Busy day

The other morning, before my appointment, I went to feed the girls and they were in a place they weren't exactly supposed to be in. All I had to do to get them back was rattle the feed bin and bring out their hay. 

[BW shot with my Infrared Camera out the door]

I just shut them in this large paddock until I could get out to check fences.

The culprits of fence wrecking showed up the next morning.

We did end up counting over 30 deer congregated by the place where our fence and two other neighbor fences intersect.

Well after breakfast, I went out and fixed about 500 feet of hot wire. The barbed wire fence that belongs to the guy west of me is bent over and mostly broken. He knows it is a mess, but he sold his cattle and so he basically doesn't care. 

That said, I don't mind either because I use a hot wire on the inside of his barbed wire. Hot wire was the only way we could keep our jumping mules in our pasture as they were taught to jump fences. That is a competition with a history of hunting behind it. 

The mules I have left don't jump fences. But keeping them out of tangled barbed wire is my goal.

Winter Pasture

The winter pasture looks flat, but it isn't, there are a lot of trees, nooks, and crannies to go around.

Below, my fencing supplies.

It wasn't that hard to repair the fence since I use a fence product that is easy to put back together. By the time I finished in my chore boots, my feet were chilled.

But I had a couple of more spots to take care of before quitting. You know, once you start a job, you finish it before having to put all the supplies away again.

I'll just have to keep a closer eye on the deer. 

After lunch, I decided to get outside as it was so warm! 22 F or -5 C. I'd been bummed about the 'order' not to 'go' hiking so Charlie and I decided to go for a 'walk'. Semantics, it works for me. 

I dusted off my Infrared Camera and thought it would be interesting to see how things looked in a different light. 

Finally an hour to myself to relax! No phone calls to answer, no appointments to work out, no deliveries of meds that need to be signed for. Just me and my little dog.

We went down the good part of the trail to the creek.  It looks quite different with the snow on it. I like to try and get out to 'shoot' this trail before the critters mark it up with footprints. 

That little black dot is Charlie watching 8 deer running up the hill from the valley below.

I turned around and hot straight up the trail. Yep, one isn't supposed to do that with a camera, it causes a lot of sun flares especially when you are using an Infrared Camera. I didn't care, I liked the footprints.

I checked my watch, time to get back and make sure someone had their meds on time and prepare for the 100 questions about "What is for lunch?"

I wanted to take an IR shot of this oak leaf stuck in the snow. Yes, the leaf looks blue as the light spectrum I chose to shoot in reflects anything that has chlorophyll in it a shade of blue in camera. It just looked pretty.

As we walked back home, I kept looking for interesting shapes and shadows in the snow. I like a solo branch sticking up out of the snow with a cool shadow. But our snow is not deep so I was stuck with little weeds. 

Back under the large oak, I found a small spot that did not have animal tracks in the snow and had interesting shadows from the tree above.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning house since I hadn't really done so since I'd been sick over a week ago.

Sunday Stills #20

 Autumn

It happens when the morning sun shines through the old oak tree to the east like this...
cooler mornings
with beautiful morning mists

and heavy dew even in the forest

the fern leaves are kissed with dew drops in the valley just above the creek...

Sunday Stills #20

Good Morning

The weather app said dense fog, but I saw the hazy moon and decided to walk out to the cropland on the ridge to try and get some pre dawn photos. Maybe I'd get lucky.

This was a bit of a struggle for me. There were so many things to look at and photograph, I could have stayed all morning. I wanted to stay until the sun came over the horizon, but duties back home sometimes dictate my time.

The walk to this part of the ridge is only a half mile. The cropland is the only part of the area this is not crowded by wild forest. I say wild, because well...it is! 

Not only did I get a look at the predawn light bouncing off the snow and tracks, I got valley fog!

Don't laugh but I did a little happy dance in the snow and then started to shoot. Since these conditions don't come around often I did a lot of guessing. 

I was enamored by the blue tint and reflections in the snow. Once on a discussion board for learning photography, I was told that snow always had to be white, no exceptions. Of course I argued about it. 
Well, since it was about 12 degrees out, I felt fine with the cold blue tint on the snow.

Anyway. My whole purpose of walking to this part of the ridge was to see that one lonely tree in the dip. My intention was to hike to the tree and shoot with the tree against the sky.

Pfft. I nixed that idea. First shot is with a 12mm lens wide open. The second shot is with the all powerful zoom as is the third shot. I had fun, I enjoyed it.  

I really struggled with the white balance and the colors bouncing off the snow. I am not afraid to admit it. 

I may try another trip down towards that tree a bit later this year. I still think it would be neat to get a solitary tree against a sunrise.

I headed back home.

Time to make the coffee and get my morning duties taken care of.  I could have happily stayed out for most of the morning. Wait, didn't I already say that?

I got hubby situated and then took Charlie out for a look see. Charlie was into finding rabbit pellets and deer pellets. We were both content.

I'm not sure, but I think this last one ended up as my favorite because I tried something very different.

Shoot at the sun with the trunk blocking it. The frost was coming down like a snowfall. 

It was more glittery in person.

So.

Good morning.