Day 45. Making snow.

Posting late. Yesterday was full of skiing. It was our best shot for a nice day since rain then much colder temperatures were forecast. I did however capture a neat picture while skiing.

Apparently the machines that make snow leak, leaving behind wild ice displays.

I hope you find this as interesting ad I did.  To give some perspective, in case it is not clear by the photo, the ice is approximately six feet high.

Day 44. Ice castle.

Nothing as high quality as a smartphone photo. But I am on vacation and since we drove much of the day, this was the shot I got.

Spicer, Minnesota had this cool, huge ice castle. On the far side was a slide, like sleds or tubes could go down.  The ice had a nice, greenish glow in the sun. I doubt my droid will show it. But since part of my goal with this blog is to document the unusual... This qualifies.

Day 43. Dock at the boat launch in the winter.

So I spent more time out at the lake.  During the summer it is one of my favorite places to be, and even in the winter there are opportunities for cross-country skiing and kite skiing (which my husband does, I watch). 

I captured the earlier picture of the ice fishing house from the east side of the lake.  I ventured to the north side of the lake for these pictures.  (It is quite a big lake, it is 14 miles to go around the lake.)  On the north side there is a neat camping area with some short hiking trails.  During spring and summer lots of wildlife can be seen.  I figured I would see what I could find today.  I found the dock below.  I love the yellow rails, so I started shooting.

I am learning part of what makes the difference between a photographer who gets good shots and a photographer who gets great shots.  In the picture below, the trees are somewhat distracting.  A better picture might have been from the other side (left side) of the dock, where the view would have had no trees between the dock and the lake.  However, when I went to the other side of the dock and took photos, the setting sun was in front of me and the colored rails only showed up in shadow.  (I had been hoping the sun was set enough that it wouldn't do this, but no such luck.)  So to try for a great picture, I need to go back in the morning when the sun would be behind me and I could shoot the dock from the other side.

I'm not sure my life affords me the luxury of actually get this done, but it's on my list to try for.  But the picture I got still wasn't bad.

 

Another shot of just the trees with the lake behind them.  I thought the colors of the setting sun were nice.



 

 



Ski trip coming up.  I am heading to northern Minnesota, so am looking forward to some different scenery to awaken my senses even more.

 

See on.

Julee

Day 42. Ice Fishing.

I visited Lake Kampeska today hoping to find something interesting going on.  It was quite a cold day with moderate wind, so there was not much activity.  Most years there are lots and lots of ice fishing houses present on the frozen lake all winter.  This year there were only five that I could see.  I suppose this is a side effect of the mild winter.

However, the sun was setting and there was one ice fishing house delightfully in the light of the setting sun.

To get to a decent picture taking zone I had to walk out on the lake.  No matter how many times I do it, it always feels weird.  Knowing that trucks drive out on the ice should give me comfort, they don't break through so certainly a person will be fine.  But I still find it a bit disconcerting each time I walk out.

But I got my shot.  Bonus, this is the first shot I have published where I did not use auto mode on the camera.  (I have been playing with programming mode and aperature and shutter priority mode for a few weeks now, but this is the first time I have liked the picture I got on manual better than a shot taken in auto.  Yeah for advancing in skills!)

 

 



See on.
Julee

Day 41. Ski.

My husband and I have our ski trip of the year coming up. Three glorious days at Lutsen Mountain.  Today we decided to trek to the local ski skill, Great Bear to make sure we could still ski.  It is a small hill, but can still be fun.  As a firmly intermediate skier, I appreciate that at Great Bear I can go down even the black diamond runs with ease.

(It was a bit of a shock the first time I tried a black diamond run at Lutsen Resort a couple of years ago.  I could do it, but it wasn't pretty.  It probably won't be any prettier this year, although I learned from my visit to Big Sky that a lesson on the first day is helpful.  So I will take a lesson first thing while my husband goes off and plays on the big slopes.)

My desire for today's picture was to get my husband's skiis as they came in for a quick stop.  Since it was the end of our ski day, and the lines were getting really long, I only had once chance.  I didn't get a perfect shot, but still not bad for a first try.

And of course one of my husband, in fierce ski mode.

See on.
Julee

Day 40. Holiday decorations soon to be stowed away.

Last chance for me to enjoy Watertown's holiday decorations.  Within a week these will all be taken down.  So I had to head out for one last photo shoot to try and capture that holiday spirit.

The uptown (city center) has about twenty or thirty of these black baskets hanging beneath street lights.  Flowers are planted in the baskets in the spring, but apparently in the winter they are left empty.  Except for this one, where I assume the business owner nearest to it filled it with some holiday ornaments.  Nice!  Unfortunately I couldn't get a perfect angle that highlighted the pink ball better.  (The pink ball was kind of ugly when seen head on, not as shiny as the picture here might suggest.  So maybe I got the best possible shot after all?  I certainly played around with lots of different angles.)

Uptown streets after dusk.  Quite empty for 6 pm.

Thanks for indulging my love of all things twinkling.

See on.
Julee

Day 39. Rock bridge.

Bridges seem like a popular item for photographs.  Watertown, like most cities, has its share of interesting bridges.  I captured one of them in a photo today.

(Since it was the first day back to work after a glorious, long holiday break, there was not a lot of time for picture taking.  But I still think I got a photo worth posting.)

See on.
Julee