Day 23 – Snow Flowers

We woke to some much-needed snow. Again, it didn’t last, but it was a much healthier dump (and much wetter) than the last storm that came through. I took these just as I was leaving for work this morning. We let our wild flowers just stay long after they’ve lost their petals. I see beauty in every phase of their brief lives.

Six Photographs

I’m starting a new photography class at UNR on Tuesday. This is the Photographic Lighting class and I’m really looking forward to it. The instructor sent us an email today telling us to bring six of our best photographs to our first session to share with the class. Here is what I’ve chosen. Regular readers will recognize that four of them come from my 365 project.

Cross-posted at Blue Lyon

Day 22 – Withered Vine

We have a grape-vine that crawls over the latticed roof of our deck. This portion of vine was hanging over the far corner of the deck and I took several shots, changing the exposure with each try. While the sky is completely blown out in this photograph, I actually like it best of all of because it shows light through the leaves and emphasizes the curves and shadows of the vine. It almost has a studio lighting quality to it.

Day 21 – Caucus Day

Nevada Democrats met all over the state today to caucus in our individual precincts. Just like in Iowa and other caucus states, the precinct caucuses are the first step in selecting our party’s presidential nominee (no contest this time), selecting delegates for the county convention, submitting planks for the party platform, and to rally the troops for the election to come. I shot a lot of pictures and really liked this one of my friend and how intently she’s listening. I started the day shooting with my flash but didn’t like how the photos were turning out, not to mention that it was distracting to the caucus goers, so I dispensed with the flash and bumped my ISO to 800. I don’t generally like to go that high due to the noise, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. And the results were much better.

Day 20 – Broken Bird

I slipped out to the duck pond by NV Energy again today. Amidst all the geese, ducks and coots, this little guy caught my eye. Hopping along on one leg, he didn’t appear to feel the least bit sorry for himself, but he just broke my heart. I converted the shot to black and white. It seemed fitting.

Day 19 – Fire

I went out at about 1:30 with my camera and saw some smoke in the sky. Given the nature of the topography in Reno and the Truckee Meadows, it is often difficult to tell where a fire is located. However, this fire appeared to be fairly close because the smoke was moving quickly and starting to move into south Reno.

I took this picture because I liked the size and beauty of the tree. But those aren’t clouds in the background. It is smoke.

When I got back to work at 2pm there was a voice mail from my boss letting me that he had to leave as there was a brush fire in his area. I checked in with him a little while ago and they have just evacuated. Snow and rain were forecast for this afternoon but it is just now that we are starting to get some precipitation. A tiny bit. We really have no idea how many homes have been lost.

It is Reno’s second major fire in less than two months.

Day 18 – Under the bridge

I was out looking for some color today I stumbled upon this little park about a block from where I work. A redwood bridge spans the park’s tiny width, and I stepped underneath it to shoot some patches of ice.

And then I looked to my left and saw this:

As you can see, this post is up a bit earlier than I thought it would be. The blackout across the internet appears to have gotten the attention of people in Washington and I’m feeling optimistic.