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Morton Arboretum - February Snow

February 11, 2012

Had I know that the temperatures would be so low – 10 degrees with a strong breeze – I would not have committed to one of my fellow photo club members to photograph snow scenes at the arboretum. It turned out to be a valuable photographic learning experience. I am glad that I went. The following images are some of the “better” results from this learning experience.

Meadow Lake

We started at Meadow Lake. I would like to take some really great photos of decorative grasses. Haven’t done so yet, but I thought that I would work on it.

Grasses Grasses: The first set up was not so good. After a few attempts I decided that the angle that I wanted was unobtainable. Lesson learned: Survey the camera angle before investing time and other resources in trying to get a reasonable image. There is a lot going on in this image, including a moonset (good) and one of my fellow photographers (not so good).
Grasses Grasses again: This is a different attempt in a different location, this time crosswise from the sun. I like the effect of the sunlight on the grasses.

Sterling Pond

Then one of my fellow photographers suggested that we move our photography to Sterling Pond, which we did.

Pond Sterling Pond Panorama: Last Fall I obtained new photo editing software. One feature is the ability to stitch photos together to create a composite, such a panorama. This is one of my earlier attempts - a blend of 7 different photos. While it did not work quite as I expected, the results are interesting and amusing. The photographer in this panorama is from an arboretum photography class who happened to intrude into my picture. I do not know him.
Bonnet The snow on top of this thistle looks like a bonnet.
Snow cover Snow on top of low vegetation