my new occupation: captor of live subjects

I jinxed us again. More snow! This time I brought it with me while spending a couple of days with my best friend in nearby White Salmon. I need to refrain from saying the word "spring" in the future. (Oops . . . I just said it again. I'm forecasting a blizzard.)

Amanda and I thought it would be entertaining to head downtown in a cold west wind, get a hot chai latte, and take some random pictures. Plans changed. Sunlight on a lawn of obliging water droplets compelled us to spend 20 minutes walking one block. Then the coffee shop was out of chai, so we got freezing cold frappaccinos instead. After that the wind picked up, turning us into ice cubes, so we did the smart thing: took off our coats to take portraits.

Yeah, you read that right. (We did, however, hide from the wind in the meantime.)

This was a rare opportunity of having a willing (or captive?) subject to take portraits of. Though the temperature was a small hindrance, it turned out to be a successful afternoon full of pictures and laughter. The best way to have a picture day :)

You can see more of our picture freeze in my gallery, and if you want to get really brave, you can go to Amanda's blog at http://sonshinephotography777.blogspot.com/ and see some of me. . . .

the embrace of sunlight and the kiss of frost

Seeking penance for banishing the world to snow the other day, the sun won a battle with rainclouds during the night and came out in all its triumphant glory this morning. Today is my first day back into routine after spring break, so I didn't get to take my long walk, but I had time to go out and take a few pictures closer to home.

The most interesting part of my morning adventure was seeing in a totally different aspect the very same landscape I photographed engulfed in snow on Friday. The snow simplified the landscape into a few shades of the same blue-gray; today everything was a riot of colors evident of spring.

(Last time I said the word "spring" I jinxed us, though. I'd better be more careful . . .)

Check out the next two photos . . . I think this is one of the most interesting comparisons of Friday vs. today. It's the same subject matter at almost exactly the same angle, but the mood is so different!

 

Today was a great day for taking what I call "farmstead" pictures. This next one is a farmstead I'm particularly fond of--mine!! (Notice it includes the same tree again! I'm growing fond of that tree . . .)

Doesn't the dusting of snow on the Simcoe Mountains make you think of an enchanted forest waiting to be explored?

i take it back...

Spring is not here.

My alarm went off at 7:00 this morning. I suited up in sweats, a long-sleeved shirt, and a sweatshirt, planning to add a fleece jacket over the top and be on my way. Nope. One look out the window at the few innocent little snowflakes falling convinced me to put on my bulky winter coat and an extra pair of socks. Better safe than sorry.

At 7:20 I stopped to check the lambs. There was a light wind and the snowfall was getting steadier. I consoled myself that it wasn't sticking, and probably wouldn't.

It did.

Instead of doing my usual three-mile walk around "The Loop," as we call the rectangular stretch of road enclosing 160 acres of farmland, I took a spontaneous detour up the hill toward where I knew our neighbors would have fed their 100+ head of sheep. That didn't make my walk itself longer, but it gave me a lot more reason to stop and take pictures.

By the time I'd snapped off twenty pictures of the snowy ewes and their two- to three-month-old lambs, my camera lens was streaked with melting snowflakes and the viewfinder was fogging up. And it was snowing . . . hard.

Needless to say, I was rather frustrated. However, I turned back the way I came, tucking the dragging heels of my sweatpants into my socks to keep them from balling up with ice (which must have looked rather unusual, but if you walk around long enough with a big SLR around your neck like an oversize pendant that must be protected from the elements at all cost, people probably don't expect you to act normally anyway). Before I reached home the left side of my face was neatly plastered with snow driven by the east wind, and my supposedly water-resistant coat was resisting no longer. I imagine I must have looked something like a big purple iceberg.

The worst part of the whole excursion was failing to get any really good pictures. I decided to post a few of the "okay" ones anyway . . . alongside several of those overeager, deceptive Goldfinches getting their just deserts!!

 Here's one taken when the snow was only coming down lightly. I'm not happy with this picture at all. It's dramatic, but very bleak . . . something about it is just wrong. What do you think?

Like I said, it didn't stay "light" for long.

 Is it really April 2nd? Or could we be ahead a few months? Maybe it's April Fools a day late. . . .