This is my last icy tree photo from the Experimental Farm. It's also my favorite. I call it "Cold Comfort". I like the shapes made by the frosty branches and tree trunk against the sky.

I'm stuck in a deep and seemingly endless rut where my work schedule won't allow me to see sunlight or eat, much less spend time with my husband, cats or camera. I'm afraid there won't be any new photos until the weekend unless something unexpected happens... It's not unheard of, but I won't hold my breath.

Here's another icy tree photo from our cold and wet excursion to the Experimental Farm. There was moss growing on this tree. I was hoping that the greens and yellows would be more vivid, but as it stands the moss was barely visible in the photo. This one actually ended up looking better in monochrome.

No time for a photo journey today, though I may take a few more shots of the orchid later while it still has flowers! I have a few more winter tree photos from the Experimental Farm to post... but today I thought I'd post the last of my icicle photos. I was amazed by how crystal clear this icicle was. In real life, I could see right through it. I was almost expecting to view my photos on the computer and find the icicle invisible!

Today is a special day. Not only is it New Year's Eve, it is also the 1 year anniversary of the day I bought my DSLR. One year and ~13700 shutter clicks later, I hope I'm a better photographer. If nothing else, it has been fun.

It snowed all day today... not really a blizzard, just fat flakes falling relentlessly. I had to wrap the camera in my toque to avoid getting it wet between shots. We walked to the Experimental Farm, where I took quite a few photos this fall. Different seasons bring different subject matter. In the fall, about 90% of my Experimental Farm photos were taken with the 50mm lens, and the other 10% split between the macro and the Lensbaby. Today I put the 50mm on the camera and brought the new 70-200mm zoom in case there were any birds to be photographed. As it turns out, I spent much of the day wishing for the wide angle and the macro. There was too much distracting background material in the fall to take wide angle shots... now the trees have lost their leaves and the corn fields have been replaced by a clean blanket of white snow. Everything is much more open. The trees are encrusted in ice and snow - perfect fodder for the macro lens. Nonetheless, the best lens is the one that you have with you and know how to use... and the 50 is a versatile little gem. Here is one of the icy trees I managed to photograph. I might return later on this week with a different selection of lenses, weather and life permitting.

Another day off, another photo journey. This time, we set out for Fitzroy, Ontario. We somehow managed to leave home even later than yesterday. We got lost on the way to Fitzroy, and got the car stuck soon after arriving at the Provincial Park. By the time we got the car unstuck, we had pretty much missed the sunset. There was a long trek down to the water, where we stood around and froze for a while before deciding there was really nothing interesting to photograph.

Cold and dejected, we started to trudge back to the car. The path was illuminated by the almost-full moon in a clear sky. My fingers felt like they were about to fall off, but I couldn't resist stopping for some long-exposure shots. This one was taken with my new lens.

This is an apt photo to be posting today, as there will be a blue moon tomorrow. Apparently, a blue moon occurs on New Year's Eve only every 19 years.

I finally have a few days off from work and was desperate to take a photo journey. I have seen quite a few patients from Cornwall, Ontario, and was curious about the place. Since it's situated right on the St. Lawrence River, I figured there would be something interesting to photograph there. Unfortunately, in typical Graem and Andrea style, we did not leave the house until after 1pm. Then, we had a bunch of drawn-out and mundane errands to run before hitting the road. The days are getting longer now, but not by that much. We raced toward Cornwall as the sun raced toward he horizon. We realized that we were destined to lose the race, so made a detour to Morrisburg. I tried looking up Morrisburg, Ontario on Google Maps, but alas it does not exist there. I was redirected to South Dundas, which is somewhat north of Morrisburg, and not on the St. Lawrence.

The temperature today was -20 degrees Celsius. It is probably the coldest day we have had so far this winter. For someone who grew up on the prairies, -20 is really not that cold. It sure seemed cold, though, with the wind coming right off of the water. It was not a good photography day for me. I was hoping to try out the new lens (a 70-200mm f2.8 zoom). I had it set on manual focus from the last time I had used it, and forgot to switch it back to auto. Most of my shots with it were blurry... which actually didn't matter since I couldn't compose a decent shot to save my life today. Partly it can be blamed on the cold, but partly my concentration was just all over the place.

Luckily the wide-angle rescued the day (yet again). As sunset turned into night, I brought out the tripod and took some long exposures. A couple were actually decent. One is posted here, and one is on Red Bubble.

It is supposed to be warmer for the rest of the week. I'm posting this at 5am and I haven't been to bed yet... but I hope to haul my carcass out early tomorrow and find somewhere interesting to go.

Today I'm about to break two of the rules I've established so far for this blog: Number 1: No posting photos taken by other people. This just seems like cheating to me. I've been tempted to post photos taken by Graem before (kind of a guest-blogger thing, just like some webcomics occasionally have guest artists). I've always managed to avoid the temptation. I was going to post one of his frog photos, but found them underexposed when I went to convert them to JPEG. I was going to post a macro shot he took of the spindles on our back door... but I just never got around to it. That one still might turn up one day. Rule Number 2 (the hardest for me not to break): Thou shalt not blog like a kitten parent. Let's face it... I am a kitten parent. And a proud one at that.

Moosh has always loved Christmas. Maybe it's something about the catnip toys, the special treats in his food dish, or all of the boxes, bows and wrapping paper he gets to investigate. This year we had very little of that, but it didn't seem to matter. The excitement of Christmas was enough to make Moosh (a cat who sleeps 90% of the rest of the year) tear around the house meowing, fuzzy tail raised sky-high. This is Moosh's tenth Christmas, and it seems like every year we have a "Christmas Moosh" photo... one that manages to capture all of his exuberance and life. This year Graem got that photo (those are my legs in the background). Without further ado, I give you Christmas Moosh 2009. Here's to many more.

Here's yet another icicle photo... At first I thought the roof in the background was distracting, but the more I look at it, the more I think it actually adds something to the picture. The icicles are getting more interesting every day. It has been melting the past few days, and today there is freezing rain. I took some interesting shots a couple of days ago which are still sitting on the camera. Hopefully a few turned out!

Here's another icicle photo. I was pretty enthralled by the detail on the tip of this 'ice talon' (probably best viewed big). This is one of the few photos of it that didn't come out blurry. I hope my icicle photos don't get tiresome. Truth be told, I only have a couple more to post. My work schedule won't let me take any new photos until Dec. 28 at the earliest. I've taken another look at my snowboard binding macros and deemed the rest unpostable. Maybe I'm just in a picky mood. Assuming I don't change my mind, I'll post my remaining icicle photos in the coming days, and maybe a Red Bubble reject if I find one I deem worthy. Other than that, there might be a brief hiatus until I have a chance to take more photos.

I hope that some of you people out there in Internet Land have a few days off from work/school and manage to enjoy the holidays!

Time stands still for no one. But at this time of year, it certainly seems to. This is another of my icicle macro photos. I thought it quite suitable for posting on the longest night of the year.