"No Winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn"
Hal Borland
An early winter thaw has given rise to bare roof lines and rich black earth peeking through the thin blankets of snow that have survived a week of warming temps. The downside to this energetic weather is that things look pretty dead and ugly while we all wait for the first green sprig to push from the earth. It is nice, however, to be relieved of the piles of snow that have surrounded our house and to see our roof again...meaning I can quit worrying about the strength of our rafters.
The blog image today is from a hill top farm near the small town of Peterson, Iowa, and was one of the final captures of a long day of searching with my friend Mike Houge (check out his newest work at www.mikehouge.typepad.com ). The scene had changed by the time the truck had stopped and we had set up for the shot since the setting sun found a mass of clouds to hide behind. What I liked about the shot was the long leading fence line with an old faded barn at the end and the slight bit of magenta color that was bleeding from the sunset. I processed the image in Photoshop CS5 with Nik HDR Efex software, dropped in a Fly Paper texture for the sky (painted it out of the foreground and barn area), tweaked the contrast, lightened areas of the fence line snow drifts and the barn and that was it. I found that the Fly Paper texture really helped add some interest to the sky area, which needed some help, yet still retained a bit of the magenta lighting of the original capture.
Waiting for Spring is going to be a struggle since I've scheduled 3 days to photograph Sandhill Cranes at the Rowe Sanctuary, an Audubon Society facility, near Kearney, Nebraska (http://www.rowesanctuary.org/). It's a great opportunity since the sanctuary has built blinds along the Platte River that photographers can rent for their own photo experience. Most of the time the birds are within 30 yards of the blind and give the photographer great shot selections of incoming and outgoing birds in flight. The main requirement, besides the fee, is that the occupant of a blind is taken to the blind at 4pm and must stay in the blind until pick up the following morning. A warm sleeping bag is a must, but snoozing among the cranes is pretty fantastic. The cranes are only in the Kearney area for about a month, so blind time is at a premium. The Rowe also has other viewing opportunities for those that are passing through.
Thanks to all that stop by to visit my blog and happy shooting.
My new book "Places I've Been, Things I've Seen" can be purchased online at-
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1868649
For more views of my work visit;
"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa http://www.apieceofworkinc.com
Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota www.lanesboroarts.org
BetterPhoto.com http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1