best of first efforts

*Do not use images without permission. Thanks.

I woke up this morning around 7:30, peeked outside the window and was met with a gorgeous orange and pink sunrise. That was it: time for the Olympus' first official outing. I grabbed Mom's boots, Dad's gloves with fingerholes, the necessary coat and hat and ventured out, pajama pants and all. I tried to step in the footholes I'd made a couple days before, attempting to creep into the backyard with the least amount of snow slipping into my boots.

All in all, I'm pleased. Of course by the time I was actually outside, the light had shifted rather dramatically, but that didn't mean the view wasn't worth seeing. I startled two rabbits, who hustled away under a large pile of snow-covered brush. Their frenzied tracks were rather interesting, and I got a few shots of that. Sometimes there's be only a single line of rabbit tracks leading up to the base of a tree, which was rather cute (until I approached the tree later and wondered where the rabbit was possibly hoping to find shelter!).

These (below) are my favorites (click for larger). The first is me turning backwards on the hill facing the suburbs - a good title might be "Lincoln Sleeping." The next two are obviously of the sunset. I think the last one's my favorite.

My dad's subtly trying to encourage me to go backpacking this coming year with he and my sister - this morning showing me a website of the trail they want to go on and the shots a photographer/backpacker managed to get there. Dude, at this point that's only going to depress me. You need pretty solid technical knowledge, I think, to produce outstanding 'backpacking' pictures. Nevertheless the site was lovely. Such a trip might be fun to go on, but I'd probably end up spending a lot of time by myself when my sister and dad leave me to actually hit the trails (and I'm back at the start with my camera :))

Shots: