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Our nieces and nephew during a ski (okay, tubing) break this past weekend.

Saturday night special @ Chet's Lakeside in Parkers Prairie, Minnesota - "Swedish" recipe fried chicken, stuffed shrimp, and mashed potatos/gravy. Oh yeah, and a trip to the salad bar (hello iceberg lettuce and thousand island dressing!). My mother-in-law's family has been coming...

Everything but the kitchen sink? Found at my mother-in-law's old family farm today.

Light above my father-in-law's fish cleaning table. It was opening of fishing season today, but Lake Carlos was quiet. It is deeper and colder than nearby lakes and so, apparently, the walleye and northern pikes are not biting here.

My first try at shooting from the hip with this camera. The lens and adapter are really too large and heavy to do this comfortably. At least it seems that way when you would normally use a Ricoh GRD4. This shot was one of a series where I had the camera tilted too far up - a case of...

Dogs looking like their 'masters' Well I wish I had his Steiff-brand cuteness, but alas I work with what I have...and what both time and I have done to myself.:blush: But Dougal well and truly symbolises me at this point in the challenge. A little tired, a little dishevelled and with...

Finish lines.

Snow Driven.

A fragment of my Canberra postcard I was going to treat you all to a postcard of my home city...well the city I have to go to daily to win our bread. The 180 degree panorama came out quite OK, but far too small to share, so here is a snippet - of a little less than 90 degrees that takes in...

A moment's reflection Thought I'd try a pretty iconic image of mornings on my property - and I do apologise for the emphasis on my place this month.:blush: This is a pretty typical Summer's morning, low lying cloud - well comparatively as we are well over 900 metres above sea level - with a...

Despite 3 days respite today was a struggle for inspiration. I was planning a walk around here but a few dodgy guys walking nearby had me worried about being mugged so decided to head back home. Hopefully Tomorrow will be more productive. Possibility of snow too..

North Pole.

Shapes.

Light Crush I clock the 28th up to being quite a good day photographically. Had three sessions with a total of about 400 frames with about 60% keepers and another 20% potential from the rest. Not saying this is the best of the day - far from it - but it was the biggest surprise for me from...

Meeting center waiting for some action.

Asparagus field waiting for some action.

Cracks to the sky Sorry folks. Slim pickings yesterday I'm afraid. Weather was miserable as was my humour...especially after I saw what was on offer on my card. So you'll have to indulge what small excitement I had in examining the form of this budding Gladioli - having said that I do enjoy...

The real deal A few days back I showed off my little boy, Sebastian, who fancies himself to be a bull, but here is the real deal. This is a new addition to the area. He's not ours but our neighbours, who has kindly offered his services. Well I liked the look for him from the safety of the...

Caught the bus into Kettering Town today to shoot some street. It is a bit more spread out than my home town giving me more opportunities and variety. Still no easier being discreet with this camera. It's a case of having to lurk around corners or pretend to be shooting some fauna or buildings...

Sunrise over the range I warned you all that with my limited windows of opportunity to shoot that there would be a few sunrises for y'all to contend with. Well here's the sight I sipped my coffee to yesterday morning.

Broadside strokes Just the single frame so this had to be it I'm afraid. Am I happy with it? Well not completely. But having recently re-read Freeman Patterson's "Photography and the Art of Seeing" I thought I'd try one of his Exercises in Thinking Sideways - so I intentionally broke...

Shadow of a budding bull Well I suppose Sebastian can wish as much as he likes but a very tight elastic ring applied when he was much younger has precluded the fact that he'll never quite be a bull. Though it appears so though someone has neglected to tell him as he acts more bullish by the...

No milk today.

A short street session on my way home from work. There are few places in town you can walk around with a camera without getting noticed - this is not one of them!

A panorama roof in winter.

I was hoping to get some shots on the way home from work but it was wet and I was feeling too silly in my bulky waterproofs to shoot street. So I cycled home and took this shortly after awakening - saved me a journey outside where it is still raining.

Miniature auto effect again.

Maastricht Court

One of the giant firs in my local woods again only this one taken to give a sense of scale.

Danger

Bell #11

Temptation in the wilderness Ironic isn't it? We have an orchard near the house which we prune, feed and generally tend very carefully the yield of fruit again this year approximates...well zero!!! Now today we head down to the creek - about 1/2 a mile from the house and what do we find...

Burning through the fog Was a relief that it was the weekend so I could shoot in earnest, but it was dreadful weather. Sat in a cloud for most of the day. Just glad I snuck this shot early in the morning as the sun struggled to burn through the fog. It almost made it too...but the cloud...

My intention in this spot was to hold the camera as steady as possible and keep dropping the shutter speed until I got a nice blur effect as people and vehicles moved by in the shot. I did get the effect I wanted when I dropped down to around 1/20s but the blurred figures tended to get swallowed...

A study in rust In the dying light these rusty tins took on a weird hue. Funny thing to post-process is rust, so much more going on in the colour channels than first meets the eye. So kept the processing down to a minimum with small tweaks to the curves, contrast and saturation....as...

Testing 1, 2, 3, testing So little personal time to look let alone see. As I'm reconnecting with my other compadres on the challenge. I thought I'd show how I talk with all you folks. I'm rural so am completely dependant on a wireless connection - not sure what this "ADSL&quot...

Wohoo! Day off work. Shame it won't stop raining. Took a stroll to the nearby nature reserve and had a go at shooting this huge old fir tree. Difficult to know how to photograph it, other than this way!

Less energy tonight - couldn't be arsed moving from my chair! Apologies - must try harder..

This shot taken from my bedroom window after finishing a dayshift. It's dark on the way to and from work when I'm on days at the moment so I'm struggling to shoot on these days. I'm also very inexperienced with shooting at night and my brief trial of the 5N's flash has put me right off it!

A room with a view.

This is where I draw the line.

Shadowplay.

Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do Last day of leave today. Back to work tomorrow :dash2: So we thought we'd end on a high note and went for a quick drive to the coast - not a short trip from the farm...but a world away from what's in-store for us tomorrow. Didn't bag as many...

Of blacks and whites.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Tried out the Sony's in camera effect called "miniature mini". It blurs/softens everything but a thin horizontal strip down the middle. It increases saturation also. I was sat on a wall taking shots of people across the road - a little far off really for this focal length but with...

Mum says if I drink all my nectar I'll be big and brown too one day OK the PL25 aint really one for macro shots, but I thought this one turned out quite OK - well I more liked it for the story. :blush: Cropped the image a little, to balance the composition, but otherwise you're seeing the...

Last nightshift completed I took a leisurely cycle ride home and stopped by the boating lake on the way. Nice weather today. Early morning frost but the sun was shining bright and there was no breeze or clouds to be seen. Still cold though..

Impressions of the Aussie bush I'd committed to attempting an impressionistic landscape - without reverting to extreme presets, unsharp masks, drastic noise reduction or the like. So I was going for natural tones and hues that gave that soft landscape look - not so easy with an Australian bush...

A sunny day in January.