Y in the sky

Contrails can be interesting.  I spotted this while walking toward a Greenway entrance this morning.  The broader trail had spread quite a lot, but it might not have taken very long.  I saw the narrow one being formed by a jet that must have been on a lower flight path than the other.  Its trail broadened noticeably in just a few seconds.  Why look up, Y...

Although the sewer line work on the Crabtree Creek Trail is far from completed, the workmen waved me through today, so I felt I had official permission to hike and explore.  So, we headed for Crabtree Valley.

Not so long ago, this area was covered with ice.

Into the woods...

No entry this way:

Ziva, the junkyard dog?  No, but how did she get in there?

She fits where most adult humans can't (and she was on her leash the whole time).

The return trip under Edwards Mill Road was impressive, thanks to reflection of a blue sky that rendered even deeper blue water.

Some of the pumping and dredging equipment is very colorful.

This might give some young kids nightmares.

It's a cyborg zombie, ready to suck the brains of the unwary.

But that oddly gruesome thought only occurred to me now, as I write.  Our trip this morning was very pleasant, and put me in a good mood for the start of the day.

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Nothing encourages like attempted discouragement

Returning to a site that I've photographed a number of times in the past year, I found yet another look, thanks to the angle of the shadows, and my choice of a low vantage point.  On this occasion, I think my iPhone was quite adequately suited to the technical requirements of the scene.  I like the inky black shadows, and even emphasized them in post-processing.

It is, of course, the abandoned bridge over Crabtree Creek near Crabtree Valley.  The Raleigh Greenway, my route to that spot, is still undergoing major work to install new storm sewer lines, and there are closures at Lindsay Drive and at Woodridge Drive.  However, people (not I) have lowered the orange plastic mesh barriers, and many walkers, runners, and bicyclists could be seen traveling the full length of the trail.  One needs to move carefully past some of the heavy equipment that has been left in place.

Ziva cautiously inspected piping for itinerant squirrels.

No mole sounds in there.

I think we're cleared to the next check point.

That's a friendly, inviting gateway if I've ever seen one!

And here we are at the old bridge.

In case you missed the opening photo, here it is again.

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Our first 10K

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Today, Ziva and I achieved a new (metric) milestone: we hiked ten kilometers.  It began with a jog and walk through our neighborhood park, where "we" discerned a taunting cat behind an iron gate.  Ziva got her entire head underneath, but she seems to know her body size, and doesn't seem inclined to get stuck places - whew!

After we got on the Greenway, we made pretty reasonable time until we reached sections that we've only recently begun to explore.  I insisted on pauses at a few spots so that I could do artsy-phartsy photos with my iPhone.  A frozen stream:

The "tunnel" under Edwards Mill Road (note the two joggers):

The "underbelly" as we headed toward Crabtree Valley Mall:

A different view as we headed back (no, I didn't take Ziva shopping):

And a wintery looking marsh:

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Lonely Pair on the Greenway today

This morning, the temperature in Raleigh dropped to 10º or 11º F.  I had to work, but in the early afternoon, with the temp still only in the low twenties, Ziva and I spent well over an hour wandering the neighborhood and the Greenway.  We did not see another human or canine until the latter portion of our return route, when we passed a couple with another friendly dog.  You would think that people were dissuaded by the cold from their normal exercise routines!  Usually, we would expect to see many bicyclists, a few joggers and power walkers, and several dogs with their owners.

I'd say we were a lonely pair, but actually we were surrounded by dozens of large robins, a male cardinal and a smattering of other birds.  The puddles were frozen, one large one so solidly that Ziva skated across it.  She was funny to watch!  Sorry, no photos possible of any of this, but I did pause just long enough to shoot this tableau of trees, clouds, and shadows.  Ziva pulled on the leash, but I got the shot composed pretty close to the way I wanted.

[iPhone 5s]

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Mackerel Sky Morning

It was a good day for altocumulus.  I saw a quintessential mackerel sky.  It was a good day for trotting and brisk walking, too, and I hadn't planned to stop and do any photography.  I'm glad I had my iPhone in my pocket, though, because a few brief pauses netted me some interesting shots.

Here's the obligatory photo of my dog Ziva admiring the view.  Well, actually she's looking off into the weeds, probably having smelled something of interest.  I'm just glad that she was amenable to some quick stops for pics on the way home, because her influence was mostly along the lines of "come on, move your butt faster, I want to catch up to that jogger/bicyclist/squirrel!"

This was a scene where I knew the little phone camera couldn't possibly record the dynamic range of the scene (dark to light).  Biasing the exposure toward the sky and letting the trees become silhouetted gave me what I hoped for.  The area around the sun is still "blown out" to white without gradations of tone, but...so what!  I rather like the appearance of an explosive fireball within the cloud puffs.

The next two images are both processed from one shot.  The first version is cropped and adjusted to feature what caught my eye in the first place: a colorful cluster with another stalk curving around it like a frame.  I had to use a lot of shadow recovery to delineate this area clearly and retrieve the colors of the leaves.

The second version is closer to what appeared "straight out of the camera", with the bottom cropped away to turn a horizontal image into a vertical, and with contrast and color saturation strengthened.  The drama of this approach satisfies me more than the one above.

My final shot took advantage of a slightly less intense sun behind the clouds, and a more complete block from a tree.  This let me get the tones and colors in the sky.  The position of the blue sky patches low in the scene worked nicely, for my taste.

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A winter walk by the water, with a pocket camera

Winter weather is still eluding us in North Carolina. I was out around Carolina Beach Tuesday afternoon, with temps around 70ºF (21ºC for the rest of the world). It gradually cooled a little, and the breeze made a windbreaker a reasonable proposition, but still...winter...well, no cause to complain: it was a beautiful day to be outside. Off I went, carrying a Canon G10, a four year old pocketable digital camera.

The ocean and sky were not strikingly unusual when I arrived, but attractive nonetheless. The colors were not as saturated as presented in this image, but then, this is my reality, I'll see it as I want to!

I had performed an Education Concert earlier in the day, so this was the second time that I had a large audience:

I cut back and forth between the town streets and the weed-covered dunes along the beach.

Jealously guarded parking areas, left vacant in the off season:

This little lake attracted a few varieties of birds. I would rather have photographed them with a DSLR and a long telephoto lens, but some things were possible with my little Canon G10.

I'm disappointed when I see trash abandoned in inappropriate places, but I admit to a certain fascination with photographing it in some circumstances. The ibises didn't seem to mind (though that doesn't mean no harm was done).

Someone left quite a footprint in the mud!

Ah, tranquility!

To "frame" the series of photos above, here are some pre-sunrise shots from the next morning:

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