Hiking a well used trail

I think the most well used trail by bicyclers and equine riders is the Little Canada and Ice Cave trail loops at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. Generally I can usually hike a trail and almost never run into others.

I met 2 sets of bicyclists and 2 groups of horses on my hike Friday. 

I've almost always met someone on these trails except in the dead of winter.

Even in the winter, it is a well used trail for snowshoers. It winds up and down and around the ridge and dry runs. It passes through a couple of pine plantations and a mixed forest.

The hike was around 5 miles, I took the hiking only trail that runs north of the first leg of Little Canada. It is a little used trail. It doubles as a maintenance trail for work and for events at KVR.

I'm going to just toss up some shots here and let you enjoy. These were with a cell phone.

While on the maintenance trail I walked down to the old trail we used to ride above the river. The old trail is still there and it was closed off years ago due to the fact that an equine and rider walk within a few feet of an 80 foot drop off.

Photo of my youngest son standing on the trail in 1996

I enjoyed the hike and mostly took my time just looking around at all of the light and shadows in the forest.

I took my infrared camera and enjoyed some shooting too.

What a beautiful day to be out in those woods. No bugs and no humidity.

However I sure do hope we get some rain tomorrow. 

The weather service upped our chance to 50%!

Snow Day

 

Charlie doesn't need YakTraks or ice cleats obviously. Look at those feet! We decided to go for a nice morning walk to the ridge and down through the woods and around the neighbor's meadow.

The snow in the area is compacted and very rough on the deer trails. I had to walk carefully, but Bigfoot darted all around the place like a wild man. He had chased two squirrels and was on a roll.

The road on the ridge was covered in a layer of snow and under that was ice. This is one of those times where the ice wasn't thick enough to bury the gravel underneath so traction wasn't too bad. The mist was still coming down and icing all east facing branches.

I had trees on my mind. The light was dull and pretty gloomy but I enjoy days like this for different types of photography.

You've seen this boxelder before and for whatever reason, I stop often in the winter and summer to photograph it. The kid in me wants to make a fort here.

Funny how you can take the same route over and over and see different things. I never saw the shape of this particular tree before. The light and the misty atmosphere stopped me in my tracks. 

Here is the full tree, and below that is a cropped version of what I really found fascinating.

Cropped version

Everything seems to be moving to the right in this shot. Strange right?

Soon enough Spring will arrive and the trees will have leaves which will hide their incredible features.

After lunch we had a grand time watching the birds at the feeder. I tried to hone in a skill of 'catching' a bird in flight while leaving a branch.

I'll save that for another day.

Artsie Fartsy

The tree above is a real mess, but in some ways I sort of like it. I enjoyed the process so much I decided to try it again on the tree below.
I added the birds with a brush.

I used to love drawing with pen and ink. I wasn't very good at it. I was more of a Picasso artist and drew a 'interpretation' of what I saw. It tried being accurate and real, and always failed miserably.

Maybe this is why this sort of photo-draw-art-interpretation thing works for me. 

The funny thing is, this 'art' had some rave reviews with a certain subset of folks in
an art group on social media. 

However ~ can a person really trust social media these days? Rhetorical question, obviously.

This yearling deer was photographed through the back door window with my long lens. The original is here:

My 'vision' of what I imagined is here:

And then a wild interpretation that included textures and colors are here:
 

I hike or snowshoe daily with camera in hand and wonder what I can do artistically with the same ol' scenes over and over. How can I see the same tree yet interpret it differently? 

[Hey now, that would make an interesting comparison wouldn't it? This tree and scene over the years? Hmmmm....]

Below is a photo of an apple tree that I've photographed hundreds of times in all sorts of circumstances. This is the version I came up with.

This is the original:

The black and white version is more like a drawing. I like that. It really says a lot about winter. Though winter is not that dull and unexciting.

I enjoy finding out who has been lurking around by their tracks. Mr. or Mrs. Bobcat have been making a trail from one neighbor's property across our place and towards the neighbors west of us.

These shots were taken before the last snowfall. 

We haven't been going anywhere lately. Hubby stays at home and I hike out to the ridge or into the valley to get fresh air and see what is going on in our forest. 

Charlie has not been too excited over the latest cold temperatures and snowfalls. I have to make some trails so he won't have to snow swim.

Hunting shadows and

light...

Winter solitude-
in a world of one color
the sound of wind
~Basho

I've been on a black and white stark patterns 'kick' lately.

I recently read an article where one pro photographer said one needed to practice just one genre of photography to get very good at it. 
I agree with him.

Then I read another article that said Do What Inspires You. Okay!

Cold.

Snow.

Winter.

Stark.

White.

I've been inspired by shadows and light play.

And I was inspired by the incredible snow and clear blue skies. 

Trees that huddle in

 the hollow of a soybean field.

The Sumac that stands 

against the western winds.

Here is the tree line that still hides parts of a barbed

wire fence that once separated two farms.

There is pleasure in knowing where to walk to see these favorite places of mine on the ridge. In the other seasons none of these trees make such an amazing statement.

Yet in winter, they are must see spots for me.

I can't help myself.

I love how the winds whisper 

cold air past me 

and it makes snow designs

under my feet...

I feel

free...

~~~

The allure of the open ridge...

 

Here is the view from our neighbor's woods. We share a driveway with them. 
The next nearest neighbors we have are much further up on the ridge.

Our 'hollow' generally protects us from the most cold north winds. The mules often enjoy laying in the snow and soaking up the sun. At night they move into the woods and hide from the cold drafts.

This morning we are sitting at something like -10. 

Charlie and I went for a walk yesterday after chores to get the mail. Mr. Short Stuff and I went through the woods to avoid the wind.

When we got to the road, Charlie sat down and waited while I did some photography.

One should not waste a trip to the mailbox by leaving a camera at home. Something might be interesting and ... something may not be!

Charlie hardly ever passes up and opportunity to pile into the snow and hunt for the ever elusive vole.

The sun was bright and the cropland just begged to be explored.

But first, I needed to take the mail home and drop Charlie off. I needed snowshoes and some different gear.

I wanted to try some 'stark' winter photos. Artsy Fartsy stuff. 

The deer tracks that lead off into no-where gave me an idea....

Stay tuned....

Minimalism

I like minimalism in photography. 

The definition according to Wikipedia: a type of photography that is distinguished by extreme austere simplicity. It focuses on the smallest number of objects in the composition process.

The simplicity is left up to the photographer of course to interpret. 

I always felt that I needed to drive to the river, or to some other place to get a minimal type of photo. 
My dream shot would be a single oak tree in a long open field. It would be encased in fog or perhaps a snow storm. Early morning with shadows or late evening.

Stark. Black and white.

Well. I don't have the luxury at the moment to just drive around looking for that perfect shot. So I think by forcing myself to try and find it within walking/snowshoeing distance from the house would be an excellent challenge.

The crows that I 'shot' earlier this week sort of set me on this course.

The crow shot: 

I'd also taken a photo of Queen Anne's Lace which I edited from this:

to this:

Saturday morning I set out with the intent of really getting minimal. I mean a shot that would not need  any edits at all, other than perhaps a color edit to black and white.

This was the place I choose to experiment. I put on snowshoes and goggles and carried my glasses until I got here. 
This is the Meadow east of us with all its weeds, lumps, and bumps. Getting  a tree isolated in this land is ... well impossible.

And I put the battery in my Oly and set to 'work'. Actually, I started looking around and basically got lost in the moment. Well, perhaps I should say moments. I just kept wandering about carefully trying not to make tracks where I might find something awesome.

Finding Queen Anne's Lace isolated was hard! But I kept looking and trying different angles. 
I was happy enough to get this one that was still holding some snow.

And then I got distracted by these fellows...

Looks like they'd been out playing in the snow too! Gosh, weren't they cold???

I kept hunting and hunting. I wanted to find something very small. I kept looking at milkweeds, Queen Anne's Lace, small tufts of brown grass, and thorny wild bushes. I was going to give up when I glanced down.

It isn't much but it was exactly what I had in mind. A photo of almost nothing surrounded by white glaring snow and slight dips where shadows are.

Then I found this stick while hiking back towards the farm.  An oak branch blown down by the winds casting a shadow.

When I came up through the pastures where the winds had blown hard I found patterns in the snow. It reminded me of sand dune patterns.

I really struggle sometimes with the color and whiteness of snow. The two shots above were taken with 'snow' settings on my little point and shoot. 

Snow color is supposed to be 'white' with grey shadows.

In some light it seems more yellow/red/orange if the sun is just rising. Midday? It can cast bluish shadows to my eyes and grey shadows at other times.

I think I will struggle with that forever. 

However, if I am editing to black and white it won't matter much.

That's my story, and I am stickin' to it.