Morning Fog

Our warm fall days and cool nights have been bringing wonderful fog to the morning commute to work.  Probably not the best for driving, but creating some wonderful photo ops.

It was a very good day.

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to return to work for old friends.  It's been 4 1/2 years since I worked with them and I'm looking forward to returning.  The company I'm working with now is a good company and life at work has been fine, but there's always a couple of "but's" that make you want to change.  Thursday I spent the day at my new job, meeting with the accountant and getting to know a little of what is needed and expected.  I was to be there at 9:30 so I left the house at 8:45, giving me lots of time to make the 1/2 hour drive.

When I first got into the car and looked at the mirror, nature had done some fantastic decorating.  I had to take a few shots for my group "The World in a Mirror"

A little further down the road I ran into some bands of fog and wondered if this day could get any better.

A couple of more miles and I crossed the tracks and noticed a band of fog further down. This time I had to turn around to find a place to pull off the road.

I was now only about 10 miles from home and running 10 minutes late so I tucked the camera away and with a little luck on the highway, made it to work on time.  The light was a little bright and flat and traffic a little heavier so I only stopped once on the way home.

I will miss many of the people I have worked with the past 4 1/2 years and hope to keep in touch with some of them, but I'm looking forward to the new challenges ahead and returning to my new, old work home.

Texture Tuesday

This week's theme at Kim Klassen's is an easy one.  Just use at least one layer of any of her textures.  Her new texture, Embrace, is easily one of my favorites.  Love everything about it.  I've been trying the past few weeks to do pretty, still life photos but since they're still a work in progress I dug up a few photo's from around Irma that I had passed on processing previously.  I thought Kim's new texture would work on them, so I used Embrace on all four photos.  For each one the texture has been rotated 90 degrees CCW. Hover your mouse over all images to see the before and afters.

This abandoned farm house is not far from my sister's. First a layer of Embrace with the blend mode of multiply set to 79%, another lay of Embrace with the blend mode of screen at 56%, then a few tweeks in levels and curves.

The lonely tree stands on the fence line in my brother-in-law's pasture. I've not seen it during the summer but apparently it's a Maple tree. First a layer of Embrace with the blend mode of overlay at 67%, then another layer with the blend mode of multiply at 38%, a few adjustments in Curves and Hue/Saturation and finally a Cyan filter to bring out the blues in the sky.

This building has always fascinated me when we drove by. Last month we were lucky enough to be able to go into the field. Turned out to be a granary standing on it's last wall. This time I used three layers of Embrace. The first at multiply 100%, the second at screen mode 74% and the third again at multiply mode 99%. A layer mask was applied to each layer to partially soften the texture in the center. Lastly a little adjustments with Curves.

We drove by this field of cows, early in the morning while there was still a light covering of fog.  Only one layer of Embrace was used set to multiply at 66%.  Finished up with Levels and Curves and added a warming filter as well as removing the fence line.

A foggy morning in Irma

Saturday morning in Irma, Alberta started off foggy, cold and a thick hoar frost, which of course made for some beautiful scenes.

Gratton Coulee

Train through the hoar frost



Fabyan Trestle



Cows in the Field