Week Three - 2015 in Images

Day 15
In the midst of January thaw

January thaw is on. Or still was this last week. Note the absence of a snow cap on the mountain. It made the weather great for getting out with the camera. I was really on a trek to find ice to capture when I took this photo. Coyote Creek is nearby this area which stood in for Montana during the filming of Lonesome Dove.

Day 16
Suspended in time

This melting ranch house from the early settlement days in Black Lake has been slowly melting into the field. The outhouse, however, seems to be doing quite well. If you look closely hidden in the tree line are the newer homes.

Day 17
The old root cellar

No snow this last week but a freezing fog. It creates a fairly land frost on objects and the picture above was really about the Ponderosa pine and the frost on the long needles. I didn't even get out of the car for this photo. Just rolled down the window. Not lazy but wanted the extra height the pick up gave me to zero in on the pine needles. Sometimes you can get so focused in on one object you miss what is in the background until you are home and the photos are on the computer. The post processing era says we can crop or clone out anything not wanted, but in this photo nothing was not wanted.

Day 18

This picture was about the condensation on the inside of the green house. I loved the pattern it created. The geranium is just foreground interest. Not everyone is totally into abstract textures and patterns. I reduced saturation on this photograph so the bright pink flowers did not distract from my precious patterns of condensation.

Day 19

Day 19 is another frost photograph. But I was also very much attracted to the pattern of melting snow. This little valley collects snow and so the January thaw does not hit it as hard. But the edges are melting around the pond and the streams which pass into it. It was a nice background to the frosted aspens.

Day 20

Frozen fog seems to just kiss certain branches. I was drawn to squat down and photograph this isolated low fir tree branch. No other part of the tree was so blessed. And I loved the contrast with it and the old trunk. Only processing was to use a vignette focus to highlight the center of the composition.

Day 21
Search for the creative SLR Selfie

When I encounter a reflective surface I must photograph it. I am still in search of the ultimate creative selfie using an SLR camera but I also greatly love reflections found in ponds and mirrors and glass usually without me in it. With this one I was actually looking to get the forest reflection in these windows. There is a triangulation formula I am told. But when I am out with my camera I am totally in my right brain. One of the reasons I do not make a great technical photographer. You will not find me out on a cold night doing star tracks across the sky with an app on my smart phone.

This photograph which captured me and not the forest could be called a failure. I think I needed to be on the frozen pond to get the angle I wanted. But do you see the ghost to my right?