Long Ice

When is was a young boy, I remember seeing long heavy icicles on most homes. They would first appear in November (Michigan’s Copper Country) and grow with each passing COLD month. Many of the most noteworthy icicles would grow in length and eventually reach the ground. The size at the roof line was at times the width of a grown man.

Here are a few smaller, but still lovely examples that the current cold spell has grown on my roof.

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The time of day was early morning, just as the sun was coming up.

Camera is a Canon 40D with a Sigma 18-200 lens.

Stay indoors and enjoy the winter

Winter can be enjoyed from indoors if you just look out the windows. We had just received about 10 inches of show and the sun was making a neat pattern on the wall through the blinds.

A variation of this could be either of these two images:

Again, you got to love that Lightroom.

Now to the subject I started on – the snow.

That old willow was planted be the original owner of our home in about 1945 or 1946. It is a shadow of its former self. The wind and insects have given it a tree ‘monster’ look. I like this look also.

This shot shows the look of an evergreen with a cover of snow:

Finally icicles remind me of you boyhood memories of winters in the UP of Michigan.

Love that winter, but from the inside looking out.

Dark winter day can be lightened up

The great and wonderful thing about digital photography is you have the ability to shoot on a dark winter day and produce some very light and bright shots.

Here are some examples. The photos were taken in Dearborn, MI today at about noon. The camera is a Canon 20D with a Canon 28-135 IS lens. The post processing was done in LIghtroom 2.0 and a faux HDR (high dynamic range) preset was applied.

   One of the Ford Motor Co. office buildings at the Fairlane Town Center.

The same building from another angle and a different process applied.

 Ford Motor Co. world headquarters.

The same building with a different effect applied.

Presets are a starting point for much of my post processing. After the preset is applied, I adjust other settings to give me a finished photo. If you have not tried LIghtroom and you do a lot of shooting, it might be the answer to your digital post processing.

Happy New Year

I wish all who read this a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. I intent to keep busy with photography and volunteering.

The photos for the last of the old year are as follows:

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The tree trunk had such character and attitude. It was as if the bark called me over and said capture me and show me off.

The ornate iron on the fence had elements that worked together to form the whole.

The fake cupcakes could have been in a bakery window, but were in a gallery store front.