Week 35, Day 252, December 31, 2009, Cardinal

Happy New Year Everybody!!

I've heard so many horror stories about taking cameras out in the cold, it makes me nervous about taking my equipment outside.

So, today I cheated a little.  I took the screen off of our laundry room window, set up my tripod, opened the window, and took photos out my back window.

Lessons Learned:

• This method, I stayed much warmer. (Although I wasn't heating the room at the time.)
• I think it acted as a blind, and the birds didn't pay much attention to me. So, I was able to take several photos of birds.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/320 sec, Aperture f/5.6, ISO 1600, Focal Length 400 mm, Lens Canon 70-200mm f2.8L USM with a Canon EF 2X II Extender (Christmas Gift from my wife.), tripod

Week 35, Day 251, December 30, 2009, Looking South

Today I had the pleasure of visiting a good friends house.  There house is incredible.  Its at the end of a road bordering on a State Forest.  They have 2 ponds, and a beautiful house that they built themselves. 

In this photo we are looking over a bench looking over a firepit, looking over a doc, looking over a pond, that looks to the south.  It's a great pond for swimming, but it would have been a little cold today.

Lessons Learned:

• Snow continues to be difficult to photograph.  I need to continue to work on this.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/80 sec, Aperture f/18.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 28 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod. 

Week 35, Day 250, December 29, 2009, Cob Webs

I tried a couple of times today to take photos out doors.  I don't think it got above 10 degrees, and the photos didn't turn out that well.  I didn't have the fortitude to put up with the cold, and take my time.

So, I returned to the basement.  This is my second shot in the series.  A series on an old stone walled, dirt floor basement wouldn't be complete without a photo of cobwebs.

Lessons Learned:

• Extreme conditions can make photography difficult.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/60 sec, Aperture f/5.0, ISO 400, Focal Length 26 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, hand held. 

Week 35, Day 249, December 28, 2009, A Walk in the Woods on a Snowy Day

This little trail is one of my favorite places.  It's only about a 1/4 mile from my house, and has a wetland on one side (left side of photo), and a amazing rock wall on the right side.  This photo doesn't do the wall justice.  It's about 4 foot wide, and about 6 feet high in places.

I just photographed this yesterday in the fog.  Today there was snow.

Lessons Learned:

• I made a make shift protector for my camera today.  It was snowing very hard, so I put my camera in a ziplock bag, cut a hole for the lens, and used a rubber band to hold the bag on the lens.  It seemed to work very well.
• The snow sticks to the lens very easily.  Luckily I brought along a special cloth so I could wipe the lens.
• When the weather is right, take the photos.  About 30 minutes after taking these photos it stopped snowing.  The snow falling added a nice effect to many of the photos. (Although it's harder to see it in this photo.)

Photo details: Exposure time 1/2 sec, Aperture f/18.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 28 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 35, Day 248, December 27, 2009, Foggy, Icy, Sunday Morning Walk

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to do a series of photos in my cellar.  I've postponed that for another day.  This morning was such an interesting morning, that I had to go outside and take some photographs.  It was a little below freezing, and it rained yesterday.  There ice on many of the trees.  It was also foggy.  A great combination in my mind.

Here is a photo of the back of my neighbors barn, and a rock wall.  There is fog in the background and coming in on the right of the photo.  There is also ice on the branches on the right.  The sun was also starting to burn through the fog, and the ice on the branches is reflecting that light.  Please CLICK ON THE IMAGE for a larger view.

Lessons Learned:

• In the summer time there are many leaves on the trees in this area.  The lack of leaves in the winter allows for some different types of photography.  
• Once again the circular polarizer lens helps with the colors.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/3 sec, Aperture f/14.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 28 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod. 

Week 35, Day 247, December 26, 2009, Tools of the Trade

We live in an old farm house.  It was built in the middle 1800's.  The cellar is stone, and there are some old garden tools, and milk cans.  A great place to take photos.

This is the first in probably a series.  I'm going to try and take different types of photos from the cellar.

Lessons learned:

• I think that the cellar has interesting potential.  It has a dirt floor, interesting walls, lots of spider webs, and old tools.  I think that somehow the places that we don't spend a lot of time are the most interesting to photograph.

Here's a photo challenge.  What strange places do you have where you live?

This Monochrome concept came from Aileni at The Monochrome Weekly

Photo details: Exposure time 10 sec, Aperture f/8.0, ISO 100, Focal Length 23 mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, tripod.

Week 35, Day 246, December 25, 2009, Naughty or Nice?

It was a day full of fun, family, presents, eating, and playing.  There wasn't much time for photography.  I snapped a few photos of the family members as they gathered this morning. 

I hope that your day was filled in the way that you had hoped.

Merry Christmas.

Lessons Learned:

• I played with some lighting to photograph some pottery.  I need to build a cool light box like Gary.  My photos came out horrible. You do a great job with your pottery photos Gary!

Photo details: Exposure time 1/60 sec, Aperture f/1.8, ISO 1600, Focal Length 50 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 82mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, handheld.