Project 365 week 20

An early morning drive down the road beacame a visit to a winter wonderland. The snow covered branches were really cool in the morning light. (before the sun had a chance to rise high enough in the sky to melt all the snow) It never ceases to amaze me just how quickly the world around us changes. I drove this road around 7:30 am and then went to the store for less than an hour. By the time I returned on the same route the branches were completely bare and not nearly as pretty

There is a house near my daughter's school that has some very interesting lines and colors. Sometimes in the summer it is not unusual to see painters setting up their easels to recreate the home in watercolors. It was a busy time of day so unfortunately I was unable to get a parking place near the home, so I had to stop in the middle of a down town street to grab this quick photo. I will revisit this location in the spring when the snow plows have not blocked all the on street parking and try to get a better representation of this remarkable home.

Nothing says PA like a barn painted with the Mail Pouch Tobacco sign. It is often faded and sometimes repainted three and four times (each time the prior painting showing through) You see them everywhere. It is even quite the joke for someone to imitate this on their barn shaped shed. I wanted to capture one of these barns before they were no longer around. The elements are not normally kind to exterior paint and every year it is harder to find one in good condition.

Yes, some may say it is a broken down piece of junk. But I say they make really nice photos. I love taking pictures of the old vehicles. Relics of another era. This is a common sight in my area so fortunately for me I always have an abundance of subjects. All though the neighbors are probably not thrilled by the effects on their propery values when there are multiple such yard decorations.

A good hard rain on top of a half a foot of snow always means a whole lot of little waterfalls where there would normally be just a trickle of water. One such spot close to home is at the bottom of a big hill that has no winter maintainence on the road. Locking in the 4 wheel drive and crawling down the hill of mud and ice, I was luckily able to stop relatively close to my subject. I did not really want to clean a whole bunch of mud off of my tripod legs, but I did want to use a slower shutter then I could use hand holding the camera. That is when my awesome parking job came into good use. Opening the car door gave me enough of an angle and just enough stability to rest the camera on to pull off this shot of the water. I like to use the longer shutter speed because it give the soft effect rather than the individual droplets. All in all it is personal preference... but I lean towards the "cotton candy" effect while my daughter likes the stop action edgey look.

The golf course near our home has several ponds and there is one with this nice little golf cart bridge. It does not normally look like much but with the snow and the sepia tint, I thought it made a fairly good photo of the day. Lots of water around right now... which is good since I am fond of water photos. :)

Driving down the road last night in the last few minutes of daylight I happened to catch the sight of a mini waterfall coming out from under neath a tree. It was set kind of back off the road and this was the first time I had ever noticed it. So today I was determined to find it again and see if it was infact photo worthy. It took a while to find it, and then took a bit more to find a safe place to pull off. It is definitely a cool thing to see the water coming out under the tree in the day time and it is a wonder I have never noticed it before. I have been on this road at least 2 or 3 times week for 11 years. This project has opened my eyes looking for the next photo oppurtunity and I definitely have started to notice more and even see things in a different way.

Another week under my belt and I am gaining on my goal of catching up with my hub. Today was day 156 - so I am only a couple weeks behind at this point. Yeah!!! I hope you enjoy the journey as I am and read some of the other hubs in this series.

until next time...

"May you always have a seashell in your pocket and sand between your toes"