Sunrise, January 27

Sunrise was at 7:37 a.m., seven minutes earlier than the previous week.  It was -2 degrees, but calm.  The sky was pale pink, with wispy clouds in the sky.

I wonder how this rock came to be balanced on top of the bigger rock

The lake hasn't iced over at all, but rocks along the shore have interesting ice surrounding them.

Sunrise, January 20

We're in the middle of a very cold week!  It was -9 degrees when I went out for the 7:44 a.m. sunrise.  I only stayed about 15 minutes, which was long enough to capture the gorgeous color before the sun actually rose.

Sledding on the Big Hill

 

After Ollie got snow in his face his first couple trips down, he covered his face

Made it!

He has to go up before he can go down!

Landing in a pile of snow

 Raina's turn

I even had a good time!

 

Jackson rode the sled with the video camera on the front

A Study in Shutter Speed

I finally learned how to change the shutter speed on my camera.  I'm mostly experimenting, seeing how different settings affect how a photo turns out.  My camera has a shutter speed from 10 seconds (the shutter will stay open for 10 seconds, letting in lots of light) to 1/8000 of a second, which requires a lot of light, or the picture will turn out dark.  You can find much better explanations elsewhere, I'm sure.

Anyway, I played around with the shutter speed settings, and can really see the difference in light.  At the lake, after the thaw, the water was running. 

Definitely too much light/shutter speed too slow

 And eventually, too dark/shutter speed too fast

Next, I tried some indoor photos with running water in the sink.  A slow shutter speed will make water look silky smooth, while a fast shutter speed will seem to freeze time.

 

The more light, the brighter and sharper the background came out, too