Valley Boy

 The temps finally came up Sunday but the winds were wicked. Charlie had been bugging me, so we got out for a walk along the neighbor's field. We could walk along the forest edge and get some protection from the wind.

Charlie stops to inspect the Log Skidder. There is a lot of waste with this logging operation. The wood they leave behind could warm thousands of homes. 
The Skidder was quiet and Charlie decided to go up and give the tire a bit of his doggy business. 

We dropped down into a very steep 'ravine' or what we call a dry run. It is like a narrow ravine shaped from years of run off. This particular one has a spring have way down its 1/2 mile length. In the winter the water seeps from the spring and freezes in layers over the boulders and mosses.

Charlie knows where I want to go and he keeps an eye out for anything and everything.

The ice from the tiny spring appears to be blue green. It could be from the 'gumbo clay' that it passes through.
I seriously don't know what gumbo clay is, but it is greyish green and can be molded when wet and falls apart when dried.

We explore, we take some cellphone shots and we head up the steep side of the hill. The climb out is 248 feet of elevation change. I do it each winter a few times because I find the blue/green ice so fascinating to see.

We did it once more. Into PeeWee's Valley to the blue/green ice and out. Below is a mini video looking back at what we climbed out of.

This is a shot from 10 years ago when Morris [my Jack Russell] and I explored it for the first time. Yes, the shot is terrible, it was from my old point and shoot camera and it is what it is.
However it shows how much this ravine fills with ice over the winter.

The ice is easily 4 feet deep.

Our tradition continues.

Last days of January

I needed to get out with Charlie as we were both going 'nuts'. It warmed up just enough to feel sort of okay with a face mask.

I drove the short distance to the local DNR land at Tainter Creek. My big surprise when I got there was that the DNR had mowed the flats down. The tiny bushy trails were gone and the area was cleaned up. I imagine it was time so that when Trout Season opened, the anglers [and people like me] could walk along the stream and enjoy its beauty.

Tainter Creek is in one of the most steepest valleys in our area. If we get a flood, this place is under water. 

Roads quickly get washed out and slowly get repaired.

2018 Washout:

But all is good now. We got there on the 30th when the sun was disappearing over the southwest hillsides. Part of the valley was sunny, the other half was in deep shadow.

Sign for this area

Most of this first walk was in shadows and between the shadows and the stream and a light breeze, things got pretty chilly.

We didn't make it all of the way around because 'someone' got cold. Probably from me stopping and taking so many photos of the ice and water.

And this little guy sat in the cold and ice to watch a squirrel tease him on the other side of the deep stream. 

I went back the next morning and left Chilly Willy Charlie at home to recover. This way the only feet that would get cold would be my own.

The warmth could be felt from the sunlight in the morning and the glow from the hillsides were reflected in any open spots.

It was simply stunning.

My feet did get a bit cold while standing in the deeper snow and squatting next to the stream. But it was all worth it.

Tainter Creek DNR land is worth the look.

In the spring the ephemerals are all over this valley. Blood Root, Virginia Bluebells, Dutchman's Breeches, anemones, Trout Lily's and so much more.

I've rarely ever visited this valley so close to home in the winter. I am glad I did.

My feet did warm up once I got to the road and walked back to the parking area. 

I'll go again once the weather makes another change.

Charlie?

He said he'd wait for the next big adventure which we had planned for Sunday.

Trying it again, different things to do...

On a cold winter's night.

First some steel wool

 

Add some crinkled foil behind it and a blue light.

Hmm, needs more color or something. Add some pink dried flowers!

So I added some reddish orange light to bounce off the foil in the background and left the blue light shining up from below.

Use a mister or a spray bottle to add water droplets.

It took a few adjustments to find something I liked and
I picked this one.

and this one....

a small change in the position of 

the colored lights and the steel

wool

changes everything.

I'm still working on perfecting something with the steel wool. I am making good use of it though as it is also handy at cleaning rust off from stuff!

👌

Now the ICM has me so intrigued so I thought I'd look up some more info on it. I ran across a guy named David Day who does ICM Still Life photography in a studio setting. That intrigued me because seriously the constant freaking cold days is wearing me down.

He uses pieces of plants, layers of tissue paper, paper, rocks, bark, and anything you can think of to shoot with ICM. Some of it is really out of this world, but you can really use your imagination and 'see' something.

Anyway he used some colored electric wire in one video. It made me curious so I searched the house for something like his wire to try my own ICM still life experiment.

I ended up going into my junk drawer and finding some different colored twist ties. I clipped them together and lit them from the side with a flash light. It was nothing like David's set up, but heck, I'm always up to see if I can do something similar.

So, these were two of my favorite ones from Thursday night. 

The writing on the one twist tie looks like stripes in the shots.

Do I know what I am doing? 

Nope.

But it sure is fun!

I liked this ICM better because it wasn't like doing  a landscape shot. I'm still working on the landscapes but thought I'd give this a whirl. 

So I took a lot of shots. Some I missed the subject completely. Some I were just awful. It takes a lot of practice and muscle memory to do this.  Moving the camera around a small object while the shutter is open isn't that easy.

But the results can be wild.

I also tried some of the dried pink flowers.

What I found is...

Less is more. 

So I just pulled the flowers apart until I had a little stem.

Another thing I noticed, is having more than one color is very helpful. There was a brown undyed flower in this little stem and I like how that color showed through.

Last. Dried tan flowers with a green stick and the clip with the orange end.

Happiness is experimentation.

Long ago I used to work with fractal programs, so abstraction is not something that is foreign to me. This is a bit more fun as I'm not dealing with formulas.

I guess I am just pretty cheap to entertain in the evenings. Junk drawer twist ties, pieces of flowers, flashlight, and a camera.

Cold fingers, cold doggy, and the look

        The screen shot below is from my watch that was tracking my walk through the forest the other day. I did one mile but then arrived home and decided to get the chores done. I literally forgot to turn the 'Walk' tracking off.

The orange line on the left was me taking sleds of hay out to the mules and putting the hay in a protected area.  The stuff off to the right was me caring for the pony. 

I bring the old fella warm water three times a day and keep his hay feeder full at all times. He gets special 'calf' hay which is easier for elderly equine to eat and digest. Little Richard is somewhere between 33 to 35 years old.

The blue in the middle? My activities in the house, doing the bird feeders, and apparently doing things indoors. 

I must be a very restless sleeper too as when I woke up in the morning, the walk tracking was still on and I had 3 miles of 'walking'.

Note, I do not sleepwalk, so I must be a very active and restless sleeper.

I finally did get off the farm. The temps moved up to 9 F or -12 C. Charlie gave me such a mournful look that I decided to take him with on a walk near Weister Creek. I had an idea in my head to take a shot of a trail through the trees, snow, and open field both still and ICM. 

Most of the tutorials for Intentional Camera Movement discuss not taking shots in bright situations as they don't work well. 

So a bright sunny day with bright white snow was probably not going to work. Of course when I am told not to do something with photography I like to try and break the rules.

Below is the wide trail through the stand of trees. In the summer, it is a walking trail only and in the winter it is a snowmobile trail. This runs alongside Weister Creek which attracts trout anglers all season long.

Below is Weister Creek trail in the summer 
shot in Infrared. Going
through this particular spot is very 
scenic in the summertime.

It took about 20 ICM shots before I found one I could probably use. I didn't care for the full blown blurred look as I wanted to 'picture' the trail too.
I blended two shots together for the end which I ended up really liking.

Maybe my ICM will not be full blur but a nice pleasant way to direct attention. Plus! I did it a full blown sunny day. I did have to use a Neutral Density Filter to get the exposure to slow down to 1/4 of a second.

I froze my fingers and got one shot I can live with after about 20 tries.

It was unfortunate that Charlie stood still by me while I did this as he got cold too. So I picked him up and walked back to the car where we were out of the wind.

The goofy dog then decided to take the trail and ran happily forward. He is so familiar with the trail that we take often that he just assumed we were there for more walking.

I let him go and in about a half a mile he stopped and started doing the cold foot hop. We were done and I carried him back.

I know all about booties, blankets, and coats. Charlie back feet are tiny compared to his front paws which are meaty and thick [for digging]. I should have known better that anything below 19 or 20 is too cold for long snowy walks for him. 

But the guy gave me such a look when I was gathering my stuff to leave I couldn't resist. 

We did drive around to check out some other scenes and then drove home to cuddle.

The hardest thing about having a pet is how much my heart strings can be pulled by them. It is hard to see his face turn grey. 

He is suffering from missing Rich too. Rich was always here for him. Being alone is difficult for him. Definitely separation anxiety.

Experimental

Your eyes are not blurry. 

These are intentionally taken while moving the camera.

I feel a bit odd trying to do this type of photography. I've seen some absolutely beautiful ICM abstract photos.

I'm still one of those that is on the fence with this method. I've also learned that trying to do it on a bright snowy day is really not the way to start.

This is obviously the outhouse. I moved the camera forward when pressing the shutter on a 1/2 second shot. 

So it ended up looking like a double exposure.

It isn't something I will put on the wall. 

I consider this as play and experimental photography.

 

I can always say that I am pretending to be Monet with a camera.

This shot was done by simply moving 
the zoom lens as I hit the shutter button.

It doesn't hurt my brain to look at this one. 

It was my first experimental shot I did of the day.

It is actually nicer than the others.

Really beautiful ICM takes a LOT of practice and generally
shooting when there is quite a bit of contrast along

with color.

Of course winter is not the best time to 

try to make ICM fine art. But it

is fun to practice.

Here is a sample of an image that really defines the beauty of ICM.

A flower by: 
KarenWallerphotography

It looks like a stunning painting and something I'd hang on my wall for its soothing effect. 

Obviously none of my shots have reached this caliber!

This summer, I did do a few shots with ICM and absolutely you do need brilliant color to do this with any good results. 

I did this shot in September and it is the only one so far that I really like.

----

So without further ado, I went back to something I know when I defrosted myself after my hike.

Some high key work. I put a white sheet over a kitchen chair and arranged some dried flowers to photo their textures.

When the outdoors suck, I can always do Still Life.

Since I had the white sheet set up, I pulled up the embroidered border and thought that Teddy Bears exchanging flowers would be cute.

I thought I'd work with my Lensbaby and the Teddy Bears. I really enjoy working with that lens as it makes you slooooowwwww way down and really work at getting the exposure and area of focus just right.

The ICM tutorials make everything look so easy. I have so much to learn!

I will try some more practicing to figure out what movements might look good. I wonder if I set up my dried flowers and did an ICM with Still Life?

Ahhh, you will have to wait to see what I may do next!

Otherwise. Have a good day and stay warm.

outside

Finally, the temperature rose to zero this Monday afternoon.

So I decided to go for a walk to our creek bottom and see what it looked like. I haven't been there in a couple of weeks which is unusual for me since I used to make it a daily trip.

Charlie is grounded right now. Not because he is a bad boy, but because it is breeding season for coyotes and in our area they can get aggressive with dogs out walking even in the daylight. Now that I said that, I can say that in 30 years of walking with dogs in this time of year, I've only come across coyotes twice.

One was stalking my female Feist Terrier and I the first time 20 years ago. I fired off a .22 round and it skedaddled. 

The second time was only two years ago. I think the coyote was looking for open water and perhaps a mate. It stood and watched us from a distance. I hollered *Boo!* at it and it ran off. In our area coyotes are pretty timid.

I just don't take Charlie into our woods because they are big and he is little so why not? Just a good precaution right now.

It was not surprising that most of the animal tracks were in the narrow valley along the creek. It is out of the winds and there is water in some places where the springs bubble up.

Here the creek it about a foot wide and it looks as though it was flash frozen.

When I climbed under the large downfall and came out the other side I found a solitary sparrow taking a drink of water.

It didn't move off while I squatted there and pulled out my cell phone.

This reminds me why I adore and appreciate the heated bird bath at the house. I even wished I could tell the bird where it was located. I know, how weird am I?

Because this valley is very narrow and very steep, it doesn't get a lot of sunlight. Though there are places where there is open water like below. This is very likely a spring. IF it stays below zero for longer, the surface would still freeze and the water may move slowly under the ice.

Cool ice formations from the quick freeze.

Here is where the whole creek froze. The spring water seeps up over 

the ice to freeze in lumps and bumps.

This spot is near several springs and I've never seen it totally freeze over in 30 years. 

I found all of these variations in just a half mile of walking in the valley.

Of course I stopped by my favorite Ice Wall which isn't impressive this year as it has been in the past.

Three years ago------>

This was a nice break from being stuck inside. I have been trying out different methods of photography and might have some to share later this week.

Stay warm, stay safe.