Oh Deer and other things

When I got up I didn't think the sunrise would be much of a big deal. I walked out to the summer pasture and everything looked rather hazy and bleh.

I thought perhaps the ridge might offer something different so I walked up the steep hill. When I reached the spot where I come out of a wooded area, I saw a herd of deer in the cornfield.

The group yanked their heads up so I stood stock still.

I crept up to the ditch so I could stay somewhat hidden from them. I sat in the ditch and decided to just watch and see if I could catch them in the dim light.

The sky kept brightening and I kept shooting trying to get the deer to appear on the horizon.

 Yesterday we saw a bluebird that perched on a fenced post. 

I saw a swan flying overhead while I was driving to drop off my tax paperwork.

And in the afternoon Charlie and I spotted a Robin that I could photograph. I'd only heard them for the past few days.

I had one more awesome cool discovery. The boxelder tree sap was running like crazy!

I managed to get a shot of the sap dripping from the ends of the branches. Look at the droplets, they are reflecting the trees and sunlight to the west of the trees.

Today is going to be warm and sunny. All my chores are done and I am thinking....

Perhaps I can sneak out and go look for some Sandhill Cranes or at least some Geese to watch.

The day started out amazing. I want to keep that going forward.

Winter Solstice Sunrise

I like winter and I like marking special dates and times by going out and observing them. This spring for example, I climbed a bluff to watch the moon's partial eclipse on May 27th.

I watched the sun's partial eclipse too on June 11th.

It stands to reason that I'd get excited about a clear sky and the Winter Solstice. There were posts in our area FB group about folks getting together for a bonfire and celebration to watch the sun go down.

I wanted to see it come UP. I just love mornings. I like getting out there while it is still dark and watching the day awaken. 

I decided I'd walk to the ridge in the morning if the skies were clear enough.

~~~~

I set my coffee cup down and grabbed a spare battery and the tripod. I thought it would be fun to go to that favorite little tree on the ridge and see if I couldn't shoot myself watching the sunrise. I'm not very good at this yet. 

One option I can use on these newer cameras is the ability to operate it from my cell phone. Easier than trying to pair a camera and a phone while it is 12 degrees F outside, is using the delayed timer option. Another feature I discovered on my nicer Olympus is a time lapse feature. 

Oh now that is very cool. I used it the night before the huge storms struck the Midwest. 50 photos were shot to make a 7 second time lapse. 

When I got to the ridge I tried taking a few shots here and there to figure out where I should 'be'. I even tried a short time lapse which was an utter failure.

Here is a shot from the failure where it looks like the camera is about to be attacked by a Sasquatch which actually is me in my insulated coveralls, cap, hoody, scarf, and mittens. I was scurrying back to the camera in the low light and became a blurry monster.

I'm not one to be discouraged so I set everything up again and tried a new location. This one is a 5 second time lapse. I don't recall how many frames it took only that I was excited that at the very last second, the sun peeked over the horizon. And that was good enough for me.

I was going to try another quick time lapse but my fingers were burning from the cold. I'd had to exchange out the battery as the cold and my other antics had used up the one that was only partially charged.

All in all I was happy with my experiment.

I'd gotten close enough to being on the horizon to have most of me in the shot even if I still looked like a hulking monster of some sort. I got part of the tree I really like too. These little trees are on a tiny strip of land that divides two crop fields. 

Here the land is not even, it rises and falls so getting that perfect shot of a solo tree is generally quite difficult. Well, actually it is impossible unless the landscape were to change and I were to maintain that 10 foot section with a weed whacker. 

Still, it is a nice little tree and it often appears in my winter sunrise photos.

Adding the human element sometimes adds perspective to the shot, I find it quite funny for it to be myself wrapped up in winter clothes. But I'm game. I'd like to try it again!

And there it is...Winter Solstice Sunrise...

I may have to try this again if we get another clear morning. The next few days are supposed to be warmer but I am not sure how much cloud cover there will be.

Sunday's Fun

Well Sunday morning started out rainy and muggly. That's Val Speak for Rainy and Humid.
 That means it still felt like August and not like October at all.

So I decided to do some projects indoors instead of all the stuff I wanted to do outside. Fall does that to me. 
I attacked some cobwebs, washed all the floors after sucking up Charlie hair [how can such a tiny dog leave so much hair behind???].

Then I finished one of my pressed leaves projects. I set the leaves into a large frame with some colored paper.

I don't have a photo of the finished part, but I'll get that soon. While the rain poured down outside, I went on to some other busy hand work so I wouldn't spend time messing around on my laptop.

When I do get these items finished, I will take some shots of them. I'm making 'stuff'. I have an idea but it is just hiding in the 'creative' section of my brain. 

The rain let up and it looked like it would be a nice afternoon, so I took Master Charlie for a stroll.
Uffdah! The new house on the ridge has added to the dog issue. The one dog that I sprayed pepper gel on the ground between us did NOT come out but walked slowly behind us.

The new house has two dogs. They came bounding across the field. I recognized the Blue Tick Aussie Cattle Dog. I'm not going into that story, but now I know who is moving into the new house. The owners of the two places that have bothersome dogs are all brothers from the same family. In the past 15 years three boys and their wives have made their dad's inherited cropland places to build their homes.

I had picked up Charlie. The Aussie and an old mutt walked around me. I just waited. I guess they decided I was not interesting. I walked on and let Charlie back down to walk on his own. 

I would like to talk with the owners of the dogs and try to come to some sort of understanding. I know that demanding that they keep their dogs off the road and keep them from running is not going to work. Perhaps I can get a formal introduction to the dogs. Perhaps I can get a safe and supervised introduction with Charlie and their dogs.

We walked on. Charlie had no interest in the other three dogs that were now sniffing butts and walking stiff legged around each other. Three dogs running together is not a good combination.

As we went further down the road I could hear the owners start to call their dogs.

I was not going to let dogs ruin our walk. 

A light mist began to fall and in a way, I think it made this scene much prettier. It subdued the colors in a way, yet they still stood out.

My son got home from his long vacation to Vermont and the East Coast. 

I have the urge to go see it myself. I went as far as to look up different ways of traveling to the area without driving. 

Lastly, I set up the new laptop. Wow.

Wow...

I did some quick graphic art work with Mandelbulb 3D and was amazed. 90 seconds to render the two following quick pieces. 

I didn't have time to dig deep into any formulas or lighting, but just messed around and had some fun.
Impressive speed over the aged laptop. These renders would have taken about 15 minutes a piece and not 90 seconds.

Looks like I can go back to messing with fractals! 

All in all, a very quiet Sunday.

Today's chores are waiting. I have to also move the mules to their winter pasture and set things up before the cold weather hits.

Have a wonderful day.

I like Infared !

I only use a Hoya IR72 filter with my Olympus OMD EM 5 mirrorless camera. I got this camera back in 2015 just when the new version came out and the old version was being discontinued.
Why?
Well, the cost savings is great while buying a used or a new one that is being discontinued.

I went mirrorless because the camera is supposed to be more compact and lightweight. And, it was. It is my go to camera on very long hikes. I've beat the crap out of it and it still functions.

Is it the hands down best camera out there?
Nope.
However I bought in a bundle and saved quite a bit of money. My Nikon D5200 is an excellent camera. But it is heavier and it is quite picky about moist humid days or extremely cold days. The Oly is supposed to be weather resistant.

A big plus is that it does read infrared light too. The Nikon doesn't, however the IR filter will work with the Nikon. It just acts like a very dark red ND filter.

That said here is what I shot yesterday. It was bright and sunny, the lighting was all wrong for regular color, so I switched over to IR.

The Meadow in color:

The Meadow in IR:

The greens turn white, the shadows and cool areas are dark!
The trails faintly show up in the grass.
The leaves are slightly blurry as the length of exposure was about 2 seconds and the wind was blowing.

Next time I will try a fast ISO to see if I can get a clearer shot. True IR will look different. But don't want to convert a camera just for that.

Another shot across the ridge:

And then in IR:

However, the colors are beginning to change rapidly and now I am thinking about doing a drive around and trying to find neat spots to pull over and take photos.

Tonight we are supposed to have frost. It is right about the normal time for frost. But it makes me sad as the fall colors rush by so quickly and suddenly we are in the icky brown time before the snow falls.

Here are a  couple of more IR shotsthat I took then I will be done with displaying my IR shots for now.

I have to contact the VA Tech Help to set up a laptop for a telehealth appointment with speech/memory therapy for hubby.

Have a good Friday. I have some doodling painting to do on my landing. It is coming out pretty neat.