Rainy day fun with Still Life

 

Teddy Bear Garden Club
Meeting

With two days of darkness and dreariness filled with rain and well, gloom...I decided to mess around with --- toys of all things! Surprise!

I had to be quiet because the other half was Mr. Sleepy Head. I did chores of course along with transplanting Bee Balm plants that were emerging. They are so hardy and tough. I knew with the rain, it might be a good time to move things [in between showers].

I decided to clean up my old camera and hired a crew to do that while I swept the house for Charlie hair.

Kidding of course. I decided to take advantage of the low light coming in from the east and south windows. It wasn't harsh, but perfect for Still Life.

You don't need much room to 'make' a scene.

Clean up Crew

What it looked like before I put up a tea towel...

"Oh no Chuck, we need some eye drops! Can

you get the top off?"

These are HO Scale pieces and they don't like to stand up on their own very well. Viola! Some Elmer's Glue works very well. This wipes off easily and works wonders! It goes on purple and fades to clear.

It is amazing what happens to a creative person when she gets bored from being quiet around the house. 

I got out the kid blocks and a little light and set them up on my 'play' table.  For special effects I put the camera on a timer and simply used a face mister for fog and water in a spray bottle for rain.

With almost no edits, I got these photos of this little Lego figure:

Pre-edit. 

Upped the blacks and....decreased

the color...

I even tried making Frank the Trooper float, and that failed miserably. I used a fishing line to suspend him and tried the following. He kept swinging around and nothing worked out for me.

I went back to what worked before and added a filter to the light.

Original:

Final:

I added some contrast and a used brush that comes with ON1. It is supposed to be a comet, but I thought it looked like a blast from a blast. The 'rain' is from the spritzer.

Friday morning we had sunlight! It was cold and windy...but Charlie and I adventured down into the valley to the Big Spring.

More about that...

later.

Today it is snowing again.

thhhhppptttptptp...ffffttt.

Taking care of the neighbor's pets.

 This is Cat. I don't know Cat's name but he/she was not pleased to see me on Sunday night. Cat just hissed at me. 
But apparently I was in better graces with Cat this evening...when Cat figured out that I provided the food.

I've never seen a reddish brown cat with black highlights. It is the most beautiful cat I've ever seen.

15 seconds. I really just wanted the first 5 second of hissing. 

This is Tiyo. He came home with my neighbors from Africa. I guess they adopted him while they were in Africa with the Peace Corps.

He is the most interesting dog I've ever met.

He is aloof and not aloof at the same time. He likes to be petted, but seems very cautious about it. I had to put eye drops in his eyes and he was a champ about it.
When I took him for a walk Sunday night, he tip toed through the snow as if it were almost distasteful for him to walk in.
Everything he does seems methodical.

I think I'm in love with him!

Rupert is their other dog. A larger mixed black dog with lots of hair that reminds me of a setter. His attitude is LOVE ME! He shouts without words and seems to be the epitome of joy. He prances around in the snow and dashes about willy nilly. 

Yeah, I love Rupert too. He apparently loves Everyone even Hissy the Cat.

I had to give Rupert his Lyme Disease medications. I opened his mouth and stuck the pills on the back of his tongue. He swallowed the pills and still was pleased with me being there.

These dogs were so well behaved! They came when I called them. I carried a leash with me the other times I took them out, but they stayed close and didn't wander off. Off course it was pouring rain and nasty out so we didn't spend much time outside.

Tiyo was not impressed by the icy driveway and tried to avoid it while Rupert ran across and slid like a cartoon character.

The dogs let me give them their meds without any fuss what so ever. Just call me floored at how good these two were. 

Meanwhile....the ice Monday morning was terrible. Olive texted me to tell me how bad the gravel roads were. Rain on cold frozen gravel roads = instant ice.

The driveway from the bottom of the hill:

The hill doesn't look steep from here. I set my little camera on the ice and shot this. YakTraks were the theme for the day. My camera slid down the incline. Good thing it is a waterproof pocket camera.

The temperatures rose all day long up to 40 degrees with heavy rain. I spread grit, sand, and hay chaff on the driveway Saturday and Justin had township sand/salt mix that he spread on the hill also.

By chore time the salt and grit with the warm rain had done a pretty good job on the hill. 

By evening, our area was socked in by thick fog and 39 degrees. Plus more heavy rain. The township finally came through and dumped a lot of gravel our little backroad. Sure, I could get out by late afternoon, but who wants to drive when you can't see more than 50 feet?

I need to get out on Tuesday and get milk, groceries, take the other half to his doctor appointment. Wednesday we are to get 4 to 8 inches of snow. Hmmm.

I like snow, especially if I don't have to drive about in it!

I hope I get to look after Tiyo, Rupert, and Hissy Cat again in the future. I enjoyed time with them and they loved the attention.

Rain is not always awful.

The rain came down in buckets yesterday. As I drove home from CrossFit I noticed that the ditches were filling and running high.

Rich was awake and up when I came in the door. I'd stopped and had gotten some of his favorite food in town. Some Fried Chicken from Kwik Trip along with some tators. I set the food down in front of him and told him to dig in while I unloaded the groceries.

He didn't move a muscle. He sat and stared out the window with gloom and doom in his eyes.

I chatted about class and shopping while I unloaded things and set them on the kitchen floor. He didn't turn around or respond. 
Well, this is the new normal. He is angry, he hurts, and he feels poorly and everything around him should feel the same. Depression has come back with a big bang. I can't blame him at all. He feels that he is not really living, but just existing and in his words 'not worth a damn'. 

I'd really worked out hard at CrossFit and I still felt the afterglow of a good job well done. So I didn't let his foul mood get me down.

We sat down and ate together and I was ravenous. I ate with gusto and I saw something change in Rich's eyes. He finally smiled and asked where I got such and appetite. I replied it was from working out. He actually laughed and then said, "You should have done this years ago!" 

See. I live for those moments. They are good moments. A smile and a twinkle in the eyes even momentarily.
Rich went to lay down for his afternoon nap.

I went out into the gloom and rain. Why not?

I told Rich that I was going out to check the water. 
Hmmm...
and I did...
I went to the desk. The Study Hall. 
The creek was rising swiftly so I moved the Creek Bears to safety and then wiped off the seat of the desk and watched and listened to the water flow down over the rocks.

The dry run just opposite the desk started to flow with runoff from the ridges and cropland above our land.

I watched the water work its way around the boulders and tumble into the creek. I thought...If I only had more time, I'd go downstream and watch the water rise.

But I didn't, so I walked upstream instead.

The rain was more of a heavy mist at this point. I headed towards the neighbor's land where the creek actually started at the spring.

As I walked I noted the foam in the water. It leaves beautiful white streaks in the muddy run off. Ugly but beautiful. 

The stark temperature difference between the snow and ice in the valley and the air above made for some exotic looking fog.

I watched the fog undulate and move, it felt alive and mysterious.
Such is nature.

So many people look outside at the rain the melting snow...and the fog and think...ICK! I look at it and think 'Wow!' 
I guess I've been odd that way.

I found the spring but it was under water from the run off.

Still, it was pretty cool. 

I turned and headed to the dry run that runs parallel to our fence-line.

I could stand on about 6 inches of ice and watch the water flow over the ice.

The day was not awful, it was amazing. 
I returned home renewed and content, a trip to the creek does that for me.

Even in the rain.

November

Now I think I realize why people decorate indoors with lights and bright colors this time of the year.

It is dull and dreary outside. Well, at least in the Midwestern Climates it is. Dull with no snow, no leaves on the trees, no flowers blossoming...grey ... everything is slowly turning colorless...

However, once in a while at dawn or sunset, the sky will light up with color. But mostly.
Dull.
Boring.
Oppressive.

Sounds awful doesn't it?

So we try to find something pretty about November. I see stalks of old flowers in my flower bed. The Juncos like the seeds in them so I leave it messy.
The moles are having a field day in the yard that is going from green to brown...

By Thanksgiving I am tired of fall colors and orange. Really tired of orange. Blaze Orange in particular. It seems that the 9 day deer gun season drags on forever. I'm tired of orange so I take down all the fall decorations I put up which aren't very many.
I start to eye the living room up and think about some nice pretty lights to combat the dark evenings.

I sneak out during the day wearing that awful orange to hike down in the woods along the creek. My husband says I need to stay OUT of the woods during gun season.
I go crazy when stuck inside 4 walls all day. Especially after I've cleaned all the walls. I could do windows I suppose. I should do the windows.

Nah.
I'm going to sneak out and walk the creek bottom.

I take my teddy bear 'ornament' and clip the band off from his hat. This little teddy bear doesn't want to hang on a tree. Nope.
He wants to be out in the woods.

I stop hiking in the middle of my walk and sit down. As usual, I've brought all the gear necessary to take a little water 'fall' photo.
And I do....

It sort of turns out bland also.

I finally turn and walk slowly up the trail. I have to go back and make sure the mules have water. And then go back in the house to play cribbage. [I still don't understand that game at all, but Rich loves it.]

I hear bluejays and a woodpecker, I hear the water tumbling over rocks below me.
The sky is grey and yes...very dreary.

But it is okay because when I get home I can turn the lights on and be cheered. Even after it gets dark.

I may even take the rest of the day and do something 'crafty'.

A bit of Infrared Fun ~ Sunny Days vs. Cloudy Days in the Creek

Shooting with an infrared filter opens up some wonderful possibilites on a bright sunny day. The shadows are more intense, the greens are 'white' and true IR photography is sometimes a lot more interesting that what I've taken here. 

[By truer, I mean cameras that have been converted to Infared.]

However, I am just dabbling in it.

The end result of this shot wasn't that fantastic. But it was a good experiment.

I wondered what the bright sunlight on the rocks would do with the cold water of the creek running through it.
The unedited version looks rather strange.

However I think I got lucky with this one. It turned out pretty cool.
In my opinion of course.
I can see the rocks just below the surface of the water and reflections of the rocks also.

I should have taken another shot without the filter and seen what difference it made, but I didn't. I was pressed for time that day.

I used a bit of extra editing in this next shot, I wanted to accentuate the rays of light.

This is more in line of how I 'see' parts of the creek bottom. It is beautiful and mysterious all at once.

The next day was heavily overcast which is perfect for normal water photography.

This shot is from further away and I used a polarizing filter to cut some of the water reflections so I could catch the rocks. I like this shot but feel that I actually enhanced it a bit too much. In retrospect, it should be toned down a bit.

This is more what I was going for. A nice long exposure which softens the water but allows the mind to imagine the motion. The rocks below are just visible enough so that we know there is a rocky bottom.

And then just for fun...

One must add something that doesn't belong.