Spooky stuff or Not

I am forever the experimenter....or is it experimentor? I like the ...or spelling better but spell check doesn't.

I wanted to try something different and new. I ran across a Seasonal Tips offered by Olympus which was fun. After all I couldn't be outside mucking about in the storms we had, so I decided to clean the basement.

You know how this works. I rearranged the tubs of clothing. I sorted the hunting clothing...I needed blaze orange for the 9 day gun season. The insulated coveralls come out of the tub and light jackets go into the tub.
Restack everything and think about getting rid of things.
Put the summer stuff under the steps in the hard to get to places.
It will be months before I get out that stuff again.

Get the winter stuff out. Oops! See the Fall decorations.
Pull them out. 
Sort.
Pull out the Halloween Stuff that the neighbor kids really loved.
Hmmm.
See the decorations for Christmas. 
Put them back. Go have coffee.
Watch the rain.

Rich gets hungry. Feed Rich. 
Storm gets worse.
Rich goes for his afternoon nap.
It is dark outside.
Sort the Halloween stuff and the Fall Stuff.
Time for Tea.

Nope, can't go out to walk.
Okay.
Get out the decorations and play with the camera.
Sounds good.

Dark and dreary. Some Still Life with plastic skulls and an old jar with marbles and lights.

In the shots below I used an Art Filter to create black and white grainy shots. This is a hanging skeleton/ghosty thing. I held it by the twine string attached to the top and shot it as it slowly turned back and forth.

Just the right amount of spooky-creepy.

And then back to the skull on the table with the lights:

I tried something I'd never done before. A long exposure of 10 seconds with moving the camera slightly during the exposure [twisting it slowly on the tripod].

The result was kind of fun.

Then one with a pumpkin.

Now a lot of folks shy away from spooky creepy stuff. Be assured that is not all that is on my mind. I just like experimenting with different ways of presenting a photo. If it creeps you out, then I did my job as a photographer. I made the viewer feel something.

So if that is not your forte...here is some other Still Life photos. I am not all Creep and Scare!

And the last photo. 

To make you laugh!

I was given my Virtual WOD for CrossFit and the coach said since I didn't have a rower, I could run one portion of my workout instead. I do have to be accountable once a week and send a photo of working out to the coach.

Here is my WOD photo of the week titled: I think I need a new rowing maching!

To which the coach replied..."I think it works better IF the water is on the outside of the boat."

Stay safe.

I'll be off to find more things to have fun with. Spooky or Not.

Dull Days of November

Welcome to that time of year that things to photograph are utterly ...

un

inspiring.

I call it November Yuck. When things are sort of brownish icky-ish, the weather is cold and windy, or cold and rainy. Or

just

dreary.

The fun of hiking seems to be on hold. Well, that is, unless I can convince some other soul to join me in a walk/hike in the muddy dreary weather.

Charlie is always up for it as is Dixie.

See? Charlie is always happy now to lead the way...and come back when I call him!

Truthfully I do get bored of the sameness of the grey skies and the dull colors of November.

So I sometimes modify it.

Here is a photo of the forest run through an AI program called Deep Dream Generator.

Then there is the meadow photo run through DDG:

During the rain and windstorms on Monday, I went back into JWildfire and composed some fractal flames, then combined them just for fun.

I get tired of the lack of color before winter really sets in. November is a transition time for me. I am coming off the glorious short lived colors of fall and jumping into dark days of winter.
I seem to need a bit more rest these days and my urge to get out and hike is also dulled by the slate grey toned skies.

CrossFit is still going strong. Today I did something called muscle ups along with Calorie Rowing. I did a modified Muscle Up per the coach. I watched Josh do them and was amazed.
These Muscle Ups were things I did easily when I was in High School gymnastics.
So the coach modified my Muscle ups into two steps...

I did something called Ring Rows, they almost seemed too easy and the coach said I did I great job... [I was pretty tickled with that!] I did another thing that was pretty cool. Don't ask me what it was. It was similar to me placing my hands on a high log laying across a trail and sort of pushing myself up and over it.

When I finished those I told him that next time we'd have to make them a bit harder for me.
He smiled and said that he wanted to make sure that I didn't hurt myself doing a new WOD, however any time I felt I needed more of a challenge...just ask.
Oh... WOD. What the heck is that? I looked it up.
Simple.
Workout
of
the Day.


Thursday morning, I am meeting up with a camera club pal and we are going to venture out and take sunrise shots over the Wisconsin River. Well, that may be the plan. If it doesn't pan out, I'll be doing CrossFit.

I spent an hour the other morning in a bow hunting blind a friend of ours put up facing the meadow. I spent an hour this evening out there too.
Deer watching was pretty fun.

I got some really nice photos too.

So I guess my November is not as Dull as I thought it was.
More about the Deer Blind later...