Bryan's Little Corner

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Heaven on Earth

OK, I threatened to do this but just never did get around to it.

Earlier in the year SignGurl introduced me to a truly wonderful park. At the time I had no idea how wonderful it was.

This past week I finally got around to visiting the park. I spent a little over 2 hours just wandering. Here are a few photos I took that I thought I would share with you all. Give me a week or so that I can exercise a little SignGurl and I will take you up and a trip to the park. I would love to see some of the treasures you have discovered. I bet they are incredible.

Lets start out with some flowers. They were very beautiful. I only took a few pictures of about 3 different flowers. I am still trying to get use to my new point and shoot camera. There will be more to come in the future for sure.

Look at the Pritty Flower

Now here we have a new project of mine. I want to get a nice close up picture of a flower with a buzzz, buzzz, buzzz bee on it. Bees bother me so I am sure this will be a major challenge. Here is my first attempt. Yes I have a long way to go.

Buzzzz...

Next up we have a view of the dock that extends around a large part of the man made lake. In it's former life it use to be a quarry. Here we see the dock and the lake. For some reason I fell in love with the cloud reflections in the water. I have a lot of this pictures. I thought this was the most interesting because of where I was holding the camera when I took the picture.

Clouds and Water

This cardinal was one of about three different types of birds I saw. Apparently one of the others I saw was from the canary family. They were fast and very yellow. I wanted to get their picture but there just was no way. This cardinal just would not cooperate and come out to where I could get a clean picture. Oh well, it turned out OK anyway.

Look at the Pritty Birdy

This is so typical of what you might see in Michigan, usually up north or maybe the upper peninsula. But here we have an awesome sight all right near home. This is incredible as as is Michigan in general. Come winter, spring, summer or fall Michigan rocks. At one point I needed to find my own path as I came to the end of the docks and I wanted to find the paved pathway. So I saw this gate in the fence and decided to head on through. This is the view from the other size of the fence. Of course they must expect people to do this as look at the nice dirt path I had to walk on. Now take a moment and take in a nice deep breath of MICHIGAN. Note Michigan does not corner the market on this, several other wonderful northern states come to mind, but Michigan sure does it up proud.

A Little Off Roading

Here at last you see a small part of the nice 1.5 mile paved path around the lake, through the woods and past some of the parks attractions. This path is awesome. I saw people walking, jogging, blading, biking ... just about anything that does not have a motor is fine here. The quietest person on the path was this one roller bladder. Well when she was not on her phone that is. I am sure that SignGurl has put on many the mile on these here paths. And no that is not SignGurl up ahead but you already knew that.

The Path

This is one of my treasures I came across. I could not believe it. I was going down the path and then I heard this loud cracking noise. Now when I was growing up I used to hunt deer so I was very familiar with that sound. I looked around and sure enough there was a deer. I decided to try and get a picture but it turns out it was very blurry picture. Then the deer moved and that is when I saw the second smaller one. The Mom deer (I assume) went over to be protective of the littler deer who never even looked at me. That is when I got the shot I am including here. I can not believe I was less than 25 feet from the deer and they let me take their picture. I wanted to do more but I did not want to spook them so I moved on.

Oh Deer

OK, this next picture is fun. At least it was for me. I saw this tower while I was in the woods. Now I say woods but I really am not real deep in the woods when I stay on the track but anyway... I could not believe that I was seeing this tower poking through the clouds. What an awesome picture. But I was not somewhere that I could capture that picture. So I hurried down the path peeking at on occasion until I finally got to somewhere I could capture the picture. By then the clouds had moved on. Now when I looked at the tower when I got home I discovered that is was painted red then white than red then white then... so I never did see the tower going through clouds but it sure did get me excited thinking it was. But here is the one fun side benefit. It is not much more than a blur. You could paint it with a paintbrush in one quick stroke. But there in the upper left corner is a hawk. At least I am pretty sure that is what that is. Yea. I did not see it until after when I was looking on the computer. I wonder what else I missed?

Hawk Tower

This is just a sample of the awesome skies that day. They were incredible. I wish I could have done them justice. I am working on that. HDR and polarizing filters are coming to a camera bag near me soon.

Some Nice Cloud Action

Now here you have my attempt at an HDR photo. Now this is just a beginner doing this. If I really knew what I was doing it would be incredible. What sets this apart from a regular photo is both the skies and the landscape look wonderful. HDR uses multiple exposures to get the best of all worlds in composing the photo. This picture is a lot more grainy than I would like but it is a beginning. You can not use this technique for everything but I can see pictures of the skies and other darker items are just made for HDR.

A Nice Summer's Day

And there you have it. The promised walk about SignGurl's park. there is more I did not show and probably tons I have not found. Sadly this is not a good place to take a sunset or sunrise photo, I checked a couple of days ago. The trees just are to tall in the area. But there is a lake not that far away that, at least from the satellite view, looks like it will be a great place for a sunset and sunrise. As a matter of fact I found someone on flickr that had the same idea and posted the very same picture I want to take.

Thank you SignGurl for introducing me to a nice little slice of heaven on earth.
13 Comments:
Blogger Pam said...

i love the photos...nice park. my favorite is the one w the dock and how you can see the trees and clouds in it. so still...so serene.

July 31, 2008 12:15 AM  
Blogger barman said...

Ciara it is beautiful. I think the water is so calm because there were no boats that I saw on it, just people swimming a ways away at the opposite end of the lake. But yes those reflections were really nice.

July 31, 2008 8:12 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bryan, I was thinking “lovely photos” as I read this post but by the time I reached the photo of the deer I changed that to “awesome photos.”

July 31, 2008 11:01 AM  
Blogger barman said...

Thank you Nick. I was so excited. That is the closest I have ever been to a deer if you do not count the deer I hit with my car. I could not believe it did not just run. I can only hope for a repeat someday.

July 31, 2008 11:37 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I think you be close to deer again, Bryan. The more we are out in the midst of nature the more opportunities for neat experiences we have.

July 31, 2008 12:05 PM  
Blogger SignGurl said...

OMG! I've so got to show you all the other beautiful stuff there. I'm telling you, I'm in love with this place. You have only scratched the surface of what is there, and done so beautifully!! I know I commented on your Flickr page already, but darn it, these are amazing!!

I'm still sweaty from my walk/jog there tonight. I'll take it easy on you :)

July 31, 2008 8:43 PM  
Blogger ohc said...

WOW! It looks like paradise! Thanks for sharing that Bryan! I wish I was closer so I could go set up my easel and paint all day.......

July 31, 2008 10:38 PM  
Blogger KJ said...

Beautiful park and you captured it wonderfully.

Have a good weekend

August 01, 2008 7:01 AM  
Blogger Mona said...

wow! those pictures look awesome! i wish I could take a walk along those paths!

I miss my father so much, every time I see pictures from Michigan! He used to tell us so many tales about the place!

I Love the last picture. it is like paradise on earth!

August 01, 2008 7:34 AM  
Blogger barman said...

Signgurl I will take you up on that. I can not imagine what all the treasures must be of the park for this to be just the surface.

KJ, you have a wonderful weekend and thank you so much.

August 01, 2008 7:36 AM  
Blogger barman said...

Mona I think you would really enjoy the walk. Nature is everywhere and everyone seemed to just be soaking it in. From the people fishing more just to be out fishing, to the kinds enjoying the splash park, to the beach and the people swimming, to the birds, deer and other wild life, to the large open spaces and awesome sky, to the lovely flowers... the park was an absolute winner. *Michigan* hugs your way sweet Mona.

August 01, 2008 8:45 AM  
Blogger barman said...

OHC, if you had some bug spray there are some incredible sights that I think you could really have fun with. I could easily spend and entire day there with my camera. I am sure you could do the same with the paints. What you came out with would be incredible.

August 01, 2008 8:47 AM  
Blogger ell said...

barman, you are turning into quite the photographer....truly beautiful pix! keep up the good work!

ell

August 01, 2008 5:00 PM  

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