Ice In The Sound At Nags Head Causeway.

It's been unusually cold here on the Outer Banks.. Near freezing and below for the past 3 weeks. Doesn't happen much, but when it does, Nature makes you stand up and pay attention. It affords a unique opportunity for photographers to get out there and brave the elements and get some of those rare pictures. Rosie, Ticky, and I went to the Nags Head Causeway (the stretch between Nags Head and Manteo, right before the bridge) to take pictures of windswept ice sculptures. Ticky's high school friend, Russ, had already been there and reported about it on his blog, Russ' Outer Banks Journal. I'd traversed the causeway between home and Manteo several times during the past weeks. I saw all the photo ops there. But I was unable to stop. I was on another mission. Finally I was able to stop with Ticky this past Sunday. Thanks, Ticks. Here are our three perceptions of the same phenomena: Rosie Ticky Russ

Please compare and contrast. Lovely photos, Ticks and Russ. Now, for a digital photography lesson. This is the original picture I took. It's Ticky, shooting pictures of the partly frozen sound. I was freakin' freeeezin'. I had been assaulted by damn near every element I could think of. I finally retreated from the frozen barren scape, head bowed, and shot this photo from the confines and semi-coziness of Ticky's Subaru. (My window is opened on the North East. Not a good thing.) And THEEEENNNNNNNNNN!!!!!! She has the AUDACITY to post this ??? Yup. That's me. In the setting sun. Right across from Jockey's Ridge. In the warmth of the Subaru. Not tromping across dunes to take a freakin' picture of a long lost castle. And I believe I am smiling. Here's Kathy's Kastle. Yep. She left me in the warmth of her car while she took off into the dunes across 4 - 5 lanes of highways to get there. It was not at all appealing to me to mount Jockey's Ridge. I was still trying to thaw out from our afternoon on South Nags Head Beaches and the Causeway. Now for the digital photography lesson: Let me introduce you to Picasa. It's Google's free software you can download, so you can edit your digital photographs. And it's great fun. You can actually sharpen your pictures. You can adjust contrast. You can turn your color pictures into black and white. You can take out red-eye. You can tint. You can tweak your photographs however way you want. Want sepia? Got it. And you can crop your pictures. In the original photograph of Ticky, above, I didn't like the chain fence on the bottom left. No problem. Same photograph. Cropped:

Horizontal.

Vertical.

Which do you like?