This was quite a large picture when I took it as it was a ‘snap’ shot taken when I heard them take off on the other side of the pond.
Happily I had pre-set the camera to TV and the speed at 1000.
Just as luckily they were in active flight spaced nicely up and down as well as forward and backward.
John, my painting buddy, says he intends to use it as a basis for a new painting.
If he finishes it and I like it I’ll post his painting here.
The time and motion has made John less than entheusiastic about the return journey so I take the wheel of his truck.
Part way we decide it is time to recycle out tea and pull over.
Nice spot for a photo-op and I capture John….capturing me….go figure!
John went walkabout looking for a tree that needed watering.
He ventured halfway down a pretty steep rock face and found this little fungus cluster.
It’s only about 1 inch across and I can’t do macro so I did the best I could and the rest is some severe cropping but WHAT A BEAUTY!
It’s easy to visualize a little world within this fungus….trees….little people….use your imagination and remember…it’s actually only an inch across.
This picture was taken after we had arrived…..1 1/2 hours later with sore cushions and full bladders.
A nice view of a distant point which, undoubtedly, shelters some BIG Pike!
This little Squirrel figured he was all alone in the woods.
He stayed only long enough for me to get a shot of him and he skedaddled before John could get one.
You snooze…….you lose!
On the trip there there are quite a few little lakes….Rabbit, Porcupine, Number 1, etc and LOTS like this glorified swamp/pond/lake we stopped at….just to take a bum-break.
Probably no fish to speak of but one day we’ll toss in a line and see…you never know what kind of Pike might be lurking.
This trip was with my best friend John….on the road to recovery…literally and figuratively.
This first picture is the road itself…..one of the flat bits…and there aren’t many of them.
1 1/2 hours of bumps and jiggles that require quite a few pit stops to relieve the….um…pressure of travel.
You can see how flat and nice it is.
I took this shot a few years ago and it sat around because I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
I had been experimenting with Topaz and discovoured Ghostly….a sort of high contrasting effect.
For those of you who, like me, worked in the days of enlargers, developer, stop bath and fixers Ghostly is similar to pushing the film or using copy film.
In the day I often ‘pushed’ my film to several thousand ASA and developed accordingly or purchased 100 foot rolls of copy film which develops to either BLACK or WHITE……no other tones…then used primarily by the newspaper trade.
Aside from that this picture is EXACTLY as it took it….it is not a composite or a clone….all I did was to crop the shot to EMPHASIZE the length of this particular flock…..the rest is as it was.
I have to confess …..this is DEFINITELY one of my favorite shots.
These Geese fly directly over us every Spring and Fall…..without fail.
As we are on the flight path and there are SO MANY of them, I found myself taking MANY shots of them.
Even though they are obviously intent on their task they are always aware of movement on the ground and most often they will avert their flight direction if they see me ahead of them.
Luckily, our house is pretty well tucked into the bush so by the time they see me it is too late to alter their course.
This is a typical shot….they are quite high and represented only a small area of the shot so it has been severely cropped, resulting in some loss of detail but I still love their effortless ability to fly.
This lovely family group was found within walking distance of my front door in the swamp on part of our property.
I watched them almost daily as they grew and Mum & Dad taught them how to paddle….stay away from predators and walk on the rocks.
Unfortunately nature is reality and by the end of the summer there were only these 3 of the original clutch of 6 born in Spring but happily they all learned to fly and to survive and I know that next year they’ll be back…to raise yet another healthy bunch of babies.
waynesdslrspot 