Orange cone. Plus blizzardy, it's a word!

The winter doldrums.  Short, dark days.  Bitterly cold temperatures.  It is a good thing that I have a job to go to because otherwise I suspect I might never crawl out from under the warm covers.

This winter has been particularly cold and blizzardy.  (You cannot see the bright, red, squiggly line telling me that blizzardy is not a word, but that underline is there.  Twice now.  But spell check you are wrong.  BLIZZARDY is a word.  A horrid, zero visibility, ice covered road word.) 

I have now added my made up word to my computer's dictionary so I can use blizzardy at will.  Haha.

(Turns out that Haha is not a word either.  This is just not my day.)

It has been about a week since I got out and took photos.  Life got busy, plus the previously mentioned winter misery led me to spend time reading next to a space heater instead of running around with my camera. 

That's how life goes.

But are my last shots, captured two weekends ago, that I never got around to posting.  (I spent two, full work weeks staying in Brookings, which meant no access to my computer.  Then once I got home I spent the weekends catching up and never got around to posting, so you all got neglected.  Sorry.)

But last time I was out I just drove around, determined to drive somewhere I had never been.  I found a neighborhood at the beginning of the development stage (roads only) and I captured a 'rule of three' photo. (I am not certain if this is a real rule or not.  But on Twitter I follow a group who first had several days posting examples of the 'rule of thirds' and then they spent several days posting examples of  the 'rule of three'.)  I thought it was a great rule and so I started looking for my own photo to contribute.  I was a bit late, but eventually I found one!

Then I found an orange cone.  In the middle of the road was this orange cone with a piece of rebar sticking out of it.  I supposed the rebar keeps the cone from blowing away. I should have taken another photo of the scene so that you could see that this orange cone was out in the middle of nowhere.  A pop of color all by itself.

Finally, here is my stellar attempt at making myself take a photo, any photo, before giving in to the siren call of a warm house.  I was in the Target parking lot where there was a lovely tree with red berries.  Nice, and a perfect chance to pull out my Lensbaby fisheye.

Not exactly a stellar photo - but I kind of like the amount of interesting details in the photo when you really look.

Stay warm while seeing on!
Julee

Pinhole practice.

Okay.  So the whole zoom burst,  intentional camera movement thing did not work out.  I tried, but have nothing to show for it.  (Or at least what I have to show does not make me proud.)

I'll share part of the blame with the cold.  My fingers started hurting as I stood around trying different combinations of exposure.  It was possibly too light outside as well.  I will have to do more reading, but to have time enough to have camera movement seemed to require at least 1 second of shutter lag.  That meant a greater aperture, and I chose ISO 100 to give myself the longest shutter possible to still give me proper exposure.  But something about my timing was just off.  Or maybe I did the zoom burst too fast?  I don't know - a few second is not very long a time to play around with.

So instead I am posting photos I took today while playing with my zone plate and pinhole optics.  I love the zone plate.  The photos have a dreamy quality that I really enjoy.  (I do not enjoy the little dust spots I have to clone out in Photoshop, but apparently such is the price to pay.)

 

Next up pinhole photos.  I am not sure I am using the pinhole optic correctly.  (Both zone plate and pinhole are Lensbaby lenses).  I thought that with a pinhole exposure everything was supposed to be in focus, but as you can see from my photos below - that is not how it worked for me.  I have no idea what I did wrong - but possibly this is an extension of my focus problems.  I was wearing my glasses, but turning the focus ring did not seem to change the focus. 

Another topic to learn more about.  (I am preparing for Worldwide Pinhole Day, so I've got until the end of April to get the hang of it.) 

And lest you think I was kidding about the massive failure with 'intentional camera movement' here you go...

 



Strange.  There is an interesting, very subtle, sunbeam type thing in the last shot, but still - ewww - so not what I was going for.

But here is to trying something new.  Cheers.  Everyone has to start somewhere.

See on,
Julee

Evergreens.

Happy to have survived the recent, week long, ice plus blinding snow is fun, blizzard, I ventured outside and finally took some photographs. 

I am so ready for spring.  So as a reminder of greener day to come, here are some evergreens.  It's pretty much the only greenery I'll see for another three months.

 

I am trying to improve my Lensbaby skills, but I sure do have trouble with focus.  (I have switched to wearing my glasses all of the time while photographing, and it helps some, but I need to keep practicing.)

 

 

Today I was reading about ICM (intentional camera movement).  I think I will head out again and play around with zoom burst and panning.

 

I hope your afternoon is equally fulfilling and mentally challenging!

 

See on,

Julee

Indoor Macro.

DPChallenge had an indoor macro challenge this week.  I played around with some beads I had, but wasn't quite satisfied.  My goal, of course, was to try again after reviewing the initial photographs, but I never got back downstairs to shoot more.

I have a fair amount of trouble getting the focus right in regular situations, but it turns out that it is even trickier to get the focus right with close up shots.  I shot about thirty photos with each of the setups below, playing with decreasing my aperture to get more of depth of field, but I just never got it quite right. 

So instead of posting in the challenge, here are my favorites of the shots I did get.  (I'll blame my lack of submitting to the challenge on the bad weather.  It's horrendous here with strong winds and just enough snow to make the roads slick with ice.  I was so distracted by the bad weather that I actually just forgot to login and upload a photograph.) 

Boo to winter weather and icy roads!

Here are my lovely images...

 

(I seem to have some mental defect where I love over exposed photos.  I get that all the white doesn't make a fabulous photograph, but something in my brain really enjoys the brightness.)

 

Next up?  Probably more winter photographs - those are a plenty these days.

See on,
Julee

O Say Can You See...

This afternoon I drove over to a local park with the goal of photographing evergreens.  The park I visited backs right up to a cemetery, and when I stepped out of my car my eye was drawn to this gorgeous American flag.

I was practicing with my Lensbaby Sweet 35, a lens I was not sure I loved initially, but the more I practice with it the more I love it.  (That lens has the ability to easily change aperture, which can be a handy thing.)  I often struggle with getting the focus correct when I shoot with my Lensbabies, but today I think I did pretty well.

I knew the shot I wanted to capture as soon as I saw it.  I shot three or four different angles, but this was my favorite. 

See on,
Julee

A winter day at the beach - and practice in the abstract.

Finally a break from deep winter.  Whew.  That was a long, cold spell.  Gloriously the sun was shining, the temperatures were mild, and I got out with my camera.

Back to the shores of Lake Kampeska.  (Secretly I was hoping for a bit of wildlife, but I did not have luck finding that.)  Instead I played with my Lensbaby lenses and tried to make the beach look like I had never seen it before.  First up, a crazy set of trees (or is it one tree?) done in the abstract.

Next a sad, little dead plant.

Pretty cattail.

Finally, a lonely park bench.

 



 

Tomorrow looks like it should be another nice, winter day.  I can't wait to see what photographs the day will hold.

 

See on,

Julee

Deep snow. And another tree.

It was doggone cold yesterday.  I drove around town and ended up at the entrance to some sort of state hunting area.  (Who knew such a thing existed?)  I parked my car like a sign directed and got out - I was curious.  This hunting area started at an edge of Pelican Lake, and I thought maybe I could walk out towards the lake and find an interesting photo.

But right after getting out I noticed that the fence right in front of me was interesting, and the lock too.  (My lock photo would have been better if only I had gotten the locks more in focus - it was taken with my Lensbaby Sweet 35, and it's hard to tell where the focus spot is.  I didn't ever get it quite right.)  But as I took a few steps towards the fence trying to frame that perfect shot of the fence, I sunk into knee deep snow and I realized I wouldn't be going very far.

So I left that area and figured I would travel towards Lake Kampeska where my husband was once again kite skiing.  I was sidetracked by this cool looking tree.  (Top tree photo taken with a regular 16-85 mm lens, the second tree photo taken with a Lensbaby Sweet 35.)

After leaving the tree I was slowed down by icy, icy roads all around the lake.  (I missed what would have been an awesome shot of about ten sparrows all in a row, huddled along a beam on a mint green, paint peeling, rundown garage door because I couldn't get the lens cap off my camera and there was a car coming up behind me so I figured I'd better pay attention to the road and the ice.  But a cool photo of the scene was registered by my brain.)  By the time I got to my husband he was packing up. 

And it was pretty cold anyhow so I was ready to head home.

See on,
Julee

The freeze intensifies.

This winter has had more ups and downs, with some extra special downs, than most recent winters, at least from what I can remember.  We typically get one horrendous cold snap, but this year the cold misery started earlier and the worst is yet to come.

But in the brief moments of sun I try to get myself outside.  Yesterday I spent the last hour of daylight photographing at Lake Kampeska.  (I hauled out my Lensbabys because they almost always guarantee me something I will find interesting even when working quickly.  I was out for less than an hour and despite wearing two hats, long johns, boots, and mittens my hands still hurt with cold by the end.)

Both of my favorite shots were taken with my fisheye lens.  To capture likable photos with this lens I am finding that I either need one large item that can fill the 12mm view, or I need to have something I want to 'bend' at one of the edges.

In this second photo I hope you can feel the cold and desolation of the lake.  (And yes, that's a truck on the lake.  My husband and a friend were just finishing up kite skiing and his friend was loading up his gear right on the lake.  I'm kicking myself for not capturing photos of them with their kites side-by-side early on.  But I guess I learn when I realize I missed what could have been a neat photo.)  Typically this time of year the lake is full of ice houses with guys ice fishing, but the weather has been so hideous that they're just not out yet this year.

I am about to run outside before temperatures drop to below zero again.  We are due for wind chills nearing -50 over the next two and a half days - so this is probably my last chance to be outdoors for a bit.

See on - seeing whatever you can while warm from your couch or the mall!
Julee

Frozen.

The high temperatures today were around -5.  Brrrrr. 

I drove around for a bit over the lunch-hour to give my car a chance to warm up, and during the drive I came across a lovely tree all shrouded in white.

I am still trying to figure out how the fisheye lens works, and this tree seemed like a perfect subject for practicing.  That first shot is probably overexposed, but I like the colors.  The white is very bright, and the framing is nice, but the fisheye effect isn't very strong.

This second shot has a stronger fisheye look, and the exposure is probably closer to correct, but I don't love it quite as much as that first shot.  The wild, bendy branch is cool, but I find that bit of a tree off to the left to be a little distracting.

We are in for a windy two days followed by even colder temperatures.  I'll be keeping my eyes open and my camera battery charged.

See on,
Julee

Mr. Troll and the Bubbles.

I found some bubbles I had from several years ago, but it turns out that even at -5 degrees it is not cold enough to freeze bubbles quickly.   I had not gotten my troll out in a while, so I figured I would see what I could capture putting Mr. Troll outside with some bubbles. 

(Turns out it's also quite hard to blow lots of bubbles when it's this cold.  The bubbles came out just one or two at a time and getting the timing right to capture a photo with bubbles in the right spot, more difficult than it sounds.)

 

 

My best shot of the day. 

 

Poor little troll needed a shampoo after his photo shoot.

 

 

See on,

Julee