Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Author Archives: dawnkinster


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Saying goodbye to Payton

Angel Katie here.

You know I keep track of my mama and daddy even though I’m across the bridge, right? So I know when they’re upset. Thursday night I noticed mama had wet eyes so I paid extra special attention and wasn’t surprised when she started talking to me.

Don’t we look alike? That’s Payton on the right.

I’m a very good listener.

She said that Payton, my half sister, was going to be crossing the Rainbow Bridge on Friday, the very next day, and she wanted to make sure I’d be waiting for her so that Payton would have someone there right away to show her around.

She didn’t want Payton to be alone as she arrived.

We are both very happy girls.

Well of course I told mama not to worry, I’d be right there, first in line to greet her as soon as she arrived, cause after all, she’s my little sister!

Payton and I met a couple years ago when our moms got us together to go for a walk, way back in July of 2021. It was pretty warm and we were both mature so there wasn’t a lot of playing between us. But we did sniff hello and go on a congenial walk around Payton’s large estate.

She enjoyed sharing her home with me. She lived in a beautiful place.

Most of the time while the folks were sitting around talking we were hanging around snoozing.

A nap on the deck is always a good thing.

Or sneaking treats from the other’s mom or dad. Sometimes mama said she couldn’t tell us apart, especially from the back.

We knew how to work it, that’s for sure!

We were good about taking turns getting treats.

Then in May of 2022 Payton and her folks came over to my house and I showed her and her sister Tally around my park.

The two of us and our dads. We were already discussing how to thwart the moms taking pictures.

We had so much fun together, we even conspired to give the moms a hard time getting pictures of us, just for fun. But you know how moms are, they’re pretty stubborn, and they got a few good images of us.

She looked so beautiful in the afternoon sun.

Secretly I’m glad they did. Now that we’re both gone I think the pictures will give our parents some comfort, you know?

We were giggling because the moms couldn’t get us to sit together for a picture!

Payton was a very smart little girl, she even earned her UDX title in Obedience and she did rally and agility too!

Payton and I were not impressed with mom wanting a yellow flower shot.

Payton loved her mom and her dad very much, but she was definitely a daddy’s girl, helping him do the yardwork and enjoying a daily golf cart ride with him to inspect her estate.

She loved her folks so much.

She lived to be 15 years old, just like me, and just like me she was tired at the end, but she had a very wonderful life, and she lived every minute of it to the fullest.

Payton had the best smile.

She was a feisty little girl that managed her household and she will be missed so much by her family and friends.

But don’t worry everybody, we’re together now and healthy and happy. There’s so much to do here, so many things to sniff, and we have so many friends with us, why there’s always a game of ball to play, and walks to take and soft beds to nap on.

“Come on Katie, let’s mess with the moms again!”

And don’t get us started about the treats! My oh my, there’s any flavor we might want, and we can have as many as we want! It’s crazy!

Anyway, I know those of you that knew Payton will miss her terribly, but I wanted to reassure you that she’s just fine and when it’s time we’ll both be right here, along with all your doggie friends and fur babies, waiting to show you around.

“We’ll wait for you guys to get here!”

Well, Payton and I have a nice walk scheduled next, we’re going to explore that meadow of wildflowers over there, so we have to go for now. But we’ll be watching you, and if you get sad again know that we’ll be right there.

Promise.

Payton. Never forgotten, loved forever.

Shelties are always loyal and we love you all very much.

Talk later,

Your Sheltie girls, Payton and Katie


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Night #2

My sister and I spent our days exploring Michigan’s eastern UP the last week of August, but we spent our nights looking for clear skies. We were on a mission to capture the Milky Way over interesting stuff, in particular over the Upper Falls at Tahquamenon State Park.

A view of the falls from along the path, taken during our morning research for the night time adventure.

I’d seen images done by other photographers and I figured what the heck, how hard could it be. Right?

We’d made the recognizance trek back to the falls, and down the 94 steps to the viewing platform during the day. We’d check the position the Milky Way would likely be over the falls, using my hand dandy phone compass. We’d strategized how the whole even would go down, including talking to rangers ahead of time so they’d know where we were.

From the viewing platform.

Still, as we parked in the giant, but empty, parking lot after dark that second night of clear skies I was worried, as I always am, about what could go wrong. As we sat there waiting for it to be dark enough headlights came up the long driveway toward us.

“DARN!” I said (well maybe not that exact word).

These stairs are easier to maneuver in daylight.

I’m never happy to have other people around when we start out on a night mission, unless I know who they are. The truck went on past us and parked in front of the bathrooms. The park rangers were there to clean up the facility after the day of tourism.

Now I was in another quandary. I didn’t want to walk up on them and startle them. So we waited until they were done, and on their way out they stopped to talk to us, wanting to know what we were doing. The lady ranger recognized me from our earlier discussion and told us to have fun and be careful.

Yep lots of water falling off that ledge.

So with an official blessing my sister and I packed up our gear and began the long walk back to the falls. It’s not really that difficult, given what most people have to do to get to scenic places, the trail is paved and pretty level as long as you watch for the occasional tree root.

The path winds along the ridge above the falls, flat and wide.

Still, by then it was pitch black. Do you know that noises are scientifically louder when heard in a dark woods vs. in your own driveway? It’s a fact. Anyway, we made it back to the long set of stairs and picked our way very carefully down to the viewing platform.

The first thing I noticed once we were down there, other than that the roar was very loud, was how much mist was blowing off the falls. And that it was blowing right at us.

I had my sister turn on her flashlight so I could see how much mist was flying. Turns out it was a lot.

But there was the Milky Way, exactly where we figured it would be, right above the falls. To our eyes it looked great. I could imagine just how it was going to look through my camera lens.

Except for this darn railing that is just about the same height as the top height my tripod will go. And I need to shoot in portrait (vertical) to get the Milky Way and the falls in a single shot. Which put the railing smack dab in the middle of the frame.

Oh…and I forgot to turn off my red flashlight too.

How annoying. I dabbed at the mist on my lens and considered that maybe I could shoot from a lower perspective, between the rails.

I was struggling with the composition so much that I didn’t spend any time on focus.

The noise from the falls and the waves of mist washed over me as I reconfigured the tripod and tried sitting down to shoot.

Seriously this was not going well. Then I tried holding the camera on the top railing manually, even though I knew that was ridiculous and there’s no way I could hold it steady for 20 seconds. In what felt like a monsoon.

I really needed a taller, more steady tripod. In fact at one point the whole tripod tipped over and somehow, some way, I managed to grab a leg in the dark before the whole thing fell over.

And I need to be there on a clear night when there is less mist. I wonder if that’s even possible?

Maybe I should find a spot over the LOWER falls.

And mostly I need to learn how to do panoramas, because if I could have shot the top of the Milky Way in landscape (horizontal) slices, down to the falls I could have stitched it all together into one really pretty image.

Or so I’m told. I haven’t done those segments of my class yet. I guess this is the winter to buckle down and learn that stuff while the Milky Way is resting, so that when she wakes back up next spring I’ll be ready.

Eventually I had to focus on just the stars, and even then we were getting soggy from the mist.

So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you zero great images of the Milky Way over the Upper Falls at Tahquamenon State Park. But don’t be discouraged. I plan to try again after I do more learning and more research.

I guess the Milky Way over the Upper Falls just wasn’t in the stars for me that night. (You see what I did there?)

But we will be back, if nothing else because walking into the dark woods and then walking out a little damp but none the worse for wear was a thrill in itself!

You might find us just about anywhere!

I hope you all come along with us on our next adventure!


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Night #1

We went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during a very specific week in August, a week when the moon wasn’t filling the sky with light, in order to capture the dark skies there and the Milky Way hanging high overhead.

I concentrated on driving, my sister took the pictures as we went over the bridge.

The season for Milky Way core shooting is coming to an end. Soon it won’t rise high enough for us to see it, and we’ll have to be content with the memories of magical clear nights filled with stars. Because certainly that’s what it’s always like when you’re out under the stars shooting the Milky Way. Right?

Sure it is.

Under the bridge before we drove over it.

So that Monday at the end of August my sister and I packed the car and drove all the way up from southeastern Michigan, across the Mackinaw Bridge and into the interior of the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula.

That’s Mackinaw Island over there.

We set up camp and then decided we’d head up to Whitefish Point for the sunset. And, if we were lucky, a bit of Milky Way practice too.

Lots of families had spent the day at the beach.

The Milky Way core rises early in the night at this time of year, so all we had to do was wait for it to get dark. The minutes ticked by slowly as the light faded and many families came in from the beach, packed their kids and stuff into their cars, and drove away.

This is a uniquely built lighthouse.

But many other people were still out on the beach as the skies darkened, slow to leave Lake Superior and a day filled with sunshine, splashing in the lake, and looking for that special rock.

The day’s light fades.

According to what I could find online the Milky Way would be visible around 10:15. By 9:45 we were getting tired of waiting and I climbed out of the car to do a test shot from the parking lot to see if it was there.

If you look at this in a dark room and make it bigger you’ll see satellites flying all through the sky.

Unfocused and with no composition to speak of, the image is over exposed on purpose so I didn’t have to wait 25 seconds just to see what was up there. We were very excited to see that the Milky Way was indeed hanging over our heads.

So off to the beach we went. We had planned to shoot from down near the water, but there were hundreds of biting flies down there. I felt more comfortable up on the boardwalk where the night breezes kept the flies at bay.

Over exposed on purpose again, just to get a quick image to see where the Milky Way was in relationship to the lighthouse.

Besides, this wasn’t meant to be our real night photography session. We’d come up to Tahquamenon Falls State park to shoot the Milky Way over the falls. This was just a practice session, nothing really important.

Once I established where the Milky Way was, and got the stars in focus, I settled in to get a serious shot. But there were still people walking up from the beach, flashlights shining on random things. Car taillights and headlights were shining on the lighthouse when you least expected it.

The red from car taillights lit up the side of the lighthouse. And of course the lighthouse beacon made plenty of light too.

Not to mention the actual light from the lighthouse which every 14 seconds would blast two times. My sister counted the seconds for me as I tried to avoid the light. Though to be honest the beacon light looked kind of cool on the back of the camera and I didn’t mind it so much at all.

But then there was that red light near the bottom of the frame. I couldn’t tell what it was, while looking through the lens, but the camera was definitely picking something up. It was annoying, and meant that I really needed to limit myself to the top portion of the lighthouse.

Easy enough to crop out that bit of red at the bottom. Turns out it was an exit light inside, above a door, that filled the room with red light.

And as I focused on the sky above the lighthouse there were, of course, planes to contend with. You can take a series of images, all in a row, and then ‘stack’ them in a software program and the parts of the images that aren’t the same will be removed. So I took 7 or 8 images, and if I wanted to I could stack them and all the planes and satellites would be eliminated.

Or…you could just say, that’s cool, look at all the stuff up there in the sky!

Well, I got the shot without the beacon, but there was a plane flying through the Milky Way.

I didn’t take a lot of images that night. I probably should have gone down to the beach and worked on my original composition plan. It was a warm, beautiful night. But we were both tired from a long day and this was just a practice shoot anyway.

A car’s headlights lit up the side of the lighthouse, but I sort of like this one.

Right?

In the end I liked a couple of the images. And I’ll definitely go back on another clear, warm night. A night with a breeze to keep the flies away. Maybe a night earlier in the season when the Milky Way will be visible later in the night and fewer people will be around with their flashlights and headlights.

The northern end of the Milky Way, right over our heads. So many stars, such a lovely night.

And of course I still had the Milky Way shoot above Tahquamenon Falls to look forward to. This was just a practice session, remembering how to focus and camera settings and stuff. But you’ll have to wait to see how that one turned out. I haven’t processed those images yet.

Heck, just retelling the story of our very long first day in the UP has exhausted me! But I hope you enjoyed your short trip to Whitefish Point on a warm August night!


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Waiting

I know you’re all waiting to see how the night photography worked out on my recent trip to the UP. After all, that was one of the main reasons we went. But I just haven’t taken the time to process those images yet.

I will soon. Promise.

This must be a self portrait of the family that camped in our site just before we did.

Meanwhile I thought this series of pictures from our campsite picnic table might make you smile.

We noticed the chalk image, left by the prior campers, as we were setting up our tents. My sister and I wondered why the mom was frowning. Though as kids we camped in a big green army tent with our large family and we can say with some expertise that there were many reasons for a mom to be frowning while camping in a tent. With kids.

Looking a little worse for wear. I bet mom was frowning even more after the rainy night.

The first night it rained a bit and the third night it poured all night. When we got up the fourth morning the entire artwork was gone.

Our imaginary family is only a memory.

But I have it for posterity. I’m hoping mom is smiling more now.


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Camping in the UP

The last week of August my sister and I planned on traveling to South Dakota for a little vacation. Why South Dakota you ask? Well…I have a friend there who lives on a ranch and the skies are really dark. Exactly the perfect sort of place for night sky photography. So we arranged to spend a few days there, watching the sky by night and exploring the area by day.

Our campsite had lots of shade. And mud.

But the title of this post is “Camping in the UP” you say? How does that relate to South Dakota?

Well, sometimes life gets in the way of plans, and it turns out we needed to be closer to home this year. Luckily Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Michigan’s UP had just reopened after some bathroom renovations and there were lots of open camp sites.

I snagged one and we adjusted our plans.

The upper falls and late summer goldenrod.

There’s so much to see in the eastern part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, so we used the campsite as a home base and set out exploring. On our very first day we stopped by the Tahquamenon Upper Falls AND Whitefish Point!

Lots of people out at Whitefish point at sunset were looking for Yooper Light rocks.

And that’s after driving all the way up there, across the Mackinaw Bridge and deep into the northern woods. It was a long day, but we had beautiful, hot, blue sky kind of weather.

The next day at Whitefish point the weather was decidedly different.

And in Michigan you know not to waste a second of it! It could all change tomorrow! And of course it did.

When it was cold and windy outside we did the museums instead of the beach.

It was still cold and windy the third day when we visited Grand Marais. Usually the stone picking there is spectacular, but it was so windy we didn’t stay on the beach long.

There were people out there looking for rocks. We were not those people.

We did end up at the local diner for some lunch.

A nod to nostalgia on a cold afternoon.

And on the last full day of our trip we explored the coast of Lake Superior, heading east along the Byway to Sable Falls…

The short trail back to Sable Falls includes over 300 stairs. Just a heads up.

…and Point Iroquois Lighthouse.

Such a beautiful place.

We had a beautiful day and found some beautiful rocks to remind us of our trip.

Thursday was a wonderfully warm day, perfect for sitting near the water.

We explored the back roads and found a unique bakery.

Wonderful baked goods out in the middle of nowhere.

And then we had lunch at a sunny little inland lake before we headed back to camp for our last night.

So peaceful!

We enjoyed a last fire at our campsite before we turned in for the evening. It would be an early morning the next day if we were to beat predicted rain and get camp packed while things were still dry.

Of course we had to have one last s’more too.

And then it was time to head back home.

Early morning light on our empty campsite. Bye site 171!

Oh…what about night sky photography? Did we get any of that done?

Some of the lower falls on the Tahquamenon River.

Well. I guess you’ll have to tune in to find out. But what do you think?

Intrepid explorers.


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Black pants

Remember when you were young and you enjoyed the thrill of trying on new stuff in the dressing rooms of department stores? You didn’t always think so, but probably everything looked good on you.

Fast forward (and I do mean fast) about fifty years and you have an event you need to dress up for and you’ve donated all your work clothes because you’ve been retired almost ten years. Not that any of your work clothes would be right for a dressed up event anyway, but they’d have been better than the uniform you wear these days.

Shorts, T-shirts, crocs, ratty jeans.

No, the stuff you wear now isn’t the sort of outfits you can dress up. Or even down for that matter, they’re already about as down as you can get.

So you reluctantly go to the mall, because buying clothes online just isn’t working, and the mall was where you used to go when you needed something fancy. But the mall is different now, with most of the stores you know gone, some actually standing empty.

You decide to stick with Macy’s, where you rarely shopped as a kid because they were too expensive, and even there you find racks filled to overflowing with stretchy weird clothes, not neatly organized, not much in your size.

And your experience in the fitting room is even worse. Nothing fits. You don’t know what size you are anymore. You’re not sure if you gained this much weight or they are making the sizes smaller. The prices aren’t smaller, that’s for sure.

You settle on a pair of black pants that look sort of OK.

The young clerk ringing you up asks if you’ve found everything. You laugh and say you drove an hour to buy a pair of black pants. She nods as if she knows what you’re talking about. She doesn’t.

And you head back home and vow to go through your own closet because surely there’s something there that will be dressy enough to get by.

Cause everything goes with black pants.


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Name this bird

Sitting at the dinner table last night I was watching the birds come for their own suppers. I had spread some black oilers on the deck railing and refreshed their bath water in anticipation of watching them while we ate.

Hmmm….who’s this little lady?

The fresh water was a big draw as any number of birds showed up for a quick bath. Then this bird arrived. She didn’t look like any of my regulars.

Well, she likes oilers, that’s a clue.

Bigger than a gold finch, about the size of a warbler, but not a yellow warbler.

She kept an eye on me but didn’t budge.

Greenish gold with darker wings and a little tuft on white near her shoulder.

After she ate she hopped on over to the bathing area.

Luckily my camera was right behind me on the kitchen counter, and the bird wasn’t upset by my reaching for it.

One by one she told the bathing birds to get lost.

All these shots are through a window, with reflections splashed across the image.

Then she hopped in for her own bath.

I think, based on my Michigan bird book, it’s a female Evening Grosbeak.

She had a nice, long bath.

We’re not supposed to have them around here, though they were here a couple of winters ago. Mostly they live way up north. So it could be something else.

And then she was gone.

What do you think?