Shooting ducks in a barrel.

Bon appétit.

I set out today to capture a mono landscape for MonoMonday. What do you think of the results?
I think I nailed it... lol *eye-roll, head-shake*

Arriving at my intended destination for wonderful landscapes; I parked, assembled my gear and hiked off in the snow toward the lake shore. Scouting all of the wide angle options, I saw a lone duck sunning itself on the frozen water. Hmmm. Wish I had my telephoto on for a minute... he sure is pretty... I managed to ignore him for a bit, but the draw became too much to resist. Off to the car again for a lens change, then back through the snow to get the duck. I did get that one, and then noticed a small arc of open water further down the shore. In that open water, was another golden-eye swimming in circles. It was a treat to have him stick around even as I approached... not typical behavior of a wild animal. In fact, the more time I spent shooting the duck in the barrel open water, the more other ducks became interested. Eventually I had two male golden-eyes, a female golden-eye and a female merganser all swimming, flapping and fishing for me in the small area open water. See the gang in a flickr set here.

Even though we live in a beautiful area full of wildlife, I have to admit to being jealous of those who live in populated areas. The cities that have ponds for the waterfowl or parks with birds and deer that are forced to get used to people. Don't get me wrong, where we live is great and I see the most wonderful sights and beings; but it is a bonus, where photography is concerned, to have the animals comfortable with human presence. I guess today, the need for open water trumped the fear of humans and I benefited from that need as well. :)

You may have noticed that I mentioned sun earlier... Yes, we actually had sun again today! It's been a long winter of solid grey skies. In fact, I began to feel like we lived under a thick grey dome. I learned recently that my analogy isn't really that far off... Michigan is a peninsula state and it is surrounded by the Great Lakes (5 of the largest fresh water lakes). During the winter months, as the jet stream makes its way over the lake, it collects moisture and brings that along to the land. We often get tons of extra snow known as "lake effect snow". We also get moisture filled cloud cover that is very dense, that is until the lakes freeze over. These huge lakes rarely freeze, but this year Lake Michigan is, reportedly, nearly 70% frozen... hence the sunshine we had today and the sunshine that is predicted for this week. We even saw the stars in the sky tonight... a first in a very long while. I do hope this means that we can expect a little more light to go along with our snow and cold for the rest of the winter.