Cattails like paint brushes reach up through evening glimpses of muted light and cold color towards a charcoal watercolor sky.
Cattails along the ice-covered Dreamkeeper Pond bask in the last falling rays of an evenstar.
A magnificent ending.
These three photos were all taken on the same day at Mapleside Farms in Brunswick, Ohio.
Being a landscape photographer in Northeast Ohio can mean standing for a whole hour in mud that cakes around your boots up to your ankles, wind that keeps blowing the hood back on your winter jacket, and cold that seeps through your gloves to numb your fingers. Meanwhile, your heart and mind are alive with the surrounding beauty.
What sort of challenging weather do you come across when you go out to take nature or landscape photos? Do you make any special preparations for weather conditions? Do you enjoy the many moods of the great outdoors? What are your favorite weather conditions for enjoying nature?
You are welcome to comment and share your feelings.
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16 comments:
HI CD, I love that set of pictures. I had to laugh at you talking about getting into the mud to get a good picture. George and I photograph waterfalls ---so we always get into all kinds of situations trying to get the best pictures!!!! I also have a blogger friend in PA---who recently tracked in the mud to get some good bird pictures. Are we all addicted????? ha ha
Hugs,
Betsy
I really like the sunset shot that you got with the cat tails.
You sound like me going to any lengths to get the right perspective.
People sometimes look at me like I am crazy. But who cares! right?
These are so beautiful! You have such a talent with the camera, and not only with the camera, but with your descriptive words as well. Keep them coming! Personally, I really enjoy getting sunrise or sunset photos. Check my blog header today.
Those pictures are beautiful--thanks for standing in the mud and cold to get them! I do the same sometimes, sometimes I just pop out the door and back in because we are blessed to live in the country.
I did post about some cowboys laughing at me when I was taking cow pictures. Obviously they don't understand the dedication involved in picture taking and blogging!
What wonderful sunset pictures! They are so peaceful and serene :)
Chris
Betsy from Tennessee: It's really nice that George and you can go together on your adventurous excursions into waterfall country, and I always enjoy seeing the results in your blog. From the sound of your PA friend, it seems like I'll fit in real well with you all.
ForestWander: Thanks for the kind compliments. Sounds to me like when people look at us like we're crazy for going the extra mile, it means we're on the right track. Nobody can follow a trailblazer if nobody's willing to actually be a trailblazer.
Montanagirl: Thanks for the encouragement. It's always fun to go back and try to fit just the right words to each image. And twilight definitely seems to hold the most precious moments of the day.
mountain.mama You sure do have a good thing going, living right out there in the country! As for those cowboys, it looks like they've just spent so much time around the cows that they take them for granted, especially since if you get paid for something it can stop being fun and start being a chore ... the old "familiarity breeds contempt" kind of thing.
letspaintnature: Thanks ... Mapleside Farms is a special place with a special atmosphere of peacefulness that keeps getting rarer these days. What helps is that the property has been in one family for generations and the love they have for their land really shows.
Those are gorgeous photos of sunset through the cattails.
I take most of my photographs off the back of a horse. How good they are depends on how still my horse will stand! the advantage is getting a long way from civilization, where we see lots of interesting stuff.
Thanks for standing in the mud with the wind whipping at you. I loved these gorgeous photographs. Thanks for sharing them.
Great sunset, and way to get an interesting foreground in the shot with the littoral zone plants.
Janie: Lucky you! Seeing the sights on horseback is like becoming a part of the sights yourself. It's also cool how birds will often let you come up closer to them while you're on a horse.
NCmountainwoman: You're very welcome ... Glad you liked the sunset scenery!
Robert V. Sobczak: You never quite know what you're going to find at the edge of the Dreamkeeper Pond. The amount of reeds varies from year to year, am guessing based on the intensity of the wind.
Great pictures!
Jane
These are beautiful and you met the challenge of enduring the weather for them with great success. I love the name Dreamkeeper Pond. For me the challenge is usually a combination of finding the right time, the right place without other people, and just having patience to wait. I tend to avoid severe weather conditions to do my photos. My bad knee poses some challenges in getting to places and standing for a long time or hiking very far. I do enjoy the many moods of nature. I like it warm, but not hot.
Jane: Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed the photos!
Mary: The challenges you mention about "finding the right time, the right place without other people," to take pictures definitely resonates. Photography can be like fishing. Some days you can come home empty-handed with nothing satisfying to show for the time spent, other days you catch little minnow-like shots that are kind of cool but not what you're really after, and every once in a while you get the big one that feels like a trophy all by itself. Thanks for describing your style. The results of how you approach photography definitely keep me coming back to your blog to see more.
First of all I love the name of the Pond!! What a cool name..
Your photos are stunning and the colors you captured are delicious!
I know what you mean about standing in all kinds of elements to get that one picture..but it really adds to the experience and makes that one picture worth so much more.
Great post.
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving such nice comments. Have a great week ;-)
Your cattails at sunset pictures are so beautiful, I'm sure they were worth your time standing in the mud! What a great question about the challenges of taking nature photos. For me in the desert, the bright sunlight makes it hard to see images in my camera's LCD (I don't have a normal view finder). So I often go out in early morning or dusk for pictures.
Tina: Many thanks for your kind comment. Quality shows through in patient attention to detail, true for both still landscapes and on-the-move wildlife like your fabulous birds.
Diane C.: Thank you very much for the compliment. Early morning and dusk seem to be best for photography in any climate because of lighting conditions, with the added incentive in the desert of that time tending to be in the cool of the day.
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