More of same

Back to the minus 30s the last couple of days, with the usual windchill kicking us into the minus 40s for how it feels. "They" claim we will be up to about minus 5, albeit possibly with wind and snow, by Wednesday, so I am planning a photo shoot with a herd of Clydesdales east of the city that I have just learned about. I'll have my grandson with me that day (yet another of the inexplicable "no school" days) so he'll bring his camera as well and I'm sure a good time will be had by all. I'm particularly fond of the heavy horse breeds, so it will be a treat to get to know some new ones.

I did manage a number of photo shoots over the past week, both in the milder and not so mild weather. I have to say that humidity makes a huge difference in how temperatures affect us. The day that I did the shots while it was snowing was relatively warm (in the single digits below zero), but there was quite a strong wind and the humidity was high (well, it *was* snowing, although the two don't always go together, oddly) and it was really pretty painful being out there. My hands were colder after a few minutes of that shoot than they would have been in the minus 20s with no humidity. We always joke about the cold in Saskatchewan being a *dry* cold, but honestly, it's a good thing. Same with our extreme heat in summer--very seldom do we have any sort of humidity with it, so it's a lot easier to tolerate. I feel for the poor souls who have to deal with the extremes at either end when high humidity is also factored in. Not something I would want to try to handle. 

Today's shots are a grab-bag of the past week. I have done some interesting new (and rather strange) art photomontages in the last while, but there are limits to how many pictures I can show with any given post and I'm already at my limit here. I'll show them another time or perhaps will have them up on my photo website soon--it's getting really close to being ready at last. I just need to figure out how to work out the categories and the sorting out of uploading, then I should be good to go. 

First shot shows a couple of the horses being led into the barn in the afternoon. They've been out in their paddocks and turnouts since before seven in the morning, and on the really cold days are usually pretty darn happy to come in to the warm barn, their afternoon feed, and a cosy stall for the night. Blankets or no blankets are the choice of the owners. The unblanketed horses grow extra heavy coats that serve them well, but they can get quite sweaty while being worked as a result. If you blanket your horse from the beginning of the fall (I'm a blanket person myself) you can minimize the hair growth and the blanket makes up the difference when they are outside. I have an extensive collection of blankets for Alpac, from light summer fly sheets through to the warmest of winter blankets, with all weights in between. I'm not sure how this all happened, they just seem to have appeared over the years without me noticing. Nice to have a good collection for any and all weather conditions, though. 

Shot two shows the nicely sculpted drifts that are evolving on the south side of the bush-line near the jumper ring. At this time of year and with the very cold weather, the cool blue colors predominate. Later toward spring when the weather has moderated and the sun is edging its way back towards the northern hemisphere, the shadows will still be a nice cool blue, but the cool white of this shot will be replaced by a warmer and more mellow cast. 

Shot number three is from the "warm" but humid snowy day described above. The yearlings were bunched up close to a tall fence that helped protect them from the wind. I have mentioned before the challenges of doing photos in these conditions, and this shot is a good illustration of the problems that arise. The light conditions were very poor (it was one of those days where it got a little lighter at sunrise, then about midmorning started getting darker again) so I had to have a fairly slow shutter speed in order to get a recognizable image, but in this case the shutter speed was slow enough that the blowing snowflakes created a blurry line, most noticeable in the lower left of the photo. It's not a problem in this particular shot, as it kind of adds to the effect, but it doesn't always work for the best. I'm starting to realize two things as I do these shots. 1. There's always a trade-off 2. Some of what I want to do just can't be done. At least not by me. Now. I'm always hopeful, though, that one day I'll overcome the laws of photography and just be able to do it anyway. 

Shot number four is an example of the somewhat bizarre things you can see at our barn,  given the right circumstances. Norm the farrier had been absent for an unusually long time, and when he finally reappeared last week, it became evident that at least part of that time had been spent in Jamaica, where, to judge by his cheery and relaxed demeanor (not always a given), he seems to have had a heck of a good time. I was just heading out the door after my ride when he appeared, but luckily I had my camera with me and was able to convince him to come outside for a photo. And yes, I *did* ask if it would be OK for me to post it here. I think the only possible title for this shot would be "Rastafarrier". 

Today's final shot is one from the weekend. I have been collecting sunset shots for a while, and I got to thinking that maybe I should work with the other end of the day and try some sunrise ones. Since I'll only have to get up earlier if I wait much longer (sunrise here these days is around 8:45 or so at the moment, getting earlier as time goes by), I decided to make a start on this project. My younger daughter works on the twelfth floor of a downtown office building with wonderful views of the city to both east and west, so we went to her place of employment on Saturday morning. It was not an inspiring sunrise by any means. I think I'd almost have to go as far as to say it was boring, but you have to deal with what nature gives you, so this was it for that attempt. Problem with both sunrise and sunset is that by the time I realize there is a spectacular one happening, it's too late for me to drive to a good vantage point where there is some open sky. Our neighbourhood is a nice one, but there are a heck of a lot of houses and big trees in the way when you want sky shots. The mist in the middle of this shot is rising from the open part of the river which is between the church spire in the foreground and the sunrise over the east side of the city.