february

a little glimmer

February has a look, doesn’t it? Even as January can be more brutal, it also comes with bright skies and clean snow, at least in the fanciful visuals that spring to life in my head. I look out as I write this, and there’s a snowpack on the ground under the trees. Less than pristine, it’s been there for weeks, with some plants now emerging through the melt. The sky is gray, and the scene is typical February, and February’s version of dismal.

Last night, though, I looked out over the not-so-fresh snow still covering the front yard. With the benefit of my porch light, I noticed sparkling crystals on the surface. It’s a pretty sight we’ve all seen over the course of a lifetime of winters. Many times I’ve tried to photograph the sensual experience of glistening snow, but it never quite worked, not for me. I was impressed to see that, in the right light, on a cold February evening, the three-week old snow could still produce its special glimmer.

The image here is not the organic glimmer of snow in my yard, but the manufactured slightly shimmery fabric table cloth on my dining room table, visible as I type.

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© Etikser. All Rights Reserved.
All photos and images here are my own.
They may not be used elsewhere or reblogged.


snow, winter

aligned



It’s about lines. Sometimes it’s about the lines.

Absent-minded, I look outside, and my brain works to pair long lines, from trees, with vertical panes, from the window. I like it when they’re perfectly parallel. When I take pictures in the woods, I angle the shot so trees naturally slanted to the sun come out straight up and down in the picture. Flowers too. And within the compulsion of these mental confines falls the nuisance and distraction of utility lines. Struggling to aim up over the lines so they don’t pull your eye from the clouds, or the sun, or the trees on the horizon. Sometimes, though, lines are inescapable. Sometimes you can’t take out the lines and have the same picture.

© Etikser. All Rights Reserved.

All photos and images here are my own.
They may not be used elsewhere or reblogged.

Please visit my other blog, Clover & Ivy, https://cloverandivy.wordpress.com.
I post mostly nature photos there.