Final Winter Drive and More Fiona

 

  Boffins Club Gazebo in Winter HDR by Jay Scott on 500px

Optimistically I included in the title of this post the word final. The last couple of days of warm weather, bright sunshine and receding snow and ice has made a lot of people feel a lot better about the eventual spring. As Angie has cautiously pointed out, we certainly could get more snow and another good dose of winter but at least the next week of highs well above zero should mostly clear off the roads and start the shrinking of the snow banks around the city.

 

  Innovation Place Pine Cones by Jay Scott on 500px

This last photo drive was actually a photo walk/wheel as I braved about -10°C to actually get out of the van, make some photos even with a little auxiliary light and breathe the fresh air. It felt good to be out and it didn't even take all day for my legs to warm back up. What caught my attention most of all was how absolutely quiet it was. How much time have I spent in this exact spot enjoying the scenery, the sounds and smells of this place? A lot but almost all of it was in the spring, summer and fall when many of the nice water features and wildlife sounds are consistently impacted by the running of air conditioners on the roofs of all of the big buildings around the area. It was very refreshing to get out by myself, not see a single person and just smell the smells of winter and the pine nearby.

 

  Innovation Place Pine Cone by Jay Scott on 500px

In past years when I've wanted to get out and do some photos during the winter I've often shied away because of the great limitations I have of where I can get by vehicle, but especially by foot/chair. After finding what I had found this year I feel a little bit braver and have a few more ideas of where might be suitable, and safe, for me to go independently next winter. I'm not certain I want to think that far ahead as I have spring on the brain but getting out and just giving it a try got my wheels turning in my head.

My good friend, Paul, and his girls made good use of the pond-turned-rink this winter. The one time they were there entirely by themselves in the evening, spotlights on the ice and classical music playing overhead. If we get a nice warm evening next winter I would really like to have a photo shoot down there, by that ice with some people having a blast skating under the gazebo and around the island. If it isn't that warm we could fire up the fire pit they always have stocked with plenty of firewood and include that as part of the shoot.

Finally, what post would be complete without yet another of our lovely daughter? Her hair is coming in so nicely, so soft and fuzzy. I knew I had to make a creative photo out of those glistening golden-red strands. So, making the most of the smiles she had available to me we made a nice creative photo of her with some purple hair. I was reminded that this photo might be enough precedent for me to not be upset if she decides to die her hair purple when she is a little bit older. All I will need to do is to remind her how in style vibrantly colored hair was when this photo was made and that should squash her idea. :-)

 

  Fuzzy-Haired Daughter by Jay Scott on 500px

Boffins Club - Last Warm Evening of 2014

I know the possibility exists that we will have another few warm evenings this year. But warm evenings, that are calm and comfortable enough for a couple of quadriplegics? I'm not so sure.

I'm not sure that the photos I made that night with Paul's company are that breathtaking but it was just great to be out in such a nice area, so nicely lit and populated by such nice people. It would've been nice to just sit down by the pond but to be chatting while the long exposures were being made just fit my description of a perfect evening.

I have seen some really nice work by a fellow local photographer in this area. I communicated with him a bit and determined that they do not close the gates at the Boffins Club at night. Maybe they do later on, but they were still open would we left there after 9 PM.

Seeing his work made me decide I needed to get there before the end of the nice weather but I needed to arrive with an idea. An idea that I hadn't already seen him capably execute. If you are on Instagram I highly recommend following him. His handle is @thecinnamon. Some great work with some aerial photography thanks to his quadcopter and a clear creative and technical understanding of what he's doing.

 

  Boffins Club Koi by Jay Scott on 500px

Of course my idea involves defaulting to what I'm good at, off-camera flash. It took a little bit of tweaking but I managed to get a few shots with the Koi in the photo, illuminated by the flash I had aimed at the water. I even forgot to bring the bread crumbs I was going to to lure them into the right spot. I think enough people have fed them this year that when they see humans they come looking and expecting treats. It sure was interesting to watch them shoot away every time that flash fired. That's one of the reasons  you will see the streaks in the water from the leaves that were moving the entire time of the 20+ second exposure, while the slow-moving fish were not to be seen as streaks because they took off so very quickly.

The last shot was just simply taking five minutes to move the tripod 10 feet one direction (Paul and I were pondering our jealousy of how quickly an able-bodied person could have picked that tripod up, rotated 90°, and set it down where they wanted it while it took us five minutes) to make a photo he thought looked like something out of Hansel and Gretel.

 

  Boffins Club on a Hot Autumn Evening by Jay Scott on 500px

I must say that I've been enjoying doing some more scenic type photography. In my mind I feel optimistic about trying to do more of this in the winter but we will see what happens. There may be a few more less inspiring shots made out of the window of my van where it's a little bit warmer, unless getting around is easy and I'm feeling motivated.