January Hodge Podge
I try to post these every couple of weeks, but an early January cold kept me indoors for a while, and then I was making up for lost time, and had little time for editing. Early in the month it was quite cold, so I have tested my main gear to the point where I'm confident in its abilities. I have to say, for a relatively inexpensive camera, the Pentax K-70 really holds up well. And as far as clothing goes, ...more about that below :)
I was curious how solid the Whiteshell river freezes over at Pine Point, and the answer is: not much. I know this in two ways: you can see that it's thin in the middle; and, I took an involuntary dip. I'd returned on a day when it was -25C. On the way I revisited a few sites. If you've been reading this blog you may recall an icicle which had formed around a fern. We've had no snow, and it's been very cold, but regardless, apparently even icicles in the shade will slowly evaporate. Here's the original shot again, followed by one from early January. You can see on the second the leaves poking out.
I'm curious now with the recent thaw what the state of things are. I get a kick out of noticing these small changes over time, it's subtle, but relentless.
Back to the river, I tried some long exposures again, but I'm just not getting the framing right. Also, I'm going to have to become more attentive when post-processing, I'm missing some key elements of contrast and colour balance. However, I do like the mix of static and active elements.
On the last one, the sun cleared the trees and lit up the hanging branch crusted with frost in a stupendous display, but unfortunately I can't say I managed to capture it. Next time.
So I said I'd taken an involuntary dip. On the way back, some ways upstream, the sun was lighting up a gorgeous scene, but to get the right angle I realized I'd have to get out on the ice of the river. It was a calculated risk: some reeds bordered the river, and I knew the ice past the reeds was too thin, and the water level in the reeds was low. So the thought was to stay in the reeds, and if I broke through it wouldn't be my whole body, it might only be my feet. Plus...I had this idea about my gear. I was right, and wrong: the water was shallow, but it was practically to my hips. When I broke through, all thoughts of "calculated risk" went out the window, and I'll admit to a moment of panic. It was -25C, and I was 3km from the car. I spun around to crawl back onto land, cursing a blue streak, and in the middle of cursing snarled at myself "I'm *glad* this happened, you f****** idiot!"
But after rolling in the snow to soak up the excess water, I started to realize it might be okay. I have these wool pants, and the blocks of snow just froze on them, but other than the initial shock of cold water, I wasn't cold. Wool has an amazing capacity to be warm even when wet. Some water had drained into my mukluks, but while the outside froze solid, and I ended up clunking back to the car as if wearing downhill ski boots, inside it was rather pleasant, if moist.
By the time I got back to the car, the ice chunks on the wool pants had pretty much evaporated, and my feet were fine, so much so that I did some extra hiking and photography. The only real cold part was in the car, about 45 minutes into the trip home, when everything started to thaw and my feet were bathing in ice water. Thank goodness for cruise control...
So I *am* glad it happened. I'll be more careful, but I also won't panic if something happens.
Anyway, back to photography: I spent an evening taking night shots of parts of the city. An overcast winter night throws a lot of light. I like the view from near the Provencher Bridge in St Boniface:
Part of the inspiration is a photo contest where the theme is an urban "frame in frame" shot. So I figured why not "frame-in-frame-in-frame"?
I also liked the light patterns on this building, but I framed it in haste, there should be more to the left. (there were people nearby and I was a bit self-conscious)
Finally, while under the bridge trying to use the bridge as a frame, I noticed a dark shape on the ice. I didn't notice it move, and figured it was a box or trash frozen in the river, but then I saw it move slightly. Turned out it was a goose:
Maybe the mild weather had it fooled into thinking spring was around the corner. If so, it will be in for a rude awakening.
To change things up, I went with my sister and son for a walk with their dogs, and tried to get some fun pet shots. The ones where I tried to freeze motion came out alright:
Zen running...
Frantic intensity...
But the shots where I tried a lower shutter speed and tracking the dog didn't work at all. It's quite a challenge, and I'll need lots of practice for those.
Finally, I spent a day at Grand Beach. The sky was very dull overcast, which made the light difficult and sucked away a lot of the contrast. So I'll confess here that I did quite a bit of post-processing contrast enhancement, more than I usually do.
With that out of the way: there are two sections of Grand Beach, the East Beach, and West Beach. Portions of the West Beach were a mix of wind-scoured ice and sand, forming almost wood-like patterns:
Eagle in sand and snow
Meanwhile, the East Beach dunes had trapped the snow and the snow had been pushed into massive drifts filled with shape and texture.
I created a B&W version of the above, and I think I like it better:
There's a bit of a lesson from returning to Grand Beach. I feel like I've explored most of the regions close to me and had initially discounted it, but this proves that the environment and scene and especially lighting are always in flux. It almost always pays to return.
And with that I'll bring this entry to a close. Cheers!
