The Samford of Auburn

As you have probably already noticed (from my header), I am an Alabama fan. However, I have family that lives in Auburn and plenty of friends who have attended AU.

Last weekend a longtime friend of mine, and graduate of Auburn University, and her husband came to Auburn to attend the football game. Of course Justin and I were not going to the game, but we did walk around campus amongst all the tailgaters ahead of time.

With it being Halloween weekend there were plenty of crazies dressed up…for instance the eagle woman? or is she a blue and orange chicken?

(Just playing…I’m sure she’s an eagle since it IS Auburn.)

We walked from Toomer’s Corner, the site of the historic oak trees that are rolled after every win, through the quad area behind Samford Hall to the stadium. From there we parted with my friends and headed back home.

I willingly admit that Auburn is a beautiful town and I love that it is a  small town, although some folks will tell you it is growing too fast and becoming too big. That’s a good problem to have, maybe. It seems the students love the town enough to want to stay there after graduation.

(Pretty soon it won’t be referred to as a town anymore, but a city with a small-town feel.)

The original Samford Hall named "Old Main"

Along with the beautiful town comes a beautiful college campus. Samford Hall, built in 1859, is the poster building for the University. It was originally built for East Alabama Male College (nicknamed Auburn), but when classes were suspended 1862 due to the Civil War the building was transformed into a hospital. Classes resumed in 1866, but the building burned down in 1887. The building that is so well known today was rebuilt in 1888.

I could go on, but I’ll spare y’all the complete history. If you are that interested you can read more here.

I just had to show this picture again. I have shot Samford Hall several times and NEVER come away with a photo I am truly satisfied with. Well, it finally happened for me last weekend so I had to show it to you again larger.

I hope y’all enjoyed a little history lesson. Linking up for Thursday and Friday, but I have to wait a day.

Have a blessed day!

Part 3: Raptors and Owls in Tiger Town, Oh My!

This is the final installment of the Southeastern Raptor Center photos. You can see Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Enjoy…

Uncle Corey flew his Red Tail Hawk in the breezeway for the girls. They thought it was so neat!

The girls and Justin were finding the perfect spot to stand and watch.

Uncle Corey getting Djosier out of his room. He just finished a delicious meal of mice. Now he is ready to show off and fly.

Anxiously waiting…

Here he comes!

There he goes! He’s quick…LA took her eyes off of him and didn’t see him land.

And he came over to take a bow…

Two happy girls!

More Raptors and Owls in Tiger Town Oh My!

If you missed part 1 of the photo series Raptors and Owls in Tiger Town, Oh My! click here.

Continuing on…

The girls LOVED this little screech-owl named Groucho. To see a “portrait” of Groucho click here.

And we also have Mercer. I’m partial to him because of his name. (Mercer is where I went to college.)

And Rain…

He has a beautifully symmetrical design in his feathers. We didn’t pet him, but he looks like he would be so silky to touch.

While I was taking pictures of all these owls I couldn’t help but think that my grandma Mary would LOVE to have been there…or at least see the pictures. She was a Chi Omega in college and had collected owls ever since.

I love that association I have!

There will be a part 3 in the next day or two. Uncle Corey got Djosier out and let him fly for the girls. You can see a sneak peek of that here.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I took a week off from participating in the Scavenger Hunt and I really didn’t shoot with the items in mind this week just because I forgot to see what the prompts were.

So let’s see what I can come up with…

Macro

Meet Groucho. He’s a rescued screech-owl that lives at the raptor center. I love how teenie-weenie he is. I added a double layer of textures to give the boring, originally white, background some spice.

 

Found Texture

How about a soft feather.

Home

The girls made our spider pumpkin at home the other afternoon and we placed it on our front porch at home. Does that count? I used the tutorial Ashley posted here.

Cover

Ummmm….How about…this bird is flying under a cover.

Tree

This weekend I had a chance to spend a few hours with a dear friend of mine from high school. She lives in NC now so our chances to see each other are few and far between. I pulled this tree picture from my archives. It is from one of the hikes we went on during one of my visits up there a few years ago.

So there you have it. I managed to produce something for each prompt!

Raptors and Owls in Tiger town, OH MY!

We took the kids to the Raptor Center in Auburn this weekend. My brother-in-law works there so he was able to show the girls some of the birds up close and fly them for them as well. It was a neat experience for the kids!

This is Corey’s Red Tail Hawk, Djosier.

He was hit by a truck back in 2005 and lost his right eye.

Djosier was friendly enough to put on a show for the girls. He was such a poser. It made it really easy to photograph him.

Check out those claws!

MG and LA got to watch Uncle Corey feed Djosier thawed mice. Surprisingly, they were not grossed out by that. Djosier also flew for the girls after he finished his lunch.

Stay tuned. More to come later…

Study of a Dandelion

I’ve been practicing shooting macro with my Canon 100mm 2.8 lens and have noticed that I tend to pick the windy days to try it out.

Note to self…not a good idea. Regardless, I shot a dandelion anyway in the backyard while the girls played. These are the best shots I ended up with.

Hard at Work

Clearly this is not a self-portrait. With everything going on right now I have been a busy, frazzled stressball. Yesterday we did not have cross country practice (day before a meet) and as I was leaving school with MG in tow I noticed this teacher hard at work at his desk…in the dark. I loved the luminance of the lamp and the quiet peaceful setting. Can’t you just imagine some classical music playing too?! Well, you imagined correctly!

So right now my “happy place” is this setting. It’s very calming but productive too.

Later I went back and added a texture to tone down the natural light from the window. I used a blackboard type texture. Get it?…teacher…blackboard.

Which do you like better? Texture or No Texture?