Well they were not kidding. It was supposed to lift by 12 noon. But it didn't. At one moment in the day we thought the fog turned sort of orange.
It must have been the sun trying to break through.
The temps got into the 40's and we had about a 1/4" of rain last night which turned half the driveway into mud-slush and the other half into an ice skating rink.
That is until the town truck drove down and then backed up the hill spreading sand and salt.
We drove to Richland Center, ... about 26 miles one way to see a man about a rifle. Hubby and the gent talked hunting and whatnot.
And...oh was it every foggy!
I went along for the ride because I had a secret agenda.
I wanted to con hubby into having dinner with me...out! Like someone waiting on us, someone else doing the dishes.
It worked.
Tonight the fog is supposed to lift. Winds are due to come in swiftly and clear out the the grey...
tomorrow we can look foreward to dropping temps and a blustery day with winds gusting to 35 mph!
Oh what fun January is in WI!
It was cold. I mean really cold!
Okay it wasn't 20 below zero cold, but the air was damp and the winds blew down the valley length making it 'feel' quite cold.
My goal for the morning was to go to the big spring on the eastern end of the valley. Walking with my back to the wind was no problem. The snow was getting soft where the sun hit and it was hard where it was in the shadow of the hills and trees.
This made the footing a bit more interesting than usual.
I'd debated taking my snow shoes, but had planned on getting down in the creek to get some shots of flowing water, ice, frost, and anything else that caught my eye.
I did notice some small brown trout flitting about in the deep still part of the creek. That did make me smile.
When I got to the big spring, I was slightly disappointed.
One, my feet were cold, but two...the sun was shining down on the spring area and there was no heavy frost build up. I would have to come back on a much colder day either when it was overcast or when it was late afternoon to catch the frost build up on the rocks from the warm spring waters.
No matter I still had other goals and one of those goals was to set up a tripod and use a slow shutter speed to capture some flowing water. I used my small tripod that I'd gotten at Cabelas in the hunting equipment section. It served well for a camera tripod. It was heavy duty and close to the ground.
I switched over to the south side of the valley to try and use the sunlight to warm up a bit and dropped into the creek to get out of the wind. I could pick my way delicately over rocks being careful not to get into deep water.
The sun warmed me up and being out of the wind really helped quite a bit. Although heading home I'd be hiking straight into it.
I finally found a spot that might work and spent the next several minutes figuring out what exactly I wanted to do.
Really ... I have no idea how long I spent setting up the tripod, kneeling in the snow and looking through the view finder...taking shots...shaking my head...taking another....blowing out air in frustration...taking another...moving the tripod...trying a different camera...attaching an ND filter...and so on and so on...twisting into a pretzel so I could see through the viewfinder...accidentally leaning over and putting my hand in the creek...wondering what drove me to do this...and then...
I got this...
Then I wrapped it up and decided I'd gotten what I'd come for.
SHE put her coveralls on ... then put on her gunbelt. I knew it was going to be Adventure Time!
SHE was going to the woods. I really knew it when she put on the gun belt. I started spinning and twirling, crying, and whining. In fact Dixie began to bark in her very loud hound voice.
'Me Too! Me Too!' she was crying. 'Don't leave me behind!'
Well, leaving her behind would be fine with me. After all a puppy can be quite annoying. Especially when the puppy is bigger than your are. Her feet are monsterous! I don't get how anyone could think those long floppy hound ears were cute, but there you are. SHE thinks Dixie is cute. And smart.
We all headed out the door together. Dixie kept running up on me and trying to swat at me with those big paws of hers. I took off down the ridge road as fast as I could, then stopped and switched direction. Dixie did a header into the snow when she tried the same thing.
I grinned. I was tons older than her but still had the speed and agility to out maneuver her!
We crossed the creek and went up up and up to the ridge top where SHE picks yellow raspberries. We followed a deer trail through berry briers and prickly stuff. I'm impressed, Dixie and I could duck most of the bad stuff and SHE had to kind of work her way through all that nasty sharp brush. SHE did not complain!
By this time Dixie was slowing down. Then we got on the snowmobile trail. I wasn't happy about that, I know those machines can roar from nowhere. But SHE assured us that the trails were closed.
Dixie investigated the signs.
I don't think she knows what that sign meant. I'm not sure either but I can follow the tracks easy enough.
We circled around and headed back into the valley and SHE took a short cut across the creek that was pretty steep. I was impressed. Dixie didn't even whine, but did take a long time investigating the water before she crossed it.
She did whine just a bit. 'Don't leave me Morris, don't!' I stood and watched from the opposite bank, I said I wouldn't leave her. I mean, come on, I am not mean, just an old dog who doesn't like to be used as a chew toy by young pups.
We walked along the creekside and under the old 'Yote Den. I was nervous and kept stopping to look around. I asked Dixie if she smelled anything, she does have a big wonderful smelling nose.
She took a whiff of the air, 'Nothing interesting. Just water, grass, maybe a mouse and a rabbit.'
'No Coyotes?' I asked.
She stared at me. 'What's a Coyote?'
I forgot she was still only about 10 or 11 weeks old. Huh.
By now we had both slowed way down. We'd been walking for a very long time. SHE headed up the creek towards the trail that lead to home.
Dixie was in the lead now.
We found some cool ice flows, Dixie tried to climb it, but only slid back down. SHE laughed and took pictures of course.
When we got home Dixie went and laid in her crate and immediately started to snore.
I went and laid on my chair and curled up on my blanket.
Before SHE and HE went to bed, SHE woke Dixie up from her sleep. Dixie literally oozed out of her crate onto the kitchen floor. It was like she had no legs or bones.
SHE petted and talked to her for a while to get her awake. Apparently SHE thought it would be good to let the puppy go potty before everyone went to sleep. Dixie was wobbly ~~ went out and immediately went back in her crate to curl up.
This morning Dixie was recovered from her first Big Adventure.
She wanted to know when we were going again.
I told her to keep on eye on Val. When those coveralls went on along with the gun and the camera...and a leash...that's when we would go on another adventure.
Dixie is watching HER with an eagle eye today.
Ice flows ... next to the creek.
Morning begins with coffee in the cozy red cottage. We sit in the kitchen eating area on the right of this photo and watch the animals in their winter pasture.
Then it is time to do our chores which include feeding the hounds, the different pastures, and watering the stock tanks.
Here the girls sit and wait there turn for a drink as the get fresh water. Thank goodness for tank heaters!
Next stop to check on the donkeys who are hanging out and discussing the day's activities.
They seem to be doing fine, just looking around for some sunshine to break through so they can line up and soak up the sunlight.
Meanwhile in the 'Jenny Craig Pen' Opal, Fred, and Dyna hunt for hay chaff before they get their morning flakes of hay.
In this pen we can closely monitor their weight and daily condition.
Dyna needs a bit of a diet and the other two are aged mules so I like to keep them close and keep an eye on them!
Later in the afternoon I hike down to my favorite spot in the creek bottom and snap a shot with the pink 'Fugly' camera.
It is a pocket camera that refuses to die. Even when I dropped it in these waters last year. Though you can see by the creek shot, that if handled properly and with a bit of thought, the camera will take excellent shots.
This is one of the cameras I take when riding a mule. It will shoot video and pretty decent shots.
When I come back from the creek I see the most amazing clouds!
In fact all the photos in this post were done with the pink 'Fugly' camera. Yes I edited them for artistic fun.
Today is another day. I am looking forward to seeing what is out there.
The temperatures are supposed to get to 31 degrees! That is -.5 degrees Celcius
for my friends abroad.
Just some fun today.
Here is some photos from our below Zero romp yesterday.
Cute shot of the Day! Dixie:
Morris on speed, look at the snow fly!
Dixie making snow fly!
A bit more 'dog' play!
Has Morris got a happy face or what???
And then we end on the flop eared black and tan coon hound!
Flapping Dixie ears!
There you have it.
A playful hour in the cold, shot by my Olympus E-420 in .RAW format and converted with Olympus Viewer 2.
For many years I resisted shooting in RAW format. I argued that it took too much time, too much space, and too much energy.
Anyone could shoot .jpeg and make it look good.
Then I ran into an issue with the color of snow during the winter. And believe me, winter is my favorite time to be out with any camera.
I added Topaz Plug-ins to my Adobe Elements 5 and Photoshop 7.0 [very old versions].
I was able to transform this .jpeg blue cast snowy scene from this:
To this:
I thought it was good, but unless I went to black and white I had a hard time of getting rid of the blue tinge.
I used to argue that it just made the scene colder looking. But the snow and sunlight was fooling my camera.
I knew that from somewhere back ages ago when my dad was helping me with photography. He didn't have the benefit of digital and the aid of a 'digital darkroom'.
After reading this article by PCWorld regarding 5 tips for shooting in the Winter, I decided to switch my cameras over to RAW+JPEG mode. This way I could compare shots.
Now don't get me wrong. I also love my little point and shoot cameras. They are easy to carry around and sometimes you can be extremely surprised by getting it right with one of those. Here is a shot from my cheapo Sanyo Pink Fugly camera.
Anyway I'm going to use the very same shot and show samples of different processing. I used the Fuji Film Fine Pix HS 30 EXR for this shot. I shot it in RAW+JPEG. I 'developed' the RAW shot in software that came with the camera.
There are may arguments for buying and using Adobe Light Room, but I haven't tried it yet. I've been told once I try the trial version ... I'll just have to have it.
Here is the .jpeg shot:
Pretty, but the color is quite blue-grey. The only way to fix this would be to convert to black and white.
Here is the .RAW shot converted to a .TIFF, then saved to a .jpeg for this post:
Pretty nice right? But the snow looks flat to me. And I'm not known for leaving things just as is so I monkeyed with it the Topaz Plug in called Adjust 5.
Here is the shot after Adjust 5:
Nice, but let's try something else. Lets use a 'fake' HDR process and run it through a program called
Dynamic Photo HDR.
Here is is with Dynamic Photo HDR single image processing:
I think the shot shot and processed in the RAW format made my life a lot easier. I didn't have to work so hard on the shot to remove the blue cast and bring the brightness to the correct level.
I could have worked hard in Elements to achieve what I did in minutes to get that first shot.
I also like what was done with it in Topaz and in DP HDR. But that is just my personal opinion. The shot I developed from RAW was correct, but I like a bit more 'oomph' to my snow scene and reflections.
I did some test shots using the Nikon D3100 and the jpeg's nearly turned out as correct as the RAW shots. The Nikon D40 gets a nod from using RAW and after going out for a bit today, we'll see if I can get rid of that 'fantasy' blue with the Olympus E-420. [That is the first shot that is shown on this post.]
