Autumn on Mill Mountain in Roanoke

It was such a gorgeous weekend in Roanoke. Here are some pictures taken from atop Mill Mountain and then in downtown Roanoke...enjoy this wonderful weather while it lasts!

A Saturday in Downtown Roanoke

It was a beautiful day in downtown Roanoke today.

Lots of folks came out to attend the sidewalk art show. As usual, I walked away empty-handed. Nothing really jumped out at me. I wasn't allowed to take photos so I am unable to show you what I thought was interesting or tacky.

One artist on the market who was not part of the show, Cheryl Dolby, had no problem with having a photo taken. As you can see Cheryl has some really unique pieces and you don't have to wait once a year to see them. You can find Cheryl every Saturday downtown so do stop by and say hi!

This was the first time I have seen the new pedestrian market area crowded.

It was quite an improvement from the last couple of times I witnessed the sad sight of lonely tables, lots of empty space, and tumbleweeds blowing through.

There were quite a few vendors and most of the tables were filled as well. Of course, I'd say about half of them had Roanoke's finest homeless utilizing them. It was almost like an invisible dividing line broke up the have and the have nots. The "haves" is the side with all the umbrellas.

Frankly, I wouldn't sit at any of those tables unless I first wiped the seats down and sprayed them with Lysol. Yes, I do happen to carry a small canister of Lysol as well as wipies in my magic bag of germophobe tricks. I also visited my friend Mandy at the History Museum and then took the elevator to the top to get a couple of shots of the city.

One of the many things I do not understand about Roanokers is their need to take their huge dogs to every single festival. What's up with that? This fellow has the right idea...

"You go ahead mom, I'll just lay on my chaise in the window if it's all right with you..."

Downtown Roanoke

Welcome and Happy New Year to you! You're not going to find any resolutions here. Don't believe in them. Am only going to break them, so why bother? For those regular readers of this blog you may have noticed I've really slacked off with my posts over the last couple of months. Oh, I've got reasons and excuses, but today's not the day to talk about them. Instead, I'd prefer to think of the first day of this year as motivation for the remaining days of the year to get me moving again by igniting and keeping lit my creativity fuse. What better/easier way than with photos?

For Christmas my lovely daughter picked out a new camera for me. I had a couple of "must-have" feature requests such as a long optical zoom, fancy-schmancy effects, easy to use, something small enough to fit in my bicycle pouch, and one that would be comfortable in my ever crippling hands and cheap enough that when I dropped it I wouldn't freak out. She found exactly what I was asking for in the form of an Olympus Stylus SZ-15. In another post I will review it after using it for more than one day.

Yesterday she and I went downtown and it was the first time I was able to explore a little with it. So, without further adieu, here are a couple of shots of my hometown of Roanoke...

The Taubman Museum using the sparkle filter.

This was taken using the optical zoom at its max 24x which I believe is equal to 600mm. Notice the quality has not deteriorated. When I took it I didn't notice the birds on top of the sign.

Fragmented effect

Original shot of Taubman using no effects

Using the Reflection effect. First time I've had a camera with one.

Same position, same subject, same effect, totally different outcome. So far this is my favorite effect.

Again, same subject, different effect.

 

Unfortunately we had to leave downtown quickly or I would have experimented with many more settings and subjects. I foresee many cool pictures in my future, and some really unique book covers too...