Mike Houge

Fresh Snow:

Fellow photographer,  Dan Ruf and I found time this weekend to get out slip and slide thru the fresh snow and came home with a few good captures. It's been a pretty dry winter up here in northwest Iowa and I have to say the fresh snow was welcomed.

Both images are from the west side of Lake Okoboji and towards the end of the day and the temps were beginning to fall. So thanks to Dan for allowing me to follow him around for a couple of hours and don't forget to stop by his site too at www.danielrif.com . Have a great week and thanks for taking time to stop by.

Star Lily Study:

There were several lily's in the bouquet I gave my wife, Pam for valentines -  so I took advantage of the opportunity. I love getting up close and concentrating on one small area of the flower so the rest of the image is out of focus.

For the above image, I zoomed the camera lens while the shutter was open and merged several of the images in a software program to get the above look. I rather liked the final result.

That's all for now, our internet is poor here in the middle of nowhere so it helps if I can keep the content low. Have a great week and as always, thanks for stopping by.

More studio work:

I've been working indoors this weekend due to the nasty weather and the above is one of my favorites. I have to give partial credit to my friend Dan Ruf who you can find at www.danielruf.typepad.com. We get together often to visit about the ins and outs of photography and he's been encouraging me to not give up on still lifes. They don't come easy for me but as they say "practice makes perfect". I have a long way to go but I guess it is part of the journey.

Thanks for stopping by and have a safe week.