Pam's Week 39: I Was Shaking Like a Leaf...

Well, we certainly experienced a drastic change in weather this week.  Sunday, we headed to the beach for the first time all year (for a real beach day that is; the kids and I had done quick trips for a swim).  It was, apparently, the hottest weekend of the summer!  Then on Wednesday, the temperature dropped to 15 degrees!  I actually had to bust out boots for dinner that evening and long pants and a hoodie on other nights this week.  It's a little crazy, really.  I guess next week looks nice again though not quite as hot - good early fall weather I suppose.

I started out this week strong - Sharon and I went for a walk at Hiawatha last Saturday and I managed to get a few shots and I took some more at the beach on Sunday but then I left my camera in my bag for the rest of the week.  I was contemplating some photo ideas and even enlisted Danica's help to think of words starting with "i" but did not attempt a single one.  Luckily Sharon texted me earlier today and dragged me kicking and screaming (just kidding - I went willfully) to Whitefish Island where I took some more photos.  I will admit that some of these will be a bit of a stretch to fit the topics but my blog, my ideas....so there!

Reflection
Unfortunately, we don't seem to be getting any stunning fall colours this year.  It seems as though all the leaves are starting to turn but then stop.  A lot of the trees that are usually quite beautiful are already leafless yet never did turn their brilliant reds and oranges first.  It's quite disappointing and does not make for the gorgeous reflections I'm sure Sharon was imagining when she chose this topic. 

This photo was from the pond at Hiawatha.  The trees are still very green...

A Leaf
What I envisioned was a bright red maple leaf floating in some pretty blue water.  Plan B was the lily pads at Whitefish Island, which have apparently died before the lilies even bloomed.  So, I got neither of those pictures.  Instead I have this...

Starts with I
The words that kept popping into my head were idiot and imbecile - both difficult to photograph (particularly when the people who most aptly fit the description were behind the wheels of other cars on the road with me).  Danica came up with interesting, idea, and a bunch of other great words, all hard to photograph, that escape me at the moment.  Here is big stretch numero uno...

As I searched for a wildcard, I came across this photo - Danica is being inventive, using a piece of driftwood as a telescope.

 Dog
I have a dog.  She's a pretty cute one too but she is not good at posing for pictures.  Luckily, we took her to the beach with us last Sunday and she had a ball playing in the water, though was truly exhausted after our beach trip.

Here she is laying so innocently (ooh - another 'i' word) on the beach.  This is before she started digging the holes that Robert fell in.

Here she is carrying her leash out of the water, her hint that she is done swimming.

Railroad Tracks
We don't have any particularly scenic railroad crossings nor do we have impressive railroad trestles or bridges.  Sharon and I risked life and limb to cross over the muddy flooded pathway on some small logs followed by a hike up loose gravel to the railway bridge that crosses the St. Mary's river.  She was doing some creative photographer thing.  I decided I liked how the sunset looked and decided to focus on that instead.  You can see the rails reflecting in the front of the picture.

I did get a picture of Sharon doing her thing but thought she may not appreciate me using it without her permission.

Motion-Blur:  Camera
So Sharon explained how real photographers capture this and I tried it but it didn't work out very well.  In fact, I kept ending up with a white-out shot that I'm sure she would have been able to fix but with my limited camera setting understanding, I couldn't do it.  Since I take blurry photos all the time from accidentally moving the camera (or rather Riya pulling my arm while I am shooting a photo), I decided to use one of those instead.  This was taken last weekend at Hiawatha.  Now to be fair, I am blaming Riya but this could have been the photo I was trying to take when I sprained my ankle and fell down...

Wildcard
I took this photo tonight at Whitefish Island.  Sharon and I took a path we don't often take, thanks to our usual path still being flooded, and I liked how the setting sun was reflecting off these grasses.  Then we noticed all the ducks swimming towards us (I think they noticed us first and thought maybe we'd have food for them).

Here's hoping the weather truly does warm back up again next week as I don't think I'm actually ready to put socks and shoes and long pants and sweaters on every day....