigh put up the cash for the transaction and I made sure to thank her profusely for making sure we didn’t really cut it all that close to the wire   Work, well, it was work but not too bad except for the fact that there weren’t as many people as normal on the phones so I took a few more calls than normal.  Definitely not nearly as bad as it could have been

Anyway, this is a post about the pictures, right?  Well then, on with the pics   Please do note that we have genuine wildlife, astronomy, and not one, not two, but three panoramas of tonight’s sunset for your viewing pleasure, all of which can be clicked for full size

30 December 2009 - Wildlife is everywhere, even on the patio at work

While I was outside on my last break of the day, I noticed movement in the trees above me and was finally able (after several substandard attempts) to capture this small bird who was enjoying himself in the branches of a shade tree.  Cute little thing, huh ?

30 December 2009 - Sunset from work version one

30 December 2009 - Sunset from work version two

30 December 2009 - Sunset from Terrible's gas station near work

A storm front came through today and though I had hoped for rain (rain = overtime = $$$ = fun stuff!), we didn’t get any in the valley.  The mountains looked to have received a dusting of snow, but not much.  What we did get out of that front going through was a really nice sunset courtesy of the lingering clouds

30 December 2009 - Not a half bad picture of the moon

The final picture tonight took a bit of doing.  It had to have a light background for the camera to get the exposure in the range of something appropriate and I had do dial the exposure up two stops (more light darkens the pic), but I finally got a decent picture of the moon   Yes, I’m still thinking of a telescope, but there’s still a few priorities to deal with before I go get that.  I think I’ll just pull out a pair of binoculars for the time being   Until I have a nice astro-photography setup (that’s still a long ways off), I hope this will do

Well, that’s all there is for 30 December 2009.  I’ve got work the next two days, but I’ll try to post something worthwhile for a final post of the year.  Maybe a decent picture, some reflections on what has been and goals for the year to come – that sort of thing.

Until then, take care and have fun