Up early to view the Quadrantid meteor shower but I was too late and the city lights too bright to see much of anything. Right time, wrong place! And it was cold (-7F)—not as cold as it might be but I was not dressed for it. Even so the morning sky was beautiful as it was waking up.
The ice was exceptional up at Berlin Pond but the photographs I made were terrible. Light was flat and dull, I had no tripod—essential for this kind of closeup work—and then my lens froze up (literally) and sheared the focus mechanism. Good lessons (again) learned.
As much as I wanted to quickly “blame” the lens, I know the cause was likely condensation from my morning walk freezing up when I went out again this afternoon. So it goes. When I think of the thousands of photographs I’ve made with that lens (Sigma 70-300 f4-5.6 with macro), I know I’ve gotten my money’s worth from it .
Cold and icy weather with no snow is always a challenge even with ice cleats. My mind, I’m embarrassed to say, has been flirting with warmer climes—Culebra, Belize, Playa del Carmen—someplace where my skin isn’t being ripped apart by ultra-low humidity, where my feet are barefoot on sand and where I might pretend I’m a fish for a couple of weeks.
Just “be here now,” right? Just be here now.
Still Learning To See 