Post your summertime photos here:


Blueberries


Blueberries2


Blueberries3

As always, incredibly beautiful pictures!

Thanks! I hope to see lots of summertime shots here.

Cher

Took this tonight on the way home from dad's.


Summer Sunset

I took these Friday night as the sun was setting across from Young's Dairy:

This one isn't really a summer photo, but I just got around to uploading it. It's a reflection of part of the building in a puddle in a KFC parking lot that caught my eye one night:

Oh, I don't know Jeanne, 4th of July is rapidly approaching. I LOVE those kind of shots.

Queen Anne's Lace Still Life


Of Flowers and Bugs


Queen Anne's Lace

I love the Queen Anne's lace. Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures.

Dad and I spent the afternoon at a local tractor pull. I didn't get to stay to see many of the bigger ones pull, but what I saw kicked ass. I did get to see a 14 y/o girl pull for over 200 feet. According to her VERY proud dad, it's in her blood. Seems she's been pullin' since she was 3. Hot diggity - girl power!

Cher


Bring Them Home Safely


She Devil


Ole Red


Blue Puller


Iron Eagle and Grandpa's Ride

Sunday's pre-fireworks sunset:

I posted this in another thread (Favorite things, I think):

Coneflowers & Elephant Ear


Black Locust


Elephant Ear, close up

Cher: I love the coneflowers and elephant ear photo!

: )

Here's some sunflowers from July 4th:

Gorgeous sunflowers! I love what appears to be some sort of insect on wing in the shot too. Well done!

Cher

Well my golly...
I am speechless.
All these photos are simply beautiful.
I'm so impressed with your composition.

OK...yer all my heroes.

Haven't we all walked through art fairs and seen photos for sale for huge bucks that can't hold a candle to some of these pics?

Thanks, Trudes.

I figure that the bad pictures with the big price tags aren't selling, though, since we always see them. (But maybe they do sell some.) Having more money would be nice, but my photography is mostly for making me happy. If others like it, that's just a bonus.

Cher, I like the coneflowers & elephant ear, too. Nice shot!

Lynne, great sunflowers!

Summer? Yuck. Should I post some pictures of the visible humidity here in MS?

You know, I once interviewed for a position with the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, but it didn't work out. Thank goddess it didn't.

Cher

Wispy


Hummingbird Nectar


Melons On the Vine

Thanks, Trudes. I'm actually beginning to sell some of mine. I hope to eventually make it a paying hobby.

Cher

Here's a few I took during the Cityfolk festival in Downtown Dayton last Friday night:

Jeanne, the second one of the plane is amazing!

Thanks, Becky. About five minutes before that jet flew over, another one had flown over and scared the daylights out of me and a number of other people standing nearby; I hadn't seen one so low without being within a mile of an airport. So when a second one came along in the same flightpath, I was prepared.

Absolutely stunning, Jeanne.

Visible humidity is what summer is all about! It makes for good growing too! Here are my first blooming sunflowers of the year; I am about 6'5".
Yikes! That's a big photo.

Anyone care to enlighten a total city chick what a "tractor pull" is?

Yeah, I gotta agree with dre. I'll take visible humidity all day over the white blanket of death, aka "snow", and the cold that kills any motivation to live.

(i don't like winter/places with cooler climates)

The warm weather + the well-timed and abundant rain have given SC one of the best growing seasons in my lifetime. The peaches are a-MAZING this year, and sweet corn is 10/$1 at the store.

I just can't imagine ever living anywhere where it wasn't warm for 9 mos. out of the year. See also: my career plans involving a job in Indonesia.

And as for the humidity in the summertime, I don't think that's an exclusively Southern thing at all. Minnesota, Alaska, Chicago: all these places have oppressive heat and humidity during the summer.

It is amazing, however, what a difference things like elevation make. San Diego, for instance, is on the exact same parallel as Charleston, SC. San Diego's average summertime high is something like 78F, while Charleston's is 95F with full humidity. My poor friends from Colorado got married back in '02. They were living in SC at the time, and decided to get married at our mutual friend's plantation (yes, literally...a plantation) in Beaufort,SC (near Charleston)...*outdoors*. Those of us who were both their friends and life-long SC natives tried to warn them, but they still went ahead with their *June* outdoor wedding in Beaufort. It was insane. Katie and I were in charge of photography, and we were dying. We didn't have the luxury of finding a spot in the shade. There were moments where I thought to myself, "I think this is actually the hottest I've ever been."

We got back to our hotel rooms that night, and I turned on the news. It had (I swear I'm not making this up) hit a high of 100F that day with 100% humidity. I called Dan (the groom) a week later and was like, "Dan, I love you buddy...but you've exhausted your lifetime supply of favors from jame$."

i've never been to a tractor pull, despite the fact that i live in prime territory for them. basically, it's a competition to see who can pull a weighted sled or trailer the farthest. you make a tractor with a loud, powerful engine and tow this thing through sand, dirt, or 3 foot deep mud. beer is sometimes involved.

This is a tractor pull:


Ole Red


She Devil


Iron Eagle & Grandpa's Ride

Cher

So each tractor is customized specifically for the pull?

(My questions must seem so ridiculously ignorant..I've lived in the city my entire life, and I don't even think I've ever been on or near a tractor)

This tractor pull was actually with customized lawn tractors rather than big tractors. To answer your question, yes, they are customized and fall into different classes.

Cher

On a recent roadtrip we stopped at a little collectibles shop. It was great...I love trashy antique'y things.

Awesome photos, Trudes. My favorites are the rooster silhouette and the antique Farmall. What a great little place.

Cher

Here are a few I took this evening before and after a rain shower.


Grouped Amanitas


Half a Fairy Ring
Okay, so these aren't fairy ring mushrooms, but there is a half a ring here.


Another 'Shroom


After the Rain Shower


Pink Tiger Lilies

I have this nerdy hobby of standing coins on edge...I'll do it whenever I'm bored, and can get really carried away with it at times if I have a coffee table and coins in my pocket...

I was talking to my friend online, and was playing with a 50 cent piece in my hand. Inadvertently, I ended up standing it on edge. This is the first time I've ever manged to do so, so to be honest, I'm actually quite proud.

The weather has truly been beautiful these past few days with cooler temps and lower humidity. It's much easier to take evening photos as the air is clearer.

I took these around 7:30 this evening - I think the prettiest time of the night here in SW Indiana.


Summer Sunset


Empty


Moonflower


Moonflower, Close Up


Lamp


Anyone have a clue what the white flower is? The unopened bud reminded much of a squash blossom.

Looks like a moonflower to me. Was it on a vine? ~m

Thanks chica! I just googled your suggestion, and that's precisely what it is. How lovely. I was drawn to it's cool beauty just as I'm drawn to the beauty of the moon. I'm going to research it more. I'll bet from the looks of it that its blooms only open at night.

Thanks again.

Cher

it is moonflower vine and you're right, it blooms in the evenings. there's several pics of it growing in the Spring Is In The Air thread. last summer anna and i were "racing" to have the first blooms.

So, who won? Or, do I need to do a search for the thread to find out?

Cher

it wasn't really much of a race, anna kicked my butt. i believe she started her seeds two weeks before me, but had the first bloom a good month or more before i did, despite being 175 miles farther north. i was sure i could pass her up, but planting in too much shade was my downfall.

A few from Saturday's trip to the petting zoo:

Jeanne,
Those are AWESOME. I love them all.
But, that nose. Oh, that NOSE!
Cher...GOK's Moonflower reincarnated.
And that wood floor is gorgeous!
Love this thread.
We need a photo phorum.

This battered but beautiful Luna lay dying on the walkway when I came into the hall this afternoon.


Dying Beauty

Cher

A few from yesterday.


Summer Paragon

From my dad's garden:


Summer Fruits


Rosebud

A friend's bookstore at night:


Bookstore At Night

"Summer days, summer nights are gone
Summer days and the summer nights are gone
I know a place where there's still somethin' going on" -- Bob Dylan

Today was a hazy, sultry, humid day. A perfect day for a slow Sunday drive on a gravel road. Here's some of the perfection I encountered on my wandering today.



Symbiosis


Sunflowers

To view the slideshow click here.

Cher

Stunning.
Thank you for sharing this captured beauty with us.
I especially like the center of the sunflower with it's spiral design.
Nature truly amazes me.