Day 323 - Colourful Chaos

After two days of intensive training at work, and then hours of fighting to revive my home computer, I was exhausted.  I had a different subject in mind than what I'm posting here.

I was on the phone with my friend Swati, when I saw these gorgeous colours in the sky.  I knew I wouldn't get a good shot because I had no time to change into outdoor clothes and then leave home to find a proper location for a shot.  Therefore, I had almost resigned myself to not taking the shot, but gave in to Swati's urging to go capture the sunset.  And so I did!

I lost time when I tried to change the lens on my camera and the beautiful light was slipping really fast, as is usually the case for sunsets or sunrises.  So, I just dropped the idea of putting the camera on the tripod and had to use a faster shutter speed.  This led me to add a stop of light in post-processing.  I haven't touched the image otherwise.

The striations in the sky were much more pronounced when I looked at the sky initially.  I missed the opportunity to capture that.  Furthermore, it took me a while to try to make some sense out of the chaos of barren trees silhouetted against the fiery sky, and the ceiling of the balcony that I wanted to frame the shot with.

Day 184 - Arc en ciel

I had decided not to touch my camera today - exhausted after a night of very little sleep.  I was relaxing on the couch, after I got home when my son alerted me to the colour of the sky.  And not only was the camera lifted, but the lens was changed in record time, coat donned, feet slipped into running shoes, and the shoes were running away with the feet in probably less than two minutes of witnessing the light outside my window - there was a huge rainbow!

On my way home I had seen the heavy, dark clouds with a tear in them and the sun shone through it and lit everything up with a strange, iridescent light.   I knew that if I were in my right mind, I should go out.  But that's the thing - I wasn't in my right mind.  I was so tired, I had almost dozed off on the couch.  Had it not been my son asking me to look out of the window, I would never have known.  If my son has identified a photo op, then it's gotta be real good!  Normally, he just couldn't be bothered, because he doesn't quite figure out why I do what I do, every day!

Anyway, to cut long story short, I ran out to try and shoot the rainbow, since I've tried and failed to produce a good shot in the past.  This occasion was no different.  By the time I fiddled around with the settings, it was reduced to a blur! :(  But on turning back to return home, I was rewarded with the most incredibly red sky that I have ever seen!  I took a couple of pictures of that, and headed back home as it had started to drizzle, and I was bitterly cold having gone out without socks or gloves - and the temperature definitely felt sub-zero with the wind and the moisture.

These shots are SOOC.

Day 153 - Boulder Bay

While on another walk by the riverside, I discovered this boulder in the river, and then as I got closer to it I found a little inlet (if I can even call it that) by the shoreline.  So, now my name for that little hidden cove (my imagination does make it sound exotic, doesn't it!) is Boulder Bay!  

So, I stood by boulder bay just breathing in the cooling autumn air and scents and realized that the moon was reflecting on the tranquil waters of the St. Lawrence.  I have very rarely seen the water as tranquil as it was this evening.  Since I was only armed with my 18-55 mm lens, I stood there and tried different perspectives.  I have a few other shots that came out pretty well, but I will have to take my time to sort through them.

Day 151 - Abandoned boat

I found this canoe next to the river, in a really deep part of the woods on my evening walk.  I processed this in Lightroom 3.

Day 93 - Another spectacular dusk, but I was in a hurry

Taken with the 55 mm end of my telephoto lens.  Missing the wide angle view.

I tried to blur the main subject her and kept a small part of the foreground in focus.  

Day 73 - Playing tourist

Most noteworthy event for the day was that I finally managed lens flare and used it to create a star (photo #5)!