Day 92. The geese are back.

Twice a year we get the excitement and beauty of thousands upon thousands of geese traveling through the area.  The skies fill with flocks of geese, some large groups, some small groups, all squawking noisily during their attempt to travel north in the spring or south in the winter.

It is fun to watch partially because it seems like they send out small, tester geese, whose job it is to try out the route north early each year trying to figure out (I presume) if indeed the waters where the geese will head are open.  I like to watch these early groups who are often flying sideways or backwards, like they know they really do not want to head north quite yet.   

But a few weeks after the small groups start flying through we start seeing the HUGE flocks darkening the sky just bit.  And it is awesome.

I was able to catch a bit of this awesomeness during a drive out near Willow Lake, SD today, Easter Sunday.

What I have captured here was about 1/3 of the birds in the scene.  (I liked this top photo best, with birds filling the scene.)  But even the widest shot I took I failed to get all of the birds in the photo. Isn't it glorious?  Looks a bit like some sort of insect invasion from afar.  But they are just geese,  harmlessly hanging out in a field overnight, moving on towards their summer homes come morning.

See on,
Julee

Day 91. Dark.

Ah holiday weekends. Travel and family togetherness and fun fill the days. Plus I used our Saturday visit to do some shopping in Sioux Falls, so I didn't focus on finding a photo opportunity.

I suppose that is not entirely true since I did get some great shots of nieces and nephews, but I don't post photos of the little guys. Cute as they are, I leave those photos with mom and dad.

But finally, on the drive home, the fog was thick and there was my daily photo. (I was the passenger, not the driver, so I just shot while the car was moving.)

Interesting that the fog did not show up at all, but from the picture it is clear how dark and isolated we are on the drive.

See on.
Julee

Day 90. Dairy show.

Another crazy week away from home. I performed an audit on Tuesday and then have been at the Central Plains Dairy Show for two days.

It has been a great two days, with all the free ice cream, cheese, and popcorn I could handle. 

There was not a lot of time for thinking about photography, but I did get a few shots of a big cow I liked.

See on.
Julee

Day 89. Signs in Brick.

I just can't help myself, I love buildings.  A few weeks back I noticed a neat '1910' engraved in brick.  Then Sunday as I was walking around I noticed several other buildings that had interesting inscriptions in the brick of the building.

None of the buildings today has anything left that relates to its original purpose, but how great, the sign is there as long as the building stands.

Wolf.  I suppose it was someone's name.  But I'm a big fan of northern Minnesota where they have wolves, so I thought the sign was great.

I was drawn to this sign because of Stephen King's book "11/22/63", the book about the JFK assassination.  When the main character first goes back in time I believe he goes back to a fruit company.  And Watertown had a fruit company.  Cool.  The book allowed me to create a picture in my mind of what this building might have been like in its heyday.

After finding the other two buildings I kind of lost interest in this sign.  But since it was the original inspiration for finding the other buildings, I figured it deserved to be posted.

See on,
Julee

Day 88. Old Paint.

I need to start carrying around a notebook where I keep notes on photo ideas.  It is obvious that I have a preference for the outdoors, things like landscapes and buildings, yet I know there is so much else to photograph.  I look at other photography sites and see more pictures of people and food and just more variety of everyday items than what I photograph.

Part of my reluctance to venture into other categories probably stems from the few times I have tried and really failed quite spectacularly.  My attempt to photograph glitter in oil stands out as quite possibly my worst photo ever. 

I think I struggle primarily with lighting and backgrounds, plus I have not splurged on a fancy macro lense yet.  I guess I did have one success photography my cats on some fabric, so it's not hopeless.  But I suspect as springs arrives I will be drawn even more to the outdoors as flowers and bugs and birds return.

So here is my question - how do I entice myself to occasionally venture outside of my comfort zone and photograph things that my brain doesn't think of as immediately inspirational photography? 

Today was not outside my comfort zone.  But I found some wonderfully colorful, fabulously textured, outdoor objects.

Old fashioned fire hydrant. 

Old fashioned lamp post.

Wall.

I'm loving them!

See on.
Julee

Day 87. Twenty One Day Free Trial - for Church?

Went out exploring more of uptown Watertown and found this humorous setup in front of a church. 

The church is actually available for rent, if you can read the smaller red sign in the second photo.  The buildling must have been sold at some point to a private individual, and it appears that some savy photographer has his or her studio in one of the old church offices.  But the 21 day trial, that has me stumped.  (The church, or ex-church, I'm not sure what you call a church building that is no longer a church but still is so much visually a church, is really beautiful.)

See on,
Julee

Day 86. More ice.

It has been a rough winter here in northern South Dakota.  We have a lot of snow.  Just 90 miles south the snow is all gone, and even 45 miles south there is a mere couple of inches of snow left.  But in Watertown, we apparently are just lucky, we have been cold enough to keep nearly all the snow that has fallen in frozen form. 

Oh lucky, lucky us.

But the snow and ice do offer up some fun photo opportunities.  And I know the snow will be good for the farmers, so after a year of drought I really am grateful we had snow.

Here is a picture of a branch in our yard.  We have actually had a few moments of beginning melting during which I tried to capture a picture of falling drops.  I shot and shot and shot and  shot, but the mid-air droplet eluded me.

Below is the fence in a school yard about a block from my house. I thought the pattern and color was interesting, and that the ice added a special something.

Surely any day now the melting will start in full force.  Then colorful spring flowers, sun, and bugs will awaken and be awaiting my camera.

See on.
Julee