Sugarhouse Park

Yesterday, I decided to explore/photograph a park that is down the street from my house, called Sugarhouse Park. It's pretty big and has lots of cool scenery.

When I first got there, I saw a TON of birds of all different kinds next to the pond. So I parked my car a little ways away from the lake (so I wouldn't scare them) and when I got out, all of the birds immediately flew towards me! I was kind of freaked out (if you have seen "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock, you know why.) But I figured they just thought I had food, so I continued to shoot anyway. I'm sad I missed that moment when they were all flying toward me, but I was in a fight for my life (and my camera wasn't ready)! It was really cool photographing these birds because I could get close and they didn't fly away. In fact, to get them to fly, I had to kick snow at them (sorry) to scare them.

The line of ducks (below) were actually somewhat scared of me. They walked up to where I was right as I got back in my car. So I got out again and walked toward them and they froze in a weird cluster. So I got back in my car and they started walking again. Punks. So I had to get creative: I had to roll down my window and shoot from inside my car. I felt silly but it worked!

The last two scenes I stumbled upon while walking around. I didn't apply any color enhancement to the trees; they were just really pretty! Even though it's really cold, I love shooting in the snow!

These ducks seemed confused as to why this bird was joining them

 

Perfect landing

Just so you can see how many birds flew at me. This isn't even half of them!

Freezing Rain

Okay, landscapes aren't really my thing, but I had to capture this...

Yesterday, I had my first freezing rain experience. I was very confused as to what exactly was happening, because it seemed like it was just raining (weird for winter, but whatever), but then it turned to ice as soon as it touched any surface (the street, cars, snow, etc), a very strange phenomenon. I heard that some people had about 1/4 inch thick of ice covering their cars, and the freeway was a mess. Not a good day for going outside at all. Except if you wanted to skate around on the ice, which I saw (via video) some students at BYU were doing. It actually looked like a lot of fun!
Sliding Down the Ice
(I especially like the last guy's approach, haha)

Last night, I realized that my snow-covered lawn looked really cool with the sheet of ice on top of the snow. It was almost as if you could skate on top of the snow (but unfortunately, that wasn't the case...). It was also tricky photographing the ice because you can only see it at certain angles. In the first photo below, you can see the ice coating on the left side of the photo--it looks like a glaze. In the second photo, you can see the cool texture the ice adds to the snow. And in the last one, you can see how dangerous our driveway is. It's very deceptive: it looks like snow, but it's covered in sheet of ice, which you can only see at certain angles. I have *almost* fallen a few times.

And the last photo doesn't have anything to do with freezing rain, but I thought it looked cool, so I decided to add it on. Unfortunately, I only had my camera phone on me, so the quality isn't so great, but it's still cool. I love how the cool and warm lights are separated by the tree.

This has been a crazy winter for Utah (horrible air quality, freezing rain, followed by tons of fog... do I want to know what's next?)

Makes me miss this...