Homer's Travels: Our View ... In 58 Seconds

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Our View ... In 58 Seconds

Our house has something that I would never expect to find in Nebraska - a view. To me Nebraska is synonymous with flat and often boring rolling hills. In the year or so since we moved, I have discovered that Nebraska has some awesome scenery that, at times, ranks up there with the mountains and the oceans. Heck, the Sand Hills in western Nebraska are like green undulating ocean waves frozen in time. The view off our deck, a view of farm fields and distant forested hills still amazes me. Some mornings the fog settles in the Papio Creek bottom, the trees and power poles raising above the mist.

A year ago I decided to start a photography project. Every day I would take a picture off our deck. I started taking pictures two hours before sunset, adjusting the picture taking time as the sunset time shifted, but, for the last few months, I just started to take the pictures at 5:00PM no matter when sunset was. In other words, I became a little lazy. I don't think it diminishes the results. Earlier this week I completed the project having taken pictures for one year.

I used Picasa (now replaced by Google Photos) to create a movie of the pictures. The video, which runs for about 58 seconds at six frames per second, consists of 336 pictures. I don't have 365 pictures because of vacations and weekends out of town, activities in the late afternoon preventing picture taking, and, frankly, forgetting to take the daily picture. Never the less, I did manage to take pictures 92% of the time. I set the camera on the deck railing to steady the camera but, as you'll see, the camera is never aligned the same way. My umbrella got caught in a couple pictures when it was raining. I think these quirks give it character.

The view changes with the seasons. Leaves come and go. Last winter was a little bereft of snow - a disappointment especially after I got snow shoes for Christmas. The farmer who had planted corn last year planted soy beans this year. The dead tree on the left of of the view lost half of itself during a wind storm. The world changes and the view lives on.

The video and the pictures that it's made off doesn't really do justice to our view but it should give you some idea of what we see every afternoon.

4 comments:

  1. Awesome! I liked watching the soybeans come in. Are you going to make another one this year?

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  2. MH: Thanks! I haven't decided if I want to do this again. If I do it again I would probably look for another view or a different time of day.

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  3. Whoa, was that lightening I saw in one shot? And please tell me the farmer isn't planning to sell his land and it all becomes a subdivision!

    Very cool.

    So, when you installing the webcam?

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  4. GH: I think what you saw was a contrail. It did look like lightening didn't it.

    This land is in a flood plain so it would cost a pretty penny to convert it to a subdivision. You would have to add a lot of soil to raise any houses up. We are worried about potential commercial developement but haven't heard about anything ... yet.

    I'll put the webcam up when you buy it for me. It has to be wireless and preferably 802.11N

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