A couple of weeks ago I traveled up north to Wisconsin, to visit family mainly. But of course no trip ANYWHERE can be without my camera. I even went so far as to do a practice run for my Paris trip next year. Seeing if I can do it with just carry-on bags. Ha!! Haahaahahaha, yea, no. That definitely didn’t work. Perhaps if I only had a small camera and one lens, but with my D4 and 2 large and one small (nifty fifty, cause why not?) lens and the laptop, chargers, accessories etc. All of that definitely filled up my camera bag and THAT is the only bag that wont be checked. So I’ve concluded that I will be checking a bag for my Paris trip. And that’s ok.

Oh and I also bought a new travel tripod. Mefoto carbon fiber tripod. Folds up small and is very light. I used it in WI and it was pretty good. I didn’t use it much, but I did like it. So I’m set with that. Now, I think I’ll need one more bag for Paris, a new camera bag. The one I have now is a camera/other stuff bag. I want one just for gear. I’m looking at ThinkTank Airport Advantage or Airport Advantage Plus. We’ll see if Santa brings any good sales…

Any-whoo! So I flew into Chicago instead of Milwaukee. Why? Much cheaper and it’s only an extra hour in traffic. So why not? The only inconvenience is driving in Chicago. But that wasn’t so bad seeing I only drove on Saturdays. Makes for a nice experience not being rushed by rush hour traffic. The flight up was great. No seat-mate and third seat the guy slept the whole time. I was able to sleep some and read a little bit of my E-book by Thomas Heaton. Very good, I highly suggest you picking that up and reading it.

So arriving in Fond du Lac, I went straight to visit my Dad. He was in a rehab facility and Mom was there visiting too. So we sat and watched the Brewers play the last game of regular season baseball to make the playoffs. So exciting!

But as I returned home, it was rainy and cold. And not crisp bright and cold, it was dreary, gray and damp. Chilled to the bone cold. I had decent clothes but it was just miserable. I did get a chance to take a few photos, but not many. I guess my heart really wasn’t into it. And that’s ok too.

But one of the days, I looked outside and saw the clouds actually had some texture. Striated even. So I got the camera out. Made for nice monotone images.

Silos from a farm northeast of where I was staying.

My great grandparents old homestead farm.

I just loved the farms. They would look much better if I were there in the summer. But I had to make lemonade!

Now the shot below, I was sitting editing the ones above and the sun peeked out just a bit and this image kept staring at me. So I grabbed the camera and back out I went.

Then one day we actually made it out of the 50’s all the way to the 80’s! And sunny! Needless to say, I had visits planned. But I made it home in time to capture some timelapses. Phenomenal. I don’t care where you are, there’s always somewhere to photograph. Even in the dreary cold of autumn in Wisconsin.

The last few days were much like the first, cold and dreary. But, one day it was misting. I thought I might be able to take advantage of that and get some vibrant colors out of what was staring me in the face.

This is just a wider shot from the tree above, but I included the clothesline for some interest. I slapped on a CPL and this was what I liked. Mom didn’t like the clothesline much, but I did and you can see the yellow soybean crops in the background. Yep, I liked it indeed.

Then it was time for me to go home. Unfortunately, I could have shot more than I did. I got lazy and just wanted to relax with my family. I also had some old family papers to copy and insert into my ancestry website. Fun fun! Next time I’ll have a better plan. I had places to go, I just didn’t implement them very well. Oh well.

Next time…