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Friday, March 4, 2016

City Slickers, Wine Glasses and Canning Jars

A few nights ago I decided I wanted to photograph a Kansas sunset with a wineglass on a fence post.  When a wine glass is filled with a clear liquid, the image in the distance is reflected upside down--making a dramatic photograph.

Our sunsets on the prairie are spectacular.   Bright shades of blues, oranges, corals, pinks and yellows.  Oh, this was going to be awesome!   So, I convinced my husband to jump in the jeep with me and take off for this adventure.   I grabbed my wine glass and a canning jar full of water.

A couple of things I didn't think out:

 First:   I had the wrong type of wine glass.   The globe should be CLEAR.   Mine had "lines" or waves in the glass. 

Second:  Fencepost tops aren't flat.   Some are metal and hollow (luckily I discovered this BEFORE I let go of the wine glass).  Others are metal with cement that mounds on top.  The rest are lumpy.

Nevertheless, I persevered.   I had Dan stop at the perfect hilltop with a beautiful vista and the perfect fence post.   He stayed in the car and played "Candy Crush"--his new obsession on his cell phone.  Stepping out of the jeep and into the tall grass between the road and the fence, I suddenly remembered my friend, Cathy Roberts, saying it was warm enough now for snakes to be out.  And ticks.

As I poured the water into the wine glass from the canning jar, I was able to balance the glass precariously on the top of the post.   Not quite the reflection I was wanting--but a nice effect at any rate.  I decided to move to another post.  I set my camera down on the ground as I turned to retrieve the canning jar and pour the water back into it.   As I poured, I turned and my foot sank into a hole.  My first thought was:

SNAKE HOLE!

The wine glass went up in the air one way, the canning jar the other--and water down the front of me.

Jumping out quickly & yelling, I grabbed my camera (still dry!!), the wine glass and canning jar with a quarter cup of water left.   Dan was blissfully looking at his phone.   That night when we returned home, he picked up the wine glass from the kitchen counter and said, "Did you know this was cracked?  Wonder how that happened?"  Seriously!

And so, I don't have a lovely wine glass sunset...but probably more appropriately for Kansas--I have a canning jar evening!  Give me some moonshine!




Cheers!

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