Ice fishing is not as popular in Iowa as it is in Minnesota. But there are some fans, and several weekends ago when we were hiking around Coralville Lake and Lake Macbride, we saw some of the tents. When we were coming back towards the end of the day, the fisherman were preparing to leave their positions as well. I found the spot and was waiting for those to to position themselves against the sunset sun for this image.

When I took two images combined in the post photograph, I was not completely sure, what the result I want to achieve. The depth of field was very shallow, and I took one focused on the grass, and one focused on the rock. I combined them in Orton-type effect, which gave me this dreamy look. You almost see how the grass moves with the wind. But it was not all. I wanted some more, so I went for split-tone, spending some time balancing exact colors I liked.

I took this image a couple of weekends ago. We were walking along the lake not far from our home. We wanted to take some photographs of small waterfalls where the lake meets another reservoir, but it was frozen and not impressive at all. In the meantime, it was getting close to sunset, and I saw not only the amazing clouds on the sky, but also the sunset colors showing through the trees. I snapped several images, I loved what I saw, but it turned out to be a challenge to achieve the same effect on the photograph.

I am coming back to this image. I cannot pinpoint what it is that draws me to it. I would wish the boat was closer, bigger, more in focus. But as it is, you still know it is there, and your eye goes there. And I like how the trees frame the part of the lake around the boat. And all this lush green- it was wet, thus really green summer on Midwest this year! Bye, bye summer. I am up for some autumn photographs.

This marine is just few minutes away from my house (and few others, in different directions ), but I have to admit I never noticed this station before. It caught my eye this time, with regular pattern of bays and the red details on pumps. And blue background of the lake behind it.

I was just wondering what to post today. I had this photo of trees and snow on my mind, which by itself did not look too interesting. And then I remembered this thing shown first by Daryl Benson (in November 2008 issue of Outdoor Photographer) and then refined by Jeff Revell on his blog. I unfortunately don’t have my own supplies of textures (first 2009 project?), but luckily everything is somewhere on the net. Thanks for this paper to 2textured.com. This particular paper had gradient of color toward the center of the photo, where the branches are thicker, which provided some additional light to the middle part. Sepia added some warmth, but you can still feel the winter mood and this calmmess.

To walk off some of Christmas overeating, we went off to re-visit the Raptor Center, not far away from the place we live. It is a part of Macbride Nature  Recreation Area. The weather was rather stable, which is not happening often recently. I was counting on the some opportunities to photograph birds. I didn’t took into consideration how troublesome the cages might be, but not being pressed by time helped and I could make many photograph until I was happy with the results. The other aim was to make a short photo essay, by choosing from all the photographs only four, which will tell the story of the place. It was hard to pick up certain photos above the others, maybe that’s why the limit of 4 is suggested as an exercise. I had many photos of different bird species- owls, kestrels, hawks, eagles. There is also a bird blind with its variety, and ubiquitous here deers… But after some consideration, I made my picks.

During the night photo session some time ago, we ended up in the boat ramp. There was a nice view not only on the lake, but also on the road bridge. There were cars going in both directions quite often, but not at the same time . Simple Blending in Photoshop connected the white and red lights into one composition.

It’s a different species of grass, but equally suitable for a photograph, and with no sunset glow this time.