The Photo Contest in On!

Okay - I did my part for the photo contest. Bunch of stuff entered. Some good, some so-so. We'll see.

Good! It is really is hard to know what will happen because the membership votes. Some of my favorite photos were not used on the calender last year and I'm not talking about my own, the ones I voted for. In fact, the best photo I put in was not even close. It was my personal best picture of the year; a praying mantis. ( That was last year. ) The butterflies and dragonflies trumped it all over the place. Of course, looking at a calender, people would naturally be more drawn to pretty insects. And there were some Really Excellent pictures! So, the best part is looking at them. I can hardly wait for the voting to start! I've got to say that those bird pictures are Super! That is probably my favorite category to look at. Does anyone else have a favorite category?

I agree with you Roybird. The voting and resulting calendar aren't really a critical assessment of photographic quality. Its more of an "I think that one is pretty" type of assessment. It is fun as just that.

So, which category do you like best?

I like the hoses category.

Other than that, I probably like the landscapes best. It captures the beauty of individual plants and flowers, but also shows the creativity and artistry of the gardener and displays the skill of the photographer to select and frame a shot.

Hoses are a very useful category. We should try to count the hoses in the pictures this year! I wonder if there will be many? Landscapes are great to see. This year there are sunsets and moons, too.

That guy who does the sunsets has quite an artistic eye.

Yeah. Same one who does the mountains.

Bulbous and tuberous things for me (big surprise). Then I'm big on trees which show up in alot of different catagorys. I AM putting in a hose picture this year. I think that it is my duty to champion all the sadly overlooked hoses in hopes that one day there will be a "Hose" catagory. It will be my favorite catagory cuz I seem to have an awesome ability to focus on them willynilly! Note for future hose competitors. It is best to have brightly coloured hoses strewn everywhere. They will draw your camera focus like a magnet.

It also helps if they awkwardly interfere with the composition, so you really notice them. I am good at that.

Brilliant point Mulch! Hoses are not photo contest worthy if subtle. They must be awkward and unruly reflecting the shades of how they wrestle you to the ground when you try to coil or uncoil them. Of course they are famous for the lurk and trip strategy. Hoses multi-task. It's well know. And let's not even discuss hoseguards which I believe practise voodoo.

LOL!

D'nut, you obviously know hoses well...

Remember my trellis made from rebar and old hose? It looks like my hose is arching up and burrowing in to the ground. Not a very lovely design! It did do the job, however. In the spring I will be cutting back roses and will probably pull that trellis out Or build on to it. I haven't decided which.

I wonder if you grow roses over a trellis for enough years, if you could not do away with the trellis and just have an arch of roses?

As long as it wasn't too windy, maybe. But it might tend to get heavy.

I think that depends on the rose, Dave who is Dave. Lady Banks roses seem to be able to (after time) create their own support system. Others, maybe not so much.

The Tombstone Rose...

http://www.goldcoastrose.org/shared/tombstone.htm

That is a huge rose plant. I was thinking that if the woody part of a rose is allowed to extend further each year that it could take the shape of an arched trellis.

Been there when the rose was blooming! Quite impressive. The reason it smells like violets is because violets are growing all underneath the rose and "out-smell" it! Some kinds of roses want to bloom on new canes only and they need to be pruned back quite a bit. Others, like Penelope, say, want to sprawl all over the place and do not like to be pruned. Penelope is more bothered by heavy snow, the weight of it. Which is one reason she needs support. And also someone to dust her off when it is really heavy. Currently snowing here, by the way, but lightly.

It's still dumping here. Upslope. It looks like we have about 18" - 20" so far in my yard (on the ridge just west of downtown - we always seem to get dumped on more heavily). I might have to go out and take some winter pictures.

Good idea! The snow here has mostly melted in to ice puddles in town. It is cold, cold, cold! At almost 11:00 it is 27 degrees. More like winter than fall. We hope the roofers will be able to start next week. Supposedly it will be warmer and drier for a few days. It is decidedly unscenic, too. Plus, slightly windy. Yick.

Wow, that's a lot of snow, DenverJude! We got about 4 - 5 inches over the previous 2 days. It's dang cold, too!

We're closer to 2 feet now. tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so I'll go out and take some melty snow in the sunshine pics then.

I must admit that I completely missed this thread. If no one else has started working on a forum calendar yet I would happy to do it, since I already have a store set up.

I'm scared to look at how many photos I have on my hard drive. I know that the new camera we purchased last year is getting very close to ten thousand photos. We are probably going to have to add another terabyte hard drive to hold them.

Hmph. It's obvious I'm going to have to move to Colorado if you guys are getting all the snow!

You could move to SantaFe, Picante. It is snowing here and starting to stick in town now. The mountains around us are covered by clouds. I heard somewhere that the ski basin got a foot of snow the other day and this will add to that. Chances are it will melt off next week, though. Still kind of early.

Some of our ski areas already opened.
Loveland opened on 10/7
A-Basin opened on 10/9
Wolf Creek opens 10/31
Copper Mountain opens 11/6
Everything else opens sometime between 11/14 and mid-December depending on how much snow they get.

Chinook happening here. We'll be in the 50s for the next couple of couple of days.

@dahlianut - My guess is that it will move down to us soon enough...

I wonder if I can weather transport a Chinook? hmmmmmmm

That would be quite a trick, Dnut, as Chinooks much prefer a northerly direction.

I think it would be easier to name a hockey team after them. The Saskatoon Chinooks.

@dahlianut - I think the chinook has arrived, though weakly. It warmed up and dried up quite suddenly when the winds picked up and moved around to be out of the west. Half the snow is gone already. I'm glad we didn't get the full-on chinook wind. That howling high wind drives me batty!

Slightly windy here today, sunny and cold. Got up to 38 at my house. Brrr.

No kiddin DJ. Some people here have to retire from society during Chinooks. This one is mild. I get headaches if the pressure changes are severe so I have a headsup on batty ^_^ Did you read the article on mood swings with the Santa Anas? Child play compared to the mood swings that some have with Chinooks IMPO.

I don't think we have them here. Our worst winds come in the spring. The winds full of juniper pollen. Glaaaah!

Erk, I grew up in Santa Ana land. My hair used to get all electricky and stand out from my head. Cats hated it, as they got shocked when petted.

I don't know about the Chinooks...

Santa Anna winds are at least warm.

We get them on the front range as the warm air mass speeds down the front side of the divide getting faster and drier as it goes. It hits the plains of the front range at speeds upward of 50, 60 even 80 mph with even higher gusts over 100 mph. It's dry and hot. it evaporates all the moisture (hence the 'snow eater' name chinook). Snow literally evaporates, skipping the water stage completely. It sucks the moisture from you skin and nose and hair and anything else that might have some moisture in it. And it's relentless. The mild ones that only last a day are kind of nice - breezy warmer temps to dry our streets and sidewalks. The big bad ones that last for days just suck. Sometimes they suck so bad that they literally suck the big panes of glass out of east facing windows in tall buildings by creating a vacuum as they blow past from the west. Chinook winds can knock a big burly man off his feet and have blown little old ladies 100's of yards. they've knocked down big power poles like they were toothpicks, peeled whole roofs off buildings, blown rocks (not pebbles, rocks) through car windows. They can be scary. We usually have one big nasty Chinook each year and a bunch of milder ones throughout the winter.

We used to really like Santa Ana winds because they would not cause the waves to get "blown out" in the afternoon. They would maintain good form and you could surf all day. The ocean was a good way to deal with the 110 to 120 F heat.