Birch bark

From Photo of the day (2009)

Nasty cold this morning - yesterday wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be and I presumed today would be similar so I did take my camera to work. It wasn't cold enough to freeze stuff in my truck (as it was in December) so things were okay, but it was a lot colder than yesterday. The wind howls down from Harrison Lake and can be enough to take your breath away. The automatic watering systems have started to freeze again, as well as the cow parlour - noooo! We just got out of this! Anyways - thought I might see something photo-worthy on the way home, then got the idea of stopping in Pioneer Park in town to find something - I am not keen on going back outside until I have to. I wanted to illustrate the wind somehow but couldn't come up with anything other than the flags and the shots weren't what I was looking for anyways. The light was nice on this old birch tree, and the park is home to many century old trees. Came out alright - I cropped it after I decided the background did nothing for the photo and to enhance the split in the bark as the main subject. Other than that, I did a little bit of highlights/shadows in Picasa and nothing else.