I'm Dreaming of a Brown Christmas

 I like the beauty of snow when I am able to hunker down and watch it. What I enjoy more is the freedom of independent movement at the end of December! From the ease of getting to doctor appointments to shopping to checking out the sunrise on the shortest day of the year, this dry start to winter has made my life so much easier.

Solstace Sunrise ar the University of Saskatchewan - 3 by Jay Scott

I used to be so excited about a cold, dry start to winter which brought the possibility of ice fishing on Boxing Day. Due to too much snow on the ice for a lowered floor minivan in the past few years, ice fishing was not going to happen. Now with a shiny new van I do not care to risk damage to it. You may not believe my concern about it as dirty as it is, but with the melt and road spray it seems pointless to wash it. We will see what January brings and how the snow accumulation is on the ice at that time and maybe there will be a few fish caught by us this year.

Solstace Sunrise ar the University of Saskatchewan - 1 by Jay Scott

I was pleased to have the freedom to venture out in a comfortable -12, with camera and tripod on my lap, and get to where I wanted in relative ease. It surprised me how cold it felt for the first few minutes until my brain and autonomic responses managed to signal my body to send forth some blood to my extremities. Once I passed that point and began shooting I was fine, much like when the fish are biting the cold is irrelevant. However, due to limited lower extremity coverings I was cautious to be aware of the temperature of my legs.

Solstace Sunrise ar the University of Saskatchewan - 2 by Jay Scott

I was surprised how slow the sunrise was compared to the opposite time of year. I feared I may miss the optimum light as I travelled to the university but once set up I realized the slower changing of light. Unfortunately, some signals from my body indicating pain made me shut down sooner than I wanted. Turns out I didn't need to warm up, but find a washroom. Much better than frostbite, but I did miss the best light. I went out on Wednesday without expectation aside from the appreciation of the beauty of God's creation and thankfulness of the conditions that I could enjoy it outside of a warm building or vehicle.

A hot coffee with a close friend, right after shooting, warmed up more than my body.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Be safe and enjoy the holidays.

Jay

Saskatoon Skies and Waters

I've been intrigued with time lapse video lately so I thought I would give it a try. Some of the clips in the video below were made with still photos from the old Fujifilm S5100. They tend to be the shorter ones as I had to trigger the shutter manually. Yes, that means me, sitting next to the camera, arm extended, counting to three then pressing the shutter. Repeat 450 times, or until your arm falls off. :)

Thankfully the other clips were made with photos from either the iPod Touch or the D700, both of which have intervalometers built in. That makes it much easier to let the technology do that portion of the work while I enjoy the scene with a coffee and a friend.





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