Posts Tagged ‘photography’
Leaping Day
Does it feel like February seems longer than usual this year? Not to me. Everything still happens faster than I can comprehend. Happy Leap Day!
It’s like I need to come up with an extra post or something. Well, I have just the thing for today. After an outstanding weekend away at the lake with our friends Barb and Mike, we made it home to a wild reception from Delilah. The place was well taken care of, but it is always nice to reclaim our usual routine and let all our animals know we are back.
We checked out the trails, finding an incredible loss of snow over the weekend, and tidied up the paddocks while milling with the horses. A blink later, Sunday ended and the work week launched.
Our time at the lake is now just a memory.
One particular memory that I already treasure is a photograph that Mike captured. I was standing in front of him, looking out at the lake through one of the big picture windows. Suddenly, he told me not to move. He went behind me, came forward, then back again. At first, it wouldn’t focus for him. He was trying to catch the reflection he was seeing.
Finally, he got it.
I love it. Thanks, Mike!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sleeping In
Not much of a blog post this morning because I am sleeping in. We are at the lake! No animals to care for, no Delilah dog to wake us up. We are going to make the most of this mini-vacation.
I am resurrecting a picture for you in compensation for my shallow collection of words today. It is one of the deck posts here at the lake place, taken 2-years-ago. Quite a balancing act, eh?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Between Season
Every day this week, on my way home from work, I’ve seen more and more exposed ground due to receding snow cover. Twice, on the way into work, I have driven through new falling snow. This time of year, those light snow showers don’t add much to the snow pack, so we have continued to lose more than we’ve gained.
Cyndie’s daytime view of melted snow
The days have only offered a spattering of minutes where the sun shone through enough to cast definable shadows. The rest of the time it has looked pretty gray outside, and not very conducive to melting much snow. It hasn’t mattered. Forces are at work to create a mystical disappearing act of our snow.
It feels very in-between seasons. We are certainly not getting anything that looks like the winters we have been known for, and we have yet to see enough sunshine to want to put the top down on the convertible and go for a joyride. The snow and ice is no good for winter sports. The dryer ground and inviting warm sunshine of springtime have yet to arrive.
So what are we going to do? We’re gonna head to the lake. One of our favorite house & pet sitters announced her availability for this weekend and we are taking advantage of it to make a rare visit to Big Round Lake. With friends Mike and Barb joining us, we will be exploring creative ways to enjoy the outdoors at a time of year when most of our usual activities are unavailable.
I guess it’s not all that unusual for me to be taking pictures, and that is something for which the ‘between-season’ actually offers extra opportunity. Around home, I keep seeing some amazing natural art where leaves and other dark debris laying on top of the snow will melt intricate outlines of their exact shapes as they make their way toward the ground, multiple times faster than the rest of the snow around them.
I have yet to capture any good photos of this phenomena, because the depth that is a huge feature of the visual is very difficult to convey in the limitations of a 2-dimensional image. The live perspective we get through actually seeing for ourselves is worlds beyond what a lens can offer. Of course, that makes it all the more enticing to want to try.
More significantly, I haven’t gotten any good pictures yet because I have been finding them too late, after I have tromped all over the place and kicked snow on the potential candidates.
So maybe it will be a weekend of photography. That, on top of the always incredible good eating we enjoy, the lounging around a fireplace, and the playing of a few card games while listening to music.
I’m finding myself also between the season of wanting to dig into any real projects that produce worthy results. I’ll save that motivation for a warm and sunny spring day, just in case one of those finally shows up.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Photo Fun
When I was shoveling snow off the deck, I spotted my reflection in the mirror in our bedroom and decided to try a self-portrait. It doesn’t adequately capture what it looked like in person, but I like how it turned out anyway.
I finally got around to plowing the area around the barn and hay shed yesterday, after the storm last Tuesday. When I got up early on Wednesday to plow before going to work, I only did the main run of driveway, from the house to the road. After a prolonged exercise of back and forth on the ATV, I parked it and picked up the snow shovel to finish and clean up edges by hand.
While I was running the ATV, the horses watched me from a distance. Once that ruckus was over, and the only sound being made was the repetitive scrape of my shovel, they no longer showed a need to keep an eye on me. The sun was winning the battle of breaking through the clouds and it seemed wonderfully cozy for a winter day.
I glanced up toward the horses and they had all disappeared to the ground. In the time I fumbled to get my camera out of a deep pocket, where it was staying warm next to my body, Dezirea had finished a thorough snow-bath and returned to her feet. The others weren’t down much longer than her, but they all had a nice few moments of total relaxation, sunning themselves in the fresh blanket of powdery snow.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Peripheral Views
During one of our walks around the outside of the hay-field fence over the weekend, I paused Delilah so I could take some pictures. I like how the two I have selected to post here, have noticeably different coloring, even though they are taken from the same vantage point. I zoomed in to focus on the horses and our buildings for the first one, and then took in a wider view with a sliver of blue sky for a highlight across the middle.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I like how the slope of hill influences the wider view, and the clouded sky ends up looking almost like a reflection.
The shot with the horses is one of my favorite perspectives of our place, because you can see the house (barely) through the trees. It gives a reference for the spacing and location of all our buildings, which is not easy to achieve.
Happy February! Before you know it, there will be groundhogs all over the place, trying to decide whether they can see their shadow, or not.
I’m sure that winter is patiently awaiting their verdict, so it will know how it should proceed for the next couple months. I’m not concerned. We have enough hay for whatever amount of winter remains this year.
I think.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Changing States
I was reworking some old images, in search of inspiration for a Words on Images creation, and I cropped this picture of the river up at Wilkus’ cabin. I like it a lot, but apparently not as a background for words. It will remain unembellished.
The water goes from liquid, to flakey, to solid ice. Depending on which state in the US you reference, there may be just a little snow, or there may be 3 feet that arrived in a day. We got about an inch overnight last night. It was coming down at a fair rate when Delilah and I headed out for her last jaunt before bed.
Our snow cover seems like such a paltry amount after seeing the totals from the blizzard out east. Speaking of water in both liquid and frozen states, I shudder to think what it must be like to suffer a flood from the ocean when temperatures are freezing and snow is blowing. Those coastal regions got whacked by the significant storm surge combined with a full-moon high tide.
I guess they won’t need to shovel it.
I’ve never had to deal with a hurricane coming off the ocean, but I would think a hurricane-winter-storm would about the worst possible conglomeration.
I do not want to change states with New Jersey.
And speaking of changing states, Cyndie reports her visit to Florida has not been all about lounging around the pool. The weather there has been chilly. Our next warm spell in the days ahead will bring us up near where their low temps have been dropping to.
Maybe I’ll be able to take a selfie while sunbathing by the barn this coming weekend. I can send it to Cyndie with a note, “Having a wonderful time. Bet you wish you were here!”
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Relative Something 