Wool Sock Weather

This morning I was up and around by six fifteen. When I looked to the east there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I could tell it was going to be one of those mornings where the photography was going to be over rather quickly due to the bright, harsh lighting from the sun. After a short shower and breakfast I got ready pretty quickly and headed out the door. One look down into the valley convinced me that I made the right choice in grabbing my heavy jacket as I could see that the valley floor was covered in frost. When I got into my pickup the thermostat showed a comfortable thirty eight degrees. As I descended down into the valley the temperature steadily dropped until it remained a constant twenty four degrees on the valley floor. Arriving at the ranch the thermometer jumped up one degree as I pulled into the driveway. Badger the wonder dog was reluctant to go into the frost covered blind but eventually rolled up into a nice warm ball and fell asleep. I had grabbed my heavy jacket but had forgotten gloves and wool socks. I kept my hands warm by putting them in my pockets and behind my knees. My feet however were getting colder and colder. In the end they were the deciding factor that caused me to leave the blind and head for the warmth of the heater of the pick up. The photography was great. There were a lot of birds and I made a lot of images. In editing them when I got home there was one image of a House Finch that stood out above all of the rest. Please enjoy this beautiful male House Finch. Image created with a canon 7D and a Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD Lens at 300mm on a Manfrotto 190 PROB tripod with a Bogen 3055 Ballhead. Camera settings used were ISO 800,F 8.0 at 1/100th of a sec.