Day 75. Frosty.

There are a few truly beautiful days each winter when we wake up to frost covered trees and bushes.  Everything is covered in a sheen of white.  Usually the frost disappears shortly after the sun comes up, and usually on workdays I miss the photo opportunity. 

But today I got lucky.  As I peered out the window before lunch, I noticed the trees were still all white.  Wahoo!  So out I went with my camera.

The local convention center had some smallish trees, so I thought I would try and create something neat with them.  Then I shot branches and branches and branches.  (None of the photos of branches turned out post worthy.  My eye apparently just could not figure out the right view to capture what I thought was pretty about the branches.)

But I liked my photo of a whole tree.

 I also liked this group of wheat.  (Is it wheat?  I'm not sure.)

 

 

Here is some grass, what's left of it, with some nice frost.

 



And in case you're curious about my less than steller branch photos, here you go.  The first branch has a super nice, out-of-focus part right in front, and the second picture is just a little boring.  (And now go back and look again at the better photos up top.  Thanks!)

See on.
Julee

Day 74. Hay. Texture and Color.

I was out exploring and stopped at what I thought was a nice country view with snow and clouds.  Then behind me I noticed a large group of hay bales with some snow around them.  I decided I wanted to see what kind of shots I could get of either the texture of the snow or of the hay.

It was a lot of fun tromping around in waist high snow.  Thankfully I never fell into a deep hole with both feet.  The one time one of my feet sunk deep into the snow, seriously to my waist, I kind of wondered if I'd be able to get out if both feet got stuck.  But it never came up.  (And I had my cell phone in my pocket and was only about four miles from home, so my husband could have rescued me had it come to that.)

But back to the hay.  I took more than 50 shots, walking all around, using all sorts of angles and focal points.  Pretty much the only angle I did not try was climing on top.  I did not know whose land I was on, and I figured they may not mind me walking around, but if I starting climbing around I could get an angry farmer showing up.  (It's happened before when we were taking photos of an old farmhouse that belonged to my husband's family long ago. That time we got a visit even though we were just shooting photos from the road.  The farmer just wanted to make sure we would not go on the property.)  So I try to be respectful.

I started with my wide angle lense, 18 - 55 mm, and liked the shots I was getting.  Then when I switched over to my telephoto lense, 55 - 300 mm, all the sudden these pieces of orange string suddenly stood out and I had the opportunity not only to capture texture, but also to try and get some interesting color shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked a number of my photos, and couldn't narrow it down to just two or three to post.  The bottom shot is actually my favorite, but I'm not sure it shows up as the best posted.  I also like the five orange strings.  Although I wish it had more of a natural border to it, but it's my first (I think) successful picture of pattern and color - so that made me happy.)

 

See on.

Julee

Day 73. Blizzard letdown.

A blizzard never arrived.  The brunt of the storm was felt far to the south of us, but we still got enough snow and ice to give everything a fresh sheen of white and to cause drivers trouble.  The snow we were going to get was forecast to arrive during the overnight hours, so I decided I wasn't making the 50 mile trek home.  But bonus, it was the night of the monthly 'Science at the Pub' talk in Brookings where I was staying.  I love those.  (I even gave one of the talks a year ago.)

So while waiting for the snow I enjoyed a beer while surrounded by swords, a boar's head, and other odd paraphernalia reminiscent of an old English pub, while learning about concrete architecture.  (It was much more interesting than it sounds.)

After dinner I had burgers with a friend and as the snow started I noticed a cool lamp outside.  The snow falling around it added to its interest and beauty.  I spent about ten minutes capturing various shots of the lamp.  It was a bit tricky since I had to watch out for, and dodge in one instance, cars as they came by.

I'm not sure I love any of the pictures.  But I tried.  I think I was too intimidated by the darkness and the traffic to try all sorts of angles.  Next snow I can aim to try again.  There was alot of distraction all around the lamp, but I liked the blue lights on the trees at the museum behind the lamp.  This first picture is the best shot I got showing those lights. 



 

But I also liked the colors in the lighter picture below that included a bit of the museum.  Way too many distractions there to make a good picture, but I still liked it and couldn't find a cropped view that I liked better.

 



And finally, science at the pub.  What a glorious idea someone came up with to have drinking while learning about science.

 

 



See on.
Julee

Day 72. Under the bridge.

Kind of a boring story today compared to yesterday's fun with wind and snow and wine.  But I suppose not all photo sessions can be as much fun as taking 50 different shots of a glass of wine.  (And yes, that is approximately how many shots - photos - not shot as in drinks - it took to get one the one picture of the wine glass I felt was decent enough to post.)

Today's photo continues on my quest to photograph bridges.  This bridge goes over the Big Sioux River, and when I cross-country ski on the river it is one of the bridges I go underneath.  It is actually just a walking bridge, rather than a driving bridge, but that also means that it is probably less common as far as bridge photos go.  The bridge is made all of logs, as I suppose if fairly obvious from the picture. 

Anyway, I decided to try and capture that unique view from underneath, a view that isn't available most of the year.  (I could try and recapture the view from my Kayak this summer, but the river tends to be brown and/or green, and kind of nasty as far as rivers go, so I probably won't.)

And be reassured, another blizzard is due starting tomorrow evening or Thursday morning so there could be yet another blizzard picture and story coming soon.  (Although I am packing my overnight this time so I am prepared.)

See on,
Julee

Day 71. The blizzard and the wine.

So a freak blizzard came through town.  And by freak, I mean that I didn't pay close enough attention to the weather forecast so did not properly plan for blizzard like conditions. (In my defense, the weather men led me to pay too close of attention to the major snow event coming Thursday so I missed the potential significance of an inch of snow and crazy wind speeds today.) My bad.

These are the days when living 50 miles from work is a problem.  Don't worry mom, I had all my emergency gear, just not my overnight bag. 

Around 3 pm, just like predicted a tiny bit of snow along with 45 mph winds showed up.  I actually got on the interstate to go home thinking it wasn't slippery so it had to better than the day I drove on a sheet of ice the whole way.  (Terrifying that day was, in the top two of worse driving experiences ever.). Today was scarier.

It wasn't slippery, at least not very, but ZERO visibility. I could not see the white lines on either side of my car.  Almost everybody, including me, had their hazard lights on praying, I assume since that is what I was doing, that some crazy moron wouldn't come barreling up from behind and get out of control trying to pass.

Most mornings and evenings recently there are at least two cars in the ditch.  One particularly scary incident occurred right in front of me. A pickup truck, not going any faster than me although he was in the icier lane suddenly just drifted sideways, then drifted in front of me, then slid into the ditch in the middle if the interstate, and slid through the ditch coming out on the other side into traffic.  Talk about a reminder about ice.  No accident occurred, boy was that guy lucky.

So today I got off the interstate at my first chance, I turned around and went and had wine.  Much better choice than driving 50 miles with no visibility.

(I called my husband when I got off the interstate and he said he had been trying to reach me to tell me about the whiteout in Brandt.  I had also thought maybe I could make it because maybe it was just bad around where I work. But Brandt is about 2/3 of the way home.  It would have been a rough drive all the way.)

On an up note, winds will die down tomorrow leaving us to enjoy a high of -2.   Brrrrrr.  I think I will have more wine. 

See on.  (And my blizzard picture totally does not do today's wind justice.  Sorry. But I was anxious to get to the wine.)

Day 70. Winter Sport in South Dakota.

So today was another nice day, less sun and a little more wind, but temperatures in the 30's.  My husband and I went cross-country skiing again for a while, then we drove out to the lake just to check it out. 

I think I've shared this before, but the lake is one of our favorite things about Watertown.  So we go several times a month, even in the winter.

As we made the last turn toward Memorial Park, which is right on the lake, we were seeing car after car leaving the parking lot.  Huh.  I wonder what excitement we missed out on?

Apparently there was some sort of ice fishing contest today.  Acceptable on its own, but there were three sets of bleachers setup right at the edge of the frozen lake.  Bleachers people.  Three sets of them.  As in there was a crowd, a crowd of the size requiring three bleachers, cheering for the ice fisherman who were fishing like a half mile out on the lake.  OMG.  Seriously?

There appeared to be two fishing holes.  You can see one truck maybe 1/4 mile out, with an orange fence around a whole in the ice.  But the road on the lake continued a further, and at that second spot there were still a number of other trucks, and I assume another hole in the ice.  Maybe some of the guys fished only a quarter mile out, but still, people sitting on the sidelines for an ice fishing competition?  It boggled my mind.  I suppose this is rural South Dakota sports for you.

Here is the proof:

I guess I'm not sure we really missed out on much after all.  But here is me sitting on a piece of ice they took out of the lake.  Pretty thick ice.  And that was the small piece.  It still wasn't thick enough for me to want to drive out on the lake though.  Maybe the people watching are all waiting for a truck to fall through the ice?  Kind of like watching for a car wreck on a race track.

And sorry for the lower than normal photo quality.  Our cross-country skiing was just on the 'big' hill today, significantly increasing the likelihood of a tramatic fall for me, so I had left my camera and smartphone at home.  All we had at the lake was my husband's old fashioned cell phone.  (And I was afraid the bleachers would be taken down if we tried to go home and come back.)  But his phone did the trick. 

See on.
Julee

Day 69. Cross Country Skiing.

We are having two days of beautiful weather, with temperatures in the mid to high twenties, very little wind, and mostly sunny skies.  To enjoy this brief respite from the misery that is South Dakota in the winter, my husband and I went out to cross-country ski. 

My husband, Jason, led me through this excellent little trail, right in Watertown, SD.  It took us down a river, through some woods, across a pond, and ending at the bottom of a local sledding hill.  (Jason continued on, skiing up the sledding hill so he could ski wildly down said hill, but since I only do little hills on cross-country skiis, I sat that part out.)

But it was a great, great day.  I only crashed once, falling on the side that I wasn't carrying my camera on.  Whew!  (Next purchase should probably be a backpack for my camera, I was a tad nervous but really wanted to be able to take pictures while we were out.  A backpack would probably be safer for my camera since I'm not terribly graceful and am known for falling down.)

 

 

 

Ski (and see) on.
Julee

Day 68. Happy Valentine.

As I got home from work yesterday, a shocking scene greeted me - a cleaned off dining room table with just a Valentine's day gift and card for me sitting all pretty in the center.   The shocking part was the dining room table sans stuff.  Most of the year our table holds all manner of bills, miscellaneous mail advertisements, magazines, stuff I unpack after traveling but aren't sure what to do with, stuff for an upcoming travel that I'm not quite ready to pack, gifts for that birthday a month from now, you get the idea.  It's our junk drawer. 

Plus the cats like to walk on it, which rightly appalls those with good judgement, and which means I don't really want to eat on it since it needs a good cleaning and disinfecting first.  But we like having dinner in the basement, so really what's the harm?  (And we do clean very VERY thoroughly for the one or two meals a year we do actually have at the table.)  

Back to Valentine's day.  My husband wasn't home from work yet, but it was a nice surprise to see a gift from my sweetie waiting for me.  I had just come from the grocery store where there was a line of ten or eleven guys picking up last minute flowers.  My guy planned ahead.  Kudos to him.

Here was what greeted me:

 

 

I wasn't particularly happy with any of the shots I got. (Gift was great, I just didn't manage to photograph it well.)  

 

I should have setup my tripod, but instead I just took a bunch of shots from a variety of angles then messed around with filter effects in photoshop, hence the kind of weird look.  But I wanted to post something to give my husband credit for a great Valentine's Day.  (He got me a beautiful ring, totally awesome.  I got him a ten pack of socks and the movie, Skyfall, but the Blue Ray, DVD, bonus pack version - cause I love him - he's worth the extra $5.   Plus the way he keeps wearing holey socks, that pack of socks will last as long as my ring.) 

 

It's true love.

 

See on,

Julee

 

Day 67. God Bless America.

I am not sure I have ever taken a picture of the American flag before.  But last night as I was driving home, I passed a Perkins restaurant and their huge flag looked just gorgeous.  The night sky and the wind was a perfect combination. 

How did I do? 

I took about 15 shots, and frankly was disappointed in most.  Who would have thought it was so hard to capture a nice shot of a flag blowing in the wind.  But to get just the right flutter, wow, most pictures just did not look as good as the view of the flag in person.

But I still don't think my end result was too bad.

See on.
Julee

Day 66. Wheels.

These wagon wheels, or replica, decorative wheels more likely, caught my eye.  I liked them against the brick background of a local house.

Not terribly exciting, but a decent photo I think.  I captured it before the sun came out, but it is out now, so I'm headed back out to enjoy.

Here's hoping my next picture contains beautiful rays of sun, or at least shadows. 
See on,
Julee

Day 65. Blowing snow.

Every year, for at least two weeks, grayness takes over and stalls out in the skies above us.  For me, and many others I think, this is a painful time of year.  Winter blues are definitely real, and boy does it get tough to remain bright and cheery when weeks go by without seeing the sun.

(At least I was blessed with a week in Florida two weeks ago where I was able to see the sun and enjoy moderate temperatures, but apparently the happy effects from sun disappear quickly.  I have a happy light at work, and I think it's time to start using it again.)  The weatherman said we will see sun this week, so fingers crossed.  And at least the temperatures are actually quite comfortable, in the twenties for the most part. 

Here are a couple of photos of the blowing snow that I captured today.  The blizzard warning continues on, and with a foot of snow, no plows out, and closed interstates, I worked from safety from home.  This meant the glorious freedom to take a short walk and get some photos over the noon hour. 

There is a elementary school, now used to pre-school only I believe, half a block from my house.  When the wind would blow, it created an interesting pattern off the roof.  I took a whole series of photos, and none really captures the blowing snow exactly like I was seeing it, but this was the closest shot.  Plus the overhanging snow is neat.

This is one of the many icicles hanging off our house.  Photo taken right from the back porch.  I like that you can see the fine snow flakes that were blowing around at the time I took the picture.

See on.
Julee

Day 64. After the blizzard.

Just to clarify, I live in one of the plains states (South Dakota).  And while we are in the midst of a blizzard, we did not get the 2 1/2 feet that the east coast received during their blizzard a couple of days ago.  So blizzardwise, ours was not terribly impressive.

But we did get a foot of snow, 45 mph winds, and our interstates are shut down too, so it was still a good storm.

During a lull in the snow today, I took a walk to seek out some snowy pictures.  It was rather a tough walk, and I surely got my daily exercise even though I walked less than two miles.  (There was very little traffic out so I trudged my way in what tire tracks there were in the street.)

I am actually quite pleased by what I captured today.  The snow covered pumpkin leaf bags looked a bit out of season.  And it totally reminded me that my husband and I didn't pick up the small bit of leaves that fell last fall - so they'll be waiting for us in the spring.  But while snow covered, I thought the pumpkin on the right had a mischievous look about him, a bit like he thought the snow was fun.

Then this poor, little, plastic snowman, doesn't he look like mother nature tried to beat him down, but he's having none of that?

I have to drive on one of the aforementioned interestates to get to work tomorrow, so I am guessing I can sleep in a bit while we wait for the snow plows to get through and law enforcement to declare the roads open.

See on.
Julee

Day 63. Effect of the drought.

On my drive home from work about a month ago, I saw this small patch of unharvested corn.  During harvest I remember all of the talk centering on the poor quality of corn this season due to the drought that effected about 90% of the county's corn and soybean regions, and the low yields farmers would be seeing as a result.  My understanding was that low yields would lead to some corn not being harvested, having something to do with crop insurance and decisions made by insurance adjustors.  However, for months of looking now, this is the only corn I was able to find.

It's a little sad.  And it reminds me of what a tough year our farmers had.  Here's hoping for a better season in 2013!

 

 

 

See on,

Julee

Day 62. Blue tree.

I got into Fargo around 5 pm and it was still light.  I got up to my hotel room and from my window I saw what looked like purple blossoms on some trees.  They were about two city blocks away so I couldn't see them perfectly.  But there was a lot of the color purple

This maybe wouldn't have been so odd had it been springtime.  But it was the coldest of cold winter days. (It was -10 when I arrived.). There were no blossoming trees.

But these colored trees were so big I didn't think they could be fake.  By the time I got back to my car and drove to the trees it was getting dark. When i got close I could see the trees were just very elaborately decorated with blue lights. 

I did not take time to compose a great photo. It was too darn cold.  I pulled the car over, rolled down the window, and took a picture.

But it was something unique, and I loved the light given off.

See on.
Julee