I decided to go for a short nature walk to clear my head, and I took my faithful companion, my Canon Rebel XSi with me for kicks. Sadly most of the photos were drastically overexposed because I completely forgot to change exposure compensation before I left.

Most of them were completely unsalvagable. No amount of Photoshop will fix them, but I have a couple that turned out really well, that I'll post at the end of the blog (scaled down to fit :-))

While I was out though, one of our neighbors passed by, and rolled to a stop as I was kneeling to get a picture of a washed out gully.

He seemed like a decent, normal, down-to-earth guy. He asked me what the pictures were for, and I told him how I was just out and about. I commented on how I'm a bit of a hobbyist photographer, and that I lived just up the road a bit.

That part seemed to surprise him, I guess because I never get out much, and normally when I've gone these walks, either to clear my head or for excercise, I've done so in the mornings.

The only thing that struck me as odd was that after he drove off again, he pulled into the next nearest driveway and turned around, heading right back out the way he came. As he drove by he asked me where I lived again. I guess he just wanted to confirm my story. I can't blame him for being suspicious.

Long haired "dude" with a camera out in the middle of bumfuzz Arkansas in the middle of the day would seem a little 'off'. ^_^

Anyway, I'm not really worried about it. It just kind of struck me as amusing that the one day I finally have nice enough weather to get out and walk, I end up in a semi-awkward conversation with someone. :-P

So here are the two photos that turned out. The first one is just a bush in our front yard, but it's a pretty bush :-P

The second one is a dried creek bed down the road about three-quarters of a mile or so. During the Spring and part of the summer it almost flooded the road twice, so it felt kind of odd seeing it like this.

It's a LITTLE blurry because I lost my footing just as I took it, but I thought the image stabiliziation on the lens would compenate more than it did :-)

I'm still getting used to this camera, but the first one at least, turned out really well. I haven't touched it up at all except to crop and resize for web use.

Edit: Adding the third one because, let's face it, this little statue is adorable. :-)

Don't worry. I won't be making a habit of these photoblogs. Just adding these since they were relevant to the subject at hand :-D