Columbiana Shoot

Gary and I went to downtown Columbiana Tuesday for an early evening photoshoot.

The "new" Shelby County Courthouse was completed in 1908. The "old" courthouse is two blocks south and now serves as home to the Shelby County Historical Society.

Evening falls on the steeple of Columbiana United Methodist Church.

Columbiana may believe in the separation of church and state, but not by much. Columbiana United Methodist Church (Est. 1846) sits across Depot Street from the Shelby County Courthouse (built 1908).

When some of the older building on Main Street in Columbiana were built, setbacks from the property line were pretty small.

This old building in Columbiana has been used by several businesses over the years and is now an optometrist's office. If these windows aren't original, I believe they must be quite old.

Monday evening Gary and I went to Liberty Park where there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty. When I came to Birmingham in 1971 this statue sat atop a building downtown, the headquarters of Liberty National Life Insurance. I don't know why the gas flame was not burning, nor do I know why all the cherry trees are dead.

We also visited a small man-made waterfall in the same neighborhood. As the sun goes down you can get some silky water effects.

Oak Hill Cemetery

I was unable to attend the Catchlight Small Group visit to Turkey Creek Preserve last Saturday, so Gary and I decided to go to Oak Hill Cemetery just north of downtown Birmingham to see what we could shoot Monday evening. This was a view of the Birmingham skyline I had never seen before. It was so very peaceful and quite, yet so close to I-20/59 and downtown during rush hour.

The waxing gibbous moon rose over the city, just to the left of our view of the skyline. We decided to go back Thursday to aim for a full moon over the city, but the clouds did not cooperate.

The buildings all look reversed from the normal skyline shot I'm used to from the south side at Railroad Park or Vulcan Park. Plus I had never seen City Hall illuminated with the green and blue LED lights before.

Limestone Dragonfly

Sometimes you go looking for birds and all you get is dragonflies. Such was the case Thursday at Limestone Park.

Zoo and Gardens

JoPaul and I went to the zoo and botanical gardens yesterday morning.

The flamingos like to bury their heads and give you the evil eye if you look at them.

This was the only one of the Macaws that was out sunning.  

The water lily pond, or reflecting pool, was filled with beautiful lilies. I love the surface tension of the water around the leaf.

These guys love the water lilies, or maybe they love the little things that are hatching out in the pond

I like how the dragonflies pose for you.

Cedar Tree

The branch was in the way, so now it's not.

Catch and Release

This Great Blue was following a fisherman up and down the beach. At first I thought he was hoping to steal a catch from the guy when he had a fish, but then I saw his plan. He had the catch and release thing down pat. The fisherman finally caught a small fish and the heron just stood there and watched. When the fisherman threw it back into the surf, the Great Blue took off and almost caught the stunned fish before he realized he was back in the water. This time the fish survived, but I'll bet they all don't.