Penning Photography Daily

The reflections, diamond-like, on the snow, have been catching my eyes lately.

In my drive around Lincoln Park, this scene caused me to stop and grab my camera, the Panasonic LX3.

Shimmering cold crystals of new snow.

Finding the beauty in this cold Winter isn’t so tough after all.

The air was full of tiny sparkling crystals of snow tonight.

The snow coming down was very fine. The way it caught the light of an overhead streetlamp made it seem like fairy dust was being sprinkled on the scene.

I tried to capture that but with the dropping temperatures, I decided to err on the side of keeping my fingers intact.

I framed the evergreen tree at the far edge of our property and pointed up towards the snow, lit by the light.

You can see steaks of snow against the gray sky.

You also see the drop of melted snow on my lens, at the top of the frame right.

Winter’s light show.

West of our airport, SPI, are farm fields, with houses sparsly set among vast open spaces.

I drove out that way to get this scene.

The snow coming down in very tiny snowflakes. Covering the fields and roads with a blanket of white.

The twilight’s last light gave the scene that measure of cold solitary feeling that really does exude here.

Farm house standing warm amidst the hibernating soil. Soaking up moisture to prepare for the coming of Spring.

The blanket of snow was shimmering with reflections of the streetlamps as I came home long after sunset.

I set my Panasonic LX3 to Manual, and the ISO to 100. I opened up the lens to f2.0 and set the shutter to 1 second. I needed to bring in light in order to grab the scene.

It took me several takes to get this one which is in focus. The wide open lens makes the slice of the scene that is in focus very slim. Look at the blade of grass just to the left of center at the lower middle of the frame.

The sparkle of light off of the snow crystals makes the scene magical.

A closeup of the base of my amarylis plant at the office.

I was testing out the macro ability of my Panasonic LX3. It can focus up to 1 centimeter. Pretty darn close.

The plant has not bloomed yet. I’m watering it but not too often. I turn it so that it doesn’t bend to the window so much.

Karen says she wants a full portrait of it tomorrow. I kept saying ‘nope’ but i do believe she trumps me. We’ll see.

From our trip to Taylorville on Saturday, January 24, 2009.

We walked out of the Taylorville prison, after visiting a relative. The sense of freedom was made startlingly clear by this sunset, which was unfolding before us.

We rushed to the car and quickly found an open field.

I got out first, and was using my Sigma 10-20mm lens on my Pentax K20D. A wonderful combination of superb photographic tools.

The teperature was a chilly 12F with a wind chill likely nearing zero. My hands started freezing up with pain in about 5 minutes. I headed into the car, and son Chris ventured out to get some more.

The other photo in this set, is a stiched panorama from six photos which Chris took.

One of the most gorgeous sunsets I’ve seen in a while.

The sky looks like it’s on fire.

Original photos taken by Chris Penning.

I used AutopanoPro to stitch the six exposures into this panoramic look at the amazing sunset yesterday.

It give just a small sense of the grandeur and fire of the scene which stopped us in our tracks.

We all three – Karen, Chris and I, gave thanks to God for the wonderful sight. Very moving indeed.

Thanks, Chris for going the extra mile, after my hands froze up.