Day 37. The world in reflection.

Happy New Year to the World!

This model of the world is outside of the technical college in Watertown.  I noticed it a while back and just remembered today that I wanted to capture a picture of it.  The reflection was just a bonus.  I had not noticed that until I had started taking photos.

I like the final product. 

See on.
Julee

Day 36. Rural sculptures.

A drive out past Clark, South Dakota, netted me some cool sculpture photos.  I am a sculpture freak.  Visitng sculpture parks is one of my favorite things.  I especially love bigger than life, monster size creations.  And these were big.

This appeared to be someone's hobby as these appeared right on the edge of farmland.  There must have been six or seven sculptures scattered over a few acres right off the highway.  I picked my favorite two to post. 


Private Parking.

 Welded wheels.

See on.
Julee

 

Day 35. Walls.

A few shots I found on buildings in uptown Watertown. 

We have neat painted advertisements on several uptown buildings. I chose the Columbia ad to shoot today.  And while I love Columbia stuff - the local flavor would seem to lean more towards hunting and fishing than outdoors sports - so I find its location in Watertown a curiosity.  Columbia gear is not even easy to find here, and I'm not sure any of the uptown stores carry it.  Plus the painting must be a good thirty feet high on the building, so could not have been easy to create.  But it is still interesting.

I liked the texture and colors of the rock wall below.  The wall is part of a paint store.  I wasn't sure what to do with it to make it a cool photo, so I just got a basic picture of it.  I will have to study similar close-ups to get ideas.  But I figured this would serve as a reminder that I like it and need to look for how to shoot it again to make a memorable photo.

See on.
Julee

Day 34. Old barn.

Another random drive out-of-town and I stumbled upon a neat scene with an old barn. 

One challenge I've noticed with winter photography is the increased difficulty in finding a place to park to get pictures.  With snow, there is often no place to just pull off the road.  I have passed up a number of photos I might have enjoyed taking because I could find no reasonable place to leave the car.

For this shot I was on a very rural road, and at a four way stop there was sufficient room to pull my car about 2/3 of the way off the road.  I was taking photos around 4 in the afternoon, and even though I was five or six miles out of town, I was surprised at the amount of traffic.  There must have been one or two cars constantly moving through the whole time I was shooting.

But I was still fairly pleased with the result. 

I liked the large number of hay bales, seen with a different angle.

See on.
Julee

Day 33. Cowboy.

I had a day where I found little that inspired me.  We had a nice snow over the course of the day, and I had almost an hour of daylight after work to go photographing, but still I did not capture anything that really moved me.

However, since finding a photo a day is still the goal, and I'm working to accept that they won't all feel like great pictures, I am sharing two that I shot today. 

We have two gas stations that have giant cowboy statues in front of them, and I always thought they would make a good picture.  (And I'm sure they would on a day with interesting light, or maybe during a more active snow.)  But here is what I got.  It was enhanced a bit with lomo camera effect in photoshop.  From my reading, some 'expert' photographers use photoshop with every photograph, so maybe it's not cheating so much after all?

I have also been intrigued by a local grain elevator.  It has some neat colorings.  Again, I didn't feel great success by the shot, but here is my favorite of those I did get today.

Wishing you inspiration during the new year!
See on.
Julee

Day 32. Shiny.

During a family visit on Christmas Eve, a group of large holiday ornaments, hanging on a neighbor's evergreen, caught my eye.  It took a number of shots to capture 'the one.'  There were tires on a nearby car, my reflection, and some less than pretty plastic lights that I had to figure out how to work around.  I am pretty proud of this beauty.   This is my favorite photo of my challenge so far.

I also found a shimmery, brown bow that I felt made for an interesting photo.

 

Only a week or so left of twinkling, sparkling holiday decor - makes me a bit sad.  I wish holiday lights and decorations were left on to brighten the cold, dark, and dreary evenings of January.

Shine on.
Julee

Day 31. Ice.

My photo of the day took me all the way to my driveway.  As I was exiting the driveway, heading out for some last minute groceries, I happened to glance down and at the rear of our compost area I see a most excellent ice formation.  Even more exciting was the presence of bright red berries around the ice.

Quick and easy, but still visually interesting.

See on,
Julee

Day 30. Christmas trees of the future.

Right on the outskirts of town, I stumbled upon a (small) grove of baby evergreens.  It seemed a bit poetric, to come across these little guys, and to see where trees of future holidays might come from.

May your holiday be filled with the love of friends and family.
Julee

Day 29. Old Uptown Clock.

The town where I live has an 'uptown' as opposed to a 'downtown'.  I tried googling around, but found no definitive definition for uptown.  And none of the discussions described any reasoning that could explain why our little city decided to have an 'uptown'.  Uptown, in Watertown, is just the same as any 'downtown' you might be familiar with from other small cities.  It is six or eight blocks of small commercial outfits, quaint, and not particularly modern.  Our uptown has restaurants, bars, two bicycle shops, one hardware store, one fabric shop, two furniture stores, a bank, clothing shops, a candy shop, and more. 

Uptown Watertown also has a  neat, old clock.  It stands right along a walkway.  Definitely unusual.  Definitely cool.

A slightly different view shows more of uptown.

Most of the year I would have been able to get a shot that was completely free of cars.  But even the small, uptown merchants get busy during the days right before Christmas. 

Happy holidays,
Julee

Day 28. Glitter bubble bust.

I found a picture I loved on one of the DP Challenges that I thought would be perfect to try and reproduce.  The guy who submitted, even gave directions on what he did.  I had planned ahead and bought colored paper and glitter, and was sure I was ready to go.  Easy peasy right?  That would be 'no'.

http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=1044367

The address of the photo that provided my inspiration is above.  My implementation involved standing on a chair in our dining room aiming at the floor, a cake pan, black construction paper, water, olive oil, and several colors of glitter.  I forgot the instructions in my inspiration photo mentioned balsamic vinegar - but I'm not sure I can tell exactly what the balsamic added to the photo, so I dont' feel my picture lacked because I didn't have that.  I also did not have the multiple flashes that were mentioned, but I had brought down a desk lamp.  The whole process took me about an hour.  There were multiple attempts at making the bubble the right size.  This involved scooping out water and olive oil with a measuring cup, and at one point dumping the whole mess outside and starting over. 

My main problem was my bubble was a yucky yellowish shade.  Upon reflection, I suppose my lighting was probably the issue.  When I played with my shots in photoshop, I was able to create some color that I liked, but my pictures still do not have the same feel as my inspiration photo. (I also had too much glitter, and the glitter pieces were too large.)

Ah well, not all photos can be winners. 

Here is one I actually liked, not touched up, but I had busted the big bubble up and was swirling everything around.  (Which, in case you want to try and you have cats - cats think this is awesome fun.)

My bubble with photoshop color enhancement.

My bubble untouched.

My bubble in cartoon mode after a cat paw was introduced.

Not much else to say.  I tried.  I had fun.  The cats had fun.  We only have a few olive oil stains on the wood floors...

See on.
Julee

Day 27. Happy Holidays.

I took the easy way out today with the season appropriate, but not terribly original, lighted evergreens.  I took a number of shots, with two lenses.  Each lense was tried with and without flash.  (I was doubtful that flash would matter since the tree was a good 15 or 20 feet away - but flash made a ton of difference.)

My husband and I disagreed on our favorites - so I'm posting both.  (Plus a likable third.)

My favorite.  70 - 300 mm lense at 70 mm, flash on.  I liked seeing more of the white snow.

My husband's favorite.  70 - 300 mm lense at 70 mm, flash off.  He liked the blue sky and the greater shine of the holiday lights.  On the black of the blog page I do enjoy this photo as well.  With the black border maybe the first picture isn't a clear winner anymore?

And a runner-up, the whole scene.  18 - 55 mm lense at ~18 mm, flash on.

Kind of blissful. 
See on.
Julee

Day 26. Cat and stained glass.

As a typical pet parent, I love my cats.  And my hundred year old house has stained glass windows.  So what is the perfect combination, especially for a photo on a cold winter day?  My agile cat, Bailey, sitting in front of one of the stained glass windows! 

It's kind of backwards, I have more pictures of Bailey, and yet she is my skittish cat.   I look at her and she usually takes off running. She doesn't hide, she just runs so she is out of reach. But she is also my silly cat, and a bit more exuberant. She'll jump a mile high when she and Ellie, my other cat, play 'ATTACK'.)

My other cat, Ellie, is not as agile and can't jump onto window sills, but she takes a nice picture too.  (Ellie is my lover.  She is calm and more like a dog than a cat in many ways - she begs for food from the dinner table and everything.)

Find joy with your loved ones today!  (And every day.)
See on.
Julee

Day 25. More winter.

The weathermen around here are zero for two so far this year.  Two weeks ago (or maybe just a week, I block out bad weather memories) the weathermen said we might get a couple inches of snow.  We got 9 inches.  Today it was supposed to snow, maybe a half inch they said - it snowed heavy for HOURS.  

I have discovered that apparently weather.com actually gives a better current forecast than NOAA.  NOAA had been my previous weather love, but I might have to switch since weather.com told me it was snowing heavy today, and told me the snow would stop at approximately 1 pm.  NOAA still wasn't sure it was going to snow at all.  (Indeed the snow had stopped by 1 pm, bravo weather.com.)

So it was all pretty and white outside.  But Brookings, where I work, is ROTTEN with cleaning off snowy streets, so the roads are terrible with the least amount of snow.  So driving when I get close to Brookings in the winter sucks.

But with all the snow and the prettiness, I took my 15 minute break and wandered outside where I was able to capture a couple of pictures.  The cow lives across the street from where I work.  I even met the owner today, so that was cool.  Plus he said I could take all the pictures of his cows that I wanted.  Whew, since I had already taken a bunch of photos before I ran into him.  The owner, Jim, said he liked the white trees better than the cows, so I shot pictures of the trees too.

Here are the best of both.

See on.
Julee

Day 24. Mail.

My picture for today is an old fashioned mail truck that I came across.  How cool is that?  I have no idea its history, but it sure is quaint.  It certainly looks like it is real, and that it could have been used to deliver mail.  But boy, wagon wheels.  How old would it be?  100 years old or more maybe.  Pretty amazing find. 

Wishing you some amazing finds of your own!
Julee

Day 23. Small town zoo.

I love animals.  And I love visiting zoos.  I suppose this interest has waned a bit as an adult, although I will still visit a zoo in a city I'm traveling to if the zoo is open during hours when I have free time.  (Which, since I travel primarily for work nowadays, free time is usually only in the evenings, and the zoos tend to be closed so I don't get to go - darn it.)

But in the town where I live, we actually have a small zoo.  I decided it was time to visit just to see what was there.  (It was in the back area of the zoo where the red and green wagon, one of my pictures from last week, was sitting, and I was kind of hoping I could get closer to the wagon rather just having the one picture that I took with my lense in the hole of the chain link fence.)

It turns out that my local zoo is kind of neat.  I suppose since it is winter, maybe 1/3 of the animals were not out - no lemurs or penguins for me to see today.  And the wagon was actually further out of view from inside the zoo than from that bike trail behind the zoo where I captured the original wagon picture.  But I still got a couple of neat pictures.

There were two, young bengal tigers who were awesome.  They totally wanted to 'play'.  I suppose they don't see many people in the winter, so any action is exciting.  But they were sure interested in me.

Condor - awesome ugly.

I frankly couldn't believe the excellent color and detail in this photo of a lionfish.  (Too bad I cut off his tail fin.)

And since Christmas is almost here, I figured I should add a picture of reindeer.

Not pictured yet - bald eagles, foxes, buffalo, panther, black bear, hawks, cockroaches and of course the missing lemurs and penguins.  So even from the small zoo, there is more for me to go back for someday.

See on.
Julee

Day 22. Windmills at sunrise.

As winter has progressed, and the days have gotten shorter, my hour long drive to work has provided me with numerous colorful sunrises and sunsets.  Also on my drive are a group of windmills, to the east, about halfway to work, off in the distance.

But having the most colorful part of the sunrise meet up with the windmills at just the right part of my drive has been a challenge.  Friday morning everything aligned.

I exited the interstate and drove about a mile closer to the windmills, but they were still probably 10 miles away.  (Someday perhaps I will have a more leisurely life, where I can drive all the way to the windmills and not feel the pain of having to extend my workday to make up for the delay in arriving to work.)  But for now, it was enough that I did something, and took a little time, to get the picture I wanted.

No photoshop involved here, and these colors aren't quite as vibrant as they were in real life, but it's still a decent representation for what I saw.

See on...
Julee

Day 21. Auction find.

So my husband is a bit of a collector.  He loves a good bargain, and apparently as a younger man, auctions were his thing.  (We have a very 'attractive' gold couch which I recently found out was obtained for $20.  And lest you think $20 was a bit high, for that twenty bucks the couch came paired with a chair.  Nice!)

But I will say the old tools he has found at auctions are cool.  Said tools became inspiration for my first indoor picture.

 

 

 

And just so you can see the fabulous couch, here it is.  Unfortunately it is very comfortable, and since it's not uncomfortable, we haven't found it urgent to replace yet, and so it remains a proud addition to our living room.

Day 20. The star.

I noticed this neat Christmas light a few days ago, but on my drive home I kept passing the interstate exit where this farm was. Today I remembered to get off the interstate, and there was still enough light left for me to get a successful picture. 

I love the solitary holiday light.  A light shining all alone, all the way on top of a silo.  It evokes a fabulous North Star/Silent Night kind of feeling for me.

At my house, my husband keeps a red light lit in attic -  he figures it's spooky for Halloween, and then it's a holiday color appropriate for Christmas.  Not sure the effect from our one light equals this. 

Once again I'm stumped by which picture I like better, so I posted two.  I was hoping the zoom view below would be cool because I was closer.  But to get closer, my perspective changed such that I couldn't get the whole silo.  (Also, in the first picture I played around in Photoshop adding the 'lomo camera effect' which I thought added a cool factor.) 

While my brain keeps wanting to always like close-ups more, I really prefer the picture with the full scene, cows and all.

See on...
Julee

Day 19. Old Fashioned.

So you don't see many wagons nowadays.  The green and red made it an even more awesome find during this holiday season.

Love it!

Day 18. Bright.

Last summer, one of the houses in our neighborhood was repainted.  Well, actually I assume a number of houses were repainted, but only one that was crazy noticeable.  I actually kind of like the color of the house, frankly because of its brightness.  I think it's rather a happy color.  When life is gray and gloomy, as it can be for days at a time around here, this home owner gets to come home to sunshine each and every day.

Also, since the yellow house didn't exactly feel like a artsy shot, below is my new favorite pine tree.  It's kind of skinny and awkward, probably gets made fun by all the other full and marvelously large pine trees.  But it seems like one of a kind.  Plus I thought it looked cool full of snow.

And his more majestic friends...

Day 17. Post blizzard.

I have made a list of indoor picture ideas.  You'd think on a day when it was -13 degrees with windchill, that I might choose that day to try something inside.  You would be wrong.  There is something about the out-of-doors that I love so much, that apparently I'd rather be out there no matter what the conditions.

Not all South Dakotans feel as I do.  Since we are snowed in, I decided that I would just bundle up and walk around the neighborhood.  Photography instructors advise that one should be able to find pictures to take in one's neighborhood all the time, so certainly after an exciting snow storm it shouldn't be too hard to find one picture.  Anyway, so I've got on my knee-high wool socks, boots, long underwear, pants. snow pants, winter coat, two hats, gloves, and my ski goggles.   Yet two people stopped and asked if I needed a ride.  To some it probably seemed unimaginable that one would be outside walking around voluntarily. 

It probably more shows that people around here are actually quite nice, noboby wanted me freezing, and if they could help they were willing.  (These were also the only two cars I saw out.  Oh, those and the one car that was stuck, but he was blocks away from where I was and I didn't go that far.  Also, it appeared he got stuck right outside of his driveway, so shouldn't have had too much trouble making it home.)

But it was actually quite lovely on my walk.  Kind of noisy since it was really windy, but I wasn't cold, and it was a little fun tromping around in the foot deep snow.  I felt a bit like a kid again.

And I had success with a picture.  As kind of a sequel to yesterday's picture of birds, I found a bird feeder covered in snow.  (At least I think it's a bird feeder.  Although I've never seen a three tier bird feeder, maybe this is a water fountain of some kind?)

Birds are out of luck.

Day 16. Berries.

Last night we had a nice, 2 inch snow. Perfect for covering my world in white, and as I went to bed I was excited about heading out to take pictures today.

Then my Droid notified me at 4 a.m. that we were under a blizzard warning.  Said blizzard wasn't showing up for twelve hours, but apparently the Droid felt I had better not sleep in and risk missing it.

Thanks.  Droid.  I am now very tired.

(I thought up until the 4 a.m. wake up that the severe weather alert function was cool.  Now I'm kind of undecided.  Maybe I can make the alerts vibrate only?)

Since the blizzard wasn't showing up until late, I had plenty of time to be out and about.  Where I found my pictures was along a stretch of the local bike trail that follows the back of the zoo.  There I found two berry trees, their bright red first catching my eye.

Not a bad find in and of itself.  However, it got better.  I walked along the bike trail for a while, then circled back.  As I passed the berry trees the second time, a flock of birds flew in to eat.  That provided me with the oppotunity to move from neat, to awesome.

 

 

It would have been more perfect with some sun, but I still love the shots I got. 

We now have at least six more inches of snow on the ground, and so long as the city gets out and plows tomorrow morning, I am looking forward to another great day of photography.

Day 15. Farmland mystery.

Another great find from a random wandering.  I have to talk with my farm friends at work about the picture though, because I can't figure out an explanation for what the metal object is.  Maybe it is a common farm thing?  Regardless, it is a cool copper color, with lots of geometry going on - so awesome! 

But why is it there?  It's like a cover or a grate, maybe a gate or ladder.  The barb wire is even cut to accomodate the metal piece.   But I am baffled. 

Still love it though.

And it is now snowing.   No more pictures of brown landscape.  (At least it should be too cold for this snow to melt...)  I can't wait to see what neat picture I can find tomorrow in my world full of white!

Day 14. Deer on the run.

It's deer hunting season in South Dakota.  So I suppose it is logical that the only deer I would see would be running. 

While I am not a hunter, I, like many photographers, love wildlife.  I haven't yet spent hours and hours sitting and waiting for a great wildlife shot, but I do keep alert, always hoping...

Well, I was out driving around some back roads, figuring maybe I would see some deer out wandering.  (Occasionally on my way to work I will see a couple, but I'm on the interstate driving to work, and while I have pulled off to take a picture, it's rare, because it's a little scary even when I pull waaaaaay off to the side.)  But on these back roads there are miles and miles of open fields.  Surely some sort of wildlife would be out and about. 

The picture I covet is of a hawk sitting on a hay bale.  I've seen lots of hawks on signs and fences off the interstate, but am hoping one day for this perfect shot:  a field full of hay bales, and on one of the bales closest to me, a hawk on top.  Maybe hay bales are too low to the ground?

Anyway, I was driving around and this flurry of deer ran out in front of me.  I suppose with hunting season on, the deer aren't just 'wandering' this time of year.  They were fast.  Worry not, I drive about 40 miles per hour or less when I'm out looking around, so hitting the deer wasn't a remote fear.  Also fear not fellow drivers, I pull over and let people who come up behind me pass, so my slow driving isn't slowing others down.  But I am paying attention to traffic - which there usually is none - I love that about South Dakota. 

As luck would have it, this was the only time a car was coming in the oncoming lane, so I was paying attention to him at the same time I was trying to get my camera out, roll down my window, and frame a shot.  Out of three shots, this was the only one where I successfully got the deer before they disappeared into a grove of trees.  I waited for a few minutes, but never saw them come out of the trees.  So this is my picture.

South Dakota.  Open fields, wildlife running for their lives.  (Poor deer.  Nobody was actually hunting them when I was out, but I suppose they run to get hidden as quick as they can.)

Day 13. Lost feather.

I am not sure this is a fabulous picture, but it was a great find for my eye. 

While walking around a random field looking, just looking, I spotted this feather.  We live in such a fast paced world, full of constant email and texts and angry bird missions, that my mind, like many others I know, likes to race from one topic to another.  Being focused enough on my surroundings to notice a small feather, a feather that blended quite well into the grass, seemed like quite an accomplishment.

It was a windy, windy day.  Getting this shot, with the feather's details sharp, was tough.  (This one picture, out of about twenty, was the only one where the whole feather was in focus.)

I know visually it's not a stunner, but having made me feel proud for seeing it has to count for something.

Wander on...
Julee