Calming Reflections

Noticing that the clouds were starting to break, I thought I might have an opportunity to catch an amazing sunset.  The wind was calm and the situation wasn't right for filter painting.  I decided to pull out the trusty Rokinon 14mm for this.  The reflections from the sky turned out to be amazing.  There were some fishermen nearby so I wasn't able to get down close to the water like I had planned, but I really liked the spot I picked out.  I used luminosity masks to bring out the colors in this file.  I have really enjoyed learning how to use luminosity masks and think they are an amazing tool to use for landscape photography.

Sunset show!

The sun was setting on a lovely Sunday evening.  The skies appeared clear when I left the house and I thought about taking a sunset with pure sun rays.  Approaching the lake I noticed a very cool looking cloud bank was developing in the north.  The bank was moving quickly and I wasn't sure if it was going to get there before the sun set.   I decided to go the rest of the way and take a chance that I would get some great colors.  Glad I did.  The clouds arrived just as the sun moved into the horizon and made for some pretty spectacular colors.  It was a great scene and I am glad I was there to capture it.  Hope everyone is having a great day.  Enjoy!

Snowy Days

Snowstorms, while they provide beautiful scenery, they are horrible to drive in.  Waiting almost the entire winter season for a good snowstorm, we were finally blessed with a doozy this past week.  Heavy wet snow combined with freezing temperatures over night left travel in pretty bad shape.  So much so that school was called off twice in one week.  This gave a great opportunity for family fun and some needed winter scenes.  The snow was deep and plows had trouble keeping up, but some of the side roads were cleared earlier than usual.  I decided to see what was around and get some wintery photos for fun.  Here were a couple of my favorites from the recent storm.

From the Standing Bear Lake area

 Some panoramas from the Standing Bear area.

I photograph these set of trees every snowstorm.  I think they look like silhouettes of people.  Growing like a little family every year.