The light was dull and flat, but I felt like it might work well for subjects such as old buildings, so I went to a location I visit quite often. It is in Hartman Creek State Park, which is about a 20-minute drive from my house. The park has so many options for photography, but the one I was planning on this day was an old cabin which had been originally built by Norwegian immigrants in Scandinavia, Wisconsin back in 1844, and then moved to this location in 1999.
When I got out of the car, I took a short stroll around the area and used the voice memo function on my phone to make some notes about what I was seeing and feeling. Several things caught my eye as potential subjects – there was the reflection of a stand of birch on a pond, the cabin itself, a birch tree leaning out over the little dale.
Once I picked up my camera and started to move around looking for the best angles for the larger images, I noticed several types of plants sending up new shoots, and a few structural details on and around the cabin. The light wasn’t great for some of the wider images I had in mind, but I was sure it would work well for the closeup images. So, after I took some pictures of the surroundings to provide some context, I turned my attention to the smaller details.
At first, I got distracted by a tiny spider on a Skunk Cabbage leaf. I tried several times to get a good image of her, but they move very fast (spiders, not Skunk Cabbage), so I turned my attention to the water droplets instead. They were much more cooperative. Right near by there were some Cinnamon Ferns popping through. I love the curves and textures of these as they just begin to unfurl.
Returning to the cabin, I zoomed in on a couple of structural details, as well as some Ostrich Fern and Siberian Squill that were coming up nearby. Overall, this gloomy day out was a very pleasant one for me. It was my second time trying out my new approach (I’ll share the steps in another post) and I was quite pleased with both the experience and the results this time. The previous trip was a wonderful day out in nature, but the images could best be described as a learning experience. Learning is good, though, so I was still very happy I had made the trip!