Metaphor for life? I have no idea.
Kind of cool picture? I think so.
Taken on Astotin Lake in Elk Island National Park.
Standing Up Just a Little Straighter
Category: Photo of the Day
Astotin Cattails
I went for a hike on Astotin Lake yesterday. I’ve been to the shore often enough looking out at all those islands, but I’ve never been on the lake. I decided, before it all melts, to walk out and see some islands up close.
I headed out, wondering how far I’d get. The crust on the snow wasn’t thick enough to support me and made it even harder to walk through the thigh-deep snow. I found a few old snowshoe tracks which usually held me up, and got out onto the lake. It turns out that further out onto the lake, it is easy walking. Once away from the shore I was only sinking down a few inches. This was a pleasant treat, and I got to three islands before heading back.
Here are some cattails (Typha latifolia) from the shore of an island in Astotin Lake.
Fireweed
A couple weeks ago I was out at Clifford E Lee Wildlife Sanctuary. It was dreadfully cold and winter depression had set in. I walked around for a while, not really inspired—just trying to soak in enough sun to stay sane. I hardly even looked through my photos when I got back. Today I was going through them and found this:
Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) has provided me with so much color and so many great curvy lines to work with that I feel compelled to do a bit of a tribute to fireweed.
Not Quite Empty
A photo from this week.
Texture Photos
I’ve always taken texture photos. At first my excuse was that the texture would be useable in a design, as I was working as a designer at the time. I kept up this delusion for quite a while, meanwhile never using these photos in a design. Now I have no excuse. I just like taking texture photos. They rarely turn into something I’m happy with, but I take the photo regardless. Maybe it’s finding the pattern—the hunt for it that I enjoy. Maybe it’s finding the randomness in every pattern. I don’t know.
Here’s a rock I found on my hike to the Saskatchewan Glacier. I couldn’t resist the bright orange lines.
Keeping Warm on a Cold March Day
Here’s a warm sunrise from Barbados. I suggest ignoring the frost on your windows and the snowstorm outside, and for just a few short moments drinking in the sunlight streaming through your monitor from this tropical isle.
I was going through some photos from our Barbados trip trying to stay warm and secure in the belief that there is a sun and it is warm.
Ruminations
I’ve enjoyed posting a lot of photos lately, but I’m starting to think the quality is suffering. The nature of every-day posting is that it removes the process of carefully thinking about the photo, the mental processing.
I will continue to post photos, but on a more leisurely schedule. I hope this will make the experience of coming here better for everyone!
One last daily photo—this is from a couple months ago in Cooking Lake Recreation Area.
Small Pool of Water
I love the way frost grows at the edges of open water.
Drawn Back To Ice
OK, I have to post some more from the trip to Abraham Lake. The ice is too cool to keep to myself.
More Highlight Experimentation
Which do YOU like better? I’ve been going back to some of my older photos and trying this blowing-out-the-highlights thing. It’s a little different, and I’m still not completely sure what I think about it. So today I’m going to post two photos—from the same place, same time, and slightly different compositions.
Here’s the new one that I’m still getting used to:
Here’s the old one—this is the way things are usually done for landscape photography. I actually put my camera on my tripod, fully extended the tripod, and held it up as high as I could to get some perspective in this shot.
What do you think?