Week 46 - 365 Day Photography Challenge

Day 316 - Smile for the Camera

 Maybe this week is about photographers getting bored. Or that I was not feeling that absolutely top of the world and often took the shortcut like just snapping a pic of the stuff on my studio shelf. Day 316 has a lot to do with both of those things, but also about the dullness of winter scenes and anticipating a shift to "inside" subjects like last winter with the still lifes I did. Looking for a different place to set up the subjects. And different subjects. You could call this a screen test.

Day 317 - dawn through the trees

And if you are a frequent reader of my blog you have no doubt seen this stand of Aspens before. I said on my fan page, Binford-Bell Studio, recently, that we photograph or paint subjects we know best. And our best photos maybe even subjects we are a bit bored with. It is rather like knowing all the best spots on your favorite fishing lake. Day 317 and 318 and 319 are vistas I have photographed again and again in all sorts of weather and varying light. Sometimes, like the stand of aspens in 317, I feel I have not yet got it right. Or, as with the little crop of aspens on the hill, there is no getting it wrong. There used to be one tree more on the right. It listed more and more and last year fell.  I am still really missing that tree.

Day 318 - Missing man formation

The two old Ponderosas in 319 have also been photographed a lot. They are a frequent perch for hawks who reside in this area. They are large trees and dominate a photograph while being almost impossible to be the sole subject as the tree in 320. The clouds and snow really added to this portrait of these two trees. I worry the one on the right is on its last days. The bark around its base shows decay and our sometimes fierce winds could blow it down easily.

Day 319 - the Magnificent Gentlemen 

Aspens grow tall and largely straight. Though I am told they do make a very subtle counter clockwise twist from top to bottom. This aspen standing alone on the hill seems to have suffered much in its climb to the heights. The wounds have made it bent and accented its twist. It is also a frequent perch for a red tailed hawk I am familiar with. It remains a tree I have not totally captured with the lens.

Day 320 - Do the Twist

One of the reasons you take your camera everywhere is the picture below. I was on a routine run to the local store and to feed a friend's cat. At my house there was a blizzard and in Angel Fire sunshine as I drove out toward Eagle Nest. I even pulled over at one point and took two pictures from the same spot looking opposing directions to show Facebook friends how different a mile can make. Just snaps as my English friend would say. But on the return trip the blizzard from back home hit Angel Fire, and the clouds began to shut out the sun.

I am still undecided about the red ring in this picture. It was not a solar flare off my camera. I was inside my car with the window rolled down and backed into the shade of the car. It also appears in another picture taken at different angle. I think it may be something on the ground which the beam of light is striking. That is near the end of the Angel Fire runway and could be a Loran light.

Day 321 - Beam me up Scotty

Day 322 is back home outside the studio, but, I confess, another snow storm. One without the blizzard. I was searching recent photo folders for a Backyard shot for a contest. It was taken the same day as 319. I have promised a blog about my selections for that contest and so you will see another picture of the snow covered table in that blog as it was one of my entries.

Day 322 - cook out canceled 

And so that's a wrap for this week's snaps of my old friends in the neighborhood.