What a fiery sky! I love the depth of colors.

I was leaving the house to run to Walmart when I noticed the sunset. I got a few decent shots snapped of it.

Confession time...usually, I don't need to do retouches on photos, just because the camera does a great job of picking up the vibrancy of color. However, this area the flowers are in was quite shady at the time it was taken, so it had a real dullness to it. So, I used Gimp and saturated a few colors to bring the natural look out some, and brighten the picture.

I went to Saddle Creek Park this morning for a look around, as I've never been there since living here in Lakeland. The Saddle Creek area is made up of lots of small lakes, that are abandoned phosphate mines. Supposedly, it has some great fishing. And this is on one of the nature trails. I didn't think this spider would turn out nicely, and I was surprised when I saw the jpeg on the computer.

The heron made a great shot, but I had to do some serious cropping due to litter in the water. I'm by no means an environmentalist, but littering in our lakes ticks me off.

Flowers in someone's yard. The red caught me eye.

This squirrel was playing around with me, and I got this shot.

Wildflower and Ants

This photo was cropped and I tweaked the color saturation a bit. I thought the ants were a bonus I wasn't expecting.

After the Rain

The way the filtered morning light was hitting this spot made this shot provided a great ambiance. The water droplets were screaming for a shot.

A Tale of Two Spiders...

As I hiked into Gator Creek, I saw lots of Banana Spiders along the trail.The tiny spider is the male. Apparently, it's time for baby spiders.

Bright Butterfly

I took this picture on Friday morning. I went on a hike at Gator Creek Reserve, in Central Florida's Green Swamp. The purpose of my hike was a bit of exercise, and of course, photos. This little guy seemed to really pose it up for me. It's a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly, because it can be seen oftentimes far out over the Gulf of Mexico. The vibrancy of the orange on this insect was breathtaking. I will at times adjust color saturation once the jpeg is on the computer, but there was no need here.

A Newfound Art

When I first started this blog over a year ago, it was under the premise that it was a political punditry and venting site. While I remain a strongly conservative guy, I decided to let Rush and Hannity handle the politics, I'll just listen. As you can see, a year later, I still have no political ramblings up here.

But, the title lends itself to a newfound art of mine. Photography. So, check back here every couple of days. I'll have new photos up that I've taken. Check the links to the right of the screen. I have a photo blog at National Geographic's website. Thanks for your visit!