I have started a project 26 this year with a group of incredibly talented woman – 13 to be exact- from across the United States. This 26 week project will consist of two blog posts each month, one will be a “me & mine” post and the second will be a challenge or theme photo. This week’s theme is morning light.
This is one of those assignments where I wished I had another day to go back and do it all over again. I have 3 main regrets which I will explain later. Things that I thought that were going to be great were blah and the moments that I took a quick picture, turned out to be the ones that I loved. I derailed my whole plan by trying to stay warm for just 15 more minutes in my bed that morning. It was early (5:45am) and dark and a Saturday morning, who could really blame me? So I decided to go in my very fashionable PJs, snowboots and swim parka to the hill behind my kid’s elementary school. This first picture I literally snapped while running with one hand. I so wish I would have stopped and composed this shot better. I just was running so fast because I could see this pretty sky but I could also see this huge thick group of clouds heading my way and I wanted to get up the hill fast. So this is regret #1. I wish I would have gotten more of the tree and sky and less of the black hills.
Regret #2 came quickly as I made the decision not to go up the marked path but to turn right and run straight up this cow pie infested hill. It was a lot steeper than I thought. Running in snow boots wasn’t really working for me and I am, apparently, very out of shape. I was carrying my tripod, my heavy camera, wearing all these clothes and sweating like crazy while watching the clouds take away my purply/pink sky. It seemed like one of the hills that just kept getting higher and higher as I climbed. When I did get to the top all the morning light was gone. Covered over by clouds. Since I was now pretty much in full cardiac arrest I sat down and waited for my heart to stop pounding out of my chest. While I waited, I took pictures of these hills because I liked their leading lines. I took a lot of them actually, and I thought these would be the coolest shots…until I got home and they were so blah I didn’t even want to look at them. This was the last shot of the hills and it was the only one with sun peeking through in it. Not a ton of contrast in the original file so I tried a few new photoshop tricks and this how things played out. Lots of fun. My original plan was for it to be a black and white but its now sort of a brown and white…but I think it still works. :)
The wind picked up, which was great because it was moving the clouds around, but I started to freeze from the sweat that had now turned icey cold on my body. Determined not to let all this effort go to waste I told myself I would stay for 20 more minutes. About 12 minutes into my wait I got this shot. I do like this one because it reminds me of a Rembrandt painting. The clouds were finally thinning a bit so I could get more color from the sun and there were starting to be breaks in the clouds every now and then.
This one just might be my favorite. It makes me think of alpenglow (the reddish tint just before sunrise and/or sunset over mountains)
This was at the 20 minute mark. Leaving time! The clouds and the wind were creating such great patterns on the sky I couldn’t resist shooting this last one of the morning. I had moved my camera further to the west so I could show my kids what our valley looks like from above. I think northern California has some of the most beautiful landscape. We live in between Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tamplais. I think it’s a cool shot.
So you want to know regret #3? I had two options coming down the big hill. I chose the most direct route, straight down. As I am coming down with the grace of a water buffalo I run into 5 dad’s from my kids school who were out for a hike…ouch. Think sweaty, pj’s, hair not combed, cold and crabby. It wasn’t pretty and for some reason they wanted to stop and talk like they had all the time in the world. Next time I take the long route down and I hide behind a tree, a cow or something to spare myself and others :). Happy Thursday everyone!
Now, don’t forget to check out the incredibly talented Carey Pace | Kingsport TN Lifestyle Photographer she’s one of my favorites!
…. I love the movement in it… and that you all look like youre enjoying it. FUN! and how HUGE is that headboard…mamma mia is smokin’. I can totally see a boudoir shoot happening there, hint hint lol
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