Grey Start - Bright End

Ha ha! More fool me this morning... I woke up to the sound of birds singing (couldn't exactly call it a chorus, as they weren't singing in tune with each other, and all had different songs!) Since I'd left my window open last night the noise was loud... too loud for that unearthly hour! That was at 5.45, but I didn't check my clock. I saw it was light, and thought I'd beat the sun, and take the tripod (I never remember the tripod!) to get some good shots as it came over the hill...

Ha ha, again! I grabbed my coat, hat, scarf (definately need one of those at that time of the morning) and my daughter's bright red felt hat (it was handy), then grabbed the whistle, leads, dogs... and oh yes, shoes (only just remembered those! :-) ) and reached the door as my neighbour headed off to work early. I swear I saw a touch of pink on the horizon.

So, I got to the forest, and headed in the direction I thought would get the best pics for that time of day - the 'sun right on the horizon' shots - moving with a purpose. Normally, I just take pictures if they happen to present themselves, but today I was deliberately going out of my way to get some sunrise pics... with the tripod, so the camera had a break from the shakes. Want to see what I got? This:

Grey...

grey...


grey!!
(and no, that's not a double image on the trees - I used the tripod!
That's just one lot of trees behind the front ones :-) )

I must've sat on my bench for half an hour... you know... 'any minute now' syndrome. The dogs got bored, so I shifted the tripod nearer the fence, changing positions to get a better shot when our star decided it would shine. I waited. And waited. It was after 7.30 before I realised it just wasn't going to happen - the sun was in hiding!! And nobody told me. Maybe it was camera shy? This was the first time since I took Mother of Invention's video that I'd taken the tripod to take some unblurry pics, and it's the first day there's no glorious sunset, and no bright rays through mist!! Nothing. Sooooo boring!

Still, to entertain myself on the return journey, I tried to find things that were interesting, that didn't require sunlight or unusual shadowing to make them interesting. I re-took the yellow broom from the other day:



That came out better without the mist, don't you think? (Really must try and get it in the sunshine though... I think it would stand out a whole lot more...)

Then I took a long-view into the trees:

And, a felled tree that's been rejected and deserted:





So, that was the start to my day. All the way back, I kept promising myself I could go back to bed, catch up with some kip. Instead, I spent the day doing boring stuff like washing lots of bedding (good time to do it with the kids away) and picking up clothes from all over the house, adding the items to the growing (not shrinking) pile by the washing machine :-(

Then, I did some stuff on my new Deviant Art account (see link in top of sidebar), where you can put your artwork up in your own 'gallery', and also make it available for sale... I don't know how that's going to go, but it's another interesting little experiment! I'm also making friends with lots of teenagers, who are there showing off their masterpieces - some of which are excellent! (A lot was better than anything I could do :-( I still have a long way to go!)

Then, as the sun was setting tonight, I had a strong urge to go to the reservoir, and just sit for a bit. Grabbed the camera again (inevitably), but left all the other paraphenalia and dogs behind - This was relaxing time.

I reached the water as the sun was going down. It wasn't the most dramatic sunset I've ever seen, but it was beautiful nevertheless. Especially as a family of ducks kept swimming past. Unfortunately, like the sun this morning, they were just a little bit camera-shy, and they would either duck their heads, or turn them away, then stick their tail-feathers in the air at me!! So, in most of the pics, all I got was what looked like blobs! :-D

Anyway, here are tonight's photos....a lot more colourful ending to the day than the beginning!!

And here are the ducks!
Steve - this would be a good place to practice your duck call!! :-D