This is a 100% crop from the center of a much larger image.

The rain shield was moving out today and behind it the sun and clouds made for some cool skies.

Last week and the beginning of this week we have seen some of the best weather ever. We’ve had beautiful clear skies and sunshine and perfect temps. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to grab some more shots of the fields.

This new road that connects Rte 130 on the east side of Charleston with Rte 121 on the west side of Mattoon is called CR 1000N (CR being County Road). There’s even a new exit off I-57 for it. It basically follows the old county road and was widened and strengthened for truck traffic. It’s a great road and it does what it was designed to do. The only glitch was a bit of poor prior planning. The old CR 1000N ended at the edge of a farm and picked up again on the other side of it. The planned route for the new road took it straight through the silos and farmhouse you see in the distance. The farmer who lives there was unwilling to let his farm and house be plowed under for the road. Imagine that. So the construction of the road has been at a relative standstill for a couple years now. The construction is in progress on the other side of his house, but without the half mile or so needed to connect the endpoint in the image below with the end of the current construction on the other side, this road is nothing but a huge waste of money.

You would think the folks building this road would have made sure they had a clear route before starting construction, or at least running it to this point. I’ve read that the two sides have supposedly come to some agreement whereby the road will now run around the silos and farmhouse, but it will have to be a pretty significant curve to avoid the buildings and still connect to the road on the other side.

I was up at our remote office on the north side of the university and decided since it was such a nice day (serious understatement) that I’d take a leisurely stroll back to my office and shoot some pics along the way.

Siebel Center for Computer Science

Beckman Institute

Altgeld Hall

The Quad in the center of university.

Follinger Auditorium

Here a contractor is laying drainage hoses through a field. It’s called “tiling.” According to the contractor, the tiling can pay for itself in 7-8 years through higher crop yields. The trenching machine has GPS and a computer on board to record exactly where the tiling hoses are put in. Fancy stuff.

I bought a Neutral Density (ND) filter to use with my circular polarizing filter to preserve detail in the clouds and around the sun while shooting into sunlight or bright skies. It takes some getting used to, but I’m getting the hang of it. The changeable skies we’ve had lately are giving me plenty of opportunity to experiment.

Taken today (9/29). Cloudless sky. I used a fill flash, too.