Vintage Racing!

A necessary part of the Vintage Grand Prix is the Grand Prix part.  We saw the first race of the day.  I don't know what the classification was, but it's fun to see these expensive cars move fast.  We parked on "turn 13" to watch some of the action.

This is the pace lap or whatever you call it. 

This is the car that would eventually become the winner.  He was pretty hard core about this race.  Everyone was not.

This car took the turn pretty well for one of the slower models.

This is our winner again.  He almost was passed by the green car, but then the green car lost some ground.

As we left the Grand Prix this butterfly landed on the walkway in front of us.  We stopped to take some photos, then lifted him off of the path so that he doesn't get squished.



This is Flagstaff hill looking toward Oakland.  This Vintage Grand Prix thing draws a lot of boring cars too.

Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix

Hubby and I decided that it would be fun to go to the Zoo this afternoon.  We stopped for coffee on the way and saw some antique cars in the parking lot.  This made us decide that we should go to the Vintage Grand Prix instead!  Since I know a lot about cars, my commentary will be extremely educational throughout these photos.

This is a 1912 something or other.   I think it came in any color as long as you choose black.  It was pretty.

This is a red car.  It is a Rolls Royce.  It is pretty too.



This is a blue car.  It is old. 

My hubby is going to buy me one of these for my birthday next year.  It's a Thunderbird.  I have a thing for them.  If you don't understand why, ask my mom.  She gets it.

What's a fancy car show without a photo at the weiner mobile!

This car goes fast.  The bald guy was revving the engine very loudly.

Next post will be cars racing!

Flowers and Squonk Opera Roadshow at Dusk

In an effort to move on to something different, we took some photos of Oakland. 

I think the evening light made the pink on this plant really glow. I love how evening light really highlights the beauty of flowers.

Just after I took this photo of the Cathedral of Learning someone snuck up behind us to take this photo on her iPhone.  I'm not sure it worked, but I am sure that we walked through her next photo.

This is the museum as taken from the middle of Bellefield St.  Permitted?  Unlikely.  Fun?  Absolutely.

As is normal in most communities, there was a free concert just up the street today.  It was held in Schenley Plaza.  We unintentionally got there early enough to photograph this strange stage accent.

The band was named Squonk Opera.  I don't know what a Squonk is, but it was fun to find out.  Here are a few photos of the early songs in the performance.

In the end, it was a nice evening in the city.  It is always fun to see what strange things are happening just up the street from our home.

I know I take a lot of photos of birds but...

they just keep coming to our backyard!  It was a rainy Saturday in Pittsburgh.  Since the Psych Saturday marathon doesn't start until sometime in the evening, we decided to get out of the house to burn some time.  What better place to burn time than in our own backyard aka the National Aviary.  There were a few birds ready to pose this afternoon.

This little gold dude was drying off his wings on a branch right in front of me.  I like how compulsive birds are about showing every angle for photos.  Models should take note!

This is a roadrunner in the less visited Australian section of the Aviary.  While I was taking this photo there was a dad who was telling his daughter this guy was "holding a stick in his mouth".  Clearly that man was misinformed.

I was taking photos of this beautiful lady from an angle that we found in the weeds when a grandmother announced that she was "waiting her turn to take a good photo" from our spot.  I should have been flattered but that was not my first reaction to the statement.  Thankfully hubby spoke for us and only had kind things to say.

These crazy pigeons were at the Aviary again.  I don't know why I spend so much time photographing these magnificently ordinary birds.

Here's two of them looking at each other.

I try to take a photo of this colorful bird every time I visit the back yard.  He is beautiful but hard to photograph due to his awesome colors and the stupid blue background in his home.  Finally today I achieved the impossible.

Well it was an ordinary day in the backyard, but at least I got a few ordinary photos.

Oakland at Night

Hubby and I were feeling pretty good about our photography skills until we started looking at photos of Wisconsin taken on their photo sharing website, then we were suddenly introduced to our own inadequacies.  In an effort to solve this problem, we were inspired to take Collins and wander about Oakland at night attempting to be awesome.  I'm not entirely sure that we were awesome, but here are the results of our labor.

This fountain has been lovingly named by my father as "Turtle Spit"  It is located in front of Frick Fine Arts on the University campus.  It is creatively named after its turtles that spew water from their mouths.

This photo was taken with a shutter speed of approximately 13 seconds.  I like how dramatic the star of light seems.

This is taken from the front of Frick Fine arts with approximately the same shutter speed.  The strange sculptures are not facing our way, but I don't know that this is a drawback...

This photo allowed us to see the Cathedral of Learning along with the sculpture. I like it because the turtles are spewing in their happy way in full view in this shot.  I think I would make a poor fountain designer...

Day or night, I am always happy to photograph or visit Phipps.  We had to wait a few minutes to get this shot because the employees were exiting after a long wedding reception filled day just as we arrived.  We tried to look casual until they got to their cars.  Unfortunately, looking casual is difficult with a tripod.

There are some lovely lampposts on the sidewalk just infront of the conservatory.  I wish this lamppost were nearer to the woods, and a wardrobe....

Hubby's Hard Week at Work

Hubby told me that he had to go to the upper peninsula of Michigan for work last week.  He took Collins with him just in case he had the chance to take some pictures.  When he returned I discovered what "work" really meant... 



This is Lake Superior from the vantage point of one of the many parks and forests in the area.  After seeing this photo I immediately felt sorry for Hubby for the lousy conditions that he had to endure for four days.

The large rainstorms that were occurring in the area early last week lead to some awesome swollen rivers joined with post-storm blue skies.  

This photograph was taken in Wisconsin at Copper Falls State Park.  This is evidently the 'Bad River'.  I like how the sun almost looks like it was taken with a star filter.

Evidently Michigan is not very efficient at clearing large rocks out of the way of their rivers.  As a result, they have a 'flood' of waterfalls in the area. har har har. Hubby went exploring and found several. 

The lighting in this photo gave it some awesome contrast between the falling watter and the fallen water.  This one is one of my favorites of the group.

Unfortunately, the sun was so bright that some of the photos of bright white water looked a lot like a polar bear eating ice cream in a blizzard.  This one was taken when hubby changed the aperture to the extent that there was some better contrast.  I think the shade helped out with this as well.

I thought that the bright blue water made this next photo a standout.  I wonder if they dye it green for St. Patty's Day.

Finally, hubby drove past a Michigan liquor store on his adventure in hiking.  Evidently this place sells very large bottles.   

It seems a little bit like overkill to label the large corkscrew in this way, it makes me wonder what other obvious things need labels around there. Perhaps a good business venture would be to create shirts that read "Henchman #1" just in case any bad guys need some clothes.

All in all, it was a long week for hubby but the photos show that it wasn't as rough on him as he would have you believe.  Although the good people of Michigan evidently speak like they are straight from the movie Fargo, hubby has come back without any scary wood chipper stories and didn't even see any snow. 

How do you take a good photo of sixteen people?

I don't know the answer to that question, but clearly Katrina does as she is my guest photographer for the family shots.  The whole family has been together a few weeks in a row so we pounced upon the opportunity to trick Katrina into taking a photo that includes our newest redheaded family member.

This photo is a rare accomplishment because you can at least see some of everyone's face... even pink pony.  I'm not sure how that bearded man avoided holding a child. Maybe he's not as popular as the rest of the adults.

Everyone was supposed to be looking in a different direction in this photo, but even that is hard to accomplish with sixteen people.  Also, the redhead and pink pony's owner are faceless in this one.  It's a fun photo anyway.

 
This little girl wandered from the group.  I caught her as she was taking off with a rose.  I think we need to bring a sheepdog to family get togethers to solve this wandering child problem.

Sissy thought it would be fun to take some portraits with the new wide angle lens. 

I don't think I'm capable of appearing in a series of photos without leaping in at least half of them.  The rest look like I'm flapping my arms trying to fly. 

For all of you who wonder what a family get together is like at my parent's home, these photos do not capture even the tiniest glimpse of the madness.  Maybe next time...