Hang in There

 

It's interesting how some images evolve.  In recent months I have spent more time down Marchand Road as it has become my new favourite area to do photography. The white poplar in this area have always drawn me in and I have photographed them with different lenses, different points of view, different weather conditions, different times of the day and I've taken some okay images but not quite what I want or was seeing.  I find that I learn from past images that don't quite work out. I often learn while I'm editing an image and the lessons happen by accident.  I may zoom in on an area to see if there is a dust spot or if it's in focus and in the process find what I really was looking at and what's drawing me in.  That's what happened here.  As I was standing in the middle of this quiet country road I was recalling what I was looking for.  A nice tight, close shot of all the branches reaching out and tree trunks with all their black spots all blended in together, looking like an abstract painting.  I pulled out my Nikon D90 with a Nikon 70-300mm lens along with my tripod.  This big clunker will tighten things up nicely. I took about dozen different shots.  When I had exhausted everything I could think of I went back to the car, packed up my camera and tripod and went to my next stop.  A few days later when editing this photo I noticed the bright orange leaf hanging on for dear life on the top right side.  I hadn't seen it while I was there but now while editing I zoomed in to see if things were in focus and there it was.  It totally made this image work for me, I love it!

A Sunday Afternoon Drive

A Sunday afternoon and I was having one of those strange head spaces.  It had been about a year or so since I was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis and this was one of its side effects.  They are difficult to describe so I'm not going to try.  I do know that I sometimes will feel antsy and such was the case on this particular day.  I asked my wife, Julie if she would like to go for a drive with me in the country and she said yes.  So I got my camera gear ready and we headed to the car.  I asked her if she could drive as it had been a month or so since I got my drivers back and I didn't trust myself behind the wheel at this time.  Julie suggested we pop by Coffee Culture and get a coffee so that's what we did.  After getting our coffees we drove west and I noticed beautiful clouds coming in.  We went through Mitchell and I suggested we head north as I remembered an area I used to photograph a lot.  There was a cool wood bridge there with a creek running under it as well as a tree with a lot of character in the field nearby.  As we approached the area I was immediately drawn to the tree so grabbed my tripod, Nikon D90 camera with my wide angle Sigma 10-18mm lens on it.  Looking the area over I loved how the low sun was lighting up the tree and the amazing clouds all around it.  I knew I didn't want to get the road or my own shadow in the image, so that would take some figuring.  The sun was behind me and was casting a long shadow, so I tried a few different points of view before I came up with something that I liked.  The clouds were going to be critical in this shot and I was liking what I was seeing on the back of my camera.  After a few different exposures and slightly different angles I packed up and caught up with Julie who was in the ditch picking up garbage as she is prone to do.  I felt I had what I wanted so we headed back to the car and slowly made our way home.  As we got home I realized that I was feeling much better, just getting out and being creative had helped a lot.  Thank you Julie,

 for your patience and understanding.