Day 184

© Peter Mitchell

I liked the effect of zooming with the Christmas lights so I tried it on the sun setting.

Happy New Year!

Day 183

© Peter Mitchell

Day 182

© Peter Mitchell

More zooming Christmas lights.

Day 181

© Peter Mitchell

Christmas lights. Click on the image for a larger view to see the lights better.

Day 180

© Peter Mitchell

Day 179

© Peter Mitchell

Day 178

© Peter Mitchell

Day 177

© Peter Mitchell

Experimenting with water and the on-camera flash.

Day 176

© Peter Mitchell

I wasn't finding much on my walk this evening so finally decided to just take some shots of lights while moving the camera. I chose this one since it looks like a bunch of flying candy canes, which seems appropriate since it is almost Christmas.

Day 175

© Peter Mitchell

Day 174

© Peter Mitchell

I realized my battery was low and the -20 c temperature wasn't helping, but I got a few shots of some Christmas lights.

Day 173

© Peter Mitchell

I noticed a large rainbow patch on my wall today coming from a prism on the window sill. Larger and richer than I've noticed before. I decided to try my glass candleholder in front of the light coming from this and got some nice colours in the patterns.

Day 172

© Peter Mitchell

I went out to Pigeon Lake this morning and found that the ice had broken and been pushed up along this section of shore. These blocks are about 8 inches thick and the one on the left is standing 4 or 5 feet tall. It must have been something to see this happening. Apparently it happened a few days after the first real freeze, and I was there a couple of days after it had frozen. So I just missed it. Lots of interesting shapes.

In the distance is one of the first ice fishing shacks.

Day 171

© Peter Mitchell

Day 170

© Peter Mitchell

I ended up leaving this one pretty much as it came out. I applied a little recovery of the highlights. The light was fading when I quit work and went out to find some snowflakes. I lit this with a small LED flashlight and got the angle to catch the reflected light off this one flake. I like the way it stands out from the other flakes around it.

Day 169

© Peter Mitchell

It continued snowing and blowing last night. The snow was piled high on some of the branches of this spruce and I really like the way this looks. I converted this one to black and white.

Day 168

© Peter Mitchell

Lots of wind blowing the snow around today. I liked the way the drifts looked from the back window so I went out and took a few shots. After importing and looking at them I would have liked it more if the ridge on the right had more shape. Something for me to look for and try again.

Day 167

© Peter Mitchell

Day 166

© Peter Mitchell

The sun was out again today so I got out the glass candle holder.

Day 165

© Peter Mitchell

A light snow was falling today. This does not look quite like what I wanted. I will have to wait for larger snow flakes and try again.

Day 164

© Peter Mitchell

I initially went out thinking I would get some action shots of our dog playing in the snow. But it was a little too cold today and she didn't want anything to do with it. Instead I took a few shots around the backyard and picked this one because I like the way the snow has accumulated on the fence.

Day 163

© Peter Mitchell

More candle flames today.

Day 162

© Peter Mitchell

Day 161

© Peter Mitchell

I didn't get time today to plan a shot so as I was passing the Legislature on my way home from class tonight I took this.

Day 160

© Peter Mitchell

I went back to the candle holder and light today. This time I used the late afternoon sun shining through the candle holder onto a piece of paper and shot from the back. There were a number with interesting patterns but this one stood out for me.

Day 159

© Peter Mitchell

I played with shining different lights through a glass candlestick base that we have. There were a number that I really liked but I didn't have as much time as I wanted to go through them. I have been shooting and processing RAW images for the last couple of weeks so it takes more time to work with the images. I'm still learning. The dark red in this image output for the web did not come out as bright as it was in the original. As I said once before I need to figure out the right adjustments to get it to reflect the way it looks on my monitor.

Day 158

© Peter Mitchell

Day 157

© Peter Mitchell

I played around with a couple of different objects and shadows today.

Day 156

© Peter Mitchell

This caught my eye today. The colour changed a little in exporting this image but it is pretty close to the way it looks. This is looking down on the edge of a Pyrex measuring cup. One we have has a blue cast and this one is more of a green when you look at the edge.

Day 155

© Peter Mitchell

This birch stump is in our front yard. The tree died a few years ago and we had it removed; all except the stump. I've always liked the way it looks, but it is rotting and we will probably remove it next summer.

Day 154

© Peter Mitchell

I'm not sure what type of plant this is but it is the latest blooming one in our yard. It usually starts to bloom and get some colour right around when we get snow. Even though it has had snow on it for a while it has not totally dried up. The snow is on the foreground clump of flowers and the yellow behind are some of the leaves of other stalks.

Day 153

© Peter Mitchell

I used my bicycle lights to light these bubbles. The red tail light from one direction and the white head light from another.

Day 152

© Peter Mitchell

I tried adding some food colouring to the soap bubble mix.

Day 151

© Peter Mitchell

I went back down to the same section of river today. The temperature was just a few degrees below zero (celsius) and the water along the shore was slushier. There weren't the distinct layers of ice and water like yesterday.

Day 150

© Peter Mitchell

I went down to the river today. There were many layers of ice and water along the part of the shore I went to. I like the different patterns in the ice and the contrast in colours, but this export didn't come out quite right. I think the dark background is a little more of a brown and has more variation in colour. Something to work on, getting the colour right for export.

Day 149

© Peter Mitchell

I worked with bubbles again today, but not in the kitchen sink. Not my night for dishes and I wanted to try lighting the bubbles from behind. I set up in a clear casserole dish and tried different lighting directions. I really like the way this backlit one came out.

Day 148

© Peter Mitchell

I didn't have any ideas for an image today when I started the dishes, so it became soap bubbles.

Day 147

© Peter Mitchell

Day 146

© Peter Mitchell

Last year I took a photography course and one of the assignments was white on white. I was looking out the back window today and thought the smooth surface of the snow in the sun was perfect for this.

Day 145

© Peter Mitchell

Not much today. I took this shot of our dog in front of a heating vent. One of her favourite places in the winter.

Day 144

© Peter Mitchell

Today I used a bulb setting and painted the wineglass with light.

Day 143

© Peter Mitchell

What a difference a few days make. Last Sunday we were out at Pigeon Lake and it was open water. During the week the temperature dropped and I was anxious to get out to see what ice there was. I went out today and heard that it had frozen just two days ago. It looked frozen right across.

In a few places the ice had broken and bunched up, but for the most part it was flat and there was a layer of snow on it. There were these interesting patterns created by the cracks and the texture of the snow and hoar frost around the cracks.

Day 142

© Peter Mitchell

I was going to experiment indoors with a wine glass again but I noticed the moon rising. There is some new construction a couple blocks away and I have seen this bell tower (if that is what it would be called) lit up at night, so I headed out to check. The moon was a bit higher than I wanted but I thought it was okay. When conditions are right again I will try when the moon is lower and zoom in a little more.

Day 141

© Peter Mitchell

This one is lit from below and is farther from the backdrop.

Day 140

© Peter Mitchell

Today I tried a white background with a much brighter halogen light. I need to find a smoother backdrop and maybe move it further away.

Day 139

© Peter Mitchell

More experimenting with light.

Day 138

© Peter Mitchell

I wanted to try lighting this little piece of wood to get multiple shadows. I don't have an external flash or any special lights so set up a few different light sources. Not the best mixing incandescent lighting with an LED flashlight. But it is a start to give me some ideas.

Day 137

© Peter Mitchell

Sunrise on Pigeon Lake. Some ice had formed on the lake yesterday and the wind had blown it into this bay on the lake. The ice was all bunched up and some was pushed up onto the beach. I went down for sunrise to see if more ice had formed and get some shots as the sun came up. You can just make out a bit of the ice that is still left on the beach, but most of it had melted overnight. So no new ice but a beautiful sunrise.

Day 136

© Peter Mitchell

I was playing with a stick in the water yesterday and decided to make it my project today to get a shot of the water trail.

Day 135

© Peter Mitchell

Yesterday when we were out walking I saw these ice crystals. The ice was dark, almost black, and I thought they would like good with the morning sun. Well, it was cloudy this morning and there had been a light dusting of snow. I decided to go back anyway and this is the way it looked. The ice has a light cover of snow so the ice crystals don't stand out as much, but I still like it.