There’s hardly been a day lately when we weren’t on the road and not recognising the countryside in the photos, I had to scan through till I came to something familiar.
Thursday, which was grey and damp, was Saratoga Lake day. Another item to be collected.
We had been once to Malta (not that one) which is nearby, but never actually to the lake, which is lined with the private properties of wealthy folk.
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Grey days are often better for photography and I found a few subjects, but I get very frustrated with the many obstacles that tend to ruin a good image.
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On foot, I might be able to frame my images to avoid power lines, road signs, trash bins, cars, or any number of objects that are not natural.
Many subjects escape me altogether because we are unable to stop, or because someone might object to having their property photographed.
Here, for example, I would love to have gone up to the fence and called over the beautiful horses that grazed nearby. I daresay they would have ignored me, but I have the impression that horses are nosey creatures.
Or perhaps just always hoping for a treat.
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Sometimes, the photo can be cropped, or unwanted objects may be edited out, but all too often this messes up the image and I find myself wasting time with no satisfactory result.
This is supposed to be fun! After all I am only an amateur.
Taking photos from inside a moving car in itself offers frustrations, what with reflections off the windshield, raindrops or blemishes on it and the pesky, intrusive sideview mirror, which one day I’m going to rip off!
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Very rarely, manmade objects create a worthwhile image. In this case it serves to show the size of this large lake. I was going to say very large but considering its proximity to the Great Lakes, somehow that seemed inappropriately superlative.
The aforementioned sideview mirror had to be edited out of the lower left corner.
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Leaving the lake we decided to meander a little before going home and soon came upon an old fire engine, impressive in length.
The truck dates from the 1930’s and it has apparently sat here like this for a very long time.
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A lovely row of trees, ruined by the power lines.
Around the lake, we passed numerous beautiful homes which are almost cheek by jowl with dilapidated little shacks, just back from the shore. It highlights the vast difference in fortunes.
The lifestyle of the mega-rich has no appeal to me, but the widening gulf is truly appalling.
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Setting course for home, the GPS brought us to a very familiar route through Stillwater, but instead of taking the Wright’s Road turn off River Road, we turned on Sarle’s Ferry, as I wanted to have a look at another favourite tree. Usually I view it from the other side.
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Which is very much better, but the best I could do here was twist and click.
A few years ago, we saw this tree regularly in all seasons and I was impressed by the fullness of its crown. It had been some time since we came this way and the tree has obviously been allowed to continue growing. Soon it really will swallow the house!
Perhaps the owners admire it as I do and cannot bare to trim it.
They live in a real treehouse.
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If I lived in the house overwhelmed by the huge tree, I would think about having it cut back. Even our front Oak can be capable of damaging the roof, so we have that trimmed every 5 years. (At great expense) I never take photos from inside a car. My windscreen is always too dirty, and I am also usually driving. I wait until we can stop, or we get where we are goind.
Best wishes, Pete.
*going. Typo.
Not wishing to start a sh*t storm of controversy but free AI from a number of places, including your operating system, does a brilliant job of erasing unwanted objects in a flash.