August 28, 2011

Spent this weekend at the cottage. Wanted to focus on experimenting with panoramic photos and the color changes during sunrise and sunset. The panoramic shots turned out pretty good and I was just practicing for when the leaves turn. During Fall there will be great panoramic opportunities on some of the lakes around here.

I did find a small lake with a protected shoreline. It is totally wild, no cottages, no boats, nothing! We don’t have enough of those around here. Sat in the woods overlooking the lake for about an hour on Saturday as the sun rose. I took 11 photos at different angles and then merged them together in Photoshop to create a very nice panoramic view of the entire lake.

I enjoyed watching a couple of Beavers swim around while slapping their tails on the water. I am pretty sure that their home is on another nearby lake as I did not see any wooden structure. Their tails must be incredibly strong as their water slaps sounded like gun shots.

One thing I did learn this week is that there is no mosquito spray that actually keeps mosquitoes away from you. I have tried several and have had no luck. I even tried one that smelled so bad that even I wouldn’t come near me……yet they still swarm.

Two warnings that are probably on the cans of repellent (I don’t typically read, I just spray and go) is to not spray near mouth or eyes. I can tell you now that Deet does not taste good and will also make you cry if you happen to rub your eyes after you have sprayed your hands. Lessons learned.

I have also learned to live with the deer ticks but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do the same when it comes to mosquitoes……especially when you are trying to focus on taking pictures. You just can’t rush it sometimes.

They truly live up to the classification of a bug.

No real mis-adventures to talk about although I did manage to put two barbed hooks through my hand while fishing on Friday. I had just caught a Northern pike and was attempting to take the lure out of his mouth when he shook and drove the backside hooks into the area between my thumb and forefinger. One of the hooks went completely through and popped out on the other side. The barb does not make it easy to slip it back through so I had to:

1. get the hook out of the fish’s mouth
2. cut the leader off of the line
3. drive the boat back to the cottage
4. cut the barb off the hook
5. slip the hook out of my hand

It looked worse than it felt and I lived to tell about it. Four lives down, five to go…

Anyway, after taking about 300+ photos this weekend I was incredibly disappointed by the results but that’s the way it goes sometimes. There is always next weekend…..

Monday August 8, 2011

Spent this last weekend at the cottage. It's located on beautiful North Sand lake near Webster, Wisconsin. Got out early on both Friday and Saturday morning, did a lot of driving but not a lot of shooting. Came across a cow pasture off of Blackbrook road on Friday morning with an old Chevrolet car sitting on it's side. The field was enclosed with barbed wire and considering my track record with photo shoot injuries I decided to bypass the opportunity. Not happy about the decision because I really wanted to have a look at the car. Got a nice shot of the sunrise overlooking the Yellow river but not much else......other than finding out that there is a strip club called Misty's on hwy 70.....who knew???
Could not get that car photo opp out of my head on Friday so I brainstormed on how to get over the barbed wire fence without having to make an emergency visit to Spooner General Hospital. Friday night I took the ladder out of the garage and placed it in a spot where I would see it when I headed out on Saturday morning. Figured that I would use the ladder to climb up and jump over the fence, then haul the ladder to the other side to exit out when I was done shooting.
Brilliant idea except that I forgot to grab the ladder as I was leaving on Saturday....somebody must have moved it??? Got to the fence before sunrise and found a corner where the top was made out of  weather beaten wood so I climbed up the barbed wire with plans to catapult myself over by stepping on the wood and pushing off. Note to self....weather beaten wood is not stable.
As I stepped off the wood the fence piece broke but by then I was in mid jump and landed safely......a 9.5 on effort but a 2.5 on form. Grabbed my tripod and camera from under the fence and took off for the old Chevy. Spent 20 minutes shooting HDR shots and even found the license plate dated 1961. I attached it to the car, took a few more shots, wondered if the howling hunting dogs that I heard in the distance were heading my way and decided to go. The return trip over the fence was a little trickier as I had to climb the fence and straddle  the barbed wire so as to not....well you get the picture. Success......feeling a little like a cat, 3 lives down, 6 to go.