Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Sun Spot
While walking through the woods late yesterday, Cyndie and Delilah came upon one specific spot that was lit up by a ray of sunshine breaking through the otherwise thick and hazy overcast.
Is that cool, or what?
Our trees have been shedding more branches lately than humans shed hair.
It’s as if there was a time-delayed reaction to the thunderstorm last week. I had to pick up a lot of tree branch shrapnel before mowing on Monday. Two days later, we have been finding additional branches on the ground almost every time we go out.
Some of them are much larger than the usual little ones frequently shed.
There is one other phenomenon occurring across our trails lately. Spiderwebs! And not just the usual single invisible strand that we normally encounter when walking Delilah. These have been full-on webs. One even made a sound when Cyndie walked into it. Must have been strung tight like a guitar string.
The thing is, we have been encountering these after having already walked the same path earlier in the day. These spiders are industrious.
We tend to react with the typical flinching and flailing to free our bodies of the remnants and possible attached arachnids.
I suffered one entanglement last week that occurred when I had both hands full of tools, as well as Delilah’s leash. I felt the single strand impact right below my nose, across my mustache.
What the heck. I decided to forge ahead so I wouldn’t have to set down everything I was carrying and pretended I was ignoring the strand while thinking about it the entire way back to the house.
Oh, and also, stepping over all the branches littering the trail.
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Inverted Perspective
Looking down to look up toward the sky by way of reflections on water.
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I like the similarities and the difference between the two images. They were, in fact, reflecting the same overhead view, just from different distances.
That break in the clouds never materialized yesterday. It wasn’t non-stop rain all day, but it was gray, damp, and cloudy enough to squelch motivation for outdoor adventures. Having Delilah up here this trip forced some walks outside which led us to the bridge where I captured these images.
Here are the un-cropped versions that reveal how I achieved the two different depths of focus:
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This morning appears to be picking up where yesterday left off, in terms of cloudy sky and potential for rain. I am very curious to find out how much of the precipitation of the last two days has also fallen on our Wintervale property. Reviewing the radar images leaves some questions because of the spotty coverage of rain.
Here’s hoping our parched land received a respectable dose of the moisture because it was sorely needed.
We are heading home today, so we will soon find out. Happy to have gloomy weather for our departure. It is always a lot harder to leave the lake place when the weather is gorgeous on a Sunday.
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Rain Coming
Looks like the morning will be a wet one for us. Weather radar indicates a decent-sized band of precipitation closing in on our location in Hayward, WI.
The blue marker that looks like it is pointing at Red Wing indicates our home, approximately between River Falls and Red Wing.
I’m ready to hunker down and be an indoor couch potato for a few hours. Cyndie wants to play the local version of Monopoly board game she found in town this week: Hayward-opoly. The properties are local businesses like our favorite Coop’s Pizza and West’s Dairy.
I’d rather find sports on the television. Aren’t there some Olympic games finishing up this weekend?
Before we know it, there will be a break in the clouds and everyone will hit the beach.
I will be plenty ready for that.
Did you notice there was a bird in that image above? I hadn’t noticed it when I was rushing to capture the sun rays as they changed by the second. After looking at it a few times on my computer screen, I wondered if it was actually an insect that was close to the phone instead of a magnificent high-soaring bird of prey up near the cloud.
Perception is everything.
Happy first Saturday in August everyone!
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Poignant Reminders
Buffalo Bill’s feathers were always so photogenic. These few still are, though he is now gone.
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Other Waves
I have no idea how individual feather coloring can appear so random yet collectively they create a wonderfully distinct pattern.
Case in point: our Barred Rock breed…
How does she do it?
Those black bars look like waves rolling down her body.
Speaking of waves, I believe this toad was climbing the fence in order to wave at someone or something.
I was just hoping he wouldn’t catch the attention of the chicks. He was a heck of a lot bigger than an insect, but not so big as to guarantee the insatiable curiosity of the chicks wouldn’t lead to potential carnage.
That would cause me a wave of nausea, I’m afraid.
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Sky Waves
These are all from the same night when we were out in the back pasture with the horses, just a short distance from the chicken coop where we had spent the day working on fencing two courtyards, one on each side. The waves of clouds and the low-angled sunlight glaring through the hot horizon haze seemed to change by the minute.
They could each provide ample opportunity for a “Words on Images” feature, but since that inspiration has yet to wash over me, the wordless images get featured today, as is.
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If I was a skyscape painter, these are some images I would be pleased to compose. I don’t think I would ever imagine the wild pattern of “shadow” ripples visible in the center-left portion of the last one if I were attempting to paint a version of how it looked to me.
Mother nature painted them. I captured the views with my digital camera.
I reserve the right to repurpose one or more of these should fitting words show up unannounced somewhere down the line.
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Leave It
There are multiple meanings to the title, Leave It. There is always a little sadness in needing to leave the lake place, but today that is what we will be doing. There is also the old adage about poison ivy: Leaves of three, Let it be. Lastly, leaves are the theme of images for today’s post.
Starting with a sprout of poison ivy in a very inconvenient location.
A leaf shadow that seems about as perfect as the leaf itself.
There was an old oak leaf stuck to the side of this aging stand-up paddleboard.
Finally, a frame-filled immersion in the wonderful patterns of hosta leaves.
I’m going to leave it at that.
Happy Memorial Day to readers in the U.S. We will spend the day driving home and hopefully transplanting a few trilliums after we arrive.
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Relative Something 