You Capture - Back-to-School AND Summer Sunsets

This week Beth gave us a You Capture choice - either Back-to-School or Summer Sunsets. Of course, right away I chose summer sunsets because I don't have any back-to-school people in my household. However, since I happened to be at Beth's yesterday when the kids got home, I felt compelled to try to capture Back-to-School.

Here they are right after they got off the bus and as they ran up to greet Eli and I.

And it's incredible to me how much things have changed since our kids were in school. Back then, computers were only around for games and entertainment - today they might will be an integral part of a homework assignment.

As I drove home, I started making plans to capture a beautiful sunset over Lake Michigan and I just know if there had been a few respectable clouds, I would have nailed this challenge. Instead of clouds, though, there was wind and I tried to include some of the incredible waves while being sand blasted and never taking my hand off my camera bag and tripod for fear they'd blow away.

Obviously I wasn't the only one braving the incredible, relentless wind to capture the moment.

I took hundreds of pictures and I just couldn't quite get it right. If I captured the sky, the waves disappeared in shadows. If I got the waves right, the sunset colors washed away. So I'll just include a couple of samples of what I got (including the Chicago Skyline in the next one).

After pretty much accepting defeat at the lake shore, I headed over to the harbor and captured what I think are true summer sunsets.

Even here the winds were howling but since it was a much more protected area, the gales are not reflected in the photos. And I like them better.

For more You Capture - Back to School and/or Summer Sunsets, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

You Capture - Summertime

Beth's You Capture subject this week is Summertime and, boy, I took so many pictures that I didn't know where to start ... or stop.

Please don't be confused by my fireworks pictures. In our little city, the fireworks signify the end of the summer festival which happens over a week after the 4th so, for us, fireworks say summer just as surely as they say the 4th of July for everybody else.

The fireworks are shot from the pier so the beach is the go-to spot for watching them and therefore, I grabbed some beach shots while we were there waiting for the sun to go down.

And today, after capturing this shot in the Indiana Dunes State Park,

I drove past the beach to capture the Dunes beautiful lake shore along with the Chicago skyline.

And now back to our own backyard and a couple of the things we love most about summer. A couple of years ago my brother built us a bluebird house. I never really thought we'd get nesters but we did. Right now though, I'm watching tough love in the bluebird world. Evidently the fledglings have been evicted and aren't sure what to do with themselves so they sit forlornly on the fence almost all day long.

Except for when nostalgia gets the best of them and they sit on the house but they seem to be barred from entering.

And I couldn't talk about summer in our backyard without a shot of our koi. They constantly provide us with pleasure and entertainment.

For more Summertime pictures, visit Beth. You won't regret it.