I’ve been feeling disinterested in painting lately. A sort of murky glum feeling. I mean, how many cards for nursing home residents can a person paint?
This batch was fall related. Most of the leaves were from my own yard and made good traceables for me.
I’ve probably painted a few hundred.
They’re all (mostly) different. It’s a good way to try something new, doing it small scale, being sent away regardless of whether or not I like it. Someone will like it.
Pumpkins feel like fall, right?
Well, to be honest, there’s been a few I haven’t sent. After all, nursing home patients don’t really need to be subjected to everything.
But we’ve had lots of sunny fall days and the color outside my window is beautiful right this minute, so there’s no time to lose.
Just need to add a cheery howdy inside and these are ready to be shipped.
Next up? Christmas cards for folks in nursing homes. Yep. It’s right around this painter’s corner.
I love October, and I love Robin’s Walktober. I’ve been joining in for many years and I always look forward to posting about some adventure that I’ve done especially for this post.
It was a beautiful day with streaky blue skies and hazy sunlight.
If I’m totally transparent, this was actually a drive rather than a walk. But all is fair in love and Walktobers.
Some of the refuge is flooded in water, other parts are huge meadows where fox and deer play.
For this year’s Walktober I visited the Shiawasee National Wildlife Refuge, which is about an hour north of me and just 5 miles north of Frankenmuth Michigan. There’s hiking trails along the dikes that manage the water and a motor drive around the perimeter of the portion of the park that’s public.
There was a little bit of color along the beginning of the drive.
The drive is only open from June 1 to September 30 every year. So, being totally transparent, this Drivetober was actually done on September 30. Not even in October!
Early afternoon, the cormorants and egrets were napping.
Still I think Robin will stretch the rules for me this one time. I hope.
This egret was a touch miffed to be bothered during his nap.
On the drive you’re not allowed to just stop wherever you want. But people do, for the fleeting moment it takes to grab a photo, especially if no one is behind you.
Big stretch after lunch.
There are a couple of spots designed to pull off the road, but rarely is there anything you want to see from those spots. The drive is mainly on the top of the dykes, with water on either side, so you don’t have a lot of options.
Sometimes you need to pay attention to stuff a lot closer than those egrets way out in the water.
I’ve been known to drive the 6 mile loop twice during a visit. I haven’t been up there for the last couple years so I was excited to see what I’d find.
I was specifically looking for pelicans.
It’s all about territory and who gets to stand where.
Mostly I saw egrets (big white birds) and blue herons (big grey blue birds) and lots of little unidentified birds.
Great blue heron taking off because I stopped to get his picture.
If I’m honest it was mostly egrets. I’ve always had trouble photographing egrets because they’re all white and so often end up blown out in a photograph where the camera sets the shutter speed for the rest of the image.
Not to be left behind, the egret followed the heron.
I shot 1800 images. As you can imagine, some are not so good.
There was something to see no matter which side you were scanning.
But I weeded it down to 130 images that I’m mostly pleased about.
Not pelicans though I thought they might be when I first saw a bunch of white birds.
And no, I’m not going to subject you to 130 pictures of egrets. I’ll try to pick the best or most interesting, but sometimes I might slip one in that has a soft focus because it was the best I could get. I hope you’ll understand.
Along the side of the road were shrubs and grasses which sometimes made a pretty frame for the subject. Sometimes they were just in the way.
I can say most of these birds were a really really long way from the car.
Fishing is a full time job out here.
I think I want a 600m lens for a photo shoot like this. Especially if I’m in a car and not lugging it four miles through the woods. Which, if I’m honest, isn’t very often.
Sometimes lunch comes in small packages.
Maybe I should rent one on the few occasions I got back up to the drive. Anyway…as I said I was mostly looking for pelicans.
Bet most of you don’t know that Michigan even has pelicans. I didn’t either until I started seeing photographs of them out at this magical place. And I don’t always find them at all.
Jackpot! About ten pelicans very very very far away. They looked like white dots without the camera.
But I found them, far off in the middle of the water, mere specks with my naked eye. And of course, like most of the rest of the birds I’d seen that day, they took off as soon as I stopped the car.
Pelicans plus a sandhill crane and a seagull.
It was a thrill to see them, and once I had, I felt the trip was worthwhile. Even though I didn’t see one bald eagle.
They landed just a little bit up the shore, so I guess I wasn’t all that scary.
I headed toward the exit smiling…when suddenly….
Mr and Mrs. wood duck
…wood ducks! The side of the drive was tall with grasses, so it was hard to get a shot. I thought I’d maybe just step out of the car to get above the grass…
Beautiful in flight or on the water.
…but of course they flew instantly. That’s OK, I found these 3 guys just up the road.
Male wood ducks cruising the swamp.
So….herons, egrets, swans, pelicans and wood ducks. I can’t wait until the drive opens again next June. There will be babies to photograph by then. And you just never know what else. If I time it with migration there will be hundreds of sand hill cranes, or lots of little bouncy warblers.
Just plain old Canadian geese, but still pretty.
Meanwhile I’m sure I’ll be up there a time or two to hike the trails. It’s harder to see birds in the woods, and no matter how quietly I try to walk they always hear me coming, but it’s a beautiful place on foot too.
An artsy image, just because.
If you’re ever over in my part of the world, let me know…I’ll go back up with you to see what we can see!
Thank you, Robin, for hosting Walktober again this year. I wouldn’t miss it, and I’m looking forward to seeing where everybody went on their own adventures!
It’s October. That means I should be writing a Walktober post. Penny has already done hers. I am slower than my dog. But that’s always been the case. She didn’t have photos to process, plus she had a servant to do all the work involved in posting.
I have photos to process for my Walktober.
Anyway, I’m home from two short back to back trips and now I’m behind in everything and today is my first attempt to catch up. So am I writing that Walktober post? Nope. I have a bunch of photos to process for that first. So let me take you on today’s little adventure.
I was doing errands, you know, the dry cleaner, the grocery store, the bank. Somewhere between the grocery parking lot and the bank this guy attached itself to my driver’s side window. He or she was hanging on for dear life as I was tooling along.
I pulled into an abandoned bank parking lot as soon as I noticed him. I got out, collected a couple red maple leaves from the bank’s decorative tree, and scooped the big ole bug up, intending to put him on the lawn under the tree.
He flew up my arm. I screamed like a girl. Then found him on the pavement by my feet.
I tried to shoo him toward the curb. That didn’t work. So I found a piece of wood from the bank’s mulch and he crawled up on that.
I deposited (see what I did there?) him and his stick in the grass. He seemed happy enough. I wish him well.
So what the heck is he?
(Sometime this week I hope to get that Walktober post up! But I have a lot of photos to sort through.)
It’s already been a couple weeks since a friend and I traveled across the state on a late afternoon to spend some time chasing the Milky Way. The season is ending and soon we will only have memories of staring up at the dark horse while listening to Lake Michigan lap at the shore.
From the parking lot.
The dark horse, a feature of the Milky Way, is barely rising above the horizon now, and almost before it’s really dark, the horse is beginning to set. On one hand, it’s nice not to have to go out at 3 or 4 in the morning. On the other hand, the window of opportunity is really short.
That first glimpse of Lake Michigan always quickens my heart.
We had been meaning to get over to Lake Michigan and Little Sable lighthouse all summer. But as with every summer, time just slipped away. So when there were predictions of clear skies during a period of no moon, we hurried over to the west coast of Michigan.
That bank of pink clouds was mesmerizing.
It was a beautiful evening. Cool but still warm enough to swim. No bugs. Virtually no wind. Perfect. We watched the sun set. We watched the people watching the sunset.
Every sunset is worth pausing to watch.
And as soon as it was slightly dark we set up our tripods and cameras. The Milky Way, this late in the season, rises in the Southwest. So shooting on the west side of Michigan next to Lake Michigan, it is out over the lake. The lighthouse was close to the shore but hard to get into the same frame while standing on the beach.
A test shot, to decide on composition. The stars aren’t in focus, but that was the least of my problems!
I decided to climb the sand dune behind the lighthouse to get a better angle on the Milky Way. It was hard climbing the shifting sand in the dark while carrying a tripod topped with a camera. And when I got half way up the dune I realized the Milky Way was now behind the tree. (But at least you can see the dark horse!)
The stars are better, but the tree, that I thought would be interesting is now in the way!
Well darn. I dragged the tripod, camera and me further up the dune. But the view from there was hindered by grass and shrubs.
So I inched my way back down and compromised by being slightly up the dune, but mostly on the beach. I worked in portrait mode to get more of the Milky Way, but the dark horse was lowering into the lake and fading away in the light pollution near the horizon and out of the frame.
Clouds on the horizon and light from maybe Chicago interfere.
There was only about an hour to work and I realize now I should have figured out where I was going to stand before it was time to shoot! Then I wouldn’t have spent so much time climbing sand. Lesson learned.
We lit up the lighthouse with the flashlight in our phones.
It was a beautiful, if short, night to shoot. And after all that we even made it home by 2 a.m.! We probably should have stayed overnight and tried again the next night.
October is our last chance to try to get that dark horse, but we’ll have to find a flat view to the horizon. And then, after that, it will be a long winter. Every year I say I’m going to study more. For example I could have, if I knew how, moved that Milky Way closer to the lighthouse in post processing v.s. climbing up a sand dune. This winter I’m going to study about all the options available.
The last image as we were walking back to the parking lot. Perhaps my favorite shot of the night.
But that sand climb makes the experience more authentic, don’t you think?
Last week I was sitting on the deck in early evening. I heard a hummingbird chirping in the beech tree.
There she was, sitting on a branch in between beautifully lit pinkish leaves. She was backlit too.
It seemed as if she had just finished dinner and was sitting, fat and content, in the evening sun.
She spent a lot of time itching her head…
…and staring around, up and down and over there.
She fluffed her feathers and left them wide open in the warming sun.
Her tongue came and went. I wasn’t sure if she was catching insects…
…or just practicing tongue aerobics.
She peed four times while she was there. I guess that sugar water goes right through a girl.
And after perhaps 20 minutes of sitting and enjoying the evening light she took off.
I enjoyed watching her, and took over 300 images. She’s still flitting around the feeder but I expect she’ll be gone soon. I hope I get to visit with her once more before she goes.
Mom’s super busy and she’s not paying attention to me (par for the course lately) so I figured I’d check in with you guys.
In front of one of my gardens. Mom makes me do this every. single. morning.
Life is going along like normal around here which is to say boring. Mom says boring can be a good thing. She says I should be glad both she and daddy are home with me all the time now.
Sometimes mom and I hang out on the porch.
I suppose.
Mom tried to get me to like the pool. I did not.
She says I’m going back to school in a week or so and I better remember all the things I know and not goof off this year. She’s says we’re both gonna learn some obedience.
I’d rather spend time at Katie’s park. Or any park.
Huh. It’s about time mom learned some obedience. And I stand my ground and repeat — there better be lots of treats. And the good kind too, not just kibble from my supper. She doesn’t think I know she does that. I’m a sheltie. I know everything.
Mom and me practicing stuff at Katie’s park one evening.
Anyway, mom’s been taking me to parks and stuff. I’m not totally ignored.
At one of my parks!
But geeze…I feel like I need a real adventure!
After my Friday evening group walkat another of my parks!
Your suggestions are truly appreciated.
I’ll just catch a snooze while I wait for your ideas.
I’m working on watercolor cards for the Truck Safety Coalition’s annual Gala silent auction. They’ll be getting 3 sets of 5 cards. I’m almost finished with them, but I wanted the last card to be a watercolor of a fall oak leaf. I didn’t find anything online that I liked particularly, though I did find a great tutorial about how to paint an oak leaf.
I watched the tutorial but I wasn’t sure about freehand drawing something similar. Three oak leaves plus acorns. Maybe I could do it but it sure would be easier if I could trace around a real oak leaf. I looked out at the oak tree in my back yard. The limbs were way too high for me to grab a leaf.
I decided to think on it a bit and went to collect the garbage can from the curb since the truck had emptied it and moved on down the road. And there, beside the empty can was a bit of oak tree branch….complete with the top part of an acorn.
Like it was waiting for me. I smiled and gathered it up, rolled the garbage can behind me as I pondered how things work out.
After I took the picture of my prize I went back out to the front yard to see what other treasures might have blown off my neighbor’s oak. I found several leaves to show me colors…
…and another bunch of leaves attached to their twig, to show me how the stick part might look.
Oh…and this ginkgo leaf apparently traveled inside on the bottom of my shoe.
So I got to work. I copied a few of the leaves…
…and traced that onto a page of my practice book.
Then I got to painting.
So fun….
Now, if I can just do it again on the actual card.
When was the last time I set out on a photo shoot specifically to find barns?
It’s so long ago that I don’t remember. Sure I’ve grabbed barn images on my way to and from other places. But to go out looking for barns?
It’s been forever.
Last Sunday morning the blue sky sported fluffy white clouds as accessories and I just could not stop myself. It was physically impossible not to get into the car and start driving.
I tried to keep it reasonable. After all, gas around here is regularly over $4.00 a gallon. And I was driving a new car with low mileage that we’d like to keep low. At least for awhile.
But still…blue sky and barns. Maybe the soybeans just north of us would be turning yellow. It was a possibility given the lack of rain lately.
Blue sky and barns and yellow soybeans. Yep I could see it in my head. Would I find it in reality?
I drove for a total of three hours, slightly up north, a bit over to the west, around big country blocks, looking for the image in my brain.
I never found it, exactly. The soybeans are a persistent green, though if you squint you can sort of see a yellowish cast in small parts of the fields. Or that could just be me and wishful thinking.
I didn’t shoot any amazing barns, though I saw three really beautiful ones while I was on a busy road with nowhere to pull over. You’ll just have to conjure those up in your own minds.
But I found some pretty enough barns and experienced a few faded memories of driving these same roads years ago on other barn hunts.
It was a nice day. The sky, in the end, was the star of the show.
And I smiled at it on my drive back home. In my experience you can almost always count on the sky to come through for you, day or night when you’re out looking for something pretty.
It was a short, sweet and fun barn hunt that sort of eased the wanderlust in me. For the moment anyway. I know there are barns out there just waiting to be found. And maybe there’s one in the middle of a yellow soybean field if I get lucky and time it right.
