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.

More fun indoors

Maybe this is why I enjoy this time of the year. It isn't so much the big holiday or the Christmas Spirit, but more or less the fact that I can drag things around the house and do Still Life photos without having to explain the why of it.

I really like the lights and would love to keep those happy white lights glowing throughout the winter this year. I wonder. Can I make the Christmas Chair into a ... just lighted chair for comfort and warmth on cold winter nights?

Why not? A bit of cheery light to stare at while the cold winds whistle outside?

The unicorns like it. The Teddy Bear's are waiting their turn to play on it.

Meanwhile, while waiting for the other half to wake up, I imagined some 'scenes' just for fun and brain work. Experimenting with all white was really quite fun.

I do love the Enesco ornaments. Here are two of my favorite ones.

The unicorn is this year's addition. They are almost too beautiful to be left on the Christmas chair/tree. They get lost. I'm like a kid. I like to handle them and set them down so I can admire them on their own.

Strange right?

Heavy edit and shot

for High Key.

And of course. Something fun and odd.

These figures don't generally mix ...

but imagine my surprise when they all seemed as if they were getting along....

...

and then I finally got outside for a hike...

but that is for another time....

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.

Snow day

I adore the morning after a snow when the temperatures are frigid and the snow crystals glisten.
Snow Diamonds.

I'll never get those words out of my head. Yes, I think Dad each time I see them. He'd once asked me to take photos of them for him.
He was going blind at the time from macular degeneration.

But I always seek Snow Diamonds...

I live for these mornings. When the atmosphere is heavy with moisture and there is no wind.
The Hoar frost arrives and turns the world into a delightful place of reflecting lights.

Things look so magical with frost on them!

The morning light was magical on the snow. Charlie and I took a quick morning walk and went to do the chores.

Rich was still complaining about his stomach hurting. I asked pointed questions to try and help him figure out what was bothering him. It ended up with him telling me in a fit of anger to 'shut up' and get out.
Of course I think part of the issue was his inability to articulate what the problem was as much as deciding that my questions were nagging.
I handed him a sheet of paper that has the VA's phone number to the nurse's line and after I took all of his vitals [normal], I let him be while I took Mr. Charlie for a hike.

That dog does love snow!

Late in the afternoon, I fired up the Dreaded Skid Steer and cleared the parking area on the north side of the house. It is just yard, but in the winter it is nice to have it plowed out so I can bring groceries into the kitchen instead of walking around the house.
It went okay as far as driving the Beast goes. I got brave and did a little more touching up but didn't go hog wild. I need many more hours with the Beast before I could ever get proficient at it.

We are supposed to get some more snow later this week and the wind chills are to drop into the way below zero range.
Perfect weather for snowshoeing in the valleys.

Make My Day!

All things were calm and quiet. I was in my PJ bottoms sipping coffee and thinking about how cold it was outside for chores.
The phone rang.

My neighbor's car wouldn't start even though she had put it on the charger. "Could I give the beasties a ride to school?"
Why sure. I grabbed the remote to the Subaru and piled into my heavy coveralls and boots. I wrapped up and headed out to scrape off the windshield.

The kids were really quite good and we got them to school only about 4 minutes late. Since I needed a couple of things we ran into Walmart and grabbed them. Then my nice neighbor took me out to breakfast!

We enjoyed chit chatting and having some friend time.

I laughed when she took off her 3 year old's jacket  and he had a PJ top on.
"What can be better than going out to eat in your PJ's!" I laughed.

Rich had plugged in both his truck and skid steer, he was going to go and get some large bales of hay. While he took a short nap, I decided to go fetch the trail camera from the woods and make a small cross country ski trip out of it.

The sky was bright blue with trails from airplanes overhead. The snow glistened and I had to get a shot of the 'snow diamonds'. Every time I see them I think of my dad.
We called them snow diamonds when we would ski together. And it makes for a fond memory.

I like my skis that I now have. The boots are well insulated and the skis are slightly wider to break trail easier. It only took me about 20 minutes to ski around the meadow and break trail at the same time.

It was much more effortless than snow shoeing. However I can't ski in the woods and snow shoes shine there!

Now another Winter Storm is headed our way. No one is sure what the amount of snow will be.
However since I work the third shift, I decided to pack an overnight bag in case the roads were too wicked to travel on.

Oh, when Rich went to start the truck, it ran just fine. But it won't go anywhere. No hay hauling. It was a very bad time for the truck to break down.
But there we go. Bad things happen, but going out to a PJ breakfast and skiing sure made my day!

Let it snow

The weather people predicted a significant snow fall for us starting at midnight on Sunday. Indeed it did snow!

Since this was the first real snowfall of the season, I was excited to take that first snowfall hike.

I grabbed my camera backpack, a plastic bag, some paper towels, and my gun belt. Morris started running circles around me in the house. I hadn't taken him the day before and he wasn't letting me out of the house without him again.

I decided that since the snow was so wet and heavy I'd best take my little pink pocket camera. The Pink Fugly camera that never dies. I stuffed it in my pocket and Morris beat me to the door.

At the top of the lane we stopped to check on the Dexter's water tank. It was full. Beauty and Buster came up to the fence line to stare at us. The other Dexters were laying on their old pile of hay chewing their cud. 

Morris ran ahead leaping and going from one place to another acting as if he were a puppy instead of a nearly 13 year old dog.  I think he loves the snow as much as I do.

We got to the creek and then hiked to the place I'd stacked some rocks on the day before.

I took a photo and we explored some more. I wasn't that surprised that there weren't many new animals tracks in the snow. They wouldn't be out until after the storm had ended.

The snow was coming down so hard I had to be careful with my Olympus OMD E5. The camera is one of the first mirrorless cameras made by Olympus and it is supposed to be weather resistant. However, I wasn't sure how far I wanted to push that.

It still got fairly wet, but I had a cloth to wipe it off after using it each time.

I managed to get a few shots of the fresh snow falling before I decided to put it away safely in the backpack.

The pink camera then took over.

Before we left the creek, Morris and I climbed an old Basswood tree that lays across the creek. The view is more interesting from 10 feet above the ground.

The fresh snow made the climb more interesting. Morris is better suited to climbing in slippery conditions than I am.

Both Morris and I were soaking wet by the time we made it home. The snow was still coming down fairly hard.

I had a text on my phone asking me if I wanted to try out the cross country skis.

Of course! And off I went again after I dried my coveralls in the dryer.

Morris curled up on the couch and didn't flick an ear when I got ready. He probably was enjoying the fact that I'd covered him up with a sweatshirt that was nice and warm that was fresh out of the dryer.

We sure did enjoy the skiing. We had to quit due to the fact that the temperatures crawled up a bit and our skis kept 'clumping' up with snow.

I probably shouldn't have been so excited about the snow. My husband acted as if he was horrified at it.

However funny thing...

He was not horrified at being able to use his 'upgraded' skid steer with a cabin and a heater and a ... new/used plow that hooked up to his hydraulics.

He managed to make sure that it was right at chore time. Sigh. 

I guess we both enjoyed our first snow day!