“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” — Elliott Erwitt
Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.
Sunday, 02/09/2025: Posted photo — Snowshoeing.
We had a little snowfall last night. Only about 7 inches of snow fell. This gave me the opportunity to take my snowshoes out and hike on out property. There were many challenging areas to hike. I when up and down steel hills and through some swampy areas that were frozen over.
I used today to do a test run of my snowshoes. I will bring them with me during my hike tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to use them.
Here are some mountain laurel covered in snow. I saw this during my hike today.
I did not use my snowshoes, just carried them. Since I went the day after the snow, the trails were packed down. I used my microspikes and stayed on the trail. If I was not leading a group, I would have put them on and hiked off the trail. When I am leading a group, I need to be responsible for the fun and safety of all.
Tuesday, 02/11/2025: Posted photo — Snow on Swing.
There was still snow on the swings in our backyard. These swings have not been used for many years. One of our grandnieces was one of the last ones to use them. The photo of the snow on the swings is a photo that I take every year. The weather is going to warm up tomorrow so this may be the last opportunity before the snow next Saturday to take this photo.
I have been doing this project since January 1, 2010. After a while there is repetitiveness in my photos and photography topic. I need to branch out and take more photos of people.
Speaking of creatures of habit, I take a photo of this location often. Besides the moon, this location is my second most photograph location in my project.
A few years back I took a photo on the 6th of the month, every month of every year, at this location to see how it changes. I put a video of my photos together. Let me know if you would like to see it and I can figure out a way to post it in this blog.
Thursday, 02/13/2025: Posted photo — Snow Moon.
This month’s full moon is called the Snow Moon.
There is typically cold and snowy weather in February, so the full moon was given the name snow moon. Storm moon and hunger moon are other common names.
I took this with my 300mm lens, and not my “moon” lens because of the wing. My long “moon” lens is only manual and does not have a stabilizer making it difficult to take photos of the moon in the wind.
Friday, 02/14/2025: Post photo — Icicles.
As the temperature fluctuates, icicles begin to form. These photos were taken in the morning. One is a photo of the icicles on a building, the other of icicles on a handrail.
These were gone later in the day when the temperature rose slightly and the wind picked up.
Saturday, 02/15/2025: Post photo — Looking Up.
Blue sky this morning before the snow tonight. We are expecting several inches of snow, followed by sleet and rain tonight into tomorrow.
“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.” — Don McCullin
Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.
Sunday, 02/02/2025: Posted photo — Bouquet.
A bouquet of flowers in a store today. With the dismal state of the world, higher gas and food prices, shortage of food in the stores, and many people losing their livelihood in the last few weeks, I wanted to start this week with something positive.
Monday, 02/03/2025: Posted photo — Summit Sights.
Today’s hike was messy. Not that it was rainy or anything, the snow was just like mashed potatoes, sticking to the bottom of my microspikes and balling up. I did not know what would be more dangerous, keeping the microspikes on or going bear boot. I decided to keep them on and clear the bottom of them often. As an editorial note: the temperature dropped on Tuesday and the Tuesday night group had not issues with the snow.
The trail I took passed the top of one of the ski trails. I have posted photos of this location in the past. I took this photo just to have one for today.
Also on the summit is a plaque paying tribute to the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and its service in Italy during World War II. This plaque was covered in snow. Next time I am on the summit, and if the plaque is still covered, I will remove the snow. Honorary plaques should not be covered.
Tuesday, 02/04/2025: Posted photo — Succulent.
The word succulent comes from the Latin word sucus, meaning “juice” or “sap”. Succulent plants have thickened stems, or leaves. Succulents may store water in various structures, such as leaves and stems.
This was a succulent that I saw while shopping tonight. There were many items out for St. Valentine’s Day. I keep thinking to myself that if you purchased flowers or other items this week, or when the first arrived in the stores, they would die before St. Valentine’s Day arrived.
Wednesday, 02/05/2025: Posted photo — Sunflower.
There is no reason that I posted this photo of a sunflower that I took today. When I saw it, I wanted to practice making a HDR photos using only one photo in GIMP. I have made single photo HDRs in Paint Shop Pro, but I am moving away from that program and using GIMP more.
This is the results of my experiment. Enjoy.
Thursday, 02/06/2025: Posted photo — Tracks.
Snow fell this afternoon, so I took this opportunity to walk to and from work so that I did not have to drive home on bad roads. I have used my new shoeshoes only once. When I got them, I took a loop around our property. Every time that I was going to hike with them, the conditions were not correct. They were mostly conditions for the use of microspikes or crampons, too much ice and not enough snow.
My new snowshoesMy snowshoe tracksRabbit tracks
These photos are from my walk home. There is a photo of one of my snowshoes (if I took a photo of both, my shadow would be in the photo), my snowshoe tracks, and the tracks of a wild rabbit. I have seen deer tracks, bear tracks, coyote tracks, and what I think were mountain lion tracks in the past. Today I only saw rabbit tracks.
It was good to finally test out my snowshoes. I may use them on Wachusett on Monday since there is a prediction of almost a foot of snow in this area on Sunday.
Friday, 02/07/2025: Post photo — Puddle.
For my photo challenge this week, I am to take a photo of a reflection in a puddle. The problem this week was that we did not have many puddles. Most of them were frozen over. Today there was a brief period of melt, but the wind was blowing. I was able to take this photo of clouds in a puddle. I am not happy with it. You just have to take with Mother Nature gives you. At least I have a photo that fits this week’s topic.
Saturday, 02/08/2025: Post photo — Competition.
Today I competed in a cubing event for the first time. The event took place at the school our son teaches so it was a great opportunity to do so. We have been to many comps over the years and our son’s friends keep asking us if we can solve. We say “yes”, and then they ask if we compete, we say “no”.
I took the plunge. I did not finish last, just next to last to someone that did not complete all their solves.
My name tagMy first offical scorecardNon-consistant on the 2x2x2
Today I competed in the 3x3x3 and the 2x2x2 events. I have posted my times below. For the 2x2x2, there were three solves when I thought I was solving the cube and it looked to me that nothing had happened. I gave up on one. Some of my son’s friends were laughing at me because they saw something that I should have done.
“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” — Andy Warhol
Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.
Sunday, 01/26/2025: Posted photo — Something Old.
Photo challenge of the week — Something old.
Many have posted old house, jewelry, or other items. I have posted a Cub Scout award that my brother received back in the 1960’s. My brother would have aged out of Cub Scouts in 1961 making this 64 years old. I have this memento to remember him along with some other items from his youth and his time in the Peace Corps in the late 1960’s.
Monday, 01/27/2025: Posted photo — Sunset.
This was taken just as is leaving the office. The colors were past peak but still wonderful to see this time of year. This was the first opportunity that I had to take a sunset photo as I was leaving work. As the days get longer, I am looking forward to getting on the local mountain and seeing the sunset from the summit.
Tuesday, 01/28/2025: Posted photo — Garlic.
Another shopping day. I tend to do my grocery shopping on Tuesday nights. The only time I do not is when I go hiking with the Tuesday night hiking group.
Garlic can reduce the severity of common cold symptoms, helping manage cholesterol and blood pressure, boosting heart health, and reducing the risk of liver injury.
Wednesday, 01/29/2025: Posted photo — Sunrise.
We had a few inches of light, fluffy snow last night. It was snowing off and on during the day with little more accumulation that in the morning. Since there was overcast sky this morning, the sun was just poking through the clouds.
I also took this photo of the flag against the snow. The flag was changed today since the high winds of the last few days had torn it.
Thursday, 01/30/2025: Posted photo — Boots.
Went to a new store near us. It was called the Boot Barn. I wanted to go into see if they had any hiking boots. They did not (not that I saw).
When I walked into the store, I felt like I was back in Houston Texas. The store was full of cowboy boots and hats. It did have some work boots, but most of the store had the ranch theme. I do not know how long the store will be there since there are not many ranchers in our area, but I did find the price of the shoes and hats as expected.
I thought of my niece and her children when I saw these boots. She lives in Washington state and lives on a farm with her family. She loves cowboy boots and pink.
Friday, 01/31/2025: Post photo — Blue Sky.
This week’s theme is blue. We had some snow last night and the sun was out today. I took a photo of the blue sky. Nice contrast between the snow, trees, and the sky.
Saturday, 02/01/2025: Post photo — Flowers.
Some flowers to close out this tiring week. Been editing procedures this week at work and have not gotten much sleep.
Photo by Joseph Ciras 