Scott Fillmer » spring

Indian Pink Perennial or Red and Yellow Wildflower :: Photos

Scott Fillmer — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:06:04 +0000

The Photo of the Day today is a very small red and yellow wildflower found in the southeast, usually in the spring to early summer in the shade, called an Indian Pink or Maryland pinkroot, and woodland pinkroot. Better known by its Latin sir name Spigelia marilandica this little guy was blooming over at Chewacla State Park all over the place once we took a look around. Shot with a D7000 and a Nikkor 35mm 1.8 (EXIF details can be found over here) if you are like me and so inclined to read that sort of stuff. I have some shots of the waterfalls but haven’t gotten around to post-processing on those yet. This has already been a crazy busy week and it’s only going to increase as the week goes on unfortunately. It’s not really unfortunate, it’s just the way the week is this week.

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Auburn Tigers Football A-Day Game Photos for 2011

Scott Fillmer — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 01:13:50 +0000

Today was once again the annual spring football classic at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn Alabama. Much like the previous two years (see A-Day 2009 and A-Day 2010), it was a beautiful sunny spring day in the south, mid-80′s no clouds with a nice breeze, oh and with 50,000 or so fans sitting there watching us play… ourselves. Every year I asked myself the same question. Why am I here, and why are we all watching our own team play ourselves. Of course this was also the day that the Alabama Crimson Tide play themselves, and the Tennessee Volunteers play themselves, etc. etc., so I guess it was fate. This year I really didn’t hang around much other than to take some photos, my favorite being the Auburn cops behind bars (at the bottom). Actually my favorite shot doesn’t appear here because my wife said she would disown me if I posted a photo of the men’s room, so cops behind bars will have to do. It was wonderful to get outside today and not have to worry about cutting the grass or anything else, just a relaxing time people watching (there should be a social networking game for that with points scored for… maybe not).

Over the last year especially, every single time I go to an Auburn game I have to question my own motives, and can’t help but watch all the craziness that goes along with what is an Auburn football game, even if we are playing ourselves. We are about to start a new series called Counterfeit Gods right after Easter, which loosely correlates to the book by Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, and I for one am glad (but in a way not) that we are doing this series in the spring and not during football season. The counterfeit gods of football are quite alive all over the south and for some reason the A-Day game always reminds me how important football is down here. Hard not to notice that when you can get over 100,000 people in two stadiums within two hours driving distance from each other. Still, it was an enjoyable afternoon in the tradition that is Auburn football that won’t be back again for about five months. War Eagle!

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Purple Iris Blooms and Double Knockout Roses Today :: Friday Feet

Scott Fillmer — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:02:56 +0000

Today is Friday again, can’t believe how fast these weeks are going by. Today the Friday Feet post comes from my garden just about 50 feet from where I am typing out this blog post. The cool thing about a flower garden is having plants that bloom at different times all throughout the year, and as Spring moves on, the next in line is the Iris. They just started blooming in these magnificent purple blooms (although they come in a huge variety of colors). These flowers below were shot using my wife’s Nikon D90 and basically this is how they came right out of the camera. I did very little post processing editing with these particular flowers, they really didn’t need it, the colors were incredible.

This week has been, thankfully, a week of getting back to the routine of things, a week without a doctors appointments, which we were both thankful for immensely, and a week that flew by in a blink of an eye. I had so many blog posts I either started or wanted to get started this week and just never got back to them. I do have several book reviews that I want to get out but they will just have to wait for another day. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

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A Mix of Sun and Rain So Time to Stop and Smell the Roses

Scott Fillmer — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:47:42 +0000

They say you should stop and smell the roses. It has been so cold, wet, dark, and raining for the last few days that you couldn’t get outside and do anything, let alone smell a rose. It finally cleared up enough this afternoon to jump outside for a quick break, and today that makes this shot the photo of the day. I took the shot of the roses with my iPhone today, and in my ongoing battle to make the iPhone a viable photographic alternative to a big DSLR I am testing out some new apps (blog post review to come some time).

There is so much going on this week and my mind and heart are in basically three different places so this was a nice walk around the house break. My friend and marathon prayer partner lost his sister unexpectedly this week and today he is in Tennessee with his wife at the funeral. He has usually been on the other side, praying for myself and Deborah as she continues with her tests at UAB, but this week it changed.

This morning, going through my normal continuous reading of the bible, I just happen to be reading Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 12:26 that says “if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together”, and this is truly the case. As we get ready for the next round of tests at UAB on Friday (depending on whether UAB and BCBS can figure out how to talk to each other) I know he will be back on the other side praying for me once again, and that is such a comfort to me.

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Dogwood Blooms Covering Spring in Auburn :: Photos

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:18:39 +0000

Dogwoods are finally blooming over at our house, must mean we have about 2 days left of Spring before the brutal summer heat shows up. Either way the Dogwood blooms this year have been incredible all over Auburn and the surrounding area. I took these particular shots this morning while there was still a little fog hanging around, which made for some nice soft colors.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Spring colors (at least if you are down in the south where it’s been warm). Even though every single year our Dogwood blooms right around this time the beauty always amazes me, kind of like watching a sunrise that only comes up once a year, at the end of March.

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Purple Wisteria Blooms are Everywhere in Auburn :: Photos

Scott Fillmer — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:34:35 +0000

I love Wisteria Blooms in the Spring. They grow like weeds down here in the south but we actually planted one a few years ago. It has grown into this huge vine that wants to eat the house, but right now, it is totally covered in beautiful purple blooms and smells incredible. Every year I take photos of this plant and every year the blooms are better and better but my photos end up all looking the same. This year I tried something totally different, shooting Wisteria blooms from the ground using the skylit sun as a background, creating some massive backlit conditions. I love the way they turned out and they aren’t your typical shoot the flower shot.

For a little contrast I posted some “normal” shots below as well but I love how the backlit conditions adds something totally different to this particular bloom, and today, it’s the photo of the day.

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Southern Magnolia sieboldii Blooms in Early Spring

Scott Fillmer — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:53:17 +0000

We have a tiny little Magnolia tree we planted about 3-4 years ago and all it does is bloom like crazy about this time of year. It never seems to grow or put out many leaves but the blooms are very pretty. It’s not the traditional Magnolia tree with the big waxy leaves, I’m pretty sure it is a Magnolia sieboldii tree but it really hasn’t grown much since we planted it, and today it is the photo of the day.

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Early Spring Flower Blooms of Jasmine, Jonquil, and Daffodils

Scott Fillmer — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:39:41 +0000

The photo of the day today comes from about 50 feet away from where I type this blog post. You can’t really tell from the shot but these little guys are about the size of my thumb, and while we don’t have a huge supply of Daffodils at our place we have a bunch of little Jonquils. Normally I wouldn’t take shots of flowers blooming in direct sunlight but it made for some great bokeh in the background.

It’s just the very beginning of Spring here in Auburn (we have had March snowstorms before, see Rare March Snowstorm in Auburn 2009 and also Samford Hall and Auburn University in the Snow), one of the most beautiful times of the year. Every year I look forward to these little guys coming up in the garden because no matter what cold temps are currently outside I know warmer weather is coming.

I know sometimes in this part of the country we look over the landscape, see nothing but green Pine trees that grow like weeds and think there are no other colors to be seen besides brown and green. To me, seeing other colors is often a time issue. Taking time to slow down enough to see the nuances that occur all around us. It’s easy to see in the heart of Springtime, but even winter has some color around here.

Coming up next will be the beautiful purples of Wisteria and the Dogwood Trees.

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Spring is Close, Cedar Pollen is in the Air

Scott Fillmer — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:10:26 +0000

Yes, now I remember sneezing my head off last year now, it was when the Cedar trees started to put out all of that lovely pollen. The photo of the day today is from a backyard photo-walk, which includes tons of Cedar trees out here. All three of these photos were taken with my iPhone today while I was out walking through the backyard. There are tiny little green buds on many of the trees and many other signs that Spring is almost here.

I love the changing of the seasons but there is just something about this time of year when God manifests His beauty in such a visible way that makes everything in creation scream out with color.

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Blue Sky and Warmer Weather is Coming, and Spring?

Scott Fillmer — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:34:40 +0000

Photo of the day today comes from my walk around the property yesterday. The sun is out, sky is blue, and it is so beautiful outside right now but Spring just isn’t quite here yet. I love these tall long needle pines. They don’t care what the season is, no matter if it’s freezing cold or 100*F in August, they stretch out their limbs dressed in green all year long.

Can’t wait to start seeing some leaves on the trees around here, Spring is one of the most beautiful times of the year in Auburn where the streets are lined with flowers. Both of these shots were taken with my iPhone and basically taken right off the phone with a little crop.