The sun finally broke through the clouds for the first time in days, and I decided I needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. Walking a different route from the last time I was out, I headed to the schoolyard to find some inspiration.
Common Reed
In a marshy area at the bottom of the hill, there is a tall group of reeds. In the summer months, red-winged blackbirds love this area. They are a great subject to photograph when the sky is nicely lit like it was this afternoon.
Fern Leaf
Just up by the hill, I found a fuzzy green fern with some ice and water droplets on it. I focused on only one of the leaves so that the droplets were nice and sharp. When I was processing the photo I wanted to take out the colour so that focus remained only on that one leaf.
Male Cardinal
When I crossed over the road and onto my usual path by the creek, I spotted a pair of cardinals. They were playing hide and seek in the trees so getting a clear shot was tough. This is the best I could get before they flew away. Maybe next time they won’t be as shy.
All that beautiful snow is gone again as temps go up. This means that well-travelled paths are now more on the icy side with muddy patches. It doesn’t make for the best hiking conditions.
But that didn’t stop me from heading over to Claireville for a quick hike and for some reason I decided to take the forest trail. This trail was a path of ice with a layer of water on top. Now, I do own a pair of Yaktrax which give some grip on the ice, which although helpful at times, didn’t always give me the traction I hoped for. I tended to choose the muddy terrain over the ice if it was possible. Otherwise it was a slow slip and slide type of situation down the path.
I arrived at the park later in the day and the light was amazing. The glow coming through the trees was a beautiful golden colour. I think I stopped way too many times and photographed similar shots as the one above. This always makes for problems in post processing as I can’t always decided which one to edit.
Some areas didn’t have much ice at all. Which was surprising as usually on forest trails the snow and ice are the last to melt.