January 2016 on the Palmer Divide

For them folks who ain’t familiar with the Palmer Divide HERE is some information.

For them who ain’t gonna click on the link, the Palmer Divide is responsible for higher snowfalls where we live, even when compared to just a mile away. This morning we went to the gym (it was really slick out — saw one very bad accident on the highway as we drove along the service road) and on the way home I took note of the scenery. After dropping Melisa off, I went back out with the trusty Nikon D7000, the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8, and the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8. I did not go far . . . about a half mile from our house.

That is an abandoned house, but it looks nice in the snowy landscape. 

By the way, you can click on the photo for a larger view (1280 pixel for the longest dimension) or go to the SmugMug Gallery HERE where you can choose to view the original size photo (9000 x 3300 pixels) by clicking on the ‘size’ icon on the lower right)

All of these photos are from a stretch of road about a quarter of a mile in length. Some of the following are shot from the car, and some had me getting out.

I did something unusual for these shots . . . I used a circular polarizer. In part, to increase the contrast of the sky, but also because the sun beating down on the snow made everything super bright. 

As once can see from the first shot, I also employed one of my favorite techniques; I shot multiple photos and stitched them into panoramas. Here are a few more . . . 

You’re going to notice different brightness from photo to photo . . . some of that is due to thin wispy clouds occasionally occluding the sun.

If you clicked the Palmer Divide link, you would have read about Bald Mountain . . . it appears in two of the following three photos. 

This is where I switched from the Sigma to the Nikon lens and the clouds got more persistent. I switched to the longer lens because I wanted better detail of the grass and snow.

That middle shot looks a little soft to me . . . here are a few more.

The SmugMug Gallery has a few more photos I did not include here because of their similarity to the above.

Here are two more color shots before I appease the people waiting for the B&W conversions.

I know, I know . . . too many photos, your eyes are glazing over, plus, there are words, too!

Anyway, B&W . . . snow scenes are good candidates for B&W conversions. I tried a number of them, all using OnOne’s suite. 

First up, a panorama where I cranked up the brightness and added a bit of glow . . .  

I like the snow losing its detail, highlighting the trees and sky. I played with the next shot for a good while and never quite got to what I envisioned. I had to stop eventually.

I wanted the snow to make more of an impact, but that removed the drama from the sky. However, I did a little better on the next photo . . . or, at least, I think so. 

I thought it was because panoramas, with their lesser detail and larger expanses of snow, are better suited to B&W conversions. Then I converted these two.

The above photos were shot in the span of about ten minutes . . . but it took me an hour to get home.

I was nearly home when I noticed a car in the ditch in the opposite direction from where I live. I turned around and went to see if I could help. A lady had slid off the road and into a deep ditch and it was obvious she did not know how to get out. I got the SUV almost out when another truck stopped to help, and they had a tow strap. That saved some time; between pulling with the strap and judicial application of power, the Cadillac Escalade came out in just a few minutes.  Funny thing . . . I was walking back to my Tahoe when the owner of the Caddy, an older lady, called me back to offer me $20. No, I did not take it. 

Hey, here are a few writing-related cartoons I like:

Also, in view of the ever-more-contentious political mud-slinging . . . 

That cartoon attributes the saying to Twain, but there is no reliable source that I could find confirming Twain said it. There is a similar quote by Emma Goldman: “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.”

Regardless of the attribution, it’s a good thing to keep in mind. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Astute persons might have noticed these doodles, and correctly surmised they hold some significance for me, and perhaps for humanity at large.  

If you click on the doodle, and nothing happens, this is the link it’s supposed to go to: https://disperser.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/palm-vx-and-i/.

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. . .  my FP ward  . . . chieken shit.