As much as I hate to even think about it, summer (not that we had much of it!) is ending. These berries that hang on the chain link fence the surrounds the parking lot at work are now turning red. Selective coloring did heighten the vibrant read; but against pure B&W, it looked too stark. I added back just a touch of color to soften the effect.

Ever since the Challenge began, I've been posting pictures taken at Rogers Orchards in Southington CT. Today, they celebrated their 200th anniversary. Ever since 1809, the orchards have been in the ownership of this one family. They grow apples, peaches and plums. We stop on Sundays on our way home from church to snag some fresh fruit. The year's cycle MUST include making peach jam as well and peach and apple pies. Every September, we go there to pick our own apples. We took our kids as they were growing up, and now we're taking grandsons.

For the celebration, they had this little bluegrass band. I've been looking for a photo that would work with the Fresco filter, and I've finally found one.

Paper Goods Pond at evening: in my mind, I saw this image in terms of planes of tones and colors. The Cut Out filter rendered it as I imagined it.

Life got really complicated this afternoon, and there was no opportunity to get any of the shots I'd hoped to get. So I decided to play Food Photographer. This is a picture of one of the caprese salads I made to go with dinner. Posterize simplfies it. It might be on the cover of an Italian menu.

These are the train tracks that I cross over to get to work. Pretty scruffy...A combination of Posterize and Pencil Sketch outlines the details. In the process, it looks just a tad less grubby--but just a tad.

Last night, John and I saw Camelot at the Goodspeed Opera House. It's a small theater that was built on the Connecticut River in the 1800s. To get to the theater from the parking lot, one crosses over a small footbridge. From the footbridge, there's a view of the River and the swing bridge across it. Old Photo softened the photo to give it the soft quiet ambiance of a summer evening.

I am absolutely terrified of spiders, and this one was huge. But the web, spun on a corner of our garage, glowed and even shimmered with a rainbow in the floodlights that are mounted near the roof. For some reason, the spider appears eerily translucent. Accented Edges enhanced the incandescent threads and the shape of the spider.

On a hot summer night, nothing beats a Minor League ballgame. Tickets for the New Britain RockCats--a farm club for the Minnesota Twins--are still just $5 for general admission. You're close enough to the field to hear the crack of the bat, the smack of the ball in the catcher's mitt, the calls of the umps. With my trusty little P&S, I was able to grab this shot of the opposing team's batter smacking a single. Using Half-Tone Pattern makes it look like a newspaper photo.

We stayed at Onion River Campground in Plainfield. A small campground right on the Winooski River, it has realy no "amenities," which is one of the reasons we like it so much. It's peaceful and quiet; we can heard the river muttering over the rocks. We almost feel that we've stepped back a decade or so. This ancient Pepsi machine and its neighboring former phone reinforced that sense. Using Sepia and Texturized added the right ambiance.

On Saturday, August 22, we visited this small covered bridge. It's unusual in that it was built to serve as access to a private farm. Most individuals couldn't afford to build such a bridge. It was just restored this past spring. Pencil Sketch added a touch of whimsy.

I'm behind on posting because John and I spent a long weekend away, camping in Vermont. Our reputation as the Drought Busters held true: we drive up through a fearsome deluge. At one point, it was impossible to see through the windshield, so we had to pull off to wait it out at a rest stop. I took this picture after the rain had let up and we were back on the road again. Chalk and Charcoal muddied it enough to give a sense of what it was like driving through this storm.

It was with chagrin and some guilt that we brought the Purple Minivan in to be traded in as a Clunker for a new Yaris. The Purple Minivan had given us 165,000 miles of service--vacation and soccer games, shopping trips and expeditions, even served as a rolling advertisement for our son's first business. But two kids have flown the nest and one is one the edge, stretching her wings. We don't need a big car anymore, and we sure do need to save on mileage. Outside the dealership is this rather striking come-on for the Clunkers program. I used Posterize with Chalk and Charcoal to pump up the drama.

It was rather a rough day emotionally: when I was at work this afternoon, I got a phone call from my husband that he's scheduled to start radiation treatments for his recurrent prostate cancer on Monday; this evening we had a friend over for dinner who's having breast cancer surgery tomorrow. I realized after she'd left that I'd forgotten to take my photo for today. So I turned my little P&S on the "lucky bamboo" that's in a little vase on the wall next to the back door. There's something reassuring that I'd just by chance focus my attention on something that is supposed to bring good fortune. Bas Relief and Ink Outlines added texture and dimension.

It was really HOT today (at last!) so I ran my errands on my bike this morning before the heat really built in. I passed this backhoe and liked the color and the lines. Pencil Sketch helps separate them from the bright and busy background.

There was a lot of bee action at the patch of goldenrod. This was a tough photo in terms of finding the right photo--maybe because it really isn't that great a shot in itself. A combination of Watercolor and Poster Edges did make the bee and the blossomes a bit more distinct.

We spent the weekend camping with friends at Otis Reservoir in the Berkshires. These kayakers were paddling out spend the morning out on the water. Dry Brush softens the picture and adds to the feeling of quiet and serenity.

Saturdays means the town Farmers' Market. One of the stands had these colorful hot peppers. A combination of Colord Pencil and Dark Strokes turns them into a playful drawing where they look like they're being tossed in the air.

An old factory building in our neighborhood is being renovated and turned into classy condos. Several of the auxilliary buildings are being demolished. This one, which was the Sherri-Cup factory (and the one that gave Paper Goods Pond its name) is one of the ones which is going to be torn down. My eye was drawn to this row of windows. Posterize gives it a silk screen look.

I've posted pictures before of the railroad cars that generally sit idle on the tracks next to the parking lot of my office building. Every so often, the cars actually get moved. As I was driving into work today, I was lucky enough to catch sight of the locomotive as it hauled some of the cars across and alongside the road. Poster Edges gives it the gritty urban edge it needs.

Tonight was the last of the carillon concerts at Trinity College in Hartford. For the last 30 years, we've gone there every Wednesday that we're home, bringing a picnic dinner and some wine, so sit and listen to the bells. We go regardless of weather. If it rains, we sit in the covered cloister. the last concert is always tinged with sadness, as it signals the impending end of summer. This is the bell tower of the Gothic chapel, taken just before we left this evening--it was already getting dark at 8:30. I had only my little point and shoot, no tripod or equipment, so all I could really catch was the light from the chamber where the carilloneur plays. I superimposed it on an image made earlier, while it was still light out to give a sense of how the tower glows at dusk.

I'm going to try to catch up by posting the photos I took while I was away--it'll take some time to do that, but it's like re-living the vacation!

JULY 4: This is the ancient barn on my mom's property in upstate NY, with an ever-growing beaver pond behind it. Perhaps I see it so frequently and have photographed it often, the picture looks rather routine to me. Cut-Out gave it a more basic graphic quality that I like.

We bought these peaches on Sunday at Roger's Orchard. Tonight, many of them were made into jam. the original is a little homogeneous. Pencil Sketch did a nice job of delineating the details.

The weather today was sultry, to say the least. This family went to Paper Goods Pond to catch a bit of evening breeze. Intensifying the color at the top and softening it at the bottom evokes the mood of a still, humid summer evening down by the water.

Well, we are back from a wonderful three week vacation camping around the Great Lakes and into Manitoba; which ended with Bob, our pickup truck, blowing a head gasket in Oneonta, NY; requiring us to spend the Weekend From Hell (long story) in that area; then renting a car to get out of there and having to return to collect Bob and the camper the following weekend; and then just trying to get Real Life under control. Through it all, I have taken a photo a day. Much of the time that we were away, we had no Internet access. Even the few times we did, we mostly oped out--it was more important to soak up the experiences we were having and to enjoy each other's presence.

I wasn't quite sure how to get back to the business of posting them, but I've decided to start with today to get back into the habit. and, when I can to post the catch-ups. So, today, we shot down to New Haven to IKEA, the huge maze-like Swedish furniture and home decor store. This is the warehouse portion that you pass through on your way to the check-out counters. If you're purchasing anything bigger than what can fit in a shopping cart, you collect it there. Pencil Sketch does a nice job of outlining the details.