Happy Birthday America 2013 !!

This year I opted to stay home and photograph Sullivan`s fireworks display, since we didn`t have one last year and I wondered if it would be twice as many shells to shoot. As it was, they didn`t add to it this year, just held on to the same products in last year`s show. If I had an extra day off over the holiday, I would have likely gone to St Louis and photographed the VP Fair Fireworks as well. I decided to photograph from the hilltop of the old Holiday Inn Parking Lot this year, and avoid the exit from the fairgrounds after the show…

01 From Holiday Inn

…this year, I was able to photograph a few wheels as well, there were several wagon wheels and pinwheels in the display this year…

02  Wagon Wheels

 

 

04 Wagon Wheels Over CB

 

…and multiple colorful bursts as well…

05 Multiple Bursts

 

06 Red & Green Bursts

 

07 Reds Burst

08 Reds & Purples

10 Multicolor Bursts

09 Greens

12 Beautiful Bursts

13 Pretty Bursts

15 Multicolor Bursts

17 Multicolor Bursts

18 Greens & Purples

 

19 Start of Finale

20 Finale 2

 

21 Finale 3

 

22 Finale 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double Rainbow and Country Sunset

On the way home from rockhunting in Eminence a few weeks ago, my new rockhunting friend Ray Pohlkotte from St Louis at the wheel, slowed down enough for me to photograph a beautiful double rainbow at the junction of Highways 21 and 72….’

26 Double Rainbow on Way Home

…and then farther west up Highway 72, we came across this beautiful pastoral sunset near Highway TT….

27 Sunlit Clouds Sunset

Sarah`s Big Day in May

I happened to be off work the evening of my niece Sarah`s graduation from high school this year, so I was able to drive my parents and Chickie, Brad`s mom, down to the graduation ceremonies at St Louis University. On the way, we stopped off at Brad and Joann`s house and took some family portraits. Lulu was able to attend the event as well…she is the exchange student from China who stayed with Joann`s family last year, very nice and very smart too….she was able to get a scholarship to one of the best east coast colleges this year as well. After the family portraits, we had a small bite to eat and then took off to SLU for the ceremonies. Eureka High School, despite having a large campus, does not have a gymnasium large enough to hold five hundred graduating students plus family and friends of each student. The facility at SLU was more than big enough to accomodate all that came to watch. My niece Courtney and I both photographed the inside ceremonies, and Courtney shot some great photos in the dim light that I was not able to capture. 

01 Portrait

04 Mom & Dad with Sarah

07 Sarah & Family

12 Sea of Purple

14 Celebration Hats Flying

 

 

 

Hummingbirds

My mom planted a beautiful vine in her front rock garden a few years ago and it had a mulititude of red flowers all over it this spring…one day as I pulled up in their driveway and was ready to go in and have supper with them, I noticed about half a dozen hummingbirds fluttering around the vines, going from flower to flower in no certain order. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos of them….

Mom`s Flower Vine May 2013

 

Mom`s Flower Vine May 2013  Closeup 2

 

Mom`s Flower Vine May 2013 Posing 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dillard Mill in May

Drove down to Dillard Mill one Sunday afternoon in May, had heard there were some flowering trees in bloom there, but after Missy and I walked down to the Mill itself, we didnt see any trees in bloom. Still it was quite pretty and the recent rainfall had the waterfall flowing at full strength….

01 Mill and Waterfall

02 Mill and Waterfall

03 Looking Upstream