Furious Skies

Home

Back to Photos by Year

12-2-06

Well, I suppose I got what I deserved. In the previous entry, I did a tiny little part where I
sort of had a quick laugh at people stuck in ditches after the snow storm. As my luck would have
it, karma turned its head and bit me. I set out to my usual spot out at the Geneseo/Atkinson border
last Saturday and parked in my usual spot. This is the same spot I have parked year after year, even in
the snow, and have never been stuck. I have even parked in the snow with my Grand Prix and never
got myself stuck. Well, I suppose today would be a different story. I also thought since I was taking pictures
of other people's misfortunes, it was only fair that I took a few of my own.

We started off on our usual walk next to the canal. I dressed up like an eskimo so I didn't mind staying out
long in the cold. It's incredible how sensitive dog's noses are. They can pick up a scent from about five feet
away and under 11" of snow, as she is doing in this picture

Snowmobiles were out in full force today. Actually, that is the main reason HOW I got
stuck today. I'll explain in a bit. Anyway, this was laying on my back looking up a snowmobile
trail. Those suckers come flying through here, not so sure I'd do that.

She has a problem with snow and ice getting packed into her paws. When it starts to
bother her, she'll stop and clean them out every five minutes.

Ok, time to go, right? WRONG! I load up the truck, get it started, warm it up for a bit, then throw
it into reverse. It starts backing out just fine, but all of a sudden stops and starts sliding DOWN a
hill to the immediate left of me. I really wish I would have snapped a picture of it's possible demise, but
I wasn't too happy with myself. Actually, I almost didn't take ANY pictures of this. After trying a couple of
times to rock it and punch out in 4WD LO, it only made things worse. So, to the phone I went and called
my dad and explained my predicament. I had a long wait ahead of me, so I set back out and did some more
walking. This was the FIRST and hopefully LAST time I ever get this thing stuck.

This doesn't show much, but the more I hit the gas, the further this side
starting sliding down the hill off to the left of the camera.

This was walking back on the path again. See how I parked further off to the side to allow the
snowmobiles to pass through the opening. I thought this was courteous of me considering they
aren't even SUPPOSED TO BE ON THE PATH! There is a sign that is actually posted right
on that middle post that says "No Motor Vehicles On Path". But, oh well. I still decided I was
going to be nice. Anyway, a few feet to the (truck's) right, I probably would have been fine.

So, I have a pretty good wait ahead of me. I took this next shot just slowly walking
back down the path. It's not really that great but I also didn't have my ND or polarizing
filters with me. It didn't pick up the tint in the snow like I had wanted.

About an hour to an hour and a half later my dad
and brother Josh finally show up with his 4X4 Jimmy. Well, that couldn't even get traction and
I actually ended up in a WORSE spot than before (no pics) as my front end was now really
starting to slide down the hill. At this point I was thinking "tow truck". We didn't have long
enough tow ropes and chains for him to get up on dry pavement. But, one lucky thing at least
happened today. Some guy was on his route home in a Silverado and happened to have some
tow straps on him also. We connected the two, got on dry pavement, and VOILA! I'm out
easier than heck. I knew I wasn't going to get my sunset snow drift picture like I wanted to
since it was already approaching 4:00, so I just took my time going home. After a while
sitting around at home, I couldn't resist going back to the drifts and getting some more.

This set came out much better I thought. This time I brought with a MagLite to shine on the drifts
so my camera had an autofocus point. So, the last shot had to be cut short and was actually touched
up in Photoshop to brighten up the picture. Why? Well, I saw a train coming from far away. Knowing
how fast they move on these tracks, I decided to end the shot short and figured post processing could
take care of the underexposed image. I hurried back to my truck, threw it in reverse and backed up
all the way down the road until I got to the tracks. The train was absolutely MOVING by the time I
got out of the truck so I didn't have much time to set up. I set the tripod, switched to autofocus, then
frantically searched to switch it back to manual before the train got to me. The shutter wasn't open
for very long at ALL. I FINALLY got my train shot, but not the way I wanted it to turn out. It is
way too dark to tell anything. The aperture was entirely too high for the short exposure. Oh well, at
least it wasn't a complete failure this time!!

Contact Me Back to Top