The Ice Man cometh

The weather folks predicted 7-14" and we got a very bad ice storm out of it.  We had probably about 4 inches of sleet type stuff on the ground and the trees were covered in thick ice as well as anything that stuck up out of the grass.

Gate handles were encased in ice.

The trees were laced with ice that cracked and made a spooky kind of music when the breeze blew.

Chores were a bit more time consuming and difficult.  But eventually they got done and then my husband plowed the driveway. I really wished he didn't have to as I'd just completed raking all of the rocks out of the yard.

Looks like I have to do this job all over again once it melts and dries up.

It was late afternoon before the town grader came through.  The only person to travel our road was our neighbor.
The scenery was surreal and quite beautiful.

And in the evening the sun came out.  As we were doing evening chores, ice was falling from the trees.  However the sun set and the temperatures began to drop.

Some ice remained with an orange glow.

Our world was still iced this morning, but I imagine as soon as the sun peeks down into our 'hollow' the ice will melt.

Today the temperatures are supposed to rise again and there will be another quick melt off.  Hopefully this was the last of the winter weather for a while.

I can look forward to more muck in the next few days.

Some things I've learned about Adobe Photoshop ~ channels.

Heck, I never knew what a channel was before.  
Never used that aspect of PS or CS as it is now called.

I figured I was doing great using Topaz plugin filters to get what I needed.

Along with Photomatix, Dynamic Photo HDR, and anything else I could get my hands on for processing...well,
Post processing.

I read a tutorial by Christopher O'Donnell on the use of luminosity layers.  It is a hard concept to initially grasp but I decided to look up as many tuts as I could.

Obviously it has been around for quite some time.  Tony Kuper has a good tutorial also.

I'm not one that will follow a tutorial to the letter.  I usually open the program and start experimenting on my own.

Here is the original shot.  Shot with a .9 ND filter.  f22 at 8 seconds.  I shot it at 400 ISO because it was so overcast.

The water appears as I wanted it to, but what could I do to make this 'better'?

I decided to try Topaz.  This is what I always go to.  Great plugins.  

Well, more detail, more contrast, more color.  I thought it was pretty darned good.

Then I decided to try some 'luminosity work'.

The Layers look like a mess right?  But I started seeing a more true to life version of what I did shoot that day.

The whites are a bit blown in this shot and it was an overcast day.  Perhaps if I'd shot in RAW format and converted it, ...it could be better.

Lastly I tried to convert it to Black and White using Topaz BW Effects.

I decided to have a bit of fun and go with a preset I had made on my own.

So there you go.  Luminosity.  Channels.
Things I had not studied before I joined the Google+ Community called 256SOG or Shades of Grey.

Just goes to show you.
You can always learn more things to try if you want to.

Taking a dunk

Out on my last hike I decided to climb down a very steep bank, under many broken limbs and tree branches to catch the above photo.
Hmmm.

To get the angle right I stretched my legs over the width of the creek. The right foot was precariously situated on a wobbly rock...I couldn't make the width of the creek.
The left foot was on a snow and ice covered bank.

I couldn't stand and take the shot.
Nope.
Squat...oh so much better. It really would be better if I just got a tinsy bit lower.
And lower.
Take a shot, change exposure.
Lower....

Plop!
My right foot slipped, the rock rolled, and I was sitting in creek water with the little falls splashing me in the face.

Automatically my camera hand [the right one] had gone straight up in the air...YES, save the camera at all costs.
I moved quickly with a couple of cuss words and reached around back to see just HOW wet I'd gotten.

Well lucky for me!
My coveralls immediately froze. The long underwear [thank you Cabelas!] kept me warm even though they were slightly damp.

We had a long and lovely hike -- if climbing through knee deep snow in places can be called lovely.
Poor Morris asked to get a lift again this time out, but we sure did find some great shots down in the creek bed.

So even with a dunking, it was a great time.
[4.5" + 31.5"= 36" of snow so far this winter season]