Fair animals

When I visited the animal barns at the Frederick Fair last week, the young farmers were showing their animals. This young lady was leading her cow to the judges. A couple of sheep were waiting patiently while others nearby were getting bathed for the show.

And this bearded cock did not want to face the camera!

Harness racing at the fair

Warming up

Harness racing is part of the Great Frederick Fair. Last Tuesday when I took these shots the pacers were racing. The races are strictly exhibition and there is no pari-mutual betting. There were 10 races total for pacers and trotters over four days of the fair.

Approaching the start of the race

Coming around the bend

A later race when I had walked to the other end of the race track

Black and white clouds

We had some dramatic clouds moving by with a strong wind Sunday. I took a few b&w shots as well as color. The leaves were blowing too and I found one looking like a strange plane in the image below.

Root Beer Man

I visited the Great Frederick Fair yesterday and shot some scenes (next week will be "fair week" on my blogs). Among the concessions at the fair, this one caught my eye, first because of the old red truck, and second because I was thirsty. The truck is a 1937 Ford with the root beer stand built on the back. The truck still runs and is tagged for highway use, but the proprietor hauls it on long trips. He travels to 20 fairs a year, mostly in New York, but also Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina and Florida.

Serving one up

Mine's paid for

Root beer kid

Morning fog lifting

Early Monday morning a layer of ground fog covered the field behind our house. At 7:17 EDT I could barely see the farm buildings across the field. Five minutes later it looked like the second image and by 7:29 was almost gone.

Coleus and liriope

The plants around our mailbox have survivied the summer heat and are looking good for fall.

Skyline - Downtown Frederick

Skline to northwest from center of town

Sky over library

New blog - Lew's Favorite Pics

I have started a new blog, Lew's Favorite Pics, where I am posting some of my favorite images in a larger format. There is no particular theme and some of the images have appeared previously here or on Lew's Other Pics. The first few favorites are posted.

Benches by the creek

I have enjoyed PERBS' and Kerri's and RuneE's benches and decided to occasionally join them, posting a bench image for Friday. This pair is in Carroll Creek Linear Park in downtown Frederick.

Golden Gears car show

1929 Ford Model A

The Golden Gears Car Club of Frederick County showed their prize autos last Saturday. The members are interested in preserving and enjoying the cars of the past. And along the way they raise money for charity through their events. The old Fords here shown all have newer V8 engines! (Also my header is from their show.)

1923 Ford T Bucket

1930 Ford Model A

1976 Chevy Scottsdale

1957 Chevy

Fall is coming

Signs that summer is ending and fall is near are all around us. Leaves are beginning to to fall, the oaks are dropping acorns, Farmers are harvesting fields, kids line up in the morning to catch the school bus and the weather is cooler. It's not yet time for the rake or jackets, but soon will be.

Boating - Frederick style

The City of Frederick is not Annapolis and has no navigable waters that lead to the sea. But you can rent a kayak or paddleboat or canoe and go the length of the park that straddles the Carroll Creek through downtown. As part of First Saturday, a few folks were taking to the water while most strolled the steets. (More First Saturday scenes will appear this coming week on Lew's Other Pic's.)

Moon light over field

Taken a little after 2 AM with tripod. A

Automatic mode, ISO 1600, exposure 8 seconds.

Full moon rising

Auto mode, ISO 1600, Shutter 1/125 sec, F 5.6

With some low clouds to the east, the full moon was not visible as it cleared the horizon. These shots were taken over a 6 minute span about 20 minutes after the predicted moonrise time.

Manual, ISO 1600, Shutter 1/320 sec, F 5.6

Manual, ISO 800, Shutter 1/500 sec, F 5.6

Moon - exposure is everything

ISO 400, Shutter 1/640 sec, F 5.6

With a clear sky and two days before full moon, I decided to experiment with settings for getting good night time photos. My camera is a Nikon D40X. I used my 55-200mm zoom lens set to 200mm. I used manual mode for exposure and only varied the shutter speed. I took these a little after 9:00 pm EDT, hand held, leaning against a fence post. The images were cropped and then resized to a width of 600 pixels. I now have a starting point (image above) for taking photos of the moon.

ISO 400, Shutter 1/320 sec, F 5.6

ISO 400, Shutter 1/160 sec, F 5.6

Blue beauty

I caught this beauty flitting around the yard yesterday.