Daydreaming dog

My sister’s dog returned home after a week with the vet for some health things and on the way back she loved looking out the window. She was a little groggy but seemed so happy to be free again!

My sister helping get the dog hair after I lifted the pup into the car

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

Spooky Halloween photos

I thought it might be fun to put together some eerie images for the upcoming Halloween holiday. These are all montages of images I’ve taken in the past and I’m pretty happy with how they all turned out. Do any of them stand out to you for their spookiness?

(Click on the image title and you can use them for all your haunting holiday needs)

Spooky night. A cool fall evening accompanied by spooky noises from the forest and a full moon.

Medium well. Who knew a neighborhood fire pit could serve up a tasty BBQ dinner?

Possessive. This picture is “raising” some concerns.

Catch the red eye. This might be why people have trouble maintaining eye contact.

Red angel. Red has gotta be the most common color of Halloween.

Eyes in the back of your head. Yeah, that whole eye contact thing again.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

“Smile” movie, left me frowning – no spoilers

I was excited enough about the movie Smile that I wrote about it a few weeks ago. After all, the trailer is great. A few days ago I purchased my ticket and got comfy in the great lounge chairs in the theater. The preview trailers before the feature presentation seemed to take too long and I normally like watching the previews. The lights dimmed and the movie started. I won’t give anything away regarding the plot. I had no idea it was a psychological thriller. That’s probably my least favorite genre.

It’s the kind of movie that will show a dramatic, horrific scene that you can hardly believe is happening, then the main character blinks (or wakes up) and everything was a dream or hallucination. I HAAAAAATE THAT. In my mind, this type of horror is a cop-out. It throws out the rules of horror. There were also predictable jump scares and by the end of the movie I found myself laughing when I should’ve been scared. The word “formula” comes to mind. Everything was formulaic.

Disappointing.

I guess it’s worth watching if you’re into mind games and false realities. I was just hoping for more “real” thrills instead of the hallucination stuff. And I wanted more scary smiles. For a movie with that as a title, smiles were few and far between.

Have you seen this movie yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

Thanks for dropping in!

-Out of the Wilderness

New photography portfolio is up on SmugMug!

Hello there! I’ve enjoyed so much taking photos in the last 12 months since I got a new Sony camera. One of the first photos with this camera was taken while I sat around a fire on a cold wintery day in Nashville, Tennessee. Since then, I’ve taken the camera almost everywhere I go and my favorite subject is probably wildlife. I’ve been posting photos for sale on FineArtAmerica (see portfolio here) and I’ll continue to do that… but… exciting news that I’ll now have all of the entire portfolios of images on SmugMug! The switch seems to make sense as I started storing my images on SmugMug a few months ago.

With that said, I’m happy to include a link to each portfolio (or click here for the main site) below. These images can be used for greetings cards, wall art, and a few other framed-typed prints. Continue to use FineArtAmerica for prints on pillows, mugs, ornaments, and anything not framed-art related. Thanks for checking out my photos!

Wildlife

Only Birds

Nature No Wildlife

Black and White

Sunsets and Astrophotography

Waterways

Transportation

Select Color

Reptiles and Insects

People

Buildings, Structures, Signs

Cemeteries

Created Images

Detailed Images

Flags

Lights

Thanks for checking out my work. I love doing it so I hope you love what comes from it!

-Out of the Wilderness

favorite vegan burgers?

I’ve enjoyed a vegan diet for many years now, with only a few exceptions for specific reasons. In my years of meatless existence, I’ve come across a few brands of vegan burgers, or veggie burgers, that I’m going to list below. I had the idea for this post recently when I cooked up a couple of vegan burgers from a brand I’m not very familiar with yet. For this dinner, toppings I used were Daiya dairy free cheese, vegan mayo, and ketchup, with a side of Hidden Valley vegan ranch dressing. I know those condiments might hide the flavor of the burger but I must say, it was delicious. The brand of burger is Dr. Praeger’s. They make a few different flavors of burgers, I went with black bean quinoa.

And now I will rank my favorite vegan burgers from the five brands I’ve tried.

  1. Beyond Burger. This one tastes most like a normal beef burger. It’s also hefty, but the downside is that I’m thirsty afterwards. Too much salt.
  2. Sweet Earth. It’s hard to find this brand but their teriyaki burger is amazing. Highlight recommend this one.
  3. Dr. Praeger’s. Great flavor and not as much sodium. A little on the small side for each patty but still, delicious.
  4. Morning Star. Nothing to be excited about.
  5. Impossible Burger. All the excitement of not eating meat, but without the flavor or enjoyment. Just blah.

Have you tried these brands? Is there another meatless burger brand I should be trying? Comment below, thanks for dropping in!

-Out of the Wilderness