I was on my way to work one morning and I came across this barn. The morning sun peeping out from under the clouds gave an interesting gold color to the grass and the barn. I happened to have my camera with me and just could not resist the temptation to pull over and take a few photos. One of the photos I converted into a painting in Corel Painter.

Virgil

  We decided Sunday afternoon that being indoors was just too much to take on a nice sunny day. So, we packed up the cameras and headed off to Boonsborough State Park. Not surprising, the park was practically empty with the exception of a few people who drove in to see the old fort location. No one stayed very long though; there really is not much to see as far as the old location is concerned.

  Teresa, Sydney and I took a few shots around the old fort site, then we took a walk over to the nature trail. There was still some snow on the ground and the white on the ground contrasted with the trees was certainly interesting. The creek was full of water and rushing over the stones which was the focal point for us all. It was not to cold but there was just enough nip in the air to keep us cool on the short walk we had on the trail.

  We made our way to the new fort site and could look up the hill through the trees to see it. The sun was about to dip behind the mountains and seemed to leave a golden glow on the fort from where we stood. I tried to capture the moment on my camera, but I couldn't quite get what I was seeing. However, Teresa was able to capture what I was trying to get.......way to go Teresa!

  As we made our way back out we followed the paved trail where we saw the foot prints of two people that were walking their dogs. It was so funny to see where the tracks went. We tried to reconstruct what was going on as if we were three investigators. The dog tracks, as if this would be a surprise to anyone, gave the impression that their owners were having a hard time with them. We could see all of the sliding and scraping that was left by their foot prints. There was one point where one of the dogs tried to run down the hill sliding and dragging his owner behind him. I could just imagine the dogs running this way and that sniffing and snorting with there owners trying very hard to control them. the animals, by their tracks, seemed to be quite large.

  Well, to say the least, we had a very nice walk and really enjoyed each others company. We really were not in that much of a hurry to get home, but it was 7pm on a Sunday evening and we had not had dinner yet. So, the ending to a very good afternoon; I hope we have many others in our future.

  By the way, most of these photos were taken by my wife. If you look closely at the bottom right corner you will see her initials TKS. My initials are VES.

Your Friend,

Virgil

  The problems I having with my pictures on the blog is really getting irritating. I am considering dropping the blog and just posting my photos on flickr. I will stay with the blog for a little longer, however, if within the next week this problem is not resolved I will delete it. I have submitted two complaints to MSN but I am not getting very much feed back. I am hoping they will contact me again soon.

Virgil

  I have been trying to add music to my blog, but I have had very little success. I have tried to use Windows Media Player; no success with that at all. I have no idea how to do this and Space Live does not give me enough information. So, I went to Imeem and uploaded some music to that site to add. However, some of the songs only play for 30 seconds unless I am logged into Imeem. So, If someone has some information for me I would appreciate. Accept my apologies if you try to listen to a song and it only plays for 30 seconds.

Your Friend,

Virgil

  I have been having some problems with the pictures not showing in my blog. I load my pictures from my computer, and I have been wondering if that might be part of the problem. I have started a Flickr account and I am going to upload all of my pictures to there and post my pictures from Flickr. I hope this solves the problem. I contacted MSN and it was three or four days before I received an e-mail (last Friday) from them and I was told that my problem was being sent to someone and they were going to look into it.

This picture problem is getting so irritating. I have noticed that my profile icon is not showing in other blog friends page.

Virgil

   We had a really nice sunny day in the Kentucky bluegrass region last Thursday. Unfortunately I had to spend most of it indoors working. I did, however, get an hour to go into downtown Lexington and take a few pictures before I went home. I really wish I had more time to spend but it was getting late in the afternoon and I had to pick my daughter up at after  school care. I will try to get back into downtown Lexington soon. 

Here is an interesting character that I had the privilege to meet. The name he gave me was Justin Tyme ( go figure....Just in Time), anyway, he said he is 62 years old and on social security. He plays his guitar after dark on a street corner for money. Mr. Tyme said that he might make four dollars on a good night. He likes 50's and 60's music, however, he said you might get him to play some Johnny Cash. I could not get much more information than that; he was more interested in telling me about his favorite bar. Never the less, it was a privilege to meet Mr. Tyme and I hope to see him again and get more information from him about his life. I'm sure that he has some very interesting stories to tell. Maybe I can stop by that bar he likes so much and have a coke ( I stopped drinking alcohol a long time ago). So, Mr. Justin Tyme, until we meet again Sir, have a blessed life.

  Rupp Arena............home of the Kentucky Wildcats!!!!!!! Go Big Blue!! We are proud of our Wildcats no matter what.

I didn't do very much Photoshop this time on the photos because I was in such a hurry to get this entry up. Accept my apologies if some of the photos are a little crooked or off in color.

The little commentary on Mr. Tyme has given me an idea. If anyone might be interested in some short interviews with the local people here in the Bluegrass, please let me know and I will start adding these to my blog. Welllllll.....I just might add them anyway.

Until Next Time,

Virgil

   For the last three or four months we have had very little sun. I really don't mind a few days of rain and cloudy weather but this is starting to bother me. I haven't had my cameras out of the bag very much here lately because it is hard to get motivated to go on a "photo safari" when all you see is a gray cloudy mess. I know I'm complaining over nothing and spring is just around the corner.

  I did manage to get out Tuesday and take a few pictures. I was on my way to Krogers (grocery store) and I had my camera with me. I liked the way the clouds looked and I stopped by a bank that was located on a hill to take a few snapshots and try to capture what I was seeing. I converted three of them to black and white and added contrast; I liked the way it brought out the clouds. The area is not much to look at, but this gives everyone a look at Richmond. Richmond does have its nice areas but they are mostly residential and people get very suspicious when someone is taking pictures of there home. I understand this and really try to respect them..... unless it is Christmas and they really have their home decorated.

      Back when I was in high school ( a really long time ago or as my daughter likes to say "ancient times") I owned a Pentax ME Super. Of coarse, there was no digital photography in 1982, or not that I knew of, so I had to deal with the expense of film. I shot  black and white most of the time because it was less expensive than color. So, I grew very partial to black and white photography. Sometimes, it seemed that color just did not always give me the results that I was looking for but black and white was very forgiving and I had pictures that turned out quite well.

     Now I am in the digital photography world; I am trying very hard to adjust. Digital photography has its problems and its rewards. For instance, I have to shoot from a tripod because If I take any photos hand held I tend to blur the picture, however, I do not have the expense of film and processing ( that is really a plus).

    As for black and white, I really like to take the pictures I take and convert them to black and white in photo shop. I just like the way B&W pictures look. Portrait B&W can be much more forgiving than color. Aaaaanyway.......here are some photos that I have converted to B&W. Some of these may be repeats. Two of the pictures are sepia toned.

    I recently was looking through a site by a young girl, I believe, in China. Her site seemed very clean with no porn whatsoever. However,on her site, I learned the hard way to pay very close attention to the friends that are listed. I clicked into a couple of them without paying attention and wound up in something that I did not want. My face and ears are so red as a result of this( I am angry). Well anyway I deleted the girls site icon from the friends space. I know that in the statistics section one can see who has visited their space. I really do not want these people visiting or commenting on my blog because their icon will show and someone might click into it. If someone sees anything inappropriate in here please let me know because I might miss it. I really want to keep things clean and family friendly here and if anything "out of the way" shows up I really do apologize.

Ok,Ok, Ok........I know I should be more careful of what I click into. Sometimes I just go from one icon to the other without reading. So dumb! Anyway, I am a firm believer in accepting responsibility for my actions and I know  if  anything  shows up here that is inappropriate it is my fault. So, again, please accept my apology if it does.

Virgil

  Here are just a few photos that we took during the Christmas holidays. We really did not take any really good photos last year, but I will post them anyway. Most of these were taken in Berea KY around Boone Tavern. This year we will make an effort to go out and take some good pictures during Christmas.

This photo is in Richmond KY; the girl is my daughter.

I really tried to get a good shot of the bells on this tree but the wind was blowing too hard, so, I made an attempt to convert this one to a painting in Corel Painter; I haven't quite got the hang of this yet. ;)

Boone Tavern............I'll need to look up some history on this place to post.

      I have received several requests to become someone's "friend" this weekend. I really am happy that others have been to my blog and I will gladly become anyone's friend, however, I will not agree if the blog of the person requesting to be friends contains nudity, strange and harmful religious material, any inappropriate sexual material or any bigotry. Please keep in mind, If I refuse a request I probably found one or more of these things in the blog.

Cheers,

Virgil

    Here are just a few photos that my wife and I took.

Some of these photos could use some commentary; I will add some comments to them soon.

I had the chance to attend a civil war reenactment in Richmond KY. The particular battle was.........can you guess? It is real easy to guess.........any ideas..........any at all? Ok, drum roll please......................The Battle of Richmond! Anyway, a friend of mine reenacts on the confederate side. I did have some photos of him and his camp, but, I had some computer problems several months ago and lost the pictures. I was able to salvage several photos I took in the union camp though. So, I will post those. I got a couple of really interesting photos of the cannons being fired at night.

The Battle of Richmond took place in 1862 on what is now the Bluegrass Army Depot. Confederate troops began skirmishing with union troops while moving north from Big Hill on their way to Richmond. The commanders that were involved were as follows:

Confederate                                                                               Union

Major Gen E. Kirby Smith                                                             William "Bull" Nelson              

The 1st and 2nd brigades, union army of KY were involved on the Union side; the Confederate Army of KY was involved on the confederate side. The Union army suffered 5,353 wounded and killed; the confederate side suffered 451 casualties. To make a long story short, the confederate army came out on top during this battle. Anyway, it was a very hot day, but, it was interesting to watch. I wish more of my photos were salvaged, however, I am very lucky that  I salvaged what I did.

One of the pictures( bottom right) is one that I made an attempt turn into a painting.

   Near infrared photography has really started becoming interesting to me over the last few months. I have to use an infrared filter that screws on the front of the lens. I really am not getting actual infrared light, what I am getting is reflected infrared light. My Nikon D100 does very well at capturing false color which gives a very interesting affect to the photographs. My Nikon D40, on the other hand, will only do black and white infrared because the filter on the sensor blocks too much. Here are a few photos that I have taken, I hope everyone likes them.

   Shortly after I bought my Nikon D40 last summer, I went to the arboretum on the University of Kentucky campus and took alot of photos of some very nice flowers. The UK arboretum was created in 1991 as a joint effort between UK and the Lexington-Fayette Urban county government. In March of 2000 it was named the official state botanical garden for the commonwealth of Kentucky. The arboretum has 100 acres of land and nine gardens. The landscaping features consist of a gazebo, pergala, children's garden, stone fences, fish pond and fountains with sculptures among many other features. It is a very nice family atmosphere and very relaxing to just stroll around and look at all the various flowers and plants. I hope everyone enjoys the photos.

    This is an infrared photo that I took of the gazebo.

    There is a nice little state park that is very close to where we live. It has a couple of short hiking trails and a replica of the old Boonesborough Fort. As for the two trails, one is paved and is a very nice walk if you want to take a leisurely stroll without stepping over logs or pushing past tree limbs. The other trail is the old foraging trail that follows the creek bed. It really is not a bad hike, however, the trail rises and falls more than the paved one. On the old trail, if one is hiking in the late afternoon, there is a good possibility of seeing a deer.

    The fort was built By Daniel Boone and several other men in 1775 after the Transylvania Company purchased the land from the Cherokees. The fort originally consisted of 26 one story  log cabins and four block houses arranged in a hollow square 260' by 180'. Ok, I'm not much of a historian and this is as much history as I am inclined to research right now. I might research it in more depth in the future if the mood hits just right, however, too much research turns into too much work and when that happens I lose interest. I want to keep this blog as simple and as I can. But, If I can muster the interest, I will try to include more background on the places I visit.

The following photos are from the hiking trails:

Here are three photos of the fort, next time we go back I will take more.

       We took a walk around the Berea College campus one afternoon last fall. Berea is a nice little town with lots craft shops. We had a nice comfortable afternoon walking around the campus taking pictures of the buildings and enjoying each others company. Sydney, my daughter, was particularly interested in the squirrels and had the best time chasing them all over the place to get a picture. She had them scattering everywhere and chattering at her from the tree tops.

       We also did a little window shopping and looked around some of the shops;they were starting to decorate for Christmas. Sydney and Teresa really enjoyed looking at all of the merchandise and they also stopped by a coffee shop and got some tea to help with the chilly evening. We did not get any pictures of the shops, however, next time we go we will make sure we do.