SKELETONS AT HOLY HILL

Sunday was a sunny day and warmer than normal for late October, so my wife and I decided to drive out to Holy Hill, formally known as "Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians," a catholic basilica about 30 miles from our home.  The basilica is situated at the top of a hill in Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine area.  The church itself is lovely, and from its exterior one can see miles of wooded land in all directions.  It was a little late for fall color, but still promised beautiful vistas on a crisp fall day.  I brought my camera, hoping for both exterior landscape and interior architectural opportunities.  Apparently, thousands of others had a similar thought, as there were at least 500 cars in the parking lots and it took us a good 10 minutes of driving around waiting for a parking space to open up.  I did get a few interior shots, but nothing that I haven't shot a number of times previously.  It was actually on the way home that an opportunity presented itself in the form of a Halloween display on the road leading to Holy Hill.

When I spotted the display of skeletons I recalled that I had driven by the display in prior years and had even taken a shot or two.  This year, though, I believe the artist responsible had outdone himself.  The theme this year was leisure activities, as the following photos indicate.

To give an idea, this first couple are of a rock band.

But there were other activities as well, including a poker game, a group having a hookah smoke, a pool game, and hanging out at a bar.

And finally (and my favorite) one poor skeleton appears to have had a bit too much to drink.

John

FIRST FROST 2019

This morning's walk revealed our first frost for fall of 2019, at least in our neighborhood, just about right on schedule for this area.  So I grabbed my camera to capture the frost before the morning sun burned it off.  Here are some of the shots I took amid some broader-leafed plants (aka weeds) a few blocks from our home.

This was shortly after dawn, and the amount of light was less than optimal.  But I was in a bit of a hurry and, let's face it, a bit too lazy to use my tripod.  As a result, these handheld shots involved some compromise among shutter speed, depth of field, and ISO.  In terms of aperture, these were shot at f/8, which at close range left some of the components somewhat out of focus.  In retrospect, I probably should have used my tripod or else ramped up the ISO further and reduced the aperture to, say, f/16, to maximize depth of field.  Still, after a hiatus of several weeks for some eye surgery, I was happy just to be out with my camera.

John