Back Road Beauty: I Shoot through the Windshield!

This is what you get when you go out on a cold, frosty, foggy morning and you shoot through the windshield on your truck.

The lesson is brought to you free, by the girl who refuses to read her instruction manual that came with her digital DSLR because I am sure they would say this is a no-no.

Back Roads Beauty: Hello....!

See my new friend?

I went wandering the other day after a good snow that stuck to everything, 

whipped up by a good stiff wind.  

Took the back roads and had a grand time with a friend.  Two barn-shooters!

Back Road Beauty: In Green...

This caused me to hit the brakes...just had to stop and take a shot. 

My telephoto is broke...waiting for the new one.

Back Road Beauty: The Blue Hour

The other night I left right when the sun dipped behind the western horizon.

I drove a while out in the country with my camera.

It's the time of day called the "blue hour"...with some of the most beautiful light you've seen in winter, and especially when there is a fresh snow on the ground.

The blue hour makes anything ordinary extraordinary, but I think I've told you that more than enough...

Barns, sunset...the blue hour...all of it, just gorgeous.

And I relaxed, decompressed, and had the best ever mental health therapy just as the sun said good-bye at the end of the daylight.  

I sure do hope you've enjoyed these shots, too.  

And I hope your day is beautiful, too....don't forget to peek out the window at sunset, you never know what you might be missing.

Back Roads Beauty: Through a Fog

Thanksgiving is done for another year.

It's one of the best holidays there is.

The simplicity, the beauty of the colors...

The wonderful smells coming from the kitchen the night before and the day of, are nothing short of heavenly!

What smells better than a pumpkin pie or an apple one in the oven?

Not much!

And then there's the rolls, the dressing, the TURKEY, and all the trimmings, too.

All of it is just divine!

And the anticipation!

And then dinner...

And then the LEFTOVERS!!

I think having the leftovers is one of the best parts of the holiday!

And having pumpkin pie and fruit salad for breakfast...with your coffee...DELIGHTFUL! 

What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

I'd really like to know...

Back Road Beauty: Fog & Frost

It's hard sometimes to shoot a bad picture with perfect conditions:  fog and frost.  

Come along as I travel the back roads near our home and enjoy some of the scenery that I found.

I will have to take several days, as I shot for almost two hours, until the sun burned off the fog and erased the ethereal backdrop and made it all seem ordinary again.

What is so wonderful about shooting in the fog and the results from it are that you realize how different the light is, depending on which direction you aim.  This shot is heading into the sunrise...warmer light.

And then shooting away from the sun....less light and more fog, less color and more lonely...

But I should hush up now and just let you enjoy the beauty and magic that is an ordinary late fall morning...

Enjoy what God put here to embellish what he saw fit to create ...

And take a minute to see what a hard-working farmer puts here too...

Have a wonderful day...and look for the magic that sometimes will come to what you might think is just an ordinary place...

It's what makes for a special feeling:  just being alone with the surroundings that are ordinary in a magical way.

Published!

I have some photography featured in this beautiful e-magazine, Parisienne Farmgirl Magazine.

I can't show you all the pages, but I have just one to give you an idea, this is from the features page.

That's my barn photo, right there!  They're liberally sprinkled throughout.

I'd love for you to take a look at this gorgeous e-magazine and if interested, subscribe!  

This is a magazine published by Ang of the famous Parisienne Farmgirl blog.

I even had a picture and a description as "contributing photographer" on the "team" page!  Gives me goosebumps, and I was so proud of all the barn photos of mine she chose to use and scattered throughout the magazine.  It was fun to see!

A Smile For You!

I found a barn I thought you'd like.  Shot it at 55 mph on a state highway.

(Don't worry, I wasn't the one driving!)

Ha!

This pumpkin is the face of "Jack-o-Lantern" of my youth.  I love its friendly, smiling face, and I love this beauty of an old barn it smiles at me from.

Just thought I'd share a smile today, friends, we could all use it! 

Back Road Beauty: At The End of the Day

"Take the back roads instead of highways."

- Minnie Pearl

At the end of the day, you glance west and see something extra gorgeous, and you just have to jump in the truck and take a ride.




I especially like it when my driver (my husband of 31 years today!) wants to go and then I can just roll down the window and shoot.

Not too far from me sits an old pair of gigantic abandoned barns.  They're so lonesome looking they break my heart. Their house is gone, and their family long gone, but the land is still farmed.  

One day I'm going to drive by only to discover they've been blown down in some of the gigantic winds we get out here.  

But while they're here, I photograph them in any season, because they're just something else.

And they've never looked better than lately, when they appear in front of a dazzling sunset.

And the silhouette that pleases the eye, is sweetly scented with the smells of evening, of the earth, of the crops that are growing, and...

The freshly cut wheat fields nearby...

And you realize that time changes some things, because it must.

But if I concentrate on too much of what was...

I might not see, hear, or smell...

What IS...







At the end of the day.