Relaxing trip to Wyalusing

We decided to go on a hike to Wyalusing State Park. There was a fair breeze and I figured we could stick to the shaded trails up on the bluff to take advantage of the shade and the light breeze.

With all the bright greens, I thought it would be fun to limit myself to my Infrared camera and shoot IR black and white.

I did bring a filter that allowed the camera to shoot in regular light. The greens and the sunlight through the trees were stunning.

The contrasts in B&W IR are startling. The 850nm light spectrum
shows green as white which gives the whole world a different look.
This filter also shows water and skies as black, and highlights barely perceptible clouds in the sky.

These are shots from deep in the woods from the Sentinel Trail.

This trail is has some demanding areas to negotiate.

The best part of this hike was being able to sit on some rocks and just have some peace and quiet while listening to the forest around us. Charlie enjoyed the rests, Hannah wanted to keep going.

I had brought plenty of water and snacks for the dogs to keep them occupied while we just chilled out.

In these shots, one can see how Hannah compares to Charlie. She weighs the same as Charlie, but Charlie is a small compact dog that has the Dachshund build and muscular body.

Hannah is slender, long, and taller. She looks as though she was built for running.

Her terrier energy seems boundless.

When we got to the 'stairs' I had to be cautious. The dogs are supposed to stay on a leash and I used the double leash. Hannah wanted to rush down the stairs and Charlie had to take one at a time. I may have to figure out a different way to handle that next time.

The double leash worked great until Charlie got tired.

At that point, I pulled out a separate leash for Charlie so Hannah wasn't pulling him.

More stairs!  👇

Our 5 mile route took us down to the boat launch at the Mississippi River.

We spent more time relaxing at the launch and cooling off to take the hike back up to the ridge top.

Hannah was in heaven when I tossed sticks into the river. She does everything with a certain amount of pure exhilaration. 7 seconds of fun....

Charlie got warm and tired on our way back up the Long Road. I tried to stick to all the shady spots, but at one point, Charlie just sat down and looked up at me. I can't refuse my pal so we took more breaks and a few times I lifted him up and carried him.

This is the Long Road ~ 

Seriously, that is the name of this trail/road that leads to a boat launch on the river at Wyalusing State Park. I walked this last fall with Charlie and was struck by the beautiful gentle curves through the forest.

November 3, last year...
It is amazing how different times of year
and the light changes the look of places!

Our last stop was a picnic table overlooking the overlook.

We had a fun trip and were tired enough for short naps when we got home.

I was relaxed and ready for the workers to show up on Thursday and my meeting with the person who has been our Financial Consultant for 14 years. 

Ahhhhh!

It would be a good weekend to play the music from Frozen!

Let's talk weather for one second!

Or pretend it doesn't exist. Maybe I'll put up summer photos on my computer and have them scroll through so I can pretend it is summer.

Huh.

Saturday:

Sunday:

The weather icon says it it 'Fair' outside. I think they mean that it is mostly clear. I'm not even going to talk wind chill.

The truth be told though, winter is partially my favorite season. 

No bugs. 

No lawn mowing. 

No weeds to contend with. 

No humidity.

Can't get naked to cool off on a hot day.
The wild animals might see me and die of fright.

But I do like all seasons...just mainly not bugs and humidity.

Chores went well on Saturday morning despite the temperatures. 

Charlie had another opinion. He'd gone out did his thing quickly and then settled in on the couch blankets with some of my gear.

But at -20F [-29C]? I'll wait until it comes up to zero to go out and enjoy hiking.

I find it interesting that Fahrenheit and Celsius get closer and closer as it gets colder. But that is not true either!

Absolute zero is weird too. 0 Kelvin, -273.15 C, and -459.67 F.  Supposedly that is zero point energy. 

I looked that stuff up because I was curious about cold and how cold could it ever be? Zero point energy would mean, I guess that nothing would be alive.

Yikes!

So in thinking about cold weather, I got out my Ice Planet Minifig and decided to do a portrait of her. Yes, it is a she! I love that Lego has both genders doing tough jobs. I'm going to call her Shelly. 

Apparently, she doesn't mind icy places as she lives [according to Lego] on a planet of ice and snow.

Looks like she has a Robot Penguin. I guess it will need a name also.

Lastly. I did do some experimental photography yesterday with my Lensbaby Sweet 50.

I was in the mood for pink. Well, that was the one color of dried flowers I had.

In the evening, I tried watching some mysteries on the Boob Tube. Nothing held my attention. Instead I turned on some music via YouTube and let it keep me company.

So I created my own murder mystery with the Film Noir Detective from Lego. I processed it as 'Film Noir' also because it just seemed fitting.

Now I have to garb up and go water my little pony. The gals are still eating the huge pile of hay I put out last evening.

We are already up to -10!

This Challenge....

Manual focusing with a Lensbaby lens. The following shots were taken with a Lensbaby Sweet 50. What the heck is that?

Well the lens itself is odd looking because you can change the place of focus. Choosing your aperture and place of focus is a challenge. Most lenses are static, they stay in place and you focus on what you want composing your photo with a fair amount of ease.

The Lensbaby Sweet 50 looks like this. You can swivel the lens about to change the spot of focus you wish to have. The one pictured is a Sweet 35. To the right of the shot you can see the apertures that can be picked for shooting.

The lens can be locked in place so your focus point is in the middle or slightly off center. The smaller the aperture, the smaller the point of focus.

Why on earth would anyone want to monkey with something like this? This is considered an 'art' lens. It allows the photographer to step out of their comfort zone. The lens can create unique affects inside the camera. Meaning, no after processing needed in most cases.

The shots can create dreamy bokeh with dreamy distortions...or produce unusual effects in camera.
 

I shot this crab spider on a white moss rose. The focus was moved by me to try and catch this little spider crawling around on the petals. Was it easy? Oh heck no!

It wouldn't have been easy with any lens at all. It took me several tries and a lot of patience to get this one shot. I shot it at f 2.5 which didn't give me a whole lot of focus room. But I liked the challenge.

Here is another example. A spent sunflower in black and white.

I went to a larger aperture and backed away from the flower to capture just the flower in focus. I could have done this one with any lens, but I wanted to practice with this one.

These are a few of the other shots I felt worth keeping after walking around with this odd contraption on my Olympus camera. 

I used focus peaking which works most of the time to see what exactly was in focus. Not every shot came out as expected. 

This is an alphalfa flower blooming in a hay field.

A beautiful blue Chicory flower.

Highbush Cranberries

Nasturtium, ready to open.

In this shot, I shifted the focus slightly to the right on this oak tree. I wanted to show how the focus shifts and the areas around are 'blurred'. 

I'm fairly sure that this beloved tree will disappear once the loggers get to it. 

Sunshine walking past some Vervain flowers in her pasture. [Yes, she still needs a hair cut and a few burrs pulled from her mane]

Fishing and photos....

 We had a perfect day ... to go fishing. 

With Steve's help, we made it to Lee Lake in Cazenovia once more. And...the fish actually were biting. It was only the little fish, but at least the guys had fun deciding which one was going to be the BIG one.

It was a great day to take my Infrared Camera and more than one light spectrum filter. Below are the two guys deep in conversation...or they are just sitting quietly enjoying each others company. These two do chat but have long silences in between.

Some conversations start with ... Do you remember when....???  I listen intently to those stories because it is a history of things that occurred before I met Rich.

To think these guys are in their late 70's ... and have known each other since they were in their late 20's. 

Their friendship never ended but their lives took different directions with the two of them connecting up every once in a while.

Below...Steve tied a table umbrella to the dock so Rich can stay cooler in the shade. He thinks of everything!

Infrared Photo...

Bassy the stuffy fish did come along! Rich said she couldn't stay on the dock with them. He was afraid that she'd blow off as we actually had a breeze.

Cell shot....

The cool thing about Infrared is that you can get so 
many different looks with one filter. This
bench was filmed in the spectrum of

550nm.

This first shot is what it looks like

in camera. Startling blue foliage

and an orange hued sky.
Red becomes pink.

This is the black and white version. Basically I just desaturated the shot

and upped the contrast a bit.

The shot below is achieved by

what is called Channel swapping.
IR only picks up a few colors.

This is very hard to explain and it

is pretty technical.

I know that I enjoy the results.

The world looks foreign.

Here are a couple more views of the man made lake in Infrared using different light spectrums.

I really had fun with the Infrared camera. Hot sunny days are the best for using this camera.

Below are shots I did with my upgraded but not very fancy Google Pixel 9a. My 6a was on its last legs. What did surprise me [aside from the price] was the new ability of the camera to take 'long' exposures. So I went and tried it out by the Caz Dam.

I've been fighting off using my cell phone as a camera for a long time. But I can see its uses while hiking a long distance and not lugging along heavy camera equipment.

I did some other experimenting with a clearfield center diopter filter I found at a second hand store for $1. It was the filter I used in the very first shot which allowed the center to be in focus and the edges become blurred.

I can see where it will be very very handy in some toy photography.

This is the Lady of Pain from the Dungeons and Dragons collection. I thought she'd go perfect with a poison dart frog.

We had more adventures after leaving the lake. 

Eventually we did make it home safe and sound and tired out. But Rich and I are looking forward to our adventure next week.

Catching up

Well here we are on a Sunday. I was going to send in a grocery order and go pick it up in town when we got a phone call.

Rich's nurse is coming out at noonish today. He called while I was doing morning chores.

So instead of doing that, I am readjusting my schedule once more.

Before the Rich got sick, I did a nice long hike in the neighbor's valley.  There is this very gnarly and twisted tree in the grassy part of the valley that always fascinated me. The tree has been dead for quite a few years and has a lot of interesting lichen on it.

I've always wanted to do a 'good' shot of this tree but never quite figured it out. So here is the tree. Once I decided to convert it to black and white, it seemed to stand out a bit better.

It is surrounded by a variety of plants and quite a bit of golden rod shown below. I'd read an article about shooting through a plant at another plant to give a bit of interest to the shot. 

So I shot the tree from the other side with the lens close to the golden rod for a light blur effect. Below is the result. It only took me a gazillion years to get a shot of this twisted tree that I liked. And there it is.

During the big melt down on February 25th, I spent quite a bit walking around through the creek bottom. In my bag I had another Titan 13. This one is gold. I thought with the late afternoon sun he'd surely shine.

I had a bit of excitement when the Titan fell forward into the rush of water. I had to chase him downstream a bit to rescue him. The water wasn't deep at all. But I had to try another shot just for the heck of it.

I thought he'd look more regal and I wanted to shoot more up at him than this direction. I'll find another time and place to do that but without the water.

That run off on the 26th was really quite beautiful. I enjoyed taking it all in. The sound of the water was relaxing and invigorating at the same time.

Now I'm trying to figure out my new routine[s] and get used to another change in our lives.

Including creativity is going to be a new challenge to explore. I can think of it in a way as being pushed to change things up.

Caught up and now moving forward.

Ice Baby Ice!

Our driveway ... even with the new gravel from last year was pure ice Saturday morning!

YakTraks were in order!

So for most of Saturday night and most of the Sunday we were encased in ice and fog with dense fog predicted through Monday forenoon.

I went to get Saturday's mail and was struck by how cool the forest looked.

The tree below is one I followed last year. It is a Hop Hornbeam tree that generally keeps some of its leaves through the winter. This year wicked winds stripped them.

The fog was thick and the road was iced.

It was a fine day to stay off the roads.

I did venture down into our creek bottom and enjoyed some bird watching through the dim light. I walked on the ice as it was easier than walking on the rocks.

Some think cold, damp, and foggy days are awful. I think of it as having Mother Nature is a soft light box.

It is dismal looking in a way. But sometimes one can find beautiful things. 

I am very lucky to be surrounded by an interesting landscape.

The temperatures warmed up quite a bit during the day and some of the ice melted down almost enough for me to be able to drive up the hill if I needed to.

That said, even though it was a pain to so many people. I liked our fog and ice.