Scott Shephard Photography

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08-20-13 Prairie Relic

2013 08-20 Prairie Relic When Deb and I were driving back to Watertown on the day we did Lacey and Matt's engagement session, I remember driving by this tree and saying, "That's an amazing tree." And so, before I ended my session north of town a few days ago (that resulted in the two previous posts) I stopped by this tree and took several photos. I ended up liking this one, largely because of the way the stark monotone of the skeletal tree contrasts with the strong colors of the earth and sky.

Post Script

There is a bit of a back story to this photo. I took this photo on the morning of August 11. Three days later, I was packing my camera gear and discovered that my beloved Canon 24-105 4.0L lens was missing. I searched the house. Twice. No lens. I opened Aperture on my computer to find the last photo I had taken with the lens. It was of this tree. I concluded that I had left the lens exactly where I had taken it off - sitting on top of a fence post. (I used my 70-200 telephoto lens so I could try to blur the background.)

I drove north of town feeling pretty confident that I would find the lens. After all, this spot is fairly remote and I didn't think the country road would have had much traffic. I also imagined that the lens would blend in, looking like part of the post.

And from an eighth of a mile away, I could see the lens. But it didn't look like part of the fencing - it looked like a lens. Fortunately, it hadn't rained and there had been little dew over the three days that it sat on the post. And, aside from a fine layer of dust on the filter (no, I hadn't put on the lens cap), the lens was pretty much as I had left it. Lucky me!

Lens on Fence Post