Day 16. Berries.

Last night we had a nice, 2 inch snow. Perfect for covering my world in white, and as I went to bed I was excited about heading out to take pictures today.

Then my Droid notified me at 4 a.m. that we were under a blizzard warning.  Said blizzard wasn't showing up for twelve hours, but apparently the Droid felt I had better not sleep in and risk missing it.

Thanks.  Droid.  I am now very tired.

(I thought up until the 4 a.m. wake up that the severe weather alert function was cool.  Now I'm kind of undecided.  Maybe I can make the alerts vibrate only?)

Since the blizzard wasn't showing up until late, I had plenty of time to be out and about.  Where I found my pictures was along a stretch of the local bike trail that follows the back of the zoo.  There I found two berry trees, their bright red first catching my eye.

Not a bad find in and of itself.  However, it got better.  I walked along the bike trail for a while, then circled back.  As I passed the berry trees the second time, a flock of birds flew in to eat.  That provided me with the oppotunity to move from neat, to awesome.

 

 

It would have been more perfect with some sun, but I still love the shots I got. 

We now have at least six more inches of snow on the ground, and so long as the city gets out and plows tomorrow morning, I am looking forward to another great day of photography.

Day 15. Farmland mystery.

Another great find from a random wandering.  I have to talk with my farm friends at work about the picture though, because I can't figure out an explanation for what the metal object is.  Maybe it is a common farm thing?  Regardless, it is a cool copper color, with lots of geometry going on - so awesome! 

But why is it there?  It's like a cover or a grate, maybe a gate or ladder.  The barb wire is even cut to accomodate the metal piece.   But I am baffled. 

Still love it though.

And it is now snowing.   No more pictures of brown landscape.  (At least it should be too cold for this snow to melt...)  I can't wait to see what neat picture I can find tomorrow in my world full of white!

Day 14. Deer on the run.

It's deer hunting season in South Dakota.  So I suppose it is logical that the only deer I would see would be running. 

While I am not a hunter, I, like many photographers, love wildlife.  I haven't yet spent hours and hours sitting and waiting for a great wildlife shot, but I do keep alert, always hoping...

Well, I was out driving around some back roads, figuring maybe I would see some deer out wandering.  (Occasionally on my way to work I will see a couple, but I'm on the interstate driving to work, and while I have pulled off to take a picture, it's rare, because it's a little scary even when I pull waaaaaay off to the side.)  But on these back roads there are miles and miles of open fields.  Surely some sort of wildlife would be out and about. 

The picture I covet is of a hawk sitting on a hay bale.  I've seen lots of hawks on signs and fences off the interstate, but am hoping one day for this perfect shot:  a field full of hay bales, and on one of the bales closest to me, a hawk on top.  Maybe hay bales are too low to the ground?

Anyway, I was driving around and this flurry of deer ran out in front of me.  I suppose with hunting season on, the deer aren't just 'wandering' this time of year.  They were fast.  Worry not, I drive about 40 miles per hour or less when I'm out looking around, so hitting the deer wasn't a remote fear.  Also fear not fellow drivers, I pull over and let people who come up behind me pass, so my slow driving isn't slowing others down.  But I am paying attention to traffic - which there usually is none - I love that about South Dakota. 

As luck would have it, this was the only time a car was coming in the oncoming lane, so I was paying attention to him at the same time I was trying to get my camera out, roll down my window, and frame a shot.  Out of three shots, this was the only one where I successfully got the deer before they disappeared into a grove of trees.  I waited for a few minutes, but never saw them come out of the trees.  So this is my picture.

South Dakota.  Open fields, wildlife running for their lives.  (Poor deer.  Nobody was actually hunting them when I was out, but I suppose they run to get hidden as quick as they can.)

Day 13. Lost feather.

I am not sure this is a fabulous picture, but it was a great find for my eye. 

While walking around a random field looking, just looking, I spotted this feather.  We live in such a fast paced world, full of constant email and texts and angry bird missions, that my mind, like many others I know, likes to race from one topic to another.  Being focused enough on my surroundings to notice a small feather, a feather that blended quite well into the grass, seemed like quite an accomplishment.

It was a windy, windy day.  Getting this shot, with the feather's details sharp, was tough.  (This one picture, out of about twenty, was the only one where the whole feather was in focus.)

I know visually it's not a stunner, but having made me feel proud for seeing it has to count for something.

Wander on...
Julee

Day 12. Smile.

People do great things.  I'm driving along a local highway, when I round a bend and out pops this fabulous, happy face.  It's just sitting out in the middle of a field.

Who comes up with the idea to paint a big smily face on a metal drum?

Well, whoever they are, they are AWESOME!  Made my day.

Smile on...
Julee

Day 11. Bridge. Or new home of my lense cap.

I'm (unfortunately) the kind of person who can get so wrapped up in thinking about something, that I forget about everything else.  Once this led to my visiting Wal-mart with my pants on inside out.  I noticed after I had been shopping for like 15 minutes, and then I stood stymied in the DVD aisle trying to figure out exactly how to remedy the situation.  Another time in the grocery store, I noticed I had my coat on inside out.  High class right?   (I honestly try very hard to prevent things like this.)

Well, this ability to think about just one thing at a time also leads to trouble with losing things.  If I'm thinking too hard about a project at work, or about travel plans for the weekend, and I happen to take my glasses off  somewhere random - a massive search will be required to find them later on. 

Last week I lost one of my camera lense caps, but didn't notice until a few days later when I went to switch camera lenses.  I had no idea where I might have lost it.  Luckily, since I only have two lenses, and one is always on the camera, and this lenses cap covered the part of the lense that connects to the camera, I only need one at a time, and the loss wasn't a big concern. 

To prevent constant losses of things like car keys and cell phones, I use routines, and I have specific places where everything belongs.  (Car keys, for example, go either in my pocket, in the designated spot on my work desk, or in the key bowl at home.  Sometimes my husband drives my car, and I get a little panicky as soon as we get home about getting my keys back so they can be in the 'right' spot.)  My routine with lense caps is to put them in my back pants pocket. 

During the outing where I captured this neat, old bridge, I managed to lose another lense cap.  I noticed within about 10 minutes, and I had only stood in two places during the time I could have lost it.  I went to retrieve the cap from my back pocket, and realized in horror, that this back pocket had a button - yet I hadn't opened a button to put the cap in. 

So the only thing I can figure is that I went through the motions of putting the lense cap in my pocket, only to drop it on the ground behind me. 

Nice!  (If the good Lord watches me, I bet I give him a good laugh sometimes.)

And despite a twenty minute search of the field and street around the bridge, no lense cap was found.  A search of the car and camera bag also came up empty.  Some nice old guy, who was curious what I was doing, said that at least it should be cheap to replace.

Oh, but the search of my car did turn up the first lense cap I lost, so that was a plus.  (It had fallen between the seats.)

So here is the bridge.

 

 

Adding injury to insult, I am not sure I really love any of the pictures.  (These were my best two.)  But maybe I'm just bitter about my loss.  Thank goodness Amazon will happily send me a replacement lense cap for $8.99.

 

And yes, I realize this not really a bridge bridge, it's for water drainage.  But it is still some pretty fancy concrete work for water drainage.



 

Day 10. Bendy and green.

So, for those of you keeping count, my 365 day challenge is going to take me a few extra days.  I've missed two days already...

Life has just proven too chaotic to find a picture I want to take every single day.  And I've decided that rather than simply have my goal be taking a picture, any picture, every day, that I actually want my goal to be to look for pictures that excite me, and help remind me of the amazingness of life.

I still maintain my goal of looking for a picture every day, but for those days when a 30 minute search is all I have time for, and when nothing catches my eye on those days of little free time, I'd rather not just shoot and post whatever happens to cross my path.

I know there are some who would be able to find something every day, even in a short time, but apparently I'm not at that point yet.  Others might say I'm not meeting the spirit of a 365 day challenge.  But at the end of my 'year' I want to have a neat collection of photos.  

Today I drove north of town just to see what I could find.  (The irony of today's picture is that I found this spot out-of-town with just a 12 minute drive...)  I turned off onto a road where I'd never been before, and at one intersection was this dramatic branch.  I got a few shots showing the complete branch, but as I went to leave I saw a bit of green moss.  At least I think it's moss.  So I put on my telephoto lense and got a close up. 

I'm a total fan of close-up photography, and I think I did good with the second shot below.  What do you think?

 

Big bendy branch on the prairie.

 

Color found!  (It is so brown this time of year, that this bit of color was definitely a highlight.)

See on!
Julee