It should have been

 ...a good day to stay inside and do...

Well. Read, nap, lounge, make chili ..or maybe even go through things and purge more crap out of drawers and the basement.

But by mid afternoon I was climbing the walls. I took Charlie out for a walk with me and he made it about 40 steps before his feet froze. I carried him back to the house and let him in. 

I thought I'd go finish breaking a trail up through the summer meadow and grab the trail camera down in the woods. With the subzero temps, I figured the batteries would be dead.

The wind chills were still in the - Below Zero Range, so I covered up. Since I live in a hilly and forested area, I can walk into the woods and avoid the winds. But covering my face and eyes is by far the most important thing for me to do.

I got down into the woods and retrieved the trail cam. Of course there was this shot of me walking during the snowstorm. 

And here is a shot of me coming to get the camera. In both of these photos I am using snowshoes. The more often I break trail, the better it is to walk on. During the storm, I was  up to my knees even with snowshoes on.

It was pleasant in the woods, but my feet did start to get cold since I'd neglected to put on my snow boots. 

The walk was beautiful. I'm not going to kid you. I did not march with great speed up and down the hills. It is very hard work with snow shoes and deep snow. I walked, I rested, I looked around and admired the scenery.

I do love shadows on the snow from the trees. Out in the meadow there were oak leaves sticking in the snow like this. I always find it amusing as to how they ended up that way.

I have to give a nod to Aurora  at equine expressions and her beautiful winter photos that are always inspiring! Where there are oaks and snow, there will be those oak leaves doing their cool winter things!

The sunshine is so welcome to see after what feels like months of dreary skies.

Even the mules enjoyed it.

The photos are soft because I took this shot through the window and screen.

Today's menu includes chicken veggie soup with rice. I have to go tomorrow to town and get some groceries as the cupboards are getting a bit thinned out.

Charlie and I finally got a nice long walk in this morning. I walked along our plowed road and out to the ridge and back. I figured Charlie would get cold feet, but he didn't. He trucked right along and chased as many smells as he could.

We noticed that the deer had been out in the soybean field digging up snow like crazy. I imagine the food is harder for them to get now that they have to contend with deep snow.

Stay warm and enjoy the sunlight if you have it!

More wooden model fun

Well, I had so much fun with the mannequin, I thought I'd sit down and try to think up another scenario or two. I had more phone calls to wait on. 

My cell phone does work, it doesn't get voice service inside the north portion of the house and rarely gets any service in the kitchen. It does receive texts and all the other good stuff. Just no voice service most of the time inside the house. We attribute that to living with hills surrounding our place and the steel roof.

I really had to work at thinking of things. I tried making paper flowers that would be tiny enough for the mannequin to hold. Boy was that ever a failure. Meanwhile, apparently little wooden dog got hungry and mannequin fed him.

I tried to get the mannequin in a nice sitting position, but it kept falling over. I wanted the tiny dog in his lap. That didn't work. Then I tried making a blanket and a pillow. 

That worked but I didn't like how the shot turned out. The color of the material I used took away from the feel I was trying to get.

I went to all white and tried this.

Bad dog. What happens when you let wooden fido get the mail!

I tried several positions and the light from the back door kept changing.

This was much harder than it looks! Light, shadows, and no distractions to take away from the subject matter. 
But it was a great mind exercise.

Hunting shadows and

light...

Winter solitude-
in a world of one color
the sound of wind
~Basho

I've been on a black and white stark patterns 'kick' lately.

I recently read an article where one pro photographer said one needed to practice just one genre of photography to get very good at it. 
I agree with him.

Then I read another article that said Do What Inspires You. Okay!

Cold.

Snow.

Winter.

Stark.

White.

I've been inspired by shadows and light play.

And I was inspired by the incredible snow and clear blue skies. 

Trees that huddle in

 the hollow of a soybean field.

The Sumac that stands 

against the western winds.

Here is the tree line that still hides parts of a barbed

wire fence that once separated two farms.

There is pleasure in knowing where to walk to see these favorite places of mine on the ridge. In the other seasons none of these trees make such an amazing statement.

Yet in winter, they are must see spots for me.

I can't help myself.

I love how the winds whisper 

cold air past me 

and it makes snow designs

under my feet...

I feel

free...

~~~

Minimalism

I like minimalism in photography. 

The definition according to Wikipedia: a type of photography that is distinguished by extreme austere simplicity. It focuses on the smallest number of objects in the composition process.

The simplicity is left up to the photographer of course to interpret. 

I always felt that I needed to drive to the river, or to some other place to get a minimal type of photo. 
My dream shot would be a single oak tree in a long open field. It would be encased in fog or perhaps a snow storm. Early morning with shadows or late evening.

Stark. Black and white.

Well. I don't have the luxury at the moment to just drive around looking for that perfect shot. So I think by forcing myself to try and find it within walking/snowshoeing distance from the house would be an excellent challenge.

The crows that I 'shot' earlier this week sort of set me on this course.

The crow shot: 

I'd also taken a photo of Queen Anne's Lace which I edited from this:

to this:

Saturday morning I set out with the intent of really getting minimal. I mean a shot that would not need  any edits at all, other than perhaps a color edit to black and white.

This was the place I choose to experiment. I put on snowshoes and goggles and carried my glasses until I got here. 
This is the Meadow east of us with all its weeds, lumps, and bumps. Getting  a tree isolated in this land is ... well impossible.

And I put the battery in my Oly and set to 'work'. Actually, I started looking around and basically got lost in the moment. Well, perhaps I should say moments. I just kept wandering about carefully trying not to make tracks where I might find something awesome.

Finding Queen Anne's Lace isolated was hard! But I kept looking and trying different angles. 
I was happy enough to get this one that was still holding some snow.

And then I got distracted by these fellows...

Looks like they'd been out playing in the snow too! Gosh, weren't they cold???

I kept hunting and hunting. I wanted to find something very small. I kept looking at milkweeds, Queen Anne's Lace, small tufts of brown grass, and thorny wild bushes. I was going to give up when I glanced down.

It isn't much but it was exactly what I had in mind. A photo of almost nothing surrounded by white glaring snow and slight dips where shadows are.

Then I found this stick while hiking back towards the farm.  An oak branch blown down by the winds casting a shadow.

When I came up through the pastures where the winds had blown hard I found patterns in the snow. It reminded me of sand dune patterns.

I really struggle sometimes with the color and whiteness of snow. The two shots above were taken with 'snow' settings on my little point and shoot. 

Snow color is supposed to be 'white' with grey shadows.

In some light it seems more yellow/red/orange if the sun is just rising. Midday? It can cast bluish shadows to my eyes and grey shadows at other times.

I think I will struggle with that forever. 

However, if I am editing to black and white it won't matter much.

That's my story, and I am stickin' to it.

Teaching Bill to Orienteer...

The above photo is from the steep rise on the West Ridge Trail. We started at Pott's Corners and came up the steep hill. In the winter, this is a snowmobile trail and multi use trail. In the summer, it is used by hikers, equine, and bicyclists.

On a whim I texted Bill late on Sunday and told him I was going to take advantage of the unusual weather to hike on Monday. He texted back "I'm IN!"

The light was amazing and the Autumnal Haze was pretty thick. It created a surreal scene as we walked up through the shadows of the trees.

I gave Bill a running commentary about where I thought we would end up on the West Ridge Trail. I told him we'd probably come right up to those incredible rocks we found in the spring of 2020. He was skeptical.

I wasn't. I'd seen the West Ridge Trail from the top of the rocks and knew it was there. Plus I study the maps from the reserve.

We found the rock formation.

I asked Bill if he wanted a closer look and he asked if we could get up on top. 

And yes, we did.

View from the top looking east.

Bill told me we were looking in another direction by his reckoning. I got out the map of the KVR and dropped my really nice compass on it. I oriented it for him and he was mildly surprised. 

In my backpack, I carry an updated map of the reserve, a compass, and a topographical map.

This way I can be fairly confident when cutting across the land to find my way and not get lost in all of the hills and valleys.

Believe me, directions can get confusing. All it took is one time of going down the wrong trail to convince me that I had to be much more aware.
I include a firestarter cube along with waterproof matches and a lighter. Also included it an emergency blanket in my backpack.

We did get up on top of the rock ridge and that put us on Hanson Rock Trail. There, Bill wanted to head south and I told him we had parked at Pott's Corners to the north. 

I told him if we followed the rock ridge we'd cut off distance back to the vehicles and end up back on the trail we wanted. This time, I had him figure out the direction and carry the compass for a bit.

With no trail to follow, the land looks very intimating. 

Bill said he'd just follow me. But I had him stop and read the compass a few more times.

 

Within a few minutes of walking, we stood on a rock out crop and peered down on the Hanson Rock Trail. Bill recognized the spot. 
Here is Bill, happy that we were not lost in the Wild.

The detour was well worth it.

This is a rock outcrop that cannot be seen from the trail. It is worth meandering about to see these formations.

We descended off the small bluff and Bill handed me the compass. I asked him if he'd like one for Christmas. He said he'd get his wife one. He wants her to enjoy hiking too. She retires from her nursing career in December and he is hoping to get her to enjoy discovering the outdoors. She already is an amazing wild flower gardener.

We walked along enjoying Charlie's fearless leading along with the amazing warm weather.

We stopped to admire some Shining Firmoss Plants. Okay, I didn't know what they were when we found them, but after hours of searching, I did find a name. I believe it is a vascular plant and not truly a moss?

I need to do some more research.

And the rest of the trip was downhill. As .. well, we were walking off a steep ridge.

The shadows were getting long but left incredible patterns across the trail.

And that...

was

my Monday

adventure.

In This Moment.....

....we felt invincible ...
Dixie and I.

Maybe it was the thundering of snow melt rushing through the dry run below us.

Maybe it was the golden sunlight at our backs.

Perhaps it was our shadows from the late winter sun on the slope in front of us.

I held on to it, the feeling of power, the sounds.
The moment.

And I felt something stir within.
And it was very powerful.

Lighting and Still Life.

I explored some side lighting this week for week four of my Still Life studies. The above shot was a test shot with my Olympus OMD M5 to see if I could make it work in a still life situation.

The answer is yes.

I shot these on a plastic tub with a white sheet thrown on top of it.  The tub is full of things that we are temporarily storing due to the upcoming remodel of our house.  I layered a photo of cracked paint over it and the lettering.

Here is a shot with my Nikon D5200.

Original

I like the harsh shadows created in this shot and the coffee cup handle.  I'm pretty sure that I won't do a white sheet again as this one has nice wrinkles in it but the lines show up in a disturbing way.
So I decided to try some layering.

Icky!  This layer just makes the sheet look dirty and cast a yellowish shadow over everything.

So onward.  

Better but the sheet still takes away from this shot.

One more edit to take the eyes away from that?

Better, but I should have changed things up for this shot.  I say "DO over!"

While studying light and side lighting, we were to try diffused lighting also. So I set my little .10 cent birdy up on the dresser near the window and dropped a gauzy shower curtain over the window.

I went for the black backround and bottom.  I used a black poster board and curved it so the subject sat with total black around it.

I took a few shots [Nikon D5200].  And I really like this.  It doesn't follow the rule of thirds nor is there a limited depth of focus, but I wanted everything to be in focus this week.  

Bucking the lesson, so to speak.

Yes!  I like this!

I saw no reason to change a thing.  I like the diffused light, I like the white on black, I like the subtle shades of pink, the reflection in the glass dish, and the starkness of the image.

For me? Perfect!

Modeling~~ again! by Morris

SHE said she had to do some 'black and white' shadows and lights study sort of thing for her Black and White Photography group thingy she is doing.

SHE said the weather outside was pretty crappy, the winds were howling something awful and the sun was shining through the living room window.
While SHE was wandering about trying to figure out all something to shoot with her camera...I decided to do the only honorable thing.

Take advantage of the nice sunlight.
Nap.

Then I started hearing the faint noise of her camera shutter.
After a few minutes it got pretty annoying.  

The sun kept moving so I had to also.
Here you can see I am keeping an EYE on HER.

Really?
Can't you just let an old dog rest?

So I got up and moved to the couch.
Did that stop her?  No.

Here is my charming look.  Don't I look charming?
I was too tired to even demand a dog cookie.

Finally she gave up on me, the sunlight went away.

So SHE picked another victim!

Grumpy!

I'm pretty sure that he is not as handsome as I am.  
Well...

However he was more co-operative.

He didn't get any dog cookies either.