A day of rest

Today was a day to rest and to reflect on all that God has done for us.  Ralph and I were up early and went outside to take some sunrise photo's.  It was a beautiful morning and a very pretty sunrise.

We went to church this morning and listened to a good sermon and came away refreshed in God's word.

On our way home from church we stopped at The Dunes Golf Course and picked up a scorecard to review the course as we'll be playing there on Tuesday.

The afternoon was spent relaxing.  Teresa and Lawrence enjoyed their time by sitting near the pool and soaking up the sunshine while Ralph took a walk along the beach and I went in search of sea shells.  It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

We enjoyed a nice home cooked dinner together and then went outside to enjoy the sunset.  It really was a beautiful day.

Beachwood Golf Course

We were up early this morning to prepare for our 8:22 a.m. round of golf at Beachwood Golf Club.  It's only about 15 minutes away from the condo so we had time to enjoy a coffee and have a nice leisurely breakfast.  We spent time chatting with the staff at the Sea Captains House where we go for breakfast.  Over the past 10 years we have gotten to know a few of the people working there.  We were said to hear that "Chicago" our favourite Omelet Chef had retired and that "George" another Omelet Chef had passed away this year.  Both were favourites of most visitors and they made the most amazing omelet.  George had retired a few years earlier but was still an avid golfer. They will both be missed.

While we were eating I looked out of the window and saw the most amazing sunrise.  Luckily I had my camera (no tripod) so I excused myself and went outside to try to capture a picture of it.  It was beautiful!!

We were able to tee off on time and completed our round in about 4 hours.  The course wasn't too bad with respect to water but there were many tree's and branches still down around the fairways.  We were surprised that more weren't cleaned up but understand that they have to prioritize what gets cleaned up first.

As I sit here typing the blog there is thunder rumbling around us.  It looks like a storm is rolling in.  The fog is getting pretty thick over the ocean.

We finished off our day with pizza and a movie.
 
I saw this amazing cloud formation out over the balcony so I attempted to capture it with a 30 second exposure.  It's pretty abstract but I thought it turned out interesting.  It's very dark outside so it emphasizes the clouds off in the distance.

We've arrived safe and sound

After a restful sleep we were all awake by 7:30 this morning.  The weather was nice and warm - around 21c and got progressively warmer as the day went by.  We were on the road by 9:00 and decided to enter Myrtle Beach on the north side as we had heard that there were many road closures and we worried that highway 501 might be too busy.  We encountered many road closures on the way and had to turn around a few times and attempt a different route.  It wasn't too bad though as it only added about 30 minutes to our overall trip.

We saw a lot of flooding along the way and many damaged buildings and tree's.  The hurricane had certainly left it's mark here in North and South Carolina.

We were able to check into our condo nice and early this afternoon and by around 1:30 we were all settled in.  We went to our favourite grilled cheese restaurant for our first day treat!!  Their sandwiches are something that we look forward to every year and they were so good!!

Afterwards we did part of our grocery shopping and went to the golf store and then returned to the condo to relax for a while.  Dinner was a little later this evening because we'd had such a late lunch.  We did a bit more grocery shopping to get the rest of what we needed and then enjoyed an evening meal at The Carolina Ale House.

It's been a busy day but we're here and ready to have a good time.

And we’re off - Myrtle Beach 10 year anniversary

Can you believe this is our 10th year going to Myrtle Beach.  Ralph and I looked back over the years and smiled at the memories.

Yesterday Lawrence and Teresa came over and we packed up their vehicle for the drive down.  The plan was to be on the road by 5:00.

At 4:50 a.m. Lawrence drove into the driveway and the cooler and camera bags were loaded in and we were all ready to go.

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning so I attempted to capture it through the window on my cell phone.

We had a lot of rain as we drove through West Virginia which slowed the driving down a bit but we still made great time and arrived at our hotel by 6:15 p.m.  We're currently in Asheboro, North Carolina.  In our final hour of driving we saw the most amazing rainbow.  It was actually a double which was beautiful to see and a reminder of God's covenant with us.

We enjoyed a nice dinner at the restaurant next door (Kick Back Jacks).  We've never eaten here before so it was a nice change.  The food was delicious.

Tomorrow we have a short drive to Myrtle Beach (only about 3 hours, 15 minutes) which will be nice although we are anticipating some issues with road closures due to flooding.  We have lots of time as we don't check into our condo until 3:00 so we'll see what the travelling brings.  Our plan is to enjoy delicious grilled cheese sandwiches in Murrell's Inlet for lunch.  We found this restaurant a few years ago and they make the most amazing sandwiches. This is always our first stop when we get here.

We're looking forward to a nice week.

The joy of editing

This past week has been enjoyable.  The weather is still pretty amazing and I've been having fun getting out with my camera.  We visited with Christine and she took us to a small farm that she was helping to look after.  The owners were away for a while so Christine helped to feed the chickens and cats as well as their two cows.

I couldn't get over how many flies there were.  I guess I'm a city girl at heart, but yuck, having so many flies wasn't really my thing.  So, as I was photographing the cow's there was no way to avoid getting all the flies in the picture.  It simply meant that I would need to find a way to remove them from the pictures taken.

I removed the flies using a software called ON1 FX which has a really good erasing tool.  I then increased the exposure, cropped the picture and added a small vignette to draw your eye into the picture.

I really have been enjoying our Macro lens that we got this year.  I saw a beautiful spider web and spent some time photographing it.  With the early morning light and sun shining behind it, I was able to capture the intricacies of the web nicely.  During the developing I focused on boosting some of the garden colours in the background to give it some added interest.  I love how the colour reflects off of the web.  

During the evening Ralph and I were watching the spider capture it's prey in it.  I was amazed at how quickly it ran over the web to get the mosquitos that got caught in it.  Sadly something large must have flown threw it as there was a large hole in it this morning.  I hope that the spider comes out and repairs it.

On the weekend Ralph and I went to Peninsula Lakes Golf Course in Pelham which is near Niagara on the Lake.  It was a warm sunny day with lots of humidity. I couldn't resist taking a few photo's with my phone to remember the fun time that we had.  Dinner was an awesome seafood fest which the course hosts in September.  We went last year and really enjoyed it. I'm glad we came again.  It was a nice ending to a wonderful day.

Star chasing

Last week Ralph and I decided to go up north with the hope of capturing some pictures of the Milky Way.  We had a few coupons for golf at Lora Bay and Cobble Beach so we packed up our things and drove north.  It was a "hot" week which turned suddenly cold.  What a dramatic change in weather.

Our first day was spent at Lora Bay where we enjoyed a fun round of golf and then spent the evening looking for a place to set up our cameras.  Sadly the evening was very cloud covered with some rain so we weren't able to get out but the next day sounded like it would be promising.

We found a little park near the water close to Thornbury. We walked the pathway so we would know where we were going in the "pitch black night" and were all set.  The sky was very overcast. I'm sure it was part of the humidity that we were experiencing although the weather reports did say that it was going to clear around midnight.  We set the alarm for 12:30 and went to bed early figuring we would be out for a couple of hours.  When the alarm went off Ralph looked out the door of our hotel and said that he couldn't see any stars.  About a half an hour later I went outside and there wasn't a cloud in sight so we got dressed and drove back to the park.

It was a beautiful sky although there were some lights in the area that we hadn't anticipated but we're still pleased with the end results. If you look at the colours in the sky in the photos below you will see that there are significant differences between the two pictures.  Ralph and I chose to set up our cameras with slightly different settings to see the impact to the colour.  This is dictated by the White Balance.  The top photo has more yellows in it and is a warmer colour vs the bottom which has more blues in it.  Along the treetops you can see some of the light pollution that was coming from a field nearby.  I'm really happy with both shots that we took.

On Friday, we golfed at Cobble Beach in Owen Sound.  It was a much cooler day which was actually quite refreshing after the past two days.  After our round we headed to Tobermory in anticipation of some very dark skies.  We arrived just as the sun was setting.  It was a stunning sunset with beautiful red skies.

After enjoying the sunset we went and had dinner at one of the local micro breweries.  By the time we were finished we knew that it would be dark enough for us to see the Milky Way.  We drove out of town and started looking for a good place to stop that was well enough away from any passing traffic.  We saw a sign for a small local airport and thought that might be a good place to start.  The road was nice and dark and we thought that there wouldn't be any traffic on it.  Were we ever surprised.  We had just set up when not one, not two but at least 5 cars went by in a matter of minutes.  Obviously we had picked a well travelled road.  So we packed up and headed back towards Owen Sound in search of another place.

Below are two pictures that we took near the airport.  If you observe a large star on the bottom centre part of the picture - this is the planet Saturn.

If you look closely on the bottom right hand side of the picture you can see a shooting star.  

After driving for a period of time, we headed down this road that was suppose to take us to a Lighthouse and shoreline.  We soon saw signs talking about construction and caution notices regarding soft shoulders.  All around us were these really tall trees.  There was no way we were going to set up our cameras in this area so we decided to turn around.  The positive thing was that it was very dark and we didn't expect to see any traffic but wouldn't you know it, as soon as we turned we saw a vehicle approaching us with their high beams on.  Oh well, it wasn't meant to be.

We made one final attempt near a farmers field.  It's wasn't the best location but it was getting late (12:30ish) so we set up our cameras and starting shooting.  There were all sorts of Hydro lines in our way and neither one of us wanted to venture into a deep ditch to avoid them. I figured I could erase the lines when developing the pictures.  We had only been set up for about 15 minutes when Ralph noticed that the stars were disappearing and sure enough there was heaving cloud cover moving in.  Oh well!  It was an adventure.  We drove back to Owen Sound and by that point in time it was about 1:30.  We parked in the Walmart lot and enjoyed a beverage before putting our seats back for a short nap.

We were up early (5:00 am) and ready for a coffee.  It was "cold" in the truck.  We hadn't planned to sleep in the vehicle and as a result had no blankets or pillows.  The temperature had dropped down to 9c and we sure could feel it.  After a coffee to warm us up, we headed for home.  During our drive back we were blessed with the most amazing sunrise.  I sure love this time of year as the sun is often a beautiful colour of red and it was so vibrant.

All in all it was a lovely mini vacation.