Day 38...Portrait of a Horse

PORTRAIT OF A HORSE

Photos of animal is not my strong point.   I don't do it often.  But I find horses to be so beautiful and when I visited Bunker Stables, they were out in the field grazing all together.  This beauty came over to see what I was up to, so I got a great shot of her checking me out.  

The winter didn't seem to bother any of the horses.  I'm frankly over frozen.  

Hopefull I have time this weekend to go out of my comfort zone even more and capture something  beautiful yet out of the ordinary.

Day 37...Sleepy City

SLEEPY CITY

Driving home from work...LATE.  I've seen this skyline so many times driving down the road, but never figured how I was going to shoot it, and I'm always in a hurry to get home.  But today, I just decided to go for it and stop even though I was late getting home.  

It's not REALLY the shot I wanted.  Right before I got to this location, the sun was setting behind the city and it was all aglow.  But by the time I got positioned, the sun had gone down pretty far and there was only a slight pink tint to the sky.  I still like the colorig of the sky, but I've come to the conclusion that if you're not really in the right spot, the Twin Cities do not have the most appealling skylines.  They're my cities, so I love them anyway, but it's not quite like the bigger cities of Chicago, Atlanta, New York, you know?

I guess today, I felt like this is another one of those "settled for it" shots.  But sometimes, I just don't have time, and I've come up with some pretty good stuff at the last minute, so I never give up trying.  

This morning, there was a sun halo right when I got to work.  I didn't have the right lens with me for my camera to capture the whole thing, but that would have been great!

Hopefull I'll come up with something really good this weekend.  My goal is to do at least one or two shots in the next week involving PEOPLE.

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Day 36...Frosty

FROSTY

I am not a macro photographer.  When I came in to work today, the windows were painted with the work of 'ol Jack Frost.  It was so beautiful and fascinating.  I did what I could to catpure the intricacy and beauty of it without having a macro lens. 

There were straight lines, curly lines, a mixture of lines and textures.  I haven't seen this kind of frost in a long while.  It really reminded me of my childhood for a reason I can't explain. 

There is something similar about this image as yesterday's, though the images are SOOOO very different, and that is that I did very little editing to the image.  It looks black and white but is not.  

I can tell you that I'm so tired of winter that I could scream, but there are these little miracles of nature that sometimes make you stop and say WOW!

Day 35...Up and at 'em

UP AND AT 'EM

I'm known to be a sunset chaser, a sunset lover, to a fault really.  But anyone who know me knows I'm not much of a morning person.  Every now and again, I rise before the sun or near the rising.  And I see the gorgeous colors of the morning and wish I could have coffee before I awake so I can pop out of bed and be ready for that every day!  Still, at this age, I'm not a morning person.

But this was one of those mornings I happened to be on the road as the sun was making her appearance known to me.  If you commute from Blaine/Circle Pines, you might have seen me.  I'm the one that randomly pulls off the side of the road and jumps out of my vehicle, camera in hand.  Sometimes I just roll the window down.  I did both of those this morning.

This shot was taken over the golf course, Tournament Players (I clearly don't follow golf), I belive it's called, in Blaine.  NO FILTER, no editing other than slight cropping.  The creamy sky is the thing that really gets me!  In my retirment, I surely shall have to live on an island or a penninsula so I can get the sunrise AND the sunset!

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Day 34...A Winter Day in the Country

A WINTER DAY IN THE COUNTRY

This shot was taken yesterday, just before dusk.  I was going to try to stay true to posting only images I took on THE day, however, the past two days images were not taken the exact day.  Yesterday, I set out on an adventure in the country, but when I got home, I felt strongly about the portrait of my dad and decided to post that one instead.  That one was taken the day before, but it kept coming back to mind, so I bumped this image yesterday and posted Dad.  

So I actually did take some shots of the river today but figured I've already got enough St. Paul landscapes for the time being.  This shot seems a little minimalist.  But this is what Minnesota Winter is just like sometimes.  I think sometimes a black and white image of the country winter is a good classic shot.  However, I really like how the birch trees stand out against the gold tree tops in this shot, and I just couldn't settle on black and white.  And frankly, this scene gives me a more peaceful and settled feeling than something shot in the city.

I really need to find something new to shoot besides winter landscapes though regardless of whether it's a city or the country.  This winter is getting to me!

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Day 33...A Special Portrait

A SPECIAL PORTRAIT

When I started my project, I contempated my "theme."  I love doing portraits of people, and in the summer and fall, I do a lot of them.  So I really thought I might endeavor on a portrait project.  However, I felt it would be very difficult to do an interesting 365 of entirley portraits, and I wanted to spend more than 52 days doing this, so I opted out of that plan.

But..since the only limit I put on myself was to post one photo a day that occured OUTSIDE or was of the OUTSIDE, that does not limit me from doing portraits, and I knew there would be some throughout the year that would surely appear here.

And of course, why not start off the portrait posting with a very special one.  DAD!  

A portrait of any dad is special.  But since my dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma and is beating the odds the doctor gave him by several months now, I feel especially thrilled to be able to be taking portraits of my father.  It is nearly ten months since his diagnosis and for sure five months after the latest time they gave him to be alive so it seems a miracle.  And as you can see from this portrait, the man is a hell of a fighter because he looks handsome and he DOES NOT look like a cancer patient.

I'm glad for the opportunity to post this of him and change from landscapes too.

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Day 32...Sunset Over the Lake

SUNSET OVER THE LAKE

I've said it before, and many know this about me, I'd chase the sun and watch it set every day if I could.  Tonight I had already taken my photo of the day, but as I set off for an outing for the evening, the sun caught my attention on the way to my destination.  I chased her down.

I do this kind of thing often.  I drive and drive until I find a safe spot to stop and get out of my car or stick my camera out the window.  I'm sure lots of photographers do this!  And tonight was frustrating because the sunset was completely phenomenal, and I just could manage to position myself in a place to capture its complete magnificence.  

I do think this photo ended up pretty good though.  The lake was frozen and blanketed with a fluffy white and it was just an typical Minnesota winter sunset and pretty as ever.

I know some people could care less about a sunset, and some people think they just get old after a while.  For me, I just can't seem to get enough of them.

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