Tag Archives: cold

Star Trails, the North Star, and a Cold Night with the Tree Swing

November 26, 2008 – 5:48 am

If you have been following the progress of our tree and tree swing, it now has just about no leaves on it at all, so last night I decided to take advantage of the very dark night out here and do a long exposure of the tree showing the North Star.  This shot was a single frame, 3 hour exposure with another 3 hour noise reduction process.  I started the exposure when I went to bed and it finished around 4am.  Showing star trails are a little easier with a film exposure but this one turned out pretty good. The tree looks like it is leaning over to the side because it was shot with a 14mm lens pointed almost straight up at the sky.  I am actually standing about 5 feet or so from the tree.

You can just see the North Star behind the right side of the tree.  I couldn’t actually see it when I setup the tripod and I was just shooting for somewhere close to the center of the frame.  Missed it to the left by a little but close enough.

The North Star Trails

The tree is the same one you see in the previous posts, here, here, here, here, and even here.  Some day I will put all the tree shots together in one post.  It is pretty neat to me to see the changes in one single location, sort of like a very long time lapse.  For those of you still wondering, no, I did not sit out there all night with the camera, I just set the exposure time to 3 hours and hoped that a deer or other large animal didn’t tip over my tripod.


By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Photography | Also tagged exposure, stars, tree | Comments (3)

Yet Another Cold Day in April on Tax Day

April 15, 2008 – 7:12 pm

This weather for down here is just crazy. It was almost below freezing this morning and we had frost on the roof. It is mid-April, time for the upper 70’s to come back.

Another Cold Day in April

Today is tax day, and yes, I did my taxes today. I usually don’t wait this long to do our taxes but we were in Dallas for quite a while with DK’s mom in the hospital and I never got around to finishing them up and sending them to the good old IRS. They are now finished and filed.

A New Day, A New Image

I unpacked and installed the new scanner today. I don’t have much time to start scanning in all the slides and photos but I did do a preliminary scan of a slide I had sitting in my bookshelf. The results are not bad at all and I am pretty happy with the whole installation and setup process for this Epson.

Red Flower with Spider

This photo was taken August 4th 1997 in Birmingham. The scan was from an original slide and then minor adjustments in photoshop. Not bad, can’t wait to scan in all the multitudes of others. I am going to try to do an image of the day post a few times a week with images like these from my stock. We will see how many I can keep up with. I did start transferring all the digital images I had moved over to DVD to the new 1tb HDD. This will take a while as I have over 100 full DVD discs full of RAW NEF files and edited jpg’s.

The Changing View

The property directly across from our house is being logged and left to what looks like a stump filled waste land. They will come in and replant, but I have watched them today as they pull up 50-75 foot trees, 10 at a time and lay them on their side for the trucks to come pick them up. The view was pristine. Should be that way again in 30-40 years or so.

Orders and Dinner

We took in all our orders for the past week, probably about 100 book orders in total and went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here in town. The number of boxes we had to pick up today from our book supplier was unbelievable. We filled the entire trailer with books. We have now received about 10,000 plus books in the last few days. Tomorrow I will have a full trailer of boxes of book to unload. I did not get a chance to do my daily walking today since we drove into town, hopefully it will be a little warmer tomorrow and I can put in a few extra miles.

Dinner was nice. First time we had been back to Loco’s since we had to leave for Dallas. This restaurants is usually populated with college kids since it has probably the cheapest drinks in town, but it is always lively and fun. The college kids always have a great energy about them. I managed to get a few blog posts in and some guitar practice as well. My first official lesson will be next Tuesday although I have had a sudo lesson via DK before we left. Tomorrow we finally get a day or two to work at home. The weather should be getting warmer as the week goes by.

By Scott Fillmer | Posted in Journal | Also tagged april, flower, image of the day | Comments (0)

This is What You Do in January in the Marina, Knit and Blog

January 11, 2008 – 6:34 pm

Now that the cold weather is here this is what you do, sit and knit. It is now to cold to sit outside in the cockpit for any extended period of time but we can still come down for the weekend and enjoy being here. Here is Deb sitting under a bunch of blankets knitting on the boat. Surprised she doesn’t have on her mittens and ear muffs but we did get the heater working this summer, thank goodness.

Deborah knitting on the boat in the marina

There will be warmer days but we still had a nice weekend down on the boat. Once again we were treated to wonderful sunsets, right off the transom but it was a little to cold to go outside and do much. What I should be doing right now is getting a list of all the things I want to do on the boat when it gets warmer but who can get motivated in this cold.

View of the Sunset from the Marina

We did take several trips over to the beach where I could do some much needed walking and DK could knit, in the shelter of our tent. Photos of that will be coming soon, pictured above are two shots I took with my iPhone, not bad for a phone camera.  The first is of Deborah of course, knitting on the boat in the heat, the second was taken from the cockpit, both with my camera phone.

By sailing | Posted in Coastal | Also tagged deborah, marina, sailboat, winter | Comments (1)

A Frozen Car in September Must Mean Colorado

September 30, 2007 – 3:15 pm

This image was taken just a few days ago. YES, these two photos were taken on September 25th, in Creede, Colorado. Not the most photographic images I know, but we went up to visit some family in Colorado and froze to death in just a few days. The fall weather in this part of Colorado can be brutal, and the winter just miserable. Being from the south, cold is what it gets for two days in February when it gets below 40 degrees, here, at the 9,000 foot level, it gets to be -30*F in the winter, and just plain cold in the fall.

At this elevation, temperatures are well below freezing long before the rest of us even know fall is near. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the country, and the most unforgiving and harsh as well. The Aspens were in full yellow fall colors, frost and all.

Frozen car in Colorado in September

Deborah in the frozen car

The temp shown above was actually quite warmer than it was in the car. The car read 19.3*F as I took this photo. Just two long days in the car and we were back in the fall in the south, a cool 92*, ahhhh, we can almost turn off the air conditioning now.  The first image is the car, and again, this is September, and the next is of course my loving wife Deborah, showing me how much she loves to be sitting in a frozen car instead of sitting in the Florida Keys.

Cold Colorado Fall

By islandzephyr | Posted in Journal, Photography | Also tagged car, deborah, weather, winter | Comments (0)

It is Minus 30 Degress Outside, Can You Say Cold Weather

December 12, 2005 – 7:12 pm

Ok, this is what I would consider an indication that it is cold outside.

If that doesn’t convince you, look at the (cold) hard facts.

The dogs think it is cold too and they both insist on sharing the same chair. I think this is the warmest spot in the bus for them. It is quite funny to see them argue over who gets to sit here and for how long. They usually end up sharing.

When not on the chair, they have been found sleeping in various other places.

By kim | Posted in Journal | Also tagged aubie, blazer, bus, dog | Comments (0)

First Snowfall in Creede in September

September 16, 2005 – 2:47 pm

We had our first snowfall here in Creede on Wednesday, September 14, 2005.

By kim | Posted in Journal | Also tagged colorado, snow, weather | Comments (0)

Weather Blues Promotes Cabin Feaver, Even in a Bus

May 5, 2005 – 5:41 pm

This is the 5th of May and it is supposed to be 58 degrees tomorrow for a high with 30 mph winds. Right now it is raining, cold and windy outside. ARRRRGGGGHHHH

I am not sure spring/summer is ever going to get here. Well, maybe I can get some knitting done anyway.

By kim | Posted in Journal | Also tagged bus, north carolina, weather | Comments (0)