Sunday Stills (07-22-12 Up In the Sky)

This week's Sunday Stills challenge is to photograph things we see up in the sky. Around New Mexico, spotting a hot air balloon is a common occurence.

The clouds were unusually heavy on the mountaintops on this day and the moon was still visible in the day-time sky.

This contrail is straight up and down. I wasn't sure if I could get the photo because the sun was right there, but I think it came out pretty cool.

Everyone sees stars in the sky, but stars made of clouds? I don't know if this was caused by one plane playing or what, but it was very cool.

Here are two experimental planes out for a morning soar.

And lastly, it's always a bad thing when one sees smoke in the sky. This was from a recent fire in the bosque (little woods) down by the Rio Grande river and within city limits. It spread quickly, jumping the river and threatening to engulf houses but, fortunately, was put out before causing massive damage (like Colorado Springs) other than a few hundred acres of trees. On my way home from work, I drove under the smoke and it was very eerie, causing everything I saw to take on a golden hue for a few seconds.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here. 

Sunday Stills (07-15-12 Pick Two)

I am choosing Roads from 07-01-12 because I missed that challenge and Weather, because I took photographs while driving through a thunderstorm. This curvy little road is a steep downhill grade with cliffs on the right hand side. It's scary, especially when you come across a roadside cross or bent guardrails, where you know someone has had an accident or died.

Here are some pretty cool cloud formations

then the storm clouds moved in,

 

the heavens opened, and it poured.

Next thing I knew, the skies are clearing and I'm wondering if it even rained here.

 I do love this little country church and road.

Oh the crazy things you'll find on roads.

Port-a-potty on the go, anyone?

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.

Sunday Stills (07-08-12 Winter Pictures)

For this week's Sunday Stills photo challenge, we may use archival photos, unless we can find fresh snow. ;)

Louise seems to like the snow, Thelma, not so much. See little Sophie at bottom right, only a month old.

Although beautiful, snow makes for treacherous driving conditions.

Skyy loves to frolic in the cold wet stuff.

Here's a younger Skyy in action. 

Snow can be so pretty and peaceful, and a reminder of work set aside.

On a winter's morning, I look outside my window and see...snow!

 

Snow reminds me of the Christmas season.

Here's Sandy surveying the foggy, snowy morning.

This is my backyard, a winter wonderland.

Here's fuzzy Yalla! after a roll in the snow.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit Ed's website.

Sunday Stills ( 6-24-12 Browns)

This week's Sunday Stills photo challenge is the color brown. I decided to go with a rather unusual stone wall I saw in Santa Fe.

And here's my alpaca herd, bedded down for the night. Louise is bay black, the baby, Sophie Rose is a shade redder than Louise and Thelma is a reddish brown.

And this one is for Ed, a brown horse, Yalla!

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.

Sunday Stills (6-17-12 Clouds)

Today's photo challenge is clouds. Ahhh, one of my favorite pastimes is looking at cloud formations, one of God's miracles.

One day, I watched in fascination as this multi-layered cloud

reformed into a UFO.

On this morning, the clouds completely covered the mountains with a white froth.

This particular morning, there were layers and layers of horizontal clouds

or do you prefer vertical layers?

How about an extraterrestrial handprint?

Add a little sunset and you get stunning shades of pinks

and oranges, because, after all, you can't have a spectacular sunset without clouds, can you?

Gosh, I could go on and on, but I'll just let others share their photos instead. Visit here for more Sunday Stills.

Sunday Stills (6-10-12 Numbers)

This week's challenge is to photograph numbers. I drive historic highway Route 66 daily.
 

Here are our cluster mailboxes. 

I think the tree jumped in the way when I snapped this photo. I wanted to show you the cool, giant !25 sign for the I-25 Shopping area. 

This is certainly an easy number to remember. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have pursued something with my injury last year when Scout was scared by the neighbors' loose dogs and reared over backwards, breaking my ankle. I'm still paying off the surgery and doctors. After all, it happened while I was riding on a gravel neighborhood road. Oh well, I'm not the suing kind. 

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.

Sunday Stills (6-2-12 Blues)

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was to show photos of the color blue. Here are my choices:

A peacock's head and neck is such a bright blue. I just love the crazy feathers on his head.

The "eyes" of a peacock are a special shade of blue.

Water always reflects the most refreshing shades of blue.

Here is my mom's dog, Tobey, looking incredibly cute under a blue blanket.

Here are some blue, blue skies behind a tall, almost leafless tree.

 How about some blue clouds and blue mountains on a cloudy evening in the ranch lands of southwestern New Mexico?

And lastly, my Simba, from a few years ago. I always loved this picture of him with his blue eyes enhanced by the blue wall.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.