The great train saga.

So I spent an afternoon photographing to the topic of 'trains and railroads'.   It was quite fun, my husband even chauffeured me around.  What a treat that was.

I captured one beauty of a train shot.

But then I captured what I thought was a more unique and interesting shot at the end of a line.

The red thing was nice and sharp, the cars were nicely blurred.  I thought it was great.  Not everyone agreed.  I got my usual place in the bottom third of the photo challenge.   I probably would have done better had I entered my first shot, but you know, I tend to go for the unusual and/or abstract and my brain just prefers those. 

But I still have fun.  Taking photos keeps my brain creative and happy.  (And with the blizzard-every-three-days weather we're having, I need all the help I can get to keep my brain happy.)

See on,
Julee

The mink and the fish.

So this started out as the story of me looking for a landscape photo that contained no sky.  I figured I would try one of my favorite spots on the Big Sioux River, there are three trees I just love.   Well I was photographing away then glanced down and saw a great sight.

This fabulous little guy (a mink is my best guess) was walking on the ice on the river carrying a large fish.   He was maybe 15 feet from me and did not seem the least bit disturbed by my presence.  Eventually he found an opening in the water and dove under, taking his fish to the far side of the river and off into the trees.

So I came home with no sky-free landscape picture, but I was enormously happy.  Here's to being at the right place at the right time!

See on,
Julee

A day playing in the trees.

Despite a beautifully bright sun, the day was still cold.  But the snow has nearly melted which means I could once again walk into the grassy areas of the wilderness around Watertown.

Hip, hip, hooray!

For my efforts I found a treat in these two dancing trees.  I rarely title my photos, but this one easily became "The Dip".  Do you see it?

During my walk I also found a few more wild looking, crazy with bare branches, trees that I have become a bit obsessed with this winter.

Then I captured a nice image of a peaceful prairie view.

Spring feels so near, and yet we likely have another two to four weeks of winter.   One thing I have realized about myself this winter is that although I do not love the cold, I do love the all the golds that we see in the fields all winter.

See on,
Julee

Thawing pond.

So I went out this afternoon with the intent of capturing a photo for a most complex DPChallenge event yet.  You were supposed to choose three camera techniques from a list of about ten, things like blur, bokeh, centered composition, deep depth of field, high key, leading lines, rule of thirds, tilt, etc., then capture your photo.

I thought there was a whole 24 hours left on the challenge, and it took until today for me to plan a shot.

Long story short, the deadline was yesterday.

I was aiming to capture a photo that would have been titled "High Key, Rule of Thirds, Tilted Angle".  (Titled as such because you had to title your photo the three techniques used in alphabetical order.)

And since I missed the deadline I changed my photo to a watercolor.  Because I like it better that way.

Okay, so there are two versions of my "Thawing Pond" that I had to post.  In the first photo I lightened the shadows just a bit in Photoshop and got much deeper blues.  In the second photo, the original capture with a watercolor filter, the colors are more muted.  I liked the more muted photo myself, but the richer colors of the top photo are quite lovely so I asked my husband's opinion.  He likes the top photo better.

This next photo was my second attempt at that complicated challenge.  The high key came out better, and I liked the moon in the background, but the focus isn't great.  Still one good shot from the day counts as success.
   

See on,
Julee

Bald Eagle. From a distance.

It was a busy weekend at my house.  My husband and I visited Sioux Falls both Saturday and Sunday, seeing family and taking a visitor from India skiing and tubing.  (My husband took care of hosting the skiing part, after Terry Peak a few weekends back, I was done skiing for the year.)

But I had heard a news story that around twenty bald eagles were making Sioux Falls their home for a few weeks as the weather warmed and the river melted.  So, it's probably needless to say, but my eyes were glued to the skies over Sioux Falls as we drove around.

And luck came my way, I got to see one.  (I've seen a few in my life, and I probably have a few pictures from eagles in Alaska, but this was my first successful photo capturing an eagle near home.)  So it was exciting to me.

My longest telephoto is 300 mm, which was not really long enough to get me any great shots.  But nevertheless you can tell it's an eagle - and that had to be good enough for today.  (I peruse the 400 and 500mm lenses on Amazon.com regularly, but am just not ready to spend the money.)

One note, don't try to zoom on these photos too much, I struggled to get the focus just right and the poor bird is never terribly sharp.  But I had this guy in my sights for about a minute, so there was not a lot of time for improving my technique.  Live and learn.

See on,
Julee

Rule of three.

The work week was finally over and my husband was heading out for some kite skiing after work.  This left me free to look for some photographs.

DPChallenge has some interesting challenges right now, all having something to do with the number 3, three equivalently strong subjects, 3 primary colors, 3 camera techniques.  (The rule of three, where you have three equally strong subjects, is one of my favorite photographic compositions.)  So today's goal was three subjects.  I noticed the windmill farm as I drove home, fabulous subjects, but after more than an hour driving around to several locations, and walking around in some bitterly cold wind trying to find a shot I could frame just right, I came away with just one decent shot.  (At one point I had driven on a road so rural that I ran into a snow drift my car wouldn't have made it through - so I parked and walked - brrrr - then there was no shot - bummer.)

But then as I finally made it home to Watertown I wondered what our local art museum might have.  (It has a lovely outdoor area, and some nice trees.)  I found one set of trees I liked and two shots later I had it...

Here was my best windmill shot.  It was a lovely sky today, but I just didn't find the perfect angle or location to get three well-spaced windmills.

See on,

Julee

Playing.

We have warmer weather in our sights.  If we can all hold on a few more days, relief for our frozen fingers and toes should be coming.

But that warmth is not quite here.  And yet DPChallenge had a 'vehicle' challenge that I really wanted to submit to.  (I had no great ideas, but it had been more than a week since my last entry and well, how hard could photographing a vehicle be?)  So I was determined to battle the cold one last time to capture at least one photograph of a vehicle.

Ideas churned in my brain for a few days and I decided I wanted to pull out one of my Lego vehicles and see what I could make with it.  That idea ended with me laying in the road in front of our house for about 45 minutes while I photographed a tiny car that held a person and a surf board.

I tried lots of angles and both sides of the street - and in the end I thought I did a pretty good job.  Despite wet and dirty clothing and probably some neighbors who now think I'm a bit odd, I also sure had a lot of fun.
I dubbed this photo 'Ready to Surf'.  I was aiming for a bit of humor as the street is covered in snow, and it'll take quite the drive to have a successful surf.  

See on, even when you have to make your own sights.
Julee

Painting the neighborhood.

The shocking cold continues.  Plus our washing machine quit this morning and what I thought was a hard water issue, might actually be frozen pipes.  So the day is not ending on the happiest of notes.

But the sun came out and before the determination of the true nature of our home troubles, I made it outside for a few photos.  I have been enjoying a couple of the trees nearby, trees that have kept their golden leaves over the winter, and I figured they would make for a quick and easy photo.  However it was a chance click of the shutter down the side street that led to my photo of the day.

Below is the tree that I've been enjoying all winter - but I transferred it to monochrome since the picture was not all that grand in color.  But I think it looks pretty cool in black and white.

Stay warm and See on!

Julee