Experimenting with Olympus Tough TG-850 at Charleston Falls

Yesterday about noon, I walked at the falls.  Today we are getting snow and low temperatures ranging from about 10 degrees Fahrenheit to 25 degrees Fahrenheit but yesterday the temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit.  Not many people were walking since it was a workday for most people.

The above photo was taken on the Automatic setting...what we once called snapshot mode.

Then I went to the Programable setting and played with the special effect settings, leaving the Exposure set at 0.  Another time I'll play with changing the Exposure as well as the Programable settings.

Here are a few of the 14 settings.

Vivid Setting

Pale and Light Setting

Grainy Film Setting

Pinhole Setting

The setting that fascinated me the most was the Reflection Setting.  I can imagine starting with the photos below and transforming them into abstract paintings.

February 2016, First Signs of Spring

Sometimes the Skunk Cabbage begins blooming here in January.  I waited until February first.  I couldn't wait any longer.  I took a walk down to the swamp at Brukner Nature Center.

I found the skunk cabbage but I didn't see any blooms.  The Spathe on the plant to the right is barely open.  I found others that were still closed.  It is amazing to me that there is a plant that gives off so much heat that it melts the snow around it and enables its flowers to bloom when the temperatures are still in the twenties and thirties. (Fahrenheit)

Yesterday I saw my neighbor outside picking up sticks broken off by the winter storms.  I told her about going down to see the skunk cabbage.

She said, "Did you see the Winter Aconite under my tree?  It is up."

Sure enough.  Later there will be a showy mass of flowers under her tree but there are a few blooming and in the upper righthand corner, you can see a group just breaking through the ground.