Penny practices posing
Hey guys!
Mom is busy doing stuff that doesn’t involve me so I stole her laptop. I don’t think she’ll even notice unless one of you snitches on me. Which I’m sure you won’t.
So anyway, it hasn’t always been this way with her being so busy. She’s been taking me to a lot of parks lately.
She says the weather is just perfect, a little cooler, but sunny skies and the trees are just starting to change colors.
She says we can’t waste days like this, so she’s been taking me to a new place almost every day, and I thought you might like to see.
Mostly she’s been training me to pose for her. I wasn’t so sure of this concept at first.
But eventually I figured out that after I pose I get a treat, and that big black thing in front of her face isn’t really scary after all.
Plus I talked to my Angel Sister Katie who told me that treats were an integral part of park visiting and especially posing. I think I’m getting it!
But I could always use more practice, so I’m bugging mom every day to take me somewhere. I find that poking her hard in the knee works pretty good. If you have any other suggestions let me know.
I’m not above taking good advice, no I am not!
Talk later, your professional poser, Penny-girl.
Maybe a last night under the stars
A week or two ago I made a last minute decision to head back up into the thumb of Michigan, because the weather was going to be clear, and because I was able to book a campsite.
I wanted to try one more time to get that elusive Milky Way in a place that is darker than my Bortle 4/5 here at home.
Plus, I knew I’d get to drive through those yellow soybean fields again, and I might find a barn or two or three worth stopping for.
And of course I did.
Once I set up camp at the Port Crescent State Park I meandered further up into the thumb until I arrived at Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse, a place Katie and I had visited a time or two in years past.
There’s a campground attached to the grounds that I hoped was empty. It wasn’t, but it wasn’t as full as it would be in the summer. So I wandered around the lighthouse grounds and then waited for the sky to get dark.
The Milky Way, up in the Southwest early in the evening this time of year, wasn’t in a position to be over the lighthouse, but it was above the other historical structures on the grounds.
The challenge, as it always is with a lighthouse, was the bright light the tower itself was projecting. I tried to time my 15 second shot to be between the beams of light, but it was hard. Plus there was the campground, with it’s green lights and cars coming and going.
So, once again, I wasn’t thrilled with the Milky Way images, but shooting out over Saginaw Bay was fun. There was a tree on the top of the bluff, and the Big Dipper was just above it. Though it’s hard to see the Big Dipper because the camera sees so many more stars than our eyes do.
Regardless of the results, and as always, I loved being out there. The air was warm, the stars were bright, the moon had taken a nap, there were people nearby but not too close and I could hear the waves lapping at the bottom of the bluff.
This might have been my last attempt for this Milky Way season. October won’t have many opportunities, and we’ll have to see what the weather does. I plan to spend the winter studying the information in my Milky Way Photography class.
There’s so much more to learn.
Wanna come play?
Hi everybody! It’s me, Penny!
Mom’s been off doing adventure stuff without me a lot this summer. But don’t worry, I’ve been having lots of fun right here at home.
I have the best backyard and I thought you all might want to come over and play with me!
OK…so maybe it’s not fenced in so it’s a little scary for you humans, especially if we doggies don’t come right back when we’re called.
I mean, I try to do my recalls, but sometimes, especially lately while I’m going through what mom calls my obstinate teenage years, I forget.
Anyway, one of my most favorite things to do is to chase this little frisbee my dad bought for me.
I don’t always bring it back to them, but I sure love to chase it. And sometimes I surprise mom or dad and come running back with it!
Of course I don’t actually give them the frisbee, they have to come get it. After all, I need to maintain the hierarchy around here.
Anyway, I thought you’d all like to see my backyard, and especially me! Mom says it’s not always all about me, though I can’t imagine why not.
Can you?
Heads up, it’s almost Walktober time!
I look forward to it every year. Hosted by Robin over at Breezes at Dawn, it’s so much fun to go for a walk and take a picture or two (or more if you’re me), blog about it and share it with others who are also out there taking walks and documenting what October looks like in their part of the world.
This year Robin needed a little help so I’m going to host our annual Walktober for her. That just means that I’ll be collecting all your posts and will put publish a blog after we’re all done with links to everyone’s walk descriptions.
How about we say the official dates of our Walktober will be October 15 through the 28th? Of course things are pretty informal around here so if you need some extra time just let me know and I’ll wait for you. And of course you can go on your adventure prior to the 15th too!
Even more important, it doesn’t even have to be a WALK! You could roller skate, or go on a bike ride, or ride a horse, or take a drive with your windows rolled down. You could climb a mountain, or dive down to a corral reef. Show us your city, or your countryside, or a favorite river or lake. Explore your own yard or travel to another country, it’s all fodder for a Walktober post.
Just get out there and show us your world.
Go on your adventure, write about it and include photos if you want to, and then link back to my blog. I’ll post an official kickoff on the 15th of October and you can link to that. But if you accidently link to something else let me know and I’ll go collect it!
We can’t wait to see what you choose to do! Happy Walktober!
Pops
I met Pops over a simple dinner at a chain restaurant in Arlington Virginia many years ago. It was the evening before our semi-annual Sorrow to Strength Conference, and Pops’ daughter, Pina, was attending for the first time. Her husband had been killed on his way to work when he was hit by a semitruck. My husband and I met her, her Pops and her mom, Veronica, for dinner to provide support and comfort, so she wouldn’t feel alone attending the conference the next day.
Of course she really wasn’t alone at all. She had her mom and her Pops, a retired Air Force Veteran, who pushed her around hilly Washington DC for the four days of the conference in a wheelchair because she was recovering from knee surgery.
But, getting back to Pops.
After dinner that night the waitress asked if we wanted desert. “Do you have any ice cream?” Pops asked. They did, but a limited variety. He hesitated. “I’ll have some if you do,” I said. They didn’t have his favorite flavor, but he decided we’d indulge because, he said grinning wide, “there’s no such thing as bad ice cream.”
I’ve never forgotten those words, or Pops, though we spent only a few days together.
Pops died last week at the age of 86, and yesterday his family and friends said their last goodbye. I remembered him in my own way, by picking up a container of his favorite flavor and indulging for a few moments, while thinking of him and his family.
There’s no such thing as bad ice cream.
I share this memory with you to honor Pops, in a way. He was a good, upstanding person with a sweet soul who made this world a better place. Thank you for your service, sir. And for joining me in a scoop of ice cream all those years ago.
Godspeed.
Under an umbrella of stars
A few days ago 3 other intrepid women photographers and I ventured forth to a new destination, Big Sable Lighthouse, at Ludington State Park.
We were, of course, looking for a dark place to shoot the Milky Way. We are all members of an online Milky Way photography class, though most of us had never met in person.
We put this particular adventure together quickly, with a barrage of text messages flying between us, when we realized there was a clear night coming up. Then, the day before, someone did some research and messaged the group — “Do you know there’s a 2 mile walk out to the lighthouse?”
Uhhhh, no, no we did not know that. This caused a bigger flurry of messaging and then someone finally just booked a campsite for us all at the park and we decided to go for it.
We had a beautiful night for our adventure, and the walk was shorter from the campground than from the lighthouse parking lot, only 1.5 miles through the woods and dunes. And of course 1.5 miles back in the dark, but underneath a star packed sky.
Our biggest obstacle turned out not to be the getting there but the lights that surround the lighthouse. There is a big streetlight shining in front, and an obnoxiously orange light in back making the whole back of the lighthouse and most of the grounds glow neon.
According to our apps the Milky Way, now pretty vertical, would be right alongside the tower about 10 p.m. We were convinced it would be a stunning shot.
If it weren’t for the orange light…and that big tree.
So we did the best we could with the lighthouse itself and then we spread out across the beach looking for other interesting things.
There was a gentle breeze sweeping away the bugs and the stars were hanging above us and no one was in any kind of hurry to leave.
When we finally did begin to pack up around midnight I noticed my backpack was pretty wet from condensation. I began to realize the trouble I had had focusing on the stars, or anything for that matter, might have been because I had condensation on my lens.
Condensation which would have been eliminated if I had put my lens heater on the camera at the start. The lens heater I bought the week before and lugged 1.5 miles out to the beach, but left in my backpack.
Yep. One more lesson in a whole list of lessons I’ve learned on this Milky Way journey.
As a side note, there’s been quite a bit of death tangent to my life this past week. Not people directly tied to me, exactly, but people important to people important to me. I guess the heavens gained a few more stars.
Late that night while listening to the lake murmur and wandering the dunes, watching the Milky Way slide across the sky I noted the newcomers.
And then we all walked back to camp under the umbrella of the starry night, content in our imperfect images, happy that we went, ready to do it again the next clear, moonless night.
Imperfect perfection.
Never forget
If you can’t visit New York City, stop by my post from our visit there in 2016. It’s a fitting way to spend a few moments on this, the 22nd anniversary of the day that changed us all.
I’m sure the families of those lost are spending today in reflection. It wouldn’t hurt if we did a little of that ourselves.
Twenty-two years is a long time, but only a blink in the eyes of history. Let’s not ever forget.
Almost lost track
I took myself to Kensington a week or maybe more ago, hoping to get some great bird photos. There’s always something to see out there, and the warblers are migrating, so maybe…I hoped.
But the entire time I was at the park I had camera lens focus issues.
My images were so bad I almost forgot about them. But regardless of the quality, I’ll share with you the best of what I consider a pretty sad batch of images, just because no matter what I capture, even if it’s not much of anything new, I’m always glad I went to Kensington.
And I’m always glad to share with you my adventures, as tame as they often are.
A lot of the time on this walk I took pictures of plants. Because, as I told one photographer last year who was noticing me focusing on berries instead of birds, plants don’t move.
In fact, this trip to Kensington I spent most of my time looking at the way light played in the dark woods.
Turns out it plays rather well, don’t you think?
But of course the birds kept bringing me back as they hovered over me, sometimes landing on my camera lens, asking for something to eat. They are very persistent.
It’s pretty hard to ignore them, even if you aren’t happy with the images you’re getting.
Sometimes I just feed them and don’t even bother trying to capture the magic.
Other times the birds and the light work together and I get something interesting.
I had so much trouble on this walk through the woods, capturing anything the way I wanted to, it got discouraging.
Focusing on plants as a last resort I wandered some more.
I eventually decided it just wasn’t going to be my day, and headed back toward the car.
But just before I got to the parking lot I saw one more trail, one that headed out to where I sometimes saw unusual stuff. It wasn’t a long trail.
Maybe it was worth a bit more walking.
And there I found a dead tree, quite a ways away, but full of some sort of woodpecker family.
I thought it might be a group of red headed woodpeckers. The light made it difficult to see anything but silhouettes. But looking at the images later I saw the yellow on the underside of a wing, and I believe this was a flicker family.
Regardless, they were very busy hopping around the tree looking for bugs and flitting from branch to branch.
And while I was focused on them I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, way down at the other end of the bridge. Something fliting around the touch-me-not flowers, far from where I was standing.
I shot blindly, not seeing anything in my viewfinder…
…but hoping for something. And the most beautiful female hummingbird showed up when I looked at the images at home.
She sure made me smile.
And then there was a noise on the other side of the bridge and I found this little female common yellowthroat. She made my day!
So the moral of my story is don’t give up. Walk down that little extra trail even if all you’ve had before is disappointment.
You never know what you’ll find. It could be magic.
And Kensington never disappoints.
Change Is Hard 