Boat coming to dock on Ozawindib Lake. Summer 2011

So…I tried to post this last night. I had been writing/re-writing, saving drafts, proofreading, etc, when I hit something crazy – like the space bar – and all of my text in the post disappeared and WordPress autosaved the blanked draft. Not cool. Did not know about the self-destruct button. I will try much harder to notpressthespacebuttonfromnowon. Moving on, here is September’s wallpaper, finally.

Regarding the image itself, after spending a wonderful daycation with my fantastic family at Itasca State Park – which is quickly becoming a favorite destination of ours – I hurried them into the car, as I noticed the light was fading fast. Not only was the light fading fast, but the wind was dying down as well. That is a perfect recipe for reflection imagery. I knew I didn’t have much time to make it to Ozawindib Lake on the exact opposite side of the park, but we were gonna give it a shot…photo pun there, heh…sorry.  This is my favorite spot to shoot at the park; absolutely idyllic. Quiet lake with low traffic? Check. Lone dock perfect for shooting from? Fantastic variety of trees lining the opposing shores? Check. Check.

Well, the sun had set well below the trees by the time we arrived, but there was still this lovely indigo afterglow to try to capture. Perfect conditions for a tripod. Thankfully, my tripod was in my…other car. Over 2 hours away. So, I rushed out to the end of the dock, laid on my stomach and propped myself up on my elbows to steady myself as best as I could. Shutterhea took over at that point as I was trying to grab as many frames as possible before the light faded completely. As I was shooting, this boat came into view, threatening to ruin the glassy smooth reflection I was enjoying. This turned out great though, as it added a subtle human element to the beauty of God’s creation before me. And, my family was waiting for dad to hurry up and finish so we could all get on the road home. Perfect timing to call it quits for the day.

All-in-all, I had a spectacular day with the family God has richly blessed me with. Not only did I come home with beautiful memories and some lovely shots of my family (we are in desperate need of update images on our walls), but to cap it all off, God gave me a thrilling opportunity to chase the light and score some art with the raw materials He made.

As usual, I’ve got the standard file formats available. Please, let me know if you run into any issues with the files. Thanks for sticking around through all those words. Cya soon!

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