30 Jan 13. I was mortified this evening when a good friend commented on the tire tracks in yesterday's image that I had totally missed, not only when I shot the image, but while I was processing it and during my sending it out, so we'll shift gears and go somewhere else while I review all those images taken on that trip to make certain I didn't overlook even more. Just down the road in front of our property about 1/2 of a mile is a small farm, The Broken Earth Farm, that grows organic farm crops ( as opposed to synthetic ones I guess ) and has a few old farm implements either "decorating" the area or simply left there when they were no longer of use. Among them is an old stove, or at least portions of an old stove. It is in very bad shape, what there is of it, but beautifully rusted; it was the rust that initially caught my eye. I tried several different approaches to capturing it but only one angle worked, and that is what I'm sharing here. I've shot it very tight, and were it not for a couple of handles lying at the bottom corner, it is unlikely that it could be identified as a stove. I've exaggerated the texture of the rust to bring out its beautiful colors, and cropped out some distractions at the top, but other than that it is straight out of the camera. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 7.1 with fill flash.
31 Jan 13. Not seeing any eagles (more a testament to my vision than the supply) at the Rockport viewing area, I spent a few minutes photographing a very small stream that was splashing over a few rocks and branches. The branches were being nicely coated with creamy ice, while the water hurried its way towards the river below. I wanted to try something a little different, showing the water as a cottony flow over the rocks while stopping the splashes in mid stream, two things, that when you think about it, should be mutually exclusive. After a few attempts at different shutter speed/aperture combinations, I came up with what I'm sharing today. Not perfect, and I don't think a single exposure can be, which this is, although I think it quite possible by stacking two or more images, I have the water smoothly flowing over the rocks while the splashing water in the middle should appear to be stopped in its flow. The trick is in the write up. Take a gander and see if you visualize it the same way. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f / 9 with fill flash.
