Day 301; Rust and Snow

I took this photo a few days ago after we'd received a light dusting of snow. Today, temperatures rose to 65℉ and it felt like spring for the first time. To get this photo, I put my camera down into a large, rusty basin sitting out in our yard. The bottom had rusted out so that I could see the ground on the other side, and the combination of snow and rusted edges lent a nice contrast of texture and color to the image. For editing, I cropped the original down to the area I wanted to focus on, and adjusted the exposure to best represent the white of the snow and the shadows on the sides of the basin.

Day 283; Snow Teeth

Today's photo is of the snow and icicles which formed on the gutter of the poultry barn. I wasn't a huge fan of this photo when I first saw it on my camera, but then a couple things happened. For one thing, I edited it. That always has an impact on the way the final product is perceived. But perhaps more importantly, I got glasses today! They make a huge difference. Everything is so much crisper and clearer. I predict having glasses is going to help my photography a lot. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Day 282; Lane Loveliness

I realize you're probably getting tired of black and white winterscapes, but with all of the snow we've been getting I don't foresee an end to the trend anytime soon. This view is one of my favorites though. It's looking from our garage down the lane toward the highway, but with all the snow it looks like it's from Narnia or some other fairy tale setting. The editing was simple, just a black and white filter with dark edges to bring out the tree trunks and branches.

Day 281; Wintry Woods

My last post was a tree in winter. Today's post is a tree in winter, although there are significant differences between the two, especially the extra 6 inches of snow which has recently fallen.  My house surrounded by woods on all sides which is really pretty, especially after snow fall, but it does get hard to switch up the types of winter photos I take. Today we have a very simple photo of the cottonwood tree in my yard with a background of the woods. I did no editing to the photo except for a white vignetting around the edges to soften the image a little.

Day 277; Snowman Figurine

While my last post was about summer, this one is entirely about winter. There hasn't been any snow recently, but there has been a lot of mud. So since I don't have any real snow to play in, today's photo is of a snowman figurine. The snowman was on a windowsill with some fake snow. The light from the window created a really nice natural lighting pattern. I loved the colors in the original shot so I didn't do much editing.

Day 201; Winter Forest

The massive accumulation of snow we've got here is finally starting to melt off, so much so that surrounding counties are under a flood watch. Out in the woods behind my house there was still quite a bit of snow yesterday afternoon when I was out photographing. I love the warm woody browns in all the trees. I enhanced this slightly with a Dusk effect from picmonkey.com, and finished it with vignetting around the edges.

Also, as you may have noticed, I've started a new naming system for my posts as of today, with the day number followed by a post specific title. We'll see how this goes.

Day 200

This afternoon when I was outside taking pictures the sun was starting to set and the light made the colors and details in this plant really stand out. I loved how the sunlight pouring through the leaves allowed you to see the veins. I added a thin black border to give a finished look and help make some of the details more pronounced.

Day 194

Sorry I haven't posted in the past couple days, but the whole family has been super sick. I finally seem to have started getting better, or at least I'm well enough to work on photography. I had my brother Elijah with me, and we went outside to get a few portraits. I'm not sure exactly what this pose is all about, but when I'm working with Elijah I usually just let him stand or sit however he wants to. In this case, he opted for a sort of squatting position with his arms folded across his body. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of the color red. But that's what color Elijah was wearing and I actually really liked it against the bright white snow. I added some vignetting around the edges to give a kind of ultra modern look to the portrait.

Day 193

We're in the midst of a snowstorm at the moment with snow falling from the sky in ridiculously large quantities. I braved these wintery conditions to see if I could get any good shots and the short answer is - no. With the snow falling between the lens and any subjects landscapes were blurry and indiscernible. The thick, even layer of snow covered up most potential macro shots. Finally I discovered this portion of a wooden fence sticking up out of the snow and I thought the pictures ended up looking pretty neat. I used a flash to reveal some of the detail of the already fallen snow, and it picked up on some of the flakes still in the sky which accounts for some of the round lights scattered across the photo. I knew I wanted the photo to be black and white because the flash had given a really yellow tint. I settled on a Holga effect from picmonkey.com because I liked how it really added to the dramatic aspect of the photo.

Day 192

Here in Iowa we get a lot of snow, ice, and cold nasty weather in general. On Friday we got 7 inches of snow, and are supposed to get 6 to 8 more tomorrow. Yay! The only upside to this dreary winter weather is how pretty everything looks covered in snow. The icicles on the buildings here in town are getting really big, and are the subject of today's post. To offset the vertical lines of the many icicles I angled the shot so a portion of this brick wall was also included, with the horizontal lines of the bricks providing a nice contrast. I added a slight dark edge to bring out some of the details in the icicles.

Day 174

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I've been taking some time off from blogging, but I hope to be back to posting regularly next week. Today's photo was taken on Christmas Eve at my Grandpa Tom and Grandma Judy's house. This little tree was the centerpiece on the table I was sitting at, and behind it I could see the fireplace with some stockings and decorations. I tried to enhance the warm, bright, holiday feeling when I was editing by applying the Orton effect from picmonkey.com. I really like the details of the artificial tree's needles and snow, and the homey feel of the brick fireplace with the stocking.

Day 173

This is a shot I took of the path that leads from our rabbit barn to Joy's bee yard. I kneeled in the snow to get this angle so the grass and weeds would look taller and fill more of the frame. In contrast to some of the previous posts, I wanted a little color in this photo, so instead of black and white I opted for the Dusk effect.

Day 172

The snow makes everything look different and more beautiful outside. Here's another black and white winter wonderland, this one of a fence post with a barn in the background.

Day 171

Tomorrow it's actually supposed to get well above the freezing point, so the thick layer of snow seen here will soon be gone. Pine trees are always interesting in the winter because they retain their needles and shape, giving some fun shapes and textures to shoot.

Day 170

It looks like a winter wonderland outside right now, and it's getting colder every day. I do love how the snow looks, but I wish it could be warm at the same time. For this photo of the forest that borders my lane, I liked the black and white effect the really concentrate on the details in this image.

Day 168

Even though it's not technically winter yet (the winter solstice is December 21) it sure is starting to look and feel like winter. Today's photo is a footprint in the new snow that we got this week. I took this in the late afternoon when it was already getting dark, so the snow was a dark blue color. While I liked the light blue hue in yesterday's post, I didn't like how it worked for this particular image. So I applied a black and white effect with dark edges to add some drama to an otherwise simple photo.

Day 167

My dog Lupin is not always the best subject for photos because he is constantly moving. The vision behind this photo was a nice, traditional portrait with him looking at me. That didn't work out so well because he was distracted by something to his right, but I think it still was a pretty good image with colors and texture. When I was editing I thought this photo needed something to make it really stand out. I used a black and white focal effect, so that Lupin and the surrounding area would be in the original color with the snow on the edges of the photo turning grayscale. I also added a thin black frame, as I thought it really gave the photo a finished look and complemented the dramatic lighting going on.

Day 156

Snow on a wooden plank I found outside yesterday morning. I love the contrast between the dark, rough wood and the white, grainy snow.

Day 33

This is a photo of a fence overlooking the river. If you look right under the bridge you can see a crane, I think it's the same one I took a photo of a while ago.

Day 27

Here is yet another winter wonderland. I was hoping the snow would melt so I could take some different photos, but we're supposed to get more tomorrow. I have an idea for tomorrow's post to change things up a little, but we'll have to see if it turns out.