The Barefoot Photographer & The 365 Project

Beginning Friday, January 1, I will start posting daily photos to my new blog. I hope to post one a day -- sometimes it might be a few days posted at once. But -- I will be taking at least one photo a day.

To make the task a little more fun -- I have decided to give each day of the week a theme. Here are my themes:

• Sunday 'afternoon'
• Monday 'morning'
• 'true colors' Tuesday
• 'what are you drinking?' Wednesday
• Thursday 'threads'
• 'selective focus' Friday
• Saturday 'night'

The photos will be posted on the blog and on my Flickr site. There won't be a lot of explanation -- well maybe sometimes -- just basically the photos!

Top Ten Blog Posts of 2009

Earlier this year I did a post on the top blog posts and found it interesting to see what people read most often. I thought it would be fitting to end 2009 with another collection of the top posts that people read either by clicking on the titles somewhere (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) or by Googling for information and ending up on my blog.

1. Intellectual Property -- Trademark Issue -- seems like this one always pops to the top when there has been an issue. Since it has been coming up more and more lately -- look for more posts coming in 2010 on how to avoid problems and how to deal with it when there is an issue.
2. Biscotti & The Cookbook -- there has been a lot of interest in the cookbook -- Thanks!
3. Feet Photos -- and oldie but a goodie I guess.
4. Making Belt Buckles -- this has been a very popular blog since it was new. I would like to make another buckle -- I guess lots of people are into this.
5. Minimum Focus Distance -- this seems to be a popular topic. This is one of the most important bits of info to have about a camera or a lens. Getting close can sometimes really make a shot -- just don't get too close!
6. What Does Summer Look Like -- I find it interesting that this is in the top ten. It was a fun little post to write.
7. Seeing Is Believing -- I also find it interesting that this one is on the list. Many people still believe if they see a photo -- it is the truth.
8. Call for Entries Nature Undisturbed -- Glad to see the call for entries post is on the list too. I will have more info on the photo show coming in the next week. There will be a big announcement on the judge for the show.
9. Sometimes You Gotta Zoom -- This was another fun post to write -- I am glad to see it getting a lot of hits.
10. I Like Good Bokeh -- and this one -- like I have said -- who doesn't like bokeh? I love it -- I am all about depth of field -- and especially shallow depth of field and getting that really cool bokeh background. Bokeh has fan clubs on Flickr -- look for more posts about this topic.

In fact -- look for more posts about all of these top topics. If people are clicking on certain topics over and over for months, and even years in some cases, I will write more about those points of interest and go into them deeper. I really love having this blog and writing about my photography experiences and inspirations. If you, as a reader, wish to see certain topics covered -- please email me by clicking the link on the blog and let me know. I would love your feedback. If you stumble on the blog and like what you see -- subscribe in a reader, via email, or follow me on Twitter to get the latest info and blog postings.

For 2010, as I have said -- I will revisit popular topics. Also, since I loved the 25 Days of Christmas Challenge so much -- I have committed to the 365 Project on Flickr. I signed on to the Shutter Sisters' group yesterday. Here is hoping I can make it a photo a day for the year! If anyone else is up for the challenge -- sign up! There is still time to get in before Friday.

From the Barefoot Files...

Merry Christmas from 1965 (I am guessing the year -- not 100% sure). Here I am with a doll, almost my size, that would "walk" with me when I held her hand -- or something -- I can't remember. I do remember those footie pajamas.

This is another slide like the photo on the blog last week. Last week I got the digital version of the slide by placing the slide onto a lightbox and shooting a photo of it. This week I projected the slides on the wall and took pictures of the images to get the digital file. It was a very fast way to get through a bunch of them. Editing them is not a big job -- cropping, a little color correction and they are fine.

So Merry Christmas to all of my readers! I hope you have a great day.

Sunrise December 23

I have always gotten up early. When the kids were very small I had to -- and now I have to feed the cat, walk the dog, and photograph the sunrise.

This morning as Sadie and I walked through the neighborhood, the sky was slowly brightening. The colors were so pretty -- pinks, blues, purples, oranges. It was one of those days when I hoped we would get home before the color was past.

I made it to the front porch before most of the color was gone. Last March I posted a photo to the blog from my front porch. This is the same bunch of trees -- just up a little higher. This tree has a lot of mistletoe in it -- the clumps of branches you see are actually the mistletoe growing on the branches.

The photo today is my December 23 photo in my quest to take a photo a day until Christmas. So far I have made it and I am pleased with most of my photos. It is very interesting to look back now at the set I have on Flickr and see that "collage" of days represented that way. Two more days to go!

The Christmas Card

Since I am a photographer -- I like to send photo Christmas cards to friends and family. We have had some interesting ones. Last year I loved the photo on the card. I love Lensbaby and black and white -- it fit very well. It was after I printed all of the photos that I had a better idea for the photo. I post about it last December.

This year I had my photo way back in March. The snow we had on March 1 gave me plenty of photos to choose from. The photo above is the one I settled on. The color version of this photo was almost monochromatic -- there was a bit of dark green showing on the pine needles. I like the movement it suggests. The heaviness of the snow on the branches and flakes still falling made me choose this one. You don't see snow like this often where I live. My friends in Virginia are seeing it now -- and I was there last weekend! Oh what a difference a week can make!

Of course I have used photos of the kids for cards. My kids are kind of grown for the regular kid photo shot. I have one from last year that almost made it to the card. I think it is funny and kind of spoofs on our usual 'in front of the tree' photo. Maybe it will be used next year....

From the Barefoot Files...

A box of slides came home with me this week. Last weekend I was in Virginia visiting my mother and other family. It was an occasion to say the least that I got together with all of my cousins! Being an only child -- my cousins were my siblings. There are five of them. I saw them, one spouse, and some of their kids last Sunday. It was very nice.

In the box of slides was a smaller box. Written on the outside of the box was "week before Christmas 1957." This is a photo of one of the slides. My grandmother is in the middle, my aunt to the left, and my mother on the right. I remember that Santa on the side table. I remember that fabric on the couch.

I have a slide scanner and I have used it a little. I am not fond of it -- but I will have to learn to like it since I have quite a few slides, and some old negatives, that I would like to digitize. The way I got this photo was by placing the slide on a light box and taking a photo of the illuminated slide.

So, since this was the week before Christmas 1957 -- I thought it would be good to have it up the week before Christmas 2009.

Sunken Road

I have been out of town for a few days. My hometown (so to speak) is Fredericksburg, Virginia. Actually I am from Stafford County -- but very close to the city. When anyone asks where I am from, I always answer Fredericksburg. Most people are familiar with Fredericksburg -- thanks a lot to Ken Burns and his excellent Civil War series on PBS. Fredericksburg and the surrounding area was the scene of some of the most intense fighting during the Civil War.

This house that still stands as it did during all of the fighting is known as Innis House. The house was terribly damaged by all of the fire around it. The exterior was repaired -- but one of the interior walls was left to show the intensity of the battle.

The Battle of Fredericksburg was a big one and took the lives of many Union soldiers. Sunken Road was the scene of the massacre. These photos on the blog today are from Sunken Road. They were taken on December 14 -- 147 years and one day after the bloody Battle of Fredericksburg. The day of the battle began as a foggy day -- just like the day I was there.

The park ranger I spoke with told me that they call this cat Kirkland. The cat is looking in the direction of a statue erected to commemorate the actions of Richard Rowland Kirkland. It is on the left behind the row of boxwoods, barely visible against the treeline. Kirkland, a South Carolina soldier, risked his life to take water and comfort the suffering, wounded Union soldiers as they lay dying. Kirkland was killed in battle in 1863. Kirkland the cat is sitting on the only original part of the rock wall left -- the other sections along Sunken Road have been reconstructed.

I have driven down Sunken Road often -- and I always would think about what had happened there. The park service has turned this part of town into a walking tour now -- no driving through. I have an old photo I took the last time I drove there (when it was still a city street). I need to find it.

Seeing is Believing?

A few days ago I tweeted a quote by Ansel Adams: "Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe photographs." As soon as I tweeted -- a fellow photographer on Twitter responded with "interesting, since photos are not truth." And that is it exactly. A photograph proves nothing -- things can be manipulated, cloned, changed.

A day or so after my Twitter experience, I picked up a popular magazine and while waiting for my daughter to get out of a class. On page 147 of the December issue of Better Homes and Gardens was more proof of photos being altered to try to fool you. It is an Elizabeth Arden ad featuring a very youthful Catherine Zeta-Jones. So youthful -- I would not have known it was her unless her name was there in the ad. I laughed out loud to realize that they put her name there to make sure you knew it was her -- the photo is so altered! Funnier yet -- and again causing me to chuckle -- the tagline in the ad is "Seeing is Believing." I am seeing your ad -- but I am not believing a bit of it. The photo is so manipulated it looks like a mannequin's face -- more like digital art than a photograph.

There have been times in fashion magazines that I could find a model in two different ads in the issue. Once instance that comes to mind is Andie MacDowell in a couple ads for L'Oreal. Let's just say -- I think she is very pretty (as is Ms. Zeta-Jones) and really does not need any Photoshopping to look pretty. The ads I am remembering appeared in an issue of Vogue. One ad, for hair color, featured her beautiful hair (and a few crow's feet). The other ad for skin cream still had the hair looking so beautiful -- but the crow's feet were gone -- her whole face looked much more youthful -- and all in just a few turns of the pages!

Photoshopping and photo manipulation is nothing new. What people do with photoshop now has been done in darkrooms before to tweak photos. Beyond tweaking the photo to change the look and what you see -- photos have been set up since the beginning. Photographs by Matthew Brady, famed photographer of the Civil War, have been thought to be set up. Bodies moved to create better composition or to convey what the photographer wanted rather than just capture the scene as it was found. Brady was also not thought to be the photographer of many of the battlefield scenes since he had issues with dead bodies. His assistants took many photos for him -- but all photos were tagged as taken by Brady. I am not knocking Matthew Brady at all -- his work is an important part of history. But it should be looked at for what it is -- the view of someone else. Without actually being there -- you take get their vision -- so remember it is someone else's view. Setting up what is in the frame is one thing -- but also what you leave out of the frame is sometimes as important as what you choose to include.

Ralph Lauren recently was in a mess about Photoshopping a model to unreal thinness. Actually I think there are two photos out on the internet showing freakishly thin models in Ralph's duds. OK, I like Ralph Lauren clothing and shoes. And I am only pointing out about Ralph (and Elizabeth Arden) since these are two readily available examples to me. This Photoshopping goes on ALL the time in ads and especially with fashion. Does anyone believe that model is that thin? I guess we could get into the whole body image thing -- and it is wrong to promote waifishness -- and who really thinks those two photos are attractive? To see the gray ensemble and the plaid shirt with jeans ad -- simply Google "ralph lauren photoshop model."

Whether manipulating the scene to set up the photo, frame your viewpoint, or manipulating the photo after -- can you trust a photo as truth? I don't. I know what little bit I can do well with photo editing software and I know there are those out there better at it than I am. My focus is the photo -- I choose to create the best image I can with the camera. As I have said before, I would rather spend time with my camera than my computer.

Oh -- and the name of the product in the Arden ad -- "Visible Difference."

From the Barefoot Files...

Another family birthday -- my mother. Here is a photo of my mother with (I believe this dog's name is right) Teddie. Teddie looks a lot like a dog that was around my grandmother's house when I was little -- that one was Queenie and she bit me once -- but that is another story...

My mother's birthday is tomorrow. My daughter and I have been traveling to see her on her birthday for the past few years. It is a nice time to travel and visit -- in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is snow in this picture and I am wondering if we will see any snow while we are there?

We will be taking cookbooks to Virginia. Some of my mother's friends want a copy. My mother has a lot of recipes in the book -- and there are a lot of photos of her in there as well.

Before she retired -- my mother was a curator at the Marine Corps Museum. When my kids were little -- especially my son -- it was a fun visit for him to get to go to the museum and let Nana show him all of the displays.

Painting

I like to paint. I have not painted anything for a while -- been busy and not really had a good idea. Well, that is not really true -- I have had ideas that come and go -- but no real time to work them out.

This is the last thing I finished. I have had a love/hate relationship with this canvas. It has been about 4 different paintings before I settled on this, reluctantly. I did not really like it -- but I sort of liked it.

The painting has been leaning against the wall in the powder room for a few months while I decided if I was going to exercise the demons of the cursed canvas and take a knife to it -- or if it would grow on me. This morning it grew. I walked into the room to grab a tissue and looked at the thing one more time and saw it.

The Man in the Moon.

Immediately I loved the painting and was glad I had not knifed the man in the moon before I saw him.

25 Days of Christmas

Social networking is interesting. Since I became active on Twitter I have met some very nice photographers that I probably would not have known otherwise. One of them is Rhonda Holcomb. Rhonda takes awesome photos -- many of birds. I love seeing her photos. Getting to know Rhonda brought me to the group (she invited me) on Flickr; "25 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge."

I don't participate in a lot of Flickr groups. Frankly I just don't have time. And really, at the holidays -- I don't have time for this. But you know it is all about finding or making the time. From that old blog I "found" time to walk a dog every day and it has really paid off for me in getting a little more in shape. I am working on finding the time to take a Christmas photo every day to add to this group -- and it is paying off in getting me to really think about the images.

The Christmas challenge has given me a great idea for one in 2010 that the photo club can do to really get us thinking -- and at a time that is kind full of the winter blahs. In the meantime I used a different method getting the photo to the blog. I don't know if I will do this again -- but I sent it from Flickr. This is my entry in the challenge for today -- a heavily manipulated angel image. This looks like a card for next year to me. Follow this link to keep up with my challenge photos. If I don't post one for a couple days -- don't worry -- I will catch them up!

Dec 6
Originally uploaded by TheBarefootPhotographer

From the Barefoot Files...

We have been having a little cold weather, rain, damp, possible frozen stuff -- so I thought why not take a trip to the tropics?

Going through my granddaddy's photos I found this picture of Diamond Head.

In 1991, I took this photo (below) of Diamond Head from a hotel balcony.

In 2007, I painted this from my photo. The canvas is 30x40 and this painting sits on my mantel. You can see it in the blog From Where I Sit...My Home Office.

It is nice to think about Hawaii on a day when I hear a snow prediction on the radio!

Biscotti & The Cookbook

This morning my house smells wonderful. I toasted almonds while preheating the oven for biscotti. The smell of the toasted almonds was very nice -- especially on this very wet and chilly day. Earlier this morning I sat out the stick of butter. Mixing it with the sugar and eggs was easy after it had time to soften. Adding in the orange juice, espresso powder, and cinnamon smelled great too.

While the biscotti was baking I made a cup of coffee with my Tassimo. The scent of the coffee mixed with the biscotti baking and the lingering smell of the toasted almonds. Well -- add in the iPod playing 'Christmas with the Rat Pack' -- the kitchen was warm and cozy on this dreary December morning.

I am baking the biscotti to have on hand this weekend. Finally after many edits, redits, checks, rechecks -- the cookbook is printed and ready. This is just in time for the arts & crafts fair at St. Andrews in the Pines this Saturday. The books, as well as prints and notecards, will be available for purchase this Saturday. In addition to having the delicious cappuccino biscotti for sampling, I am planning on baking some chocolate crinkles Friday morning. Both of these recipes are in the book.

I am very pleased with how it came out. There are 388 time-tested, family recipes in this book. The recipes range from soups & salads to pickles & nuts, appetizers to pies, cakes, and more. The main dishes are some that have been prepared over and over on request. The famous pound cake recipe from my husband's grandmother joins my grandmother's baked beans. The cookbook is printed on premium paper, 8.5x11 size. The binding is plastic coil. Scattered throughout the book are vintage family photos and stories -- stories about many of the people who have recipes in this book. Also in this book is the award winning photo, Fork #1.

The book is available in print softcover copy for $20, add $5 for shipping and handling. It is also available in electronic format (pdf) for $7.95. The book along with notecards and prints can be purchased at my new Etsy shop or you can email me.

The Christmas Tree & The Kodak

Our Christmas Tree is decorated with family photos. Photos of my great great grandparents and my husband's all the way up through to my children with their cousins. There are photos of old homeplaces that no longer exist. There are photos of family reunions. I have an extensive collection of old family photos. And I bought tons of small photo frames at local stores. I printed the photos to fit the framed I had and then hot glued a ribbon hanger. A couple years ago I created a listing of the photos -- a number on the back corresponds with a number on the list. The list tells everything I know about the photo -- who, where, what, when, etc. Some of them all I know is who. Every year I add a couple photos to the tree. So far this year I haven't printed any to add -- but I have a couple in mind.

I am writing this post for two reasons -- to share the idea of the tree and to talk about my new toy, the Kodak Zi8. Beginning today there is a new rule about blogs and products. Let me just say right now -- Kodak did not give this camcorder to me (how nice if they had!). Since I bought it -- I have sold two for them. When people see it -- see the quality of video, ease of use, etc. -- they want it. The video looks a little jerky (that's me) and a little pixely (I think that is the upload). The picture quality is really great. It takes video in 1080p and 720p.

Cemetery Sunday

Yesterday I spent sunrise in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Newnan. I have driven past the entrance many times -- always thinking that I would like to go in and look around. I have set aside two mornings to do this. This shot was from the first visit.

Late in November there were still quite a few leaves left on the oak trees that line the entrance road. The color of the leaves was nice in the early morning light. I also liked the color of the tombstones and bit of moss growing on them. The leading line of the plot edge, street, row of stones, and two trees in the distance works for me. I even like the small collection of leaves just inside the plot edging -- three small piles in a row. The photo worked well for me in color.

But then I had to give it a try in black and white...

Using Silver Efex I converted the tweaked color image to black and white. I like to use the best color version of an image to convert to black and white. I selected Kodak TMax 100 film for the look and then used a red filter to give the leaves on the trees an interesting look. The contrast was pushed slightly and structure was pushed a little farther than usual. I like how really pushing up the structure slider and using the filter gives this photo almost the look of frost on the ground and the stonework.

Same photo -- two very different looks.

From the Barefoot Files...

This past week was another family birthday -- my Uncle George. The photo today is a picture of him in his Army uniform standing between his parents, my grandparents. They have been featured in past posts -- Grandma Mildred and George King. I am wondering if my father took this photo. He was probably there -- but he is not in the picture.

Uncle George has always liked cars. He knows a lot about them. On one of the previous blogs I thought a picture of my great Uncle Walter was of him in front of his car -- nope. The car in the photo belonged to my Uncle George.

When I was little I used to call my uncle "Frog." This was because of a story my grandmother told me. She told me that when my uncle was little he liked frogs and would chase them around.

Gather Together, Take Photos

Happy Thanksgiving to all readers! It is hard to believe that it is Thanksgiving already -- soon December, Christmas, and 2010! Where did 2009 go?

Two years ago on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I posted a blog with a couple recipes. As I type this post -- I have that same pound cake in the oven (well not the same cake -- but the same recipe). It is a great cake and one that we have at many family holiday events. It was my father-in-law's favorite. I am thinking we will have ours with vanilla ice cream and fried apples & cranberries. I love fried apples and this time of year it is wonderful to mix in fresh cranberries.

The cookbook is at my printer and will be ready for purchase by December 5.

As you get together with family and friends -- get out the cameras and take plenty of photos. Watch your backgrounds -- busy backgrounds steal the show from your subject. If you have subjects prone to red eye -- and yes some people are more prone than others -- here are a few tips.

• use your red eye reduction feature on your camera
• turn on more lights in a room
• if you can, bounce your flash off of the ceiling rather than pointing it directly at the subject
• have your subject not look directly at the flash/camera
• you, the photographer, stand near a light source

Red eye is caused by the dilated pupil. The more ambient light or having the subject look at a light source can contract the pupil and minimize the chance. If this is not possible -- redirecting the flash or having the subject not look directly at the flash can also be a remedy.

Red eye is common. White eye is not. Anytime you get a white reflection instead of red, you need to have a doctor check out that subject.

From the Barefoot Files...

Digging through the many photos I have of my grandfather and taken by him -- I am finding so many that I really love. This is one. The only information I had with this is that it said "Puerto Rico." No year guess.

There is not a lot to say about these photos without know the background. They are interesting to see. You have a young man from the mountains of Virginia seeing the world.

Finding the Time...

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

-- Shakespeare

Two of the toughest things I have to tell someone taking a class from me is #1 -- read your manual and #2 make time to practice photography. No one likes to read a manual -- even me. But the way cameras are set up -- you need to read all of what that most excellent tool can do in your hands. Some of the best features on a pocket camera are hidden on menus; you can reach only by pushing certain buttons. So it is best to just accept that you need to read -- but do like I do -- look up in the index what you need to know at the moment and just read that part. If you read it cover to cover -- you will still have to go back and look things up when the moment arrives.

OK -- now beyond reading a manual -- you need to set aside time to practice and get to know your camera. This is really where I lose people. 'Set aside time? I don't have any time for what I do now.' I know -- I feel that way too.

I have the most excellent elliptical machine setting in my bedroom. I used to use it a lot and then I kind of fell off the wagon. Time -- I needed time to get on it. All I wanted was 30 to 45 minutes a day. But I had no time. Enter Sadie and now I make time -- to walk the dog. We walk about 30 minutes in the morning and about 40 minutes in the evening. So I did not find 30 to 45 minutes extra a day -- I found over an hour! It is a great way to spend some time -- I like it, Sadie likes it, and I have lost over 10 pounds since May.

Learning to use a camera and learning to take better photos is no different than if you were learning any other new activity. If you woke up one day and decided you wanted to play guitar, you would need lessons and practice. You could not expect to pick up the guitar and play a perfect tune -- it takes practice.

I am experiencing this first had with my attempt at life drawing. Monday nights I go to a life drawing group. There is a live model striking poses and we sketch. I take along my camera to record the pose. As I am sketching I think -- OK -- this is not too bad and tomorrow or later this week I need to get out the photo and sketch and work on it a little more. I have been going to this class since September and have yet to find the time later in the week to rework a sketch. To check out the artwork from the group leader visit Studiowasteland. I have about three sketches from this class that I like and one I am thinking about for an abstract type of painting soon.

Many people begin a project to give themselves a push to keep to a practice schedule. There are a lot of 365 projects -- meaning a photo a day. One of my friends paints very well and takes awesome photos. He started a photo blog (he already had a blog for his painting). This is really committing to the task and daily exercise. The more you shoot -- the better you get.

Blogging is fun and a great way to spend a little time per week. Some people say that they don't have the time to blog. At the end of 2008 I made a commitment to myself that I would post more blogs in 2009 -- and I have. I also feel that I have improved at blogging.

I think about that time I spend walking the dog and wonder -- what did I do with that block of time before? I thought I did not have 45 minutes to spare -- but obviously I did. I am sure I have more time that could be spent productively. But -- we all need a little veg time. So I don't push it too much. If it ever gets to be like work -- half of the fun is gone.

"Time is on my side, yes it is."

-- The Rolling Stones

A Bat in the Bookstore

It isn't everyday that your teenager agrees to dress up in her bat costume from second grade (in public.) Yesterday my high school senior dressed as Stellaluna to read at our local Barnes & Noble during her school's book fair event. Stellaluna was her favorite book as a child. I made this costume for her one year for fun. In the second grade she wanted to wear it to school one day. I checked with the teacher to see if it would be OK. The teacher was fine with it -- and after she saw it -- she told me if we ever decided we did not want it any longer -- she would love to have the costume for her classroom. I think that was the last time it was worn in public -- until yesterday.

I took a few photos of her and played around with them this morning. I was looking for an interesting effect in the Color Efex plug in. This is solarization -- and tweaking the sliders gave me a look that I liked.

Photos like the one of my daughter remind me that not every photo we take is a super artistic shot. As photographers we are also documenting our lives and the life of our family. We take photos to remember an event as much as we take them for the beauty of the photo. The old photos I have that belonged to my grandfather are wonderful to see for the content as well as the art of some of them.

Just the other day I mentioned on Facebook that Sadie was wearing a new sweater on our early morning walk. A few of my Facebook friends asked for a photo. Of course I had to take one. This photo of Sadie will never make it into a contest and normally would not make it on the blog -- except to show that sometimes a photo is just for fun.

From the Barefoot Files...

Since this past Wednesday was Veteran's Day and Tuesday was the Marine Corps birthday I could not think of a better photo to have on the blog than this one of my granddaddy. Last May I wrote about him on the blog. I have written about him a number of times; about his garden, finding arrowheads, about fishing, about walking through the woods with him as a child.

My grandfather enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1922. He continued active service through the late 50's and then civil service into the 70's. I have many photos from his early years in the Marine Corps. He was a good photographer and documented a lot with his camera. I have his camera -- a Kodak Hawkeye -- and his light meter on my desk.

Sams Lake Sanctuary

Yesterday morning I spent some time at Sams Lake Sanctuary. This property is close to my house and one of the properties owned and managed by Southern Conservation Trust. Their website has maps of the properties they manage and directions to them.

I had an event scheduled by the SCT -- to be on hand and invite anyone interested to come out to photograph early morning at the lake. Since we are now back on standard time -- I arrived at 6:30am to be there as the sun come up. When I first arrived in the parking lot -- it was still pretty dark. I could see quite a bit of mist rising from the water. Another member of the photo club showed up at about the same time. We walked out near the water to look around and take a few shots of the early morning.

For future reference, I timed sunrise to when the sun rose above the tree line. When the sun comes above the trees at the main lake area -- the light goes from great to very harsh. I took about 35 minutes after sunrise for that to happen. Now I know if I want to get over there early -- what my timeline is. On many mornings while I am walking Sadie I look at the sky and think that the colors are great and I should hurry over to the lake for some photos.

I really like these two photos. At first I did not know there were any geese around -- the mist was heavy and it was dark. As it become brighter, some of the geese took flight. The beaver lodge is also a great focal point for photos.

It can be a little wet and marshy around the lake area. I have a great pair of boots -- I call them my "Target Wellies." Sometimes I wish I had waders like my granddaddy wore when he would go fishing. Thank goodness I wore them yesterday -- I walked through a small streamlet to get to another area of the wetland. Also I stood in the water at the edge of the lake. My feet were dry -- but I could feel how cold the water was through the boots. It was cold. I dressed warmly wearing a turtleneck under a thick woolly sweater. To have my hands free and not to have to haul a bag -- I packed the pockets of my vest (that great Safari vest from Cabela's) with the gear I needed. To help keep my hands warm I wore the winter golf gloves. They kept my hands warm -- except for my pinkies -- they got so cold!

Sams Lake Sanctuary is part of the site specific category for Nature Undisturbed. The call for entries for this show ends January 30, 2010. Check out the website (or the link on this blog page) for details on the show and to print an application. If anyone reading has any question about the show, please feel free to email me.