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

Wild trees of winter.

I have just fallen in love with the trees this winter.  I love that over winter you can see each bend and branch of every tree.  I find them just gorgeous.

It helps that my hour long commute in both the mornings and evenings takes place very near the magic hour, when light makes everything incredible. 

Here are some of my favorites from Sunday.

The cold can sure be miserable, but finding something lovely to photograph sure helps me forgot about it.

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