“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” — Jim Richardson

Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.

Sunday, 01/18/2026: Posted photo — Cold Sky.

Why did I take a photo of the Sun without a filter on my camera? The sun was filtered by a layer of clouds that contained snow. Sometimes when you see the Sun in the cold sky, there is a rainbow or a sundog. Today there was just the Sun. I looked up in the morning and saw nature’s filter and took this photo. This photo is an example of minimization, or one subject and much empty space.

Monday, 01/19/2026: Posted photo — Snow on Wood.

It was snowing again today. For two out of the last three days, we had snow. Not heavy snow, or light snow, just good snowshoeing snow. I seem to be always drawn to snow on this old pile of logs in our yard. One of these days, I will get my wood splitter fixed and move these old logs to the cottage.

Tuesday, 01/20/2026: Posted photo — Old Stone Church.

The Old Stone Church in West Boylston MA was built in the early 1890s to replace the Baptist church which had been lost in a fire. About 10 years later, it had to be abandoned for the creation of the Wachusett Reservoir. In 1974 the roof and parts of the walls collapsed due to neglect.

Today there is a roof on the structure, and the walls are braced against collapse. Weddings for under 25 people are held at the church now. The church is just a shell inside and is an interesting piece of architecture. I have visited the church many times over the years. I visited before the roof was on and after the roof was installed.

What I like about this photo is the contrast of the flag against the white background. What a wonderful day with new fallen snow and a bright blue sky.

Wednesday, 01/21/2026: Posted photo — Winter Scene.

I do not have much to say about this photo. Just a wintery scene in which I am using minimalist composition. Minimalist composition is not the topic of this week’s photo challenge. The topic is Get High, or take a photo from an elevated perspective, looking down on a subject.

Topic photo coming later this week.

Thursday, 01/22/2026: Posted photo — Sunflower.

This is a HDR photo of a sunflower. HDR is a term that some photographers cringe at. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. HDR is a technique that exposes details in the brightest and darkest parts of photographs. It is also known as bracketing or exposure blending.

This is a single photo HDR of the sunflower. When I normally create my HDR photos, I use exposure bracketing. I take a minimum of three photos, usually five photos: overexposing one or two, under exposing one or two, and taking one at normal exposure. The amount of under or over exposure depends on the lighting of my subject at the time of the photo.

Friday, 01/23/2026: Post photo — The State of the Nation.

Some people will say this is the current state of the nation.

Saturday, 01/24/2026: Post photo — View from Above.

This is the view from our roof looking down at our vehicles. I was up on the roof to clean off the top of our wood stove stack before we left for a cubing event. As stated earlier in the week, this is the topic of this week’s photo project. There is a prediction of almost two feet of snow in our area starting tomorrow night into Monday afternoon. I will be hiking to work on Monday.

The cubing event is at BART in Adams, MA. I am looking out the window at a clear sky with a great view of Mount Graylock, the tallest peak in Massachusetts. Mount Graylock has an elevation of 3,489 ft [1063 m] and is located at an azimuth of 279° from the summit of Wachusett Mountain.

That is all for now. Until next week, be safe.

“Sumens imagines consolateur et inspirat me. Pulchritudinem mundi video per camera mean.”

“Quod scripsi, scripsi. Ingeniarius sum, non scriptor.”

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