Snowy Lines

It has been a busy week for me, dealing with three family birthdays, working my full-time job (and the almost full-time job of running a household), Valentine’s Day, getting some images ready to submit for consideration in the Kansas! Magazine 2011 calendar, and preparing my 12 entries for the Kansas Garden Show Photo Contest (which is next weekend, but the entry deadline was this week).  Whew!  Tuesday I was very excited to learn that I won an Editor’s Weekly Pick Award for the Weekly Challenge Gallery on NPN!  The Weekly Challenge theme last week was “Leading Lines.” 

With my boss’s blessing, I took last Friday afternoon off from work after we received a beautiful snowfall, and went out to Lake Shawnee to see what I could find to shoot.  At one cove near the Ensley Gardens (the only cove at the entire lake which wasn’t frozen over), there were hundreds of ducks and geese hanging out.  While I was watching some geese splash down gracefully in the icy water, I saw the “leading lines” created by the dead grasses/reeds and the snowy shoreline so set up and took a couple shots knowing if they turned out, I would have another submission for the challenge.  Because the skies were gray and there wasn’t any color in the scene anyway, I converted to black & white using Photoshop and tweaked it until I liked the tones and contrasts.  What I like about this shot, besides the composition, is the fact I nailed the exposure and was able to retain detail in the snow which shows up quite well on the left side.

This is my second WP. I received my first in October in the Earth, Sea & Sky Gallery for my image of Onondaga Cave.

As I’ve mentioned in my posts before, joining NPN has been the best thing I’ve ever done for my photography.  I’m very grateful to all those who view and comment on my images and so willingly share their knowledge with me. I’ve grown by leaps and bounds as a photographer since joining in 2007.