A White Christmas Dream Come True

We were dreaming of white Arizona Christmas as we checked the weather apps each day. As the weekend approached, the forecasts kept showing a snowflake for most of Christmas Eve day- and they were right. It rained in the late morning, quickly turning to sleet and then snow- heavy snow that lasted all afternoon. We ended up with about six or seven inches at our house, and it is still here. Beautiful!

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I posted this photo on Facebook- and then noticed the fire hydrant in the foreground, which I have since removed (fire hydrants and garbage cans are what cloning brushes are for!).  After I took this shot, I walked toward the tree- and fell against the curb, cracking my lens hood and banging my arm and knee. Happy to report that the only damage seems to have been to the lens hood (which is a replacement for the one I cracked in Montana. . .)- the camera and photographer are just fine!

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Eklutna Lake- Two Ways

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Our son-in-law took us for a drive over to Eklutna Lake, which was not yet completely frozen. The icy shoreline proved irresistible to kids and dog who immediately were running and sliding and having a great time.

I realized I haven’t posted as many black and whites as usual- and I do love black and white. So I converted today’s image into a monochrome, although I think I like it better in color.

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Through the Gap

My daughter’s home in Alaska is surrounded by trees and mountains, and the winter sun is too low on the horizon to shine directly on their house.  But for about an hour a day it sits in a gap between peaks, its intense light turning everything golden before hiding again behind the mountains.

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Super Duper

Last night I finally got outside to photograph the super moon. At first there was just a glow in the sky- and then the moon rose over the clouds, only to disappear and then reappear in the cloudy sky.

20161214-mma_0738_melinda_andersonI went out later to check on its progress as it rose in the sky and was almost more fascinated with the smoke-like cloud beside it than I was with the moon itself. For the image below I had to blend two exposures to get the cloud to show next to the moon.

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Not tired of it yet. . .

I have photographed this view of the San Francisco Peaks many times- and recently have used both intentional camera movement and multiple exposure for a different look. But really- it is the skies that make the difference.

This shot is of last Friday’s sunrise and is a multiple exposure. It looks like a woven blanket to me.

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And here is a more “traditional” photo taken at the same time- not that much different, except for the colors of the mountains. I love how the sun is hitting the snow at the top.

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Sometimes you don’t have to wander far from home to find photo subjects.

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Five

This row of trees seems to stand guard at the gap in the mountains at the nature center. In browsing through other photos of this area, I noticed everyone seems to take a photo of these same trees. They are somewhat ragtag and gawky looking, but there is just something about them!

At sunset, everything seemed to have a rosy glow.

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I did another edit in black and white, but couldn’t seem to get the effect I wanted. Then I added a teal color layer and a texture, which gives it a snowy look. Just playing!

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