A Long Absence but Still Seeing On

Oh my.  It has been more than a year since I sat down and typed out a post.  Certainly there are the usual reasons - job got busy - two hour daily commute - family things - I'm getting older and really, really need to incorporate a bit of exercise into each day - I could go on and on...

But I also found myself feeling less excited about taking photographs.  I had learned all my camera settings, learned them well enough even to teach a couple of photography classes.  I could take okay pictures, but I had done enough shooting and editing to realize how much work goes into really fantastic images and I found I really didn't enjoy spending lots of time in Photoshop.

I've been continuing to participate on DPChallenge since it does keep my brain in the creative world, although my goal has transitioned from trying to create shiny, winning images more towards figuring out how to capture images that either evoke a bit of emotion or that tell a story.

This was my first real success.

I've learned that moody weather can make for interesting photographs, so I went out driving right after some rain one day.  The electrical towers and the surrounding farm land caught my eye - it my image that included the road, which I just took by happenstance, that was my favorite.  (I had other photos from the other side of the road closer up to the towers, photos I expected to be stronger, but this image really screamed RURAL SOUTH DAKOTA to me, and I found that exciting since I rarely get excited about the fact I do live somewhere so rural.)

Here was another I captured on my way home from work in the fog one day.

There haven't been many other successes yet.  Sometimes I still just go with something fun and a bit off the wall. (I took the image below for a challenge called "Portrait in Minimal".  I do not have a studio, I don't have easy access to kids or models, and the tiny city I live in isn't full of great street photography opportunities.  So I figured what was more minimal than an outline of a face.  True it wasn't a winner, but I still think it's an interesting image.)

So despite my absence here, my quest to 'See On' continues.  Just at a slower pace and with a bit more deliberation to the process.

See on,
Julee

The odd case of pinkness in the giant mine.

Among the fabulous views I enjoyed during my weekend in the Black Hills was a giant mine in Lead.  While we had parked our car right next to the mine all weekend, large piles of snow against the fence and a sign instructing us not to climb the fence or step on the flowers to catch a view of the mine kept us from seeing anything.  (We saw people totally stepping on the non-existent flowers in the flower bed to see inside the mine, but I am kind of a rule follower so my brain strongly desired to see the mine in the manner the good folks of Lead intended.)

Finally on our last day we walked the two blocks to the viewing center and boy was it cool.  If you look closely on the snowy side, there is a fence four 'rows' up - no way would I be caught walking there!

I am still stumped as to the purpose of the mysterious pink item observed deep in the mine.  (See photo below.)  Ideas?  It sure looks like a ticket booth to me, but that's just ridiculous.

Wishing you a view of something unusual.

See on,

Julee

The unexpected.

So my husband and I took a long weekend vacation to Lead, SD and the Terry Peak Ski Area.  We had pretty great weather.  It snowed overnight leaving a nice dusting of fresh snow to ski on, and temperatures were between 30 - 40 degrees F most of the time.

We stayed in a fabulous hotel, the Town Hall Inn (which I highly recommend).  They gave us a box of chocolates on Valentine's Day and they scraped the snow off our car before we woke up the morning we were leaving.  Talk about service, definitely above and beyond.  Plus the room was amazing.  We stayed in the 'Judges Chambers' which had lots of windows and was huge.  It was quiet, we never heard any neighbors.  Although I do have to say the City of Lead is very enthusiastic about their plowing, which they would do at 4 am and again at 7 am those days they plowed.

One highlight of the trip for me was an unexpected moment when we were walking along the main street in Lead and out popped three deer from the front yard of a house onto the sidewalk in front of us.  (This was my favorite shot even though two of the deer had already moved beneath an evergreen.)

My other favorite time was driving through the Badlands.  We saw maybe two other cars, so had several lovely private hikes.  We also enjoyed a lot of wildlife.  (I saw my first wild cat, but he was too fast for my camera.) 

 

There was, of course, all the usual loveliness of the Black Hills.  The evergreens looked glorious with their fresh coat of snow each day.

See on,
Julee

South Dakota winter landscape.

The painfully cold, below zero daytime temperatures, are dragging on and on.  The daylight is lasting a bit longer which helps my spirits some, but it is just too darn cold.

I've kind of lost my zeal for...most everything that involves getting out of bed and stepping into the ice box of a world. 

I think my big mistake was taking a few days off from wearing long johns.  (Yes indeed, I wear up to three layers most days.)  And when I was doing that the cold did not seem so bad.  But it is February.  Surely the long johns aren't quite as necessary right?  Haha.  Wrong.

And while I'm going to go back to wearing many layers tomorrow, I fear the cold has seeped into my bones and it's just too late.

Probably I'll be fine.

Despite the cold and the low level of enthusiasm, I went out photographing this weekend.  We had lots of sun and the sun was nice.  But we also had wind and about two minutes into photographing at my first stop my hands hurt with cold.

I stuck it out for about an hour.  (DPChallenge has a challenge going with the topic of 'Minimalist Landscape' and if South Dakota isn't perfect for that challenge I don't know what is.)

Now I wasn't particularly successful in getting a great shot - but I gave it a go.  And with the help of photoshop I liked this end result:

Other shots from my excursion: 

See on despite your chattering teeth,
Julee

Watertown Car Show.

Day  two with my Lensbaby, and a Saturday which means I have free time to play.  Turned out there was a car show in town and while I do not typically have much interest in cars, my father-in-law brought his car down and with all the bright colors and old fashioned cars I figured I could capture something interesting.

I even had one guy who owned a Ford Galaxie ask if I was a professional.  Sorry, nope.  But I had been photographing his car for about five minutes because I loved the color so he asked if I would send him anything I got.  He said he always appreciated seeing his car through someone else's eye.  How about that.  (So I tried extra hard for another few minutes trying to get a great photograph.)

These first three are my favorite Lensbaby shots, although if I hadn't told you I was at a car show, I suspect the content of the first picture would have been a mystery.  (Or maybe it still is?  There was a maroon car next to a yellow car next to a white car.  I kind of blurred everything rather than leaving a spot in focus.  But I really enjoyed the colors and spots of lights that came through.)

There were, of course, tons of people walking all around.  Had there been less people there would have been all sorts of fabulous shots of gorgeous cars sitting by one another, but the shot below was my only shot of a group of cars with very few people.  Awesome colors!

Here is the probably the best shot I got of the Ford Galaxie.  I think this was shot with a 'regular' lens rather than my Lensbaby.  I did not have success creating any shots of this car with the blur of a Lensbaby

 

For some reason I liked this shot.  The gray car was so strong looking, kind of reminded me of Doc Hudson from the Cars movie, although I'm not really sure why.

 

 

The front red car in the shot below is my father-in-law's '65 Corvette.  This was the best shot I got of his car, all of the others shots were just a bad blur.  (Sorry.)  But it's a great car.  Very shiny!

 

 

Wishing you a day filled with bright and shiny!

See on,

Julee