Birch Curls Black and White

Yesterday I decided to go for a walk in the woods to get some exercise and to take a few photos. Did I say a "few"? When I was done, I thought maybe I took 100 pictures, but in reality it was over 250. As I got to the edge of the trail into the woods, I noticed that the trail was freshly groomed. In fact the man was still grooming it. That made my trek a little easier. Even in the winter, the birch trees had amazing color and I loved the way the bark curled. The contrast of the shadows of the bark and the white of the trees and the snow, made transferring them into Black and White an easy choice. As color shots they are beautiful, but in Black and White they really come alive and stand out.

This afternoon I made a trip to Hayward to buy some bird seeds. On the way home, I took a side trip to Stone Lake and took a short walk by the lake. At about 3 degrees, it was a short walk. A few pictures were taken of the lake, but I concentrated on a few plants in the snow. The contrast between the white snow and the dark colors of the plants really stands out. There is nothing special about the plants, but they are still great works of art - Not my art - But God's. Isn't it great how God can take the plain and make it beautiful - Just like He does with us. The pictures of the thistles were taken inside the tunnel under the road.

A Walk in the Woods!

This past week, I was having some problems with acid reflux and decided to see if going for a walk in the woods would help. It actually turned out to be the best medicine I could have prescribed for myself.  Of course I took my camera with me, which aided in the remedy. I didn't see any exciting wildlife, so I took pictures of leaves, trees and a few logs. With the contrast of the white snow and the dark color of the woods, I decided to transform them into black and white photos. For sun I took a picture of my own shadow in the snow. What surprised me is how it turned out so sharp in Black and White. I didn't see Big Foot in the woods, but I did find what looked like and "alien log". What do you think? Can you see the horns, the eyes and the mouth? I still praise God that we see things in color, but Black and White does change the character of common objects that we see.

New Life for old cars

A few miles west of Spooner there is place that is a resting place for old cars, trucks and tractors. I think it is called "Rest Home for old Engines". It is a great place to photograph these old relics. It was a little cold, so I did not spend a lot of time there and shot quite a few from the warmth of my car. (Some bold photographer I am!) These old engines may rusty and be useless as machinery, but they came to life as I photographed them. I can almost imagine them driving down the road 50 or 60 years ago or out in a field harvesting a crop. One of the joys of post production in Paint Shop Pro is adding a little color or even adding a little drama to the photo to bring it to life. As God looks at us, what does He see? Are we just some old relics or does He see us through the eyes of the Master Photographer, Jesus Christ. I think His view of us is quite a bit different than we see our selves.  These photos are of just one of the old cars. Does any one know what car this is?

Wrong Turns - Right Turns

It never fails! Every time I go out to take photos of the area, I inevitably take a wrong turn and end up where I was not planning on going. Many times it ends up being a "right turn" instead of a "wrong turn". Today I thought I was going down one road and somehow ended up on Highway 77 east of Minong. This actually turned out to be a very good thing. As I traveled past a lake there in a tree was a lone Eagle, just waiting for me to take his picture. He just sat there for several minutes posing for the camera and then finally flew off. I went down the road a little further and there was another eagle in a tree. For probably 8 or 9 minutes he sat there as I shot him, then he too flew off. I thought that must be the end of it, until I looked back and there in another tree was 2 eagles sitting there. They may have been the same eagles I just shot. It was perfect. the sky was clear and blue for a background and they sat there staring at each other. They must have been a couple, because one of them was hissing and pecking at the other one trying to chide him. It always fascinates me that when I make plans for the day, God has a way of changing them and His way is always better than my own. New Year's Day, my plan was to take it easy and catch up on some office work and go out to take a few pictures. When I went to turn my laptop on, the hard drive was fried, so I ended up making a trip to the Twin Cities to take the laptop to my son, the computer tech, to work on and hopefully fix. Praise God for a son that understands computers. God had a better plan for me that day.