This was a weekend of worry, answered prayer, joy, and some much needed roaming. I had an extremely fruitful photo trip on Saturday, allowing me to clear my head and stuff some nice images into my camera. I’ll be posting them here over the next few days. Here’s to a glorious week!
Oh, and belated Happy Birthdays to Sammy Hagar and former KFYR-TV meteorologist Mike McVay!
y gracious wife didn’t mind if I took “the scenic route” home from work last night, which was a real blessing. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve been able to do my trademark “just drive around and find stuff to photograph” thing that I love so much, and every little bit helps. I took a couple of interesting shots for the subject “close up” as part of a “Photo a Day” activity that I’m doing, then found myself at Fox Island.
I started out with my favorite shot being the vertical because I was able to fit in everything I wanted, especially the reflection. Arranging them for this post, however, I actually began liking the second one the best. Again, it comes down to an interesting foreground object. The dock just isn’t prominent enough in the vertical shot since I couldn’t get closer to it. Maybe if I cropped it differently to retain more of the reflections instead of the clouds:
Oh yes…today’s Sunset Song of the Day is “The Reflection of You” by Bear in Heaven (iTunes link).
So is the United States government providing inappropriate campaign support to Democrat candidates? I’m pretty sure there’s a law somewhere that indicates that federal government property can NOT be used to campaign purposes. In the photos above, it’s obvious that the property is being simultaneously declared US Government property and hosting campaign banners for the state’s three most prominent Democrat candidates. The whole thing looks a little questionable, and I think we North Dakotans could all use some answers.
The above shot is an example of why you want to take a polarizer with on a sunny day of foliage photography. The shot on the left and the right are taken with identical settings mere seconds apart. The photo on the right, however, is with a circular polarizer. It’s obvious that, given the right angle, a photographer can really deepen the sky and make those fall colors pop! Once again, I advise doing so quickly. It won’t be long before the only place one can photograph those leaves will be on the ground.
The colloquialism in the title of this post is the racetrack equivalent of “Go to war with the army you’ve got.” I didn’t have a photographic equivalent, so I’ll have to write one someday and utilize the racing version for now. I had finished watching a niece’s volleyball game at Fort Lincoln Elementary and saw a nice sunset developing, so I did what I had to: bolt to the nearest known photo subject. In this case, and given the letter “E” adjacent to my truck’s gas gauge needle, Fort Abraham Lincoln was the most logical choice.
We haven’t had much for clouds lately, at least not at sunset, but this particular evening was pretty well adorned. I have a “secret spot” that’s the best place to take such sunset photos of the capitol, and permission to be there, so we bolted to catch the combination of color and clouds before going home for story time and bunk beds.
The Sunset Song of the Day for this photo is an old favorite of mine, “Buildings and Mountains,” by The Republic Tigers (iTunes link). It’s also a great song for a road trip through the wide open plains with those beautiful North Dakota skies overhead.