Wait, What?

Wait, what day is it? 

What happens when all of your days blend together? 

Some times you don't sleep well and other nights you are just plain restless. One of those nights I woke up ... wide awake at 1:30 in the morning. There was no going back to sleep so I went out on the porch and decided to look at the sky.

Yes, I am very fortunate to live in a 'hollow' with the nearest street lamps 12 miles away. If I go up on the ridge, the yard lights of farms across the ridge do 'pollute' the night sky. So lucky lucky me. I can admire the stars from my porch and my driveway.

Porch view of that night's Milky Way. 
It was clear enough for the naked eye, but the camera can pick up so many more details.

Is it no surprise that I fell in love with the night skies while living here for the past 29 years? 
The stars give me a sense of peace and wonderment [as do most things in nature].

I went out to try a selfie of me looking up at the Milky Way. It didn't work. Other years I've gotten the beam from my headlamp to show up in the humid air...
Not so this night. I tried over and over. So then I turned the red light on and twirled it for a 25 second photo.

It is called light painting, which I never really got the hang of.

But I thought it turned out neat.

I'm going to try it again but wear dark clothes and use some glow sticks. 

Here are some random Toy shots I just felt like doing on an overcast afternoon. 
The Goat herder seems unaware that he is being watched. Squatch who is one of my favorite toys is still around Aurora! He often joins the Legos on adventures!
 

This Rock Monster set up on the cookie tray with a clay mushroom I made, along with bits of plastic leaves and chunks of wood.

Of course. the Evil King and Queen of ... hmmm, I don't know what to name their kingdom, do you have a suggestion?

While out watching the hummingbirds and the clearwing hummingbird moth, I placed an HO figure on one of the Blazing Stars just to see what would occur. 

And he looked as though he became a Bee Keeper! 👇

I spent some time outside yesterday morning with both my macro and long lens. I still have to go through a lot of photos of flowers, birds, bees, and other insects. By 9am, I had finished up outside and mowed a tiny bit before coming in for a shower.

The rest of the day was taken up with a morning visit with hubby's nurse and and afternoon visit for his sponge bath. Rich looks forward to these interactions.

So, yesterday was Monday. Let's see what today brings.

I'm  going to meet a friend I met at the gym and go see her place. 

I feel a bit wicked knowing that I have some free time to do something different.

So yeah.

Wait

What?

Sunday Stills #26 ~ Light

Funny how this was on my mind when I went out to exchange SD cards on my Trail Cameras.

The low afternoon light was rather fun and it set the moss glowing on the downed logs.

I had some trolls in my pockets. I mean, doesn't everyone? I wanted to try and get some sun-flare or backlit shots of them.

This morning I walked past my kitchen trunk and saw this....

Light or lack of light

Star trails:

This shot was more messy as I was pointed right at the milky way...

Me walking through a photo with my headlamp while watching the skies for an Aurora Borealis. [Taken with the Infrared converted camera and no filter]

And last. I was trying to do a 'Stars' selfie with a head lamp.
It didn't turn out as I turned slightly because I heard a noise during the 25 second  exposure.... I like it anyway because it speaks to me of all the fun I had last night.

Light. I love it and also those days with a lack of light.

Sunday Stills #26

Insomnia, Fog, & Fun

First there was the fun. While driving back from town after CrossFit I took a county road that had been closed for almost 5 years while FEMA told our township that they would only pay for them to put the little bridge back to the way it was. Um. Yeah, the bridge that failed in the 2016 flash flooding that didn't make the news.

See the structure in the middle? Twisted and torn with the road washed out on each side. This was not the historic flood of 2018 which traveled down a different watershed path.

Annnnnywaaaaay. The Road was now open after 5 years of being closed. I thought I'd enjoy a drive up from the valley to the ridge.

The bridge was rebuilt without the support structure in the middle of the stream. Eventually all of the little bridges over Black Bottom should be done this way as all 4 of them have structural damage. But our township is poor and they just patch things up for now.

As I drove Up from the valley, I recalled why I didn't take this road up. The road is very nice, very curvy and very pretty. But the left turn at the top of the ridge is a blind ... very blind turn. 

I did stop and park to take these shots back down the road as they reminded me of that famous highway in Door County that everyone wants to travel to and take photos of.

Which begs the question. Why do so many people want to take the same shots of the same scenery? Why not find something new?

Since I almost never ever take a road shot, I thought this turned out pretty cool. Not Door County, just a back road in the steep hills of our county.

I woke up to Dense Fog the next morning. Fog so bad you cannot see the pasture in front of the house. There was a Dense Fog Warning on my phone/weather app.

Imagine my delight to wake up to a near white out and know that I did not have to travel to work 30 miles away this time in it.

I considered driving up the river road to explore but decided that since I could not see the 'Ru, it probably wasn't a good idea. So Charlie and I decided to take a walk.

I put the IRChrome filter on the modified camera. 

The intent was to get some coolo fog IR shots and some spider web photos.

So I put the macro lens on the other camera and explored.

There is something unique and wonderful about seeing those gossamer threads that insects create. I try each year to also 'shoot' my neighbor's oat field when it is wet with dew. I have to get up there with that zoom lens and see how creative I can get.

So.

Now it was time for bed. I'd worked out at CF, mowed yard, hacked and wacked weeds, and it was time for rest.

So of course I began thinking about the stars and the next new moon and the next full moon. So in my mind I began to plot how, when, where, I would try shooting it.

My mind would not SHUT up, so eventually I got dressed and hiked out to the ridge.

This is where I sometimes come for sunrises. I lit up the foreground with my cell phone as an experiment.

Nothing exciting here. Too much light and the moon would rise in a bit.

Could I try the classic self portrait of me staring up into the Milky Way with my headlamp? Um.

Imagine me sitting on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere just thinking and staring into the sky. The first few tries were epic fails. My light was not bright enough, too bright, or whatever. So I kept at it.

I looked like I was doing some sort of Pagan Ritual in one of the shots. I have to keep this in mind for Halloween.

Eventually I got something I could live with.

Did I get the light right? Did the increase in humidity help?

I don't know, but I loved it. [Yes...here I am trying the shot that so many others have created...the fun in it was figuring it out and the challenge will be to make it interesting and different than all the other photos like this.]

Then the orange/red partial moon started to rise and I wished for my zoom. Instead I just decided to be happy and listen to the coyotes and the night creatures while I shared my insomnia with them.

Early to bed early to....what?

Rise?
I awoke at 3:30, that is in the AM. Morris woke up too and followed me into the kitchen. I checked the time and then looked out the window. The moon was not quite full but it was brilliant out.
I let Mr. Morris out and stepped onto the porch.

I decided to go back to bed.
As I laid down I thought about my drive through Tainter Hollow the day before while running some errands.

Lucky me, I'd seen an eagle perched just above Tainter Creek.
He/she stayed there long enough for me to take out my zoom lens and swap it out for the one I had on the Olympus camera.

I stopped at Tainter Bridge and admired the tree and its reflection. I thought it would make a nice subject for the black and white challenge I'd accepted.

As I tried to go back to sleep I wondered how things would look in the moonlight at Tainter Bridge. Could I get a shot of the same tree and the water? Would the moonlight wash out the sky?

The more I tried not to think about it, the more I thought about it.
Finally I got up and warmed up a cup of coffee.
I was going to go to Tainter Land.

There is a challenge to shooting in the dark. But the bigger challenge was to be able to take some shots while the moon still shone into the valley. The valley is very steep.
I got there at 4AM and set up as quickly as I could.
Finding the right spot was not too hard. I've photographed this same spot over the years during the daylight and sort of knew where I should put the tripod.

The next challenge was the cold. The temperature gauge on the Subaru said it was 28 degrees in the bottom. It had been 34 on the ridge. And my fingers felt the cold. Those fingers that had somehow aged on me and had osteoarthritis in them.
Note to self. Next time, bring hot hand packs!

As the moon began to sink towards the trees on the ridge, I pulled out my flashlight and took another shot...in the night.
I wondered if my light would be enough to help lighten the tree trunk as it fell into darkness.

It did.

And suddenly.
The lights went out and the valley which was bathed in moonlight was dark.

I stuck my hands in my pockets to warm them up and listened to the barred owl and the stream.

My moonlight excursion at the bridge had lasted all of 12 minutes.
I got back in the 'Ru and started it up to thaw out.

You know what? The moon is out again tonight. Moonrise tonight is supposed to be the Super Moon of 2017.

I'm going to pack some hand warmers and those hunting mitts in my bag.

I guess a day nap will be in order.
I hope the owl sings to me again.

I like night. Night shooting.

Well what do you do when you have to work the 'graveyard' shifts or get off at odd times of the morning and there is a clear sky and bright moonlight....

you almost can't pass up the chance to experiment a bit with night shooting in the moonlight.

The biggest issue is that even in bright moonlight your auto focus cannot pick up anything. I solved this when I had my friend stand and I could shine a light and focus on her. Without another person, it is a bit harder.

For this shot I turned on the vehicle headlights, got a focus and pressed the shutter with a 12 second delay. I ran back to the car and flipped off the lights.

Bravo! I got a 60 second shot!

Then I thought the moonlit road would be interesting.

And...it really wasn't interesting other than only being lit by moonlight.

And then a 'shot' in the dark. I used to moon to get a focus and then pointed the camera an tripod behind the car.
At least there are stars in this one and the colors are more interesting.
The picture is noisy and has some funky pixels in it.
I was too cold to continue at this point, the temperature was 10 degrees.

So I packed up and went home to bed.

Since I had to work another midnight shift, I thought I'd take a few moments on my way to work to try out some other night shots.

I went to the pedestrian crossing near the Genoa

This shot was a total mistake. I didn't use the timer to prevent a jiggle in the exposure and the plant lights were too bright.
But one has to make mistakes in order to improve.

6 seconds of exposure at f 4.5 was too much. I should have gone to an f 11 perhaps.
I didn't have time to really take other shots, I had to be at the plant in 10 minutes after taking this shot.

However I pointed the camera with the same settings in the other direction towards the dam and got this shot. The color version was a mixed back of odd colors from the bright lights at the dam and the different kinds of light they have, so I turned it into a Black and White shot.

This turned out much better.

It was cold and I had little time to experiment, so I wrapped things up and went to work.

On my way home I couldn't help but pull over and take a shot in Romance, WI. The Bad Axe river was steaming and the trees were full of frost.
I pulled onto a side road and walked through the ditch to try and get a decent shot.

The light was so glaring and different from Night shooting.
But it was worth the walk through the crunchy snow.

Tonight the 15th will probably be my last night for any moonlit shots for this month. I can look forward to this again in April.

Perhaps I can convince my night hiking pal to help me go out tonight and take some of the snow lit up by the moon.
We will see!

In the works, Still life/Night Life

This is where I work. I decided to try a pretty cool thing that comes with the Olympus OMD E M5 camera. Live Time.  So I used a little tripod and pushed the button and...watched the photo appear on the screen.
Way cool.
I added some star specks and the little moon. Original is below.

This is a dam on the Mississippi River taken from a wayside.

Meanwhile I thought I needed a do over of some rose petals and rings. That didn't turn out so well so I went to plan B.

I did another ring instead and it looks like I'll have to redo this one also.

I blew the whites but I'm getting closer to what I want. I'll have to get another batch of flowers with roses in them. But, not until after Valentine's Day. They will be too expensive right now.

Well I decided to move on and try some other things.

Here I am doing the thinking pose while I toss around some ideas in my head.

I grab some items together. A vintage ruler, an old pitcher that I picked up from a flea market, a white rug, a ruler with advertising on it from the 1930's, and some flowers that were past their due date.

Fred would be very happy I think. Fred Flatow that is. I think that was his calling card in the 30's. On the flip side is a handy little ruler. Pretty neat right?

Finally I get something I am happy with. For fun I tossed the Lego Man into the coffee in the cup, along with a flower.
And I liked it better than any other shot I'd taken today.

And thus was born the Lego Man in the coffee.

I finished off the photo 'shoot' with two last items.

I wanted to go out and shoot the cropland and the icy sculptures in the moon light but alas.
The clouds have moved in.

Tomorrow is another day and hopefully I get out to do some more night photography soon.

Photos developed in ON1RAW2017.

What about the Weather Alert?

I looked at the text message and before I replied I check the weather to see what sort of alert we were going to have.

Severe Weather Alert I got one on my smart phone: Wind Chill Alert. Shall we stay in or go? What do you think? The text was from my neighbor. We had a night hike planned. She is still learning the ins and outs of dressing for our rural winter weather.

I checked the air temperature and it was 3 degrees. The light 'breeze' ... can you call it a breeze in the winter? ... the breeze felt light and from the west.

The winds would have to pick up to nearly 40 mph for the Wind Chill Alert of the expected -25 to -30.
I didn't see that happening in the next hour or so. I stood outside on the porch for a little bit in my stocking feet and sweatshirt. It was chilly but dressing correctly would make our night hike comfortable.

I stepped back inside. I texted her back.
I can keep us out of the winds rather easily by taking some deep woods trails and following the valley. Your call.

She texted me back with what she thought she would wear and I told her to check her email.
I wrote out an easy system of layering for the cold hike, keeping in mind that a good healthy pace would keep us warm.

As it happened it did drop to zero degrees and it was chilly. But we headed out across the night landscape and ducked immediately out of the light wind and onto a forest trail.
We climbed the steep bank down into the creek bottom and both of us loosened up our coveralls a bit.
It felt much warmer near the running water.

We found some beautiful ice formations where the water splashed over rocks and onto grasses to make the neatest shapes.

I got this with my cell phone and the added light from our headlamps really helped.

Lauren obliged and took my phone so I could kneel near the formations.

I was sneaky, I nabbed a shot of her too.

We walked to the end of the valley which involved some tricky climbing up and down the banks of the creek. I showed her the Big Spring and the hoar frost that had built up on the mossy rocks was incredible.
I should have taken more photos, but moving was keeping us warm.

We made another stop at a part of the creek that had branches across it.

We dawdled on our way back admiring more of the frost on the grasses and the rocks that formed because of the air temperature difference between the running creek and the cold air.
Neither of us were eager to end this 'bone chilling' hike. Well actually it was not bone chilling.
We were not cold at all.

We were warm despite the weather alert.
However let me say that yes wind chills are nasty and one should be careful.
Yet a person should dress for the weather and not for style when going out in very cold temperatures.

Layering is essential. Hats, gloves, mittens, scarves....well you get the point.

Indeed the Weather Alert was still on Lauren's phone. And we laughed about it as we came to my lighted porch to part ways for the night.

Lauren said that she'd never in her life had been so comfortable in the winter. I'd opened up her perceptions of winter. Winter could indeed be enjoyed better now that she'd learned a bit about 'dressing for the elements'.

And there she was eager to do it again soon. Despite wind chill alerts.
Of course we would be smart enough not to challenge a really bad day.

And there you go, another night adventure.