a Sunday morning full of beauty, peace and reflection....

Thank goodness for places like Crystal Lake! I have been dying, as you may know, to REALLY spend time working with my new telephoto lens. Well, I got the opportunity to do just that this past weekend at Crystal Lake, thanks to my mother-in-law, Camille.

Crystal Lake is in Palestine, Texas and is a favorite getaway located just about three hours from our house. We go for a weekend stay two or three times a year with Mom and Dad Johnston who waited all their lives to get a chance to become members of the club there. On Saturday, we drove to Crystal Lake in the afternoon. Saturday evening, Camille hosted her family's yearly dinner. This dinner is normally held just after Christmas but, was a little later this year. We had a great time and got to visit with family that we hadn't seen in awhile. I took pictures of those in attendance, but I'll post them at another time, if I get permission to do so from them. On Sunday morning I got up at 7am, dressed as warm as I could (including a borrowed parka and gloves) and ventured out into the freezing (15 degrees!), morning just before sunrise. Steam was rising from the icy lake and as the sun began to rise, the colors of the landscape changed every few minutes. This was a very unique opportunity for me, we are blessed with such mild winters here that we don't normally have many mornings like that. It was so quiet, peaceful and beautiful. So beautiful in fact that I didn't mind the cold for once. At first my intent was to take all kinds of pictures, switching out my lenses when needed for different subjects. However, after a few minutes in the frozen air, I couldn't feel my fingers and changing lenses became almost impossible. Plus, I didn't want to drop a lens and break it! So, I decided to just put on the telephoto lens and leave it on since that was the one I was most eager to play with. So, all of the following pictures, except one (taken before my fingers went numb), were taken with my telephoto lens. I took more than 500 pictures over the course of two days. Some where taken on the drive to Palestine and the drive back while Jack drove. I used my telephoto lens for those also and got a few pretty good shots at 75-80 miles an hour. I'll post those later too as there are already a lot of photos in this post. Here are some of my favorites from my Sunday morning at Crystal Lake.

~This picture was taken from just outside the back door of the lake house. If you look closely, you can see an old dead tree laying in the water in the background. That dead tree has been there for years (ever since I first started going to the lake with the family and I'm sure much longer than that) and has been the subject of many of my pictures. It's just really cool looking to me.

~a view from the side of the lake house looking down at the lake. I like this one.

~The edge of the water was frozen, you can see the ice here. ~Ice crystals that have formed on top of a picnic table that sits out beside the lake. This is the one picture that is not a telephoto shot.

~In this picture you can see another dead tree laying in the water. This is a new (to me at least) addition to the scenery.

~the same dead tree twice more. These pictures were taken from the Pier (you can see the pier in picture just above these two) to get a closer shot. ~frozen weeds ~an old platform. This picture makes me feel lonely. I like it though. ~this picture was also taken from the Pier. It is of the reflection of the trees in the water. The water was so still and calm that everything bounced off of it like a mirror. Beautiful. Even though it doesn't follow any of the "guidelines for good composition" of a photo, this is one of my favorite ones of the day!

~The pier and the lake.

~if you look close enough, you can see a bird sitting on top of the white trim of the little spring house, looking out toward the lake. I wasn't going for a picture of the bird (that's why it's not closer) and I didn't even notice the bird until Jack pointed it out to me once the pictures were loaded on the computer. ~A bird house among the trees with the fog in the background, I love it.

~Jack came out after a little while and walked around with me. I shot this picture of him on the pier. The lighting isn't right and his features aren't easily made out, but I like it anyway. ~Fence post. Simple, yet eye catching and interesting. ~Can you find the bird??

~My two favorite little helpers, Jason and Madison, came out for a little bit toward the end of my adventure. Here they are looking over the pier at the water below.

~a leaf with ice crystals

~once the sun came up and most of the fog was gone, all the little creatures came out to play. This cute fuzzy little bird was one of them.

~My favorite dead tree after the fog lifted.

~this picture reminds me of a painting. The reflection of the trees on the water is what makes this picture interesting to me.

~a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. ~Ambrose Bierce

~Madi picked up a leaf and wanted me to take a picture of it. Instead, I took a picture of her holding the leaf. She thought the picture was just of the leaf. Turned out to be my other favorite picture from this day!

~I got a dozen or more pictures of this herd of deer, thanks to Johnny who spotted them just before we left on Sunday afternoon.

We always enjoy our time at Crystal Lake, but this trip, for me, was special. It was special because I got to experience and capture, in photographs, a Sunday morning full of beauty, peace and reflection. It was also special because I was surrounded by family who all take such an interest and support me in my hobby/passion/obsession!