Sooooo cold. But sunny.

I drove home from work early this afternoon since the weather/roads are terrible and I desperately did not want to spend New Years day 50 miles from home all by myself.   (And I worked super late Monday night and came in early Tuesday morning to make up the time - so it's not like I just skipped out.) 

The upside of leaving early was that I got home early.  And around 4 pm the snow stopped and the sun popped up.   My husband was not able to escape work early and implied in none too vague of language that I should go outside and enjoy the sun.

I would have happily done this except it was -6 degrees out and getting colder by the minute.  Ah heck, it probably would brighten my spirits to take some nature photographs.  So while I lacked my normal enthusiasm, out I went.

I drove to the river to see what I could find to photograph.  (I took out my Lensbaby fisheye, Lenbaby Edge80, and Lensbaby plastic.)

This was the first thing that caught my eye.  I loved this neat plant, and this was about the best shot I got.  (Lensbaby plastic optic.) 

This should have been a great Edge80 photo, but I think I was too rushed to concentrate on getting that plane of focus just right.  Plus, my camera, Nikon D7100, started acting all weird with the Edge80. It made these sounds like it was taking photographs even though I wasn't touching anything.  Then when I did press the shutter button nothing would happen.  (And nothing was recorded on the memory card.)  Turning the camera off and on let me seemed to fix it, but the camera still made these extra shutter like noises - very odd.  I suspect the camera was just getting cold, but when I switched to the plastic optic everything seemed normal again.  Mystery.

Here is my 'Rabbit's View' shot:

Next I tried photographing a tree.  I can do better, but it was so cold.  Plus my pants were frozen solid after kneeling on the ground for my earlier photos.  I kind of hurried.

Today's photos indeed worth an outing in the cold.  I did have fun.

The high temperature tomorrow is -3.  I've been reading about fun you can have with frozen bubbles, but so far I haven't been able to find any.  There is one more shop in town I can try, although I'm not sure searching for bubbles is really a New Year' eve kind of event.

But perhaps I'll have luck and be able to try something else new tomorrow to help keep my mind off the bitter temperatures.

See on,
Julee

Kite skiing and photographing toys. One big weekend.

My husband recently got a new kite for kite skiing.  Despite bitter temperatures and the quick onset of nearly 50 mph wind gusts, he went out on Saturday to Lake Kampeska for some skiing.

 

He had some grand success, although once the winds began to get gusty he called it a day.  Then I was called in and my job was to keep the kite from flying away while he got unhooked and prepped to roll up the kite. 

 

 

Here is my best shot of the winds rolling in.

 

Brrrrr.  It was quite cold by the time we got back to the car.  This whole week is supposed to be bitterly cold in most of South Dakota - and it started today (Sunday).  I suspect I will not do a lot of outside work since I really do not like temperatures below zero. 

 

I did some photography today by working up a creative photograph of a toy for a DPChallenge.  I think it's kind of cute.  Lighting seems decent, no obvious flaw except for one dust spot that was so faint I decided just to leave it.

 

I also finished my Thank You photo for my nephews.

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday to all!

 

See on,

Julee



Fisheye.

What better to do on the evening after Christmas but play with new toys?  My new toy is a Lensbaby Fisheye lens.  Cool!  Another new perspective to figure out.

I took the easy route this first day and shot my Christmas tree and some Lego minifigures.  (I have the nicest nephews.  They gave me one of the 'girl scientists' Lego minifigures that they received for Christmas - I was touched.  So I have to create a thank you with all my other minifigures welcoming her into the group.)

I'll have to work on my focusing a little bit, I was off just a touch with the Legos - and the whiteboard that is behind the minifigures did not go forward quite far enough - off to the right there is a bit of wrong space.  (But I spent 90 minutes working on the setup, enough for one evening.  Ellie cat interrupted a couple of times, once jumping and landing in the middle of my minifigures.  Incoming Godzilla!  And then the minifigures scattered. Too bad I missed that photo.)

I hope you had something fun to play with this evening too.

See on,
Julee

Playing with stars.

Yesterday and today I played around with a few star decorations so I could enter a 'Star' challenge. 

I'm kind of resigning myself to being very nearly last in almost every challenge, but it is a bit discouraging to do so poorly time and time again.  (Go to page 7 of the Golden Ratio Challenge at the link above, the Lego Marching Band was me.) 

However the challenges fuel my creativity and I do have fun trying.  I have faith I will improve the longer I participate.   

Here is that scene but in the abstract.  (I consider this my take on a Starry Starry Night.)

I tried a few more shots with my Lensbaby and a cute red tree.

Nothing genius, sorry.  But I continue to try on.

Merry Christmas,
Julee

Rural snowman.

I was out driving around shooting photos for a 'dead fauna' challenge when I came across this cute snowman.  (It looks like they even have some lights on this little guy, but despite it being nearly dusk they weren't lit when I was there - and this was about ten miles outside of town, so I probably won't get back.)  He's still cute.

Merry Christmas.

See on,
Julee

Meet my Troll.

I read a blog recently that had several suggestions on small things a photographer could do every day.  One suggestion involved having a small item, that would be carried about all the time, and could be photographed daily.

I tried the daily photograph thing and there are just some days where there is literally no time - and on those days my brain doesn't feel anything positive just because I shoot any photo.  For me, I find that I enjoy the process of trying to photograph a scene or subject that interests me.  That doesn't mean they're all good, and some are downright bad, but for me I decided the daily photo was something I was not going to aim for.

That said, I loved the idea of having something along with me that might inspire me at times I wouldn't normally be inspired.  What to choose?

I have lots of Lego minifigures but those seem too small.  I wandered around toy aisles and saw lots of cute figures - like Monster's Inc or Toy Story characters - but I don't have any kids so how long would they really interest me.  The one evening I glanced next to my TV and realized I had the perfect characters already at home.

Trolls.  (I have two, but I'm going to work with my favorite one first.  His hair is a bit wild so we'll see how he does getting carried about in a backpack, but if he starts looking worn I have an all wooden troll too.  He also has quite a long nose, although you can't necessarily tell from this photo.  But his information card said he's unbreakable so hopefully the nose will be fine.  If it breaks, I'll glue it back on and it'll be okay.)

First stop was my Christmas tree.

He doesn't have a name yet, but what do you think?  Cute and original is what I was going for.

Merry Christmas.

See on,
Julee

My Christmas Tree.

Today my husband and I put up our Christmas Tree.  First I had to run out and buy a Christmas tree, plus light, plus decorations, but most of it was half off so that was nice.

We are happy with how it turned out.  Small, but pretty.

And the same tree with the lovely blurred lighting effect. 

Happy Holidays!

See on,
Julee

Nice day for skiing, Lego style.

The busy holidays are basically upon us.  Both my husband and I have work Christmas parties this weekend, plus we need to clean and wrap and figure out those last few gifts.  But the sun was out so I had to get outside and photograph for a few minutes at least.

I already got one of my Christmas gifts - because 'Black Friday' became 'Merry Christmas to me' when a long desired Nikon D7100 went on 'Lightening Deal' at Amazon. 

The stars aligned for me to even know lightening deals existed, since my first visit to that part of Amazon was only two days prior.  Then during an attempt to see how it all worked I tried to click on something and was immediately 48th on the waitlist - so some stuff goes fast - lightening fast - what were the chances I could remember to be at my computer at the right time?  (During a couple of other items of interest I proved the chances of me remembering was very low).  But there was an 'unknown Nikon deal' coming up in four hours and somehow I actually remembered to sit down at my computer 2 minutes before the sale started.  Then when it turned out to be the camera I had wanted I clicked fast and it was in my cart.  Just like that.

(Then I had fifteen minutes to chat with my husband about "should I really buy"?  He kind of shrugged - probably knowing he really wasn't going to affect my decision making process.  The camera was 33% off - probably won't see that again until the camera has been upgraded once again - so a pretty good deal - why wait until March and pay full price?)

So then it arrived two days later - I love you Amazon Prime - you and your fast shipping and free streaming TV shows and movies.  There was, of course, a lovely blizzard which meant I stayed in the town where I work rather than drive through ice on the interstate - so it was an extra two days before I could open the box and admire my camera.  It took another day for me to connect the camera strap and charge the battery.  It took almost two weeks before I took my first tests shots.  (I also got a 'how to' book and the buttons are all different than on my Nikon D5100 - so I have to figure out how to do everything all over again.  Even in my half hour today, I ended up shooting all in 'auto' exposure because I couldn't figure out how to change my focal point.)

But it was a lovely day for skiing, and since I did not get out for any skiing, I let my Lego Minifigures out top play. (Picture composition is a little off, but it was the cutest shot of the bunch).

I think they had fun. 

Now I'm going to go learn about my new camera.

See on,
Julee

Winter Wonderland.

I saw an announcement last week for a 'Winter Wonderland' light display right in Watertown.  The location of the event was in a city park that has camping during the summer, so it would be a drive through type thing.  I have to admit I was pretty excited since I love holiday lights.  The display is only lit Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and luckily I remembered tonight around 7 pm, so we had time to make it tonight.

I also captured a beauty of a shot of one tree just down the block from my house.  (This first photo was taken using a tripod, but the rest were handheld - from inside the car.)

 

Lit up tractors - how awesome!

 

All in all such a fun and colorful evening.

 

See on,
Julee

We Wish you a Merry Christmas.

It was a brisk -15 degrees today, and while I did venture out once for a few groceries I did not stay outside for long.  So I got out my Lego carolers and one of my sparkly ornaments and shot a few photos. 

I played around with lighting using a worklight, flashlight, and colored gels.  I got around the reflection issue by having the light point away from my scene and by having the focus point of the camera about a foot in front of the ornament.  I didn't manage to get a shot I totally loved, but my cat, Ellie, got really jealous and jumped up knocking everything over - so I took a break to post.  Poor kitty.  (Not really, she gets PLENTY of lap time on the weekends, it's simply her desire that 100% of our time at home be lap time.)

See on,
Julee 

Redlin Art Center campus, a bit of hometown beauty.

Today I visited the campus of the Redlin Art Center.  Terry Redlin is a local artist whose paintings have beautiful highlights of light and often rural Americana.  Last winter there were holiday lights on the trees around the museum, and I was looking forward to photographing those lights, but it appears this year the lights weren't put up. 

 

But despite the -5 degree temperature, I hopped out of my car for a few minutes of shooting anyway.  The lights on the bridge and the lights around the museum are quite pretty at twilight.

 

 

I liked the shot below because you could see the moon.  (The moon wasn't quite bright or low enough to be truly spectacular, but hey, I liked it.)

I am not sure what the weekend will hold photographically.  The below zero temperatures are supposed to remain until Sunday when we get some snow.  Maybe I'll brave the cold or maybe I'll aim for shooting something interesting on my dining room table/photo studio.  (Thank you accommodating husband who is happy eating at the coffee table - I'll put my 'studio' away come spring.)

See on,
Julee

Holiday lights.

Tomorrow I start my first photography 'class'.  It's an online class where I will learn about photographing holiday lights, ornaments, wrapping paper, and more.  I am totally excited.  But during my journeys this weekend I came across a lighted holiday tree and I couldn't resist trying to photograph the lights.

 

 

You can still tell it's a tree - wahoo!  (This was taken with my 28 - 85 mm lens with intentional out-of-focusness in order to give the lights a lovely and large blur.)

 

See on,

Julee