Guest Blogger’s Response to Yesterday’s Waiting for Spring Post
Okay Aunt Bobbie (the one who gave Anna the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls). Bobbie saw my almost Spring post of the flowering pear trees and then sent me a photo for the blog today. YIKES!
I was so hopeful. Just when I was thinking of how the earth will warm up and the buds and blossoms will burst. I was counting the days until Spring, ready for the winter to be OVER!
I love it when someone is inspired by my photos on the blog, though. Even if it is a snow photos. Well more that just any snow photo.
21 inches of snow in Kansas City in a week!!!
(Chicago John, this one is for YOU, too!) For everyone shoveling and plowing and hopeful that it will just all go away….and SOON.
(Rob, you must be so glad you moved out of Northern Illinois to Florida this year. Kristin, how was Hawaii? Sue, you enjoying Spring training in Bradenton?)
Thanks Bobbie for the photo today. Where are the crocus?
A p.s. to Aunt Bobbie’s picture
Two more responses, this time from faithful blog reader ROB
writes to
Ruth,
Brrrrrr.
Reminds me of a song that my Music Monday Maestro might find….
“Button up your overcoat, when the winds are free. Take good care of yourself, you belong to me.”
I Drove Home in a Snow Globe
and of course, returned to the park. It’s just blocks from my house. And the light was low, the visibility poor. A stark and magnificent beauty in the midst of the storm.
What were the trees doing today? One day winter, one day Spring, one day freezing and dark, one day a warm sun but a chill in the wind. I wanted to see the branches outlined in snow. The dark branches highlighted with the new fallen snow. Actually, falling snow.
I was rewarded with a stunning winter scene, just before dusk.
It had started to snow while I was at school. The sky heavy and gray. Big big flakes. Melting on the street as it was 38 degrees. I drove home in a snow globe.
Oh yes, today I got out of the car, scared off a squirrel and photographed the snowy park bench and my favorite tree. The sounds muffled by the new snow, barely sticking to the road but highlighting the curved lines.
these are unretouched color photographs
Two roads diverged….
Home to tea. Homemade spaghetti and cheese, steamed broccoli. Leftover fortune cookie and a mandarin orange. Winter.
Tree in Snow, Tree in Sun
Another in my winter tree series. Actually I drove through the park today and the snow is gone. See the tree below.
I wanted to post the trees in silhouette, though and the sinking sun behind the trunk.
It ‘s the warmth of the sun on the snow that appeals to me.
My drives through the park after school on my way home have help me appreciate the beauty of the winter.
A different tree but this is the angle of the sun at the time I was driving into the entrance of Highland Park.
Today on the way home, the car thermometer read 63 degrees. Here’s what my trip into the park yielded Monday afternoon. Find the car to check the scale of the tree. Because of the mottled peeled bark, I believe it’s a giant sycamore. Long shadows and blue sky with pretty clouds made it feel like April.
Dog Walker and a Snowy Tree
Scroll down for the crop with the dog walker and his dogs in the distance. Didn’t see him when I shot the photo.
Another color photograph that looks black and white. Shot with a EF Canon 50mm 1.2L Lens- 500 ISO f/16, 125 shutter. Wish I had tried a few more settings at the time but wanted to get home.
Thursday the temperature is to be in the 50′s. Unusual fluctuation- one day twenties and snow and ice, another day about zero, now up to sixty?
Something feels off.
Old Trees New Trees on a Winter Path
After school I drove into Highland Park, right near my home. I’d taken a series of black and white photos for a film class years ago in this same spot and still have a print on my wall.
With the new snow today, I thought it might look interesting but the light was low and the sky thick and gray.
Found some new trees planted along the path, though.
I plan to return in the Spring.
There weren’t many dog walkers or walkers or runners or any activity in the park. The Super Playground deserted and covered with snow and ice. No bicycles. The fountain turned off. The reservoir a layer of ice. The sounds muffled with the snow, but barely a car driving around the circle today.
It’s in color but almost looks black and white.
Got Bridges?
Just a few. Here are some bridges that cross the Allegheny River. Since I showed the one closed yesterday, it seemed to make sense to post a shot of more bridges.
If you want to read about Pittsburgh Bridges, click here .
Taken from Mount Washington, Duquesne Incline observation deck just last week.
And the Tenth Street Bridge in the Tom Cruise movie (Jack Reacher) isn’t in this shot but here
It’s Cold Outside!
This is the first meal I ate in Zagreb when I visited Matty. I must have had the spoon in my hand when I took the photo?
Thought this bowl of hot soup looked inviting for this way below freezing January night. I shot all those vacation pics with a Canon 20D and I miss that camera. The shutter eventually failed and I even had it repaired but it failed again. I just liked that camera.
Family of Four Walking at Alum Creek Dam
Hard to see them in the first photo.
My daughter -in- law was driving and I was the passenger. Shot from a moving van. They are walking above the Alum Creek Reservoir.
Oh there they are!
The Mill on a Winter Night 2012
I have posted photographs of the mill at night before, and in the winter the leaves are off the trees so I can get a nice shot from West Mifflin hill, near VistaView Street. I think there are four Christmas light decorations on it this time.
This photo is looking across the Monongahela River to Braddock.
Many family members of blog followers have worked in the mills of Pittsburgh. This is the last mill.
Click to see the earlier view from the blog in April 2010. I liked reading that post because my friend Dorothy H. wrote a comment on the blog post about a poem she wrote in response to another mill photo I took. The mill is endlessly fascinating to me, the smoke always different shapes. The cloud cover affecting the light at night. The snow. The darkness.
I remember a class in photography suggested to return to the same subject, a different season, a different time of day, but the same location. Close to it.
Guess I am doing that assignment again and again.
and this view is farther up the hill, with the naked trees on the right.
Mark Tests My New Remote Cable Release in the Snow
Here I am in snowy Ohio and I didn’t pack boots to come out here for Christmas vacation. Must have been lulled by all that Spring like weather we were having in December.
Mark is the guest blogger cause when he got home at ten Saturday night he showed me a photo he had taken with his phone of the Christmas lights in the snow. I asked him to go back out for me and take one for the blog.
So he took out my camera(Canon 5D with a 50mm lens) and the new remote cable release that just got delivered via UPS and it was set at ISO 400 f.1.4. 1/60 shutter. I thought the result was excellent . First time using a cable remote and now he knows how to reduce camera shake. Tripod in the back of the freezing car and no way we’re setting up unless the snow stops falling.
Thanks Mark. Maybe tomorrow night I will borrow Erika’s boots and trudge around in the snow.
Red Pears by Candlelight
This winter will be the winter of photography by candlelight. I mean you have to have a plan. Try something new. Challenge yourself. The early darkness seems a good opportunity to light candles and experiment with low light. Bought some red pears. They don’t look red in this photo but my goal is to not manipulate the images. Find the right white balance. Not going to poach these orbs in wine or make a pear tart. I’ll pack them in my lunch bag for school and slurp their refreshing juice at the end of my lunchtime – hurriedly before period 8 starts.
Will be doing some more candlelight images and dm looking for some human volunteers for portraits by candlelight, right in my dining room.
Someone Left a Fake Fur in the Snow
White snow on white fur. Too bright, the reflected light. But what looks like just a pile of snow is some white fake fur puddled on the sidewalk as I got out of the car to go into school Monday morning.
Close up of the white fur with snow on top.
Distant View Through a Chain Link Fence- Close, Closer and Closest
Drove by and it was a blur through the chain link fence.
(Don’t worry, Steve was driving. I was the passenger.)
What do you think these are?
Guess no one flew South. Read that the Canada Goose is now a year round creature of urban environments. And the plural is Canada Geese- not Canadian Geese. You probably already knew that, Mary Lynn!
Winter River from 40th Street Bridge
And the birds flew up into the shot. I was wishing I had taken my new fingerless gloves from Christmas. Just left the Millvale Post Office (no line!) to mail Joanne’s Christmas box I’d been driving around for three weeks. And the cards that each needed an additional 5 cent stamp. As I came back over the Allegheny I saw the light stream down onto the city. Pulled into the Bus Stop indentation at the end of the bridge, put the flashers on and walked to the center. Fortunately the light was still there. Could have used a filter, too, but it was a stunning late afternoon in winter. Could feel the bridge vibrate as I stood out on the walkway.
All I needed was a barge to come up or down the river. Not today.
Shopping Cart in the Snow
Guess they couldn't get it up those snowy steps
Sunflowers in the Snow
Near the Bloomfield Post Office, these flowers caught my eye. I had just mailed a package to my DIL in Ohio. I told the clerk I was mailing the hat I had just finished knitting. ”Did you ever read The Knitting Circle.” she asked. ”Never heard of it”, I replied . She stepped back and reached under the different envelopes and pulled out the book.(author Ann Hood) I asked, “Do you knit?” ”No. But reading this book makes me want to”
I told her about Natural Stitches Knitting Store in East Liberty by Staples and Trader Joe’s, the little strip mall where Phar-Mor used to be. 
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