Wednesday, February 18, 2009

More Dam Pictures

Today I'm going to show you the rest of my dam pictures. These aren't really all of them, but they are all of them for now. These are the other pictures that I wanted for yesterday's story, but they just didn't fit. Since there wasn't enough room for them, I thought I would show you the rest today.

I like this one because of the way the ice forms all over the dam. It looks like little icebergs down at the base with all that water surrounding them. I look in close and have little fantasies of seeing penguins or something.

It all makes me marvel at how even moving water can freeze. It must have been a little bit at a time, but it shows the power of nature and different temperatures. I like the way it looks like the ice seems to have climbed up the side of the dam. In a way it actually did that. As it froze little by little, the ice grew and climbed it's way up and out.

These next two hopefully show you the water spraying out of the holes. It was kind of cool looking to see the way the water was escaping, even though there was a freezing mass of ice around it. This is something that you're obviously never going to get to see in warm weather.

The picture above and below look suspiciously the same, but they were indeed two different photos. I just wanted to make it clear that I didn't crop anything here to show something closer. These pictures have been completely untouched, except for my web address and shrunken resolution so they will fit on the site.

Besides, if I was going to alter them I would make them look a little better than this. I try to keep the original form of a photo if it's possible. Out of the hundreds of photos on this site, I have only altered maybe six. That was only really cropping them for the reasons mentioned above.

I wanted to show you a really extreme closeup shot here of this section of the dam. It shows the water splashing over everything. The ice makes it splash even better. Ouch! that was some bad writing! I probably should have just showed the pictures this time. Let's change the story for a minute.

This stuff with the dam happened in the past, but today I got to see two deer in my backyard. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. When I went in to get it, they decided that they would rather be somewhere else. I got back out there and the deer were gone.

That was just a mini update on what's happening right now. I've been missing the deer, so I was happy to see them back out there today. Hopefully that means that I'll get to take some new deer pictures soon. It's been so long since I've seen any animals here. Okay, back to the dam, and the wrap up of this story.

Here's the last photo of the dam for awhile. Can you guess where Alice and I were standing when I took this picture? Look at the other side and you can see that fence keeping people off the dangerous side. There is a similar fence on this side.

That's right! We were standing safely behind the bars of the fence. I would never put Alice or myself in that kind of danger that I just implied. Even the seeming danger from yesterday's post wasn't as bad as it might have seemed. It was there though.

Sometimes you have to emphasize things like danger to show that it is very real. Even though I stay reasonably safe, there are still dangers out there. I hope to show that when you go out there that you should always watch for dangerous situations.

There are even animals that can be dangerous. We don't have as many dangerous animals here as in some places, but in the woods I've been showing you recently there has been a coyote roaming around. I saw it myself, and it was very aware of me. It was less afraid of me than I would have liked. The look in it's eyes when it saw me was more cunning and wariness than fear.

So to wrap it up, I'd like to remind you all to stay safe when you go out into nature. And I hope you liked my dam pictures. I like saying that!


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12 comments:

  1. I think you are being cheeky using the word 'dam'....

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  2. It should be fun to witness how moving water got frozen.
    The process must have been started from the bottom portion, whereby there were still continous flow of water from the opening for the remaining freezing process.(I started murmuring again).

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  3. Hi Ratty, cheeky, yes! HA The power of nature never ceases to humble us. Even a little trickle of water can tumble a mountain, or a little acorn settled in a crack in a boulder can reduce it to pebbles. All over time, nature's greatest strength, persistence.
    Frances

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  4. Beautiful photos. I haven't seen deer down in our meadow since hunting season. If you're seeing them, maybe winter is ending? I did see a flock of wild turkeys in our horse pasture yesterday. Why is it we never have our cameras with us when things like that happen?
    I so enjoyed all your photos.

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  5. I really like the 2nd & 3rd pix. The black and white is great in the 3rd one, but I like how the ice softens the corners of the 2nd one, almost like you put one of those fancy filters on your lens. Cool dam place.

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  6. Kruel - I think you might be right. It's just that I'm so happy to have these dam pictures.
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    Rainfield - If it wasn't so cold and wet out there, I would have sat down and watched the water flow out of the dam.
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    Fairegarden - This is toned down from last Saturday's post. This little river eventually flows into the huge Detroit River. It's not it's main source, but it's one of the sources.
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    Mountain Woman - I'm excited to see the deer, but winter is far from over here. Our news says it's coming back with a vengeance in a few days. I promised myself I'd keep my camera with me at all times, but I already broker the promise.
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    Sharkbytes - It was actually because of those two pictures that I wanted to continue with another post about the dam today. Cool dam comment.

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  7. Hey Ratty! How's it going?

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  8. I could have sworn I left a damn comment yesterday. I did today but some damn thing ate it so here I am again. so much more briefly:

    I liked the first photo best. The ice build up and open water at the base is cool.

    Glad the deer have returned and hope you get a chance to get a good photo. I missed my chance this morning when two young deer walked through the yard. By the time I got the camera out so were they :(

    Coyotes are fairly common around here but wary of people so it's unusual to see one. I see their prints but haven't spotted one since lat winter.

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  9. Anonymous - It's going fine. How's it going with you?
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    WiseAcre - My favorites keep changing of these. I like them all. That's why I wanted to include them.

    I haven't had another chance to watch for them. These were also very young. I don't think they were even full grown.

    The coyote I saw was wary, but it wasn't afraid. It was sizing me up, and I didn't like that one bit. It seemed to be a little too intelligent.

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  10. Now that I am on vacation in the sun, it seems weird to look at ice, even though I have plenty where I live in Upper Michigan too. Funny how 1600 miles makes you forget fast! I hope to post my travel photos soon on my blog too, so hope you can stop by when I get to do that! I will keep trying to read your blog on the road! Loved the dam(n) photos!! Take care

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  11. The Retired One - It's not just ice. We just had another snowstorm. This is not a fun place to be right now. It sounds like your vacation must be going well. I've been stopping by your blog when I can just in case, so I won't miss anything if you post it. Keep having fun.

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