The Worm Moon

I have a few more photos from our foggy morning (not really a foggy morning) photo shoot.

On the way to our intended destination, I was absolutely delighted to keep seeing a glorious full moon appearing off to my right. We were travelling, so I just thought that I would enjoy seeing it and not fret over not getting a photo. Okay, I was fretting, just a bit.

When we arrived at our destination, however, there it was shining over the river. Silly me, though. After we parked, I wasted time sauntering over to the spot, just to check it out even though I had just seen it in passing. Oh yeah, it looked very good shining through tree branches.

I sauntered back to the car, fiddled with my gear, and sauntered back to the spot, but by then, the dadblasted moon was partially obscured behind the clouds. Then, we lost sight of it completely.

I did get one photo before it disappeared. The photo didn't turn out too well and probably wouldn't have, even if the moon had remained full. I converted what I had to b&w because I found the pre-dawn blues too overpowering.

The sun was coming up behind us but not along the river. So getting a sunrise photo wasn't working out either.

Then, about ten minutes later, a gap in the clouds enabled the moon to make another appearance before dropping below the trees, and we got our photos. This spot was to the right of the above photo. It was nice of the gaggle of geese to provide some foreground interest on the edge of the ice, but they did begin honking at me, thus announcing their displeasure of my activity. Like some people, they seemed to take issue with the camera.

When I got home, I searched for the name of March's full moon, for they all have names. It is called the Worm Moon. However, I am not sure that the man who lives in residence on the moon knows this. (In full disclosure, just to you good folk, I must declare that we were actually almost 24 hours earlier that the complete full moon, but shh, let it be our secret,  eh?)

Having missed the fog, or actually the fog having missed us, Bob, who can be a very determined old codger, drove about looking for a sunrise photo. Well, as I have bemoaned over and over again, nothing locally seems to lineup conveniently for sunrise and sunset photos. Or almost nothing anyway.

Eventually, we saw the sun peeking around a barn off in a field. Fortunately, it happened at an untrafficked spot where there was also enough of the shoulder between the road and the snow bank to pull over.

I squeezed the aperture (f22 for those who know what it means) enough to get a sunburst effect around the corner of the barn. I didn't want the whole sun in the photo to begin with, so the barn made a handy, partial blind. I used the shade white balance to warm up the photo. The winter atmosphere was certainly bluer than the photo. Artistic license, don't you know?

I had all of my lenses in the car. Why I didn't use my head and put on the telephoto one in order to get closer to the barn, I cannot say, except maybe I can put the blame on a poor night followed by a lack of breakfast. Yes, let's put it down to that rather than the more likely cause, which shall not be named.

The Final Photo of the Morning

The forecast indicated fog, so Bob was anxious to get out and about. Hey! If Bob wants to drive the backroads at 6:30 in the morning, count me in.

As it turned out, we didn't get fog, but we still were able to  get some photos.

I am going to save some and settle for a quick post of a single photo this morning.

It ↓ was my last photo of the day. We had stopped to look at the scene on the other side of the road. It turned out that it didn't offer much. But when I turned around, I thought this barn looked like a very good subject.

I like photographing buildings in general: some don't, but I do. Barns, and particularly old ones, really draw my eye. Not only was this barn a good one, but there was light as well as the shadows of trees on the front. I think the fence is a very strong foreground, and, except for the the section by the road, the snow is pristine. I removed some distracting wires toward the top right corner, but I left the one that connected to the barn as I don't find it distracting. I think it almost provides a frame along with the fence.

It's not a perfect setting, but it sure isn't a poor one either.

A Glow on the Horizon

Ever since Danica started to work part-time at the grocery store, I have sometimes been her taxi, or I guess her Uber in this day and age. While some of the requests are irregular, every second Sunday morning has become a routine. That’s her main shift: from 7 until 3 on Sunday. She also usually has a Tuesday afternoon and evening shift. Keeping the shifts down to a reasonable number was a condition from her parents for her taking the job.

The kids are at Mom’s on alternate weekends. On those weekends, I have been picking Danica up at 6:45 for her 7 o’clock shift. I don’t mind. In fact, it helps me to feel useful.

To be on the safe side, I set three alarms: watch, phone, and Alexa to get me up at 6 o'clock. I have never needed one.

On this past, time-change Sunday, I thought I might finally require the help of those devices, but Lacey and bladder provided sufficient impetus for me to arise. Would I have been able to get back to sleep if I hadn’t had to get the girl? It's possible but doubtful, for being able to go back for another hour of sweet repose is a very infrequent occurrence.

It wasn’t my scheduled week to drive her to work, for it was to be her dad’s weekend, but he and Jonathan were still out of town for a hockey tournament. So yes, of course I would be glad to assist once again.

There was almost a last-minute hitch. Our neighbour had asked if he could park in our driveway on Saturday night. Of course, he could. Then, the request came from Danica, and of course I would do that too. 

I didn’t put the two events together in my head until later. So, at the last minute on Saturday night, I informed the neighbour that he needed to move his car out by 6:30. He managed, but I had been concerned that he would sleep in. When I asked if he had remembered the time change, he responded that his phone would take care of the issue.

So, here’s the part that I want to get to. There was a pre-sunrise glow on the horizon when I was driving Danica along the highway, which more or less faces east. I don’t remember seeing that glow on previous Sundays, but I saw it this time, despite us being a whole hour earlier. Spring is coming.

Before I leave off, it strikes me that some may be wondering why I drive her. “Where is Mom?” you may ask. It’s because I am invariably up anyway, and Mom works hard and, unlike me, has the ability to sleep in. So, I fulfill two helpful functions. I get Danica to work and allow Shauna to sleep in. It’s a small contribution when I am not particularly in a contributory phase of life.

Will it Go?

Once upon a time, I was watching a softball game with a friend when the plate umpire questioned the base umpire about the baserunner. Did he go? Note: A baserunner can't leadoff the base like you can in baseball, at least not in fast pitch. The runner must stay on the base until the pitcher releases the ball. 

I can't remember the answer at the time, but my friend had some fun. "Did he go? I don't know." Well, maybe you had to be there lol.

Recently in my comments to more than one blog, I have wondered whether our snow would go before April.

Will it go? I don't know.

This ↓ is the state of our pile on March 15.

With a little more than two weeks remaining in March, there is a lot left to melt, but two weeks is a fairly long time. Most, if not all, days will be above freezing, and it is projected that two days will at least reach 10C/50F.

By comparison, this ↓ was taken on March 12 2021 — three days earlier than this years ↑ photo. There was less then — about one-half the present amount — even though it was a few days earlier.

I have a photo from March 29 last year showing no snow whatsoever in the park.

You just never know: in the countryside on March 23 2019

At the beginning of April 2018, JJ was rollerblading out front, but you can spot a little snow in the yard beyond.

And back on March 15 2017, we had a major dumping.

And yet, weather records tell me that we had an almost record warm day of 24C/75F, just a week later.

Unfortunately, I don't see a similar warm day forecast for this year. On the other hand, while I do see some possible snow in the two-week forecast, it seems that there will only be trace amounts on days that won't be cold, so the new snow will likely melt on impact. 

Oh my! I remembered the little fort, but I had forgotten that it happened early in April 2014. For a few days, the kids had afterschool snacks out there.

In a year like that, we have sometimes helped Mother Nature to bring in Spring by shovelling snow off the yard and onto the street. My memory tells me that. one April, we uncovered tulips growing under the snow. I really thought that I had a photo of that and that I had posted it but durned-drat-it if I can find it now.

The Last Train

There's no doubt that Sue's 365 project requirements are also getting me out of the house with the camera. On Sunday, here them was b&w along with stairs/architecture. B&W is her theme for the week and stairs/architecture were the additional prompts for the day.

It was another tough day with miserable, cold winds, but out we went.

I thought of this building with a mural and stairs. It didn't work so well for Sue, but with some finagling in both camera and edit, I somewhat like this result.

When I posted this on FB, a local enthusiast told me that it wasn't actually the last train but it was
one that had gone through town. He wasn't sure if there ever was a photo of the very last one.

I've been driving by this mural for years, thinking it deserves a photo, but it is a drive-by location, and I never have thought to return – until yesterday when Sue needed a photo.

Due to the snow we couldn't get a good angle, and I needed two shots to capture the whole building. When I combined them in post, the more normal perspective didn't turn out very well, so for fun I decided to use the warped perspective that you see above.

Carleton Place was a small railway hub as north-south and east-west lines intersected with the town. The east-west line was actually one that ran the breadth of the country – at least sometimes – but it was long gone by the time that we arrived here in 2005. The north-south line expired a few years later and was converted into a long, recreational trail.

Since it is Sue's b&w week, I also decided to convert my image. 

This ↓ turned out to be Sue's photo choice for the day, which had a subset theme of awesome. This one doesn't have stairs but it does have rather awesome architecture. It's our town hall, which has made an appearance in many of my photos over the years. I like it with the tree branches, which is not something that I would be likely to think of doing.

Cold'n Golden

Sue's photo theme for last week was golden hour: the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset when the light is low and, well, golden — on a good day, that is. It was winterish and dullish last week and days hadn't been all that good for light, but a theme is a theme. I think these weekly themes are contrived by folk in California. #kiddingnotkidding

We did try one day when there was some light. The first two spots we went to didn't offer much hope. I tried a few shots butt ended up trashing them. However, Sue got a few that she thought she could use.

Eventually, we found a location, not new to us but new on that day. The light was pretty good for a few minutes, and I was able to get a result that I like quite a bit.

Partly I like it because I know the conditions that I was working under, such as the weather and the fact that I had to hold my camera up over a snowbank to get the photo. Sometimes, we like a photo an extra bit because we know the circumstances, but I also like this for the photo itself. The light is pretty good, and we also have a leading line, a decent sky, and then a pretty good tree as the focal point.

I should say before I leave off that I prefer that my golden hour photos not contain the sun. In this case, I think it is the light that is cast by the sun that is the key thing. Of course, there are always exceptions, and preconceived ideas can't apply to every situation.

Here's to Light and Colour

Sue bought window film to um stick to our windows. When you affix it, the light will sometimes catch it and cast colourful patches on walls or floors.

It recently cast an interesting pattern on the wall which is at right angles to the window.

I don't know why it broke into three separate blocks. I thought it interesting and worth posting. It's like the centre block is mainly the shadow and the side panels are a result of the prismatic effect being cast. 

That was in my den that gets morning sun. There is another piece of film on the bedroom window that catches the late light. Sue once got this delightful photo of Lacey sitting in the rainbow.

And here is Sue bathed in the light.

This is the box that may guide you if you want to try out window film. I suppose that we got it through Amazon, like most things any more.