Wordless Wednesday
Tag Archives: Photography
Mini adventure
Last week a friend and I decided we needed an adventure, but neither of us had time for a long, fully planned and packed adventure.
But I have been feeling a keen need to find something amazing to photograph, something outside my own home and local parks. My friend had explored a colorful place, several weeks ago, just an hour north of us.
I asked her to take me there.
I mean — Saginaw Michigan just screams adventure. Right?
Of course right!
Saginaw is near the Shiawasee National Wildlife Refuge where you’ve all hiked with me to see pelicans and eagles and sandhill cranes.
Saginaw is not far from the Chippewa Nature Center where I’ve brought you along to find stunning color in the fall.
Saginaw isn’t even far from Midland Michigan and it’s Dow Gardens complete with a walk in the tree canopy. You’ve been with me there too, at least a couple times.
But this time we went to visit the Saginaw Shine Bright Mural Project.
And let me tell you, this place satisfied all my photography cravings in one big ole splat of gorgeous color.
Though I don’t know that it’s a location I’d want to explore alone, and certainly not at night, it was fun to spend a bit of time there with someone else who appreciated the art. It’s huge and it’s bright and it will definitely make you smile.
No matter the angle you view it from, whether you sit in your car and admire it from across the river or get all up close and personal, it’s well worth the visit.
And on the way home we stopped for a barn.
Of course.
Orange you glad…
Most years the orioles arrive at my feeder around May 5. Hummingbirds too. But a friend of mine, living about an hour west of me, had an oriole on her feeder Easter Sunday!
So I put my feeder up a few days ago and Friday evening, during an hours long torrential downpour, my first oriole visited! I wasn’t sure I saw him, –it was getting dark and the rain was coming down in sheets.
I didn’t get a photo.
But the next morning, after I went out and emptied the water from his feeder and filled it up with grape jelly, he showed up!
He was still skittish and I got no images, but I stayed very still, holding Penny tight, and watched him eat his fill.
And late in the afternoon, as I stood across the room, I saw him again. My camera was within reach and I got these images, focus soft, but capturing the joy I felt to see him here.
And guess what? Later in the evening I realized there are TWO of them here! They chased each other around the beach tree which acts as the landing area for all birds visiting our feeders.
I can’t wait to set the camera on it’s tripod and use a remote shutter release. We’ll see what we shall see.
And today the hummingbird feeder goes up. If the orioles are here, the hummingbirds are too.
It’s early, but we’re ready!
We’ve had such crazy weather, things began to pop up in my garden earlier than normal. The red winged blackbirds were here early, too, and had to endure a few snowstorms after their arrival.
Everything seems early.
And now, a college friend, who lives about the same latitude as me and about an hour west of here, has had her first baltimore oriole visit! The males always come north first, scouting I suppose, and there he was, sitting on her feeder Easter Sunday!
I usually put up my oriole and hummingbird feeders the first week in May. But today, on the 22nd of April I went down to the basement, grabbed my oriole feeder, and filled it with grape jelly. I stood in the door to my deck, surveying my birdfeeder domain, and wondered how to rearrange things so that the oriole feeder would be prominent.
Eventually I decided to move the suet to another hook on the other side of the house and put the oriole feeder front and center, out in the sunshine where it would attract attention. I worried somewhat that the suet, being moved, wouldn’t be found by the birds who have grown dependent on it. But I figured it was almost past suet time and they should be out looking for bugs or something.
Then I sat down to write this post intending to document when I put the oriole feeder out. As I sat I glanced out a window and saw a female downy woodpecker contentedly chowing down on the suet in it’s new location.
I guess I don’t need to worry about my birds. If there’s food, they will find it. But when they’ve finished this batch of suet I’m taking that feeder down for the summer and putting the hummingbird feeder up. If the orioles are on their way the hummingbirds won’t be far behind.
Spring has, indeed, sprung.
Love my goldfinches
I’m really enjoying the goldfinches this spring. Some years we don’t see many, but this years there’s an abundance of them.
I’ve watched as the males turn from an army green, similar to the color the females stay year round, into their exuberant and brilliant summer gold.
They sit in the beech tree not far from the finch feeder and sing for their supper. If there are a lot of them in the tree I know that the feeder is probably nearing empty.
They don’t tolerate it getting too low.
They’re used to me being out there and don’t leave their tree, if the feeder is empty, even if Penny and I are on the deck.
They are picky and only really like the finch food I buy from a specialty bird store in the town just north of us. The employees there know me.
The finches are so much fun to watch, though they are eating me out of house and finch food!
Soon they’ll be busy raising their families and we won’t see so much of them. But they’ve sure brightened my spring!
Golden proof of spring
Here in Michigan spring can be a long time coming. Oh, I definitely have specific things that herald winter’s exit, like the sound of red winged blackbirds and singing frogs hanging at the pond across the street.
And there are the marsh marigolds brightening up banks of our local streams.
Still, we know that the snow could return any day, and likely will. We dream of warmth and trilliums, still a few weeks away.
Goldfinches turning yellow are a definite sign we’re finally on our way out of the gray, cold weather.
In the winter both the male and female goldfinches are an olive green. But once the weather warms up the males start to sport bright yellow feathers. I began to notice the color change last week, even as the icy rain continues.
Today I glanced up and my finch feeder was full of birds, all cold and hungry. You can see the patchy yellow on the male birds.
I could feel sad about all the grey skies and cold rain. But it’s impossible to feel down when my finches are turning gold!
Spring is here, I’m positive. And I dare mother nature to even think about snowing on us now!
Randomness
I am between laptops, the old one is being migrated over to the latest version of wonderfulness. (That was sarcastic, you know I hate change.) It’s a slow process, mostly because of pictures. So while I don’t have full access to stuff stored there, and now other places, I have been trying to wean myself away from the camera.
It’s not easy.
My husband says I had over 250,000 images stored on the laptop. No wonder it was just chugging along. I know that I don’t need all of those and I had started the process of weeding. But I got bogged down, and that was before I was knew and became intimidated by the sheer number.
Anyway.
I will find some images to add to this post, pulled from an external hard drive, of which I think I now have 4. How about I randomly just pull some pretty pictures and stick them here and there in this post and see how it turns out?
I’ve been wondering, but not seriously, if I could pick just my favorite images and put them in a file folder and let the rest go. Of course this wondering was way before I knew there were 250,000 to choose from.
I wonder how big the favorites file would become?
And would the favorites have classifications? You know, like Katie, and night skies, and barns and Penny, and Alabama, and camping, and family and my Great Lakes?
Wait. That’s kind of what I have now.
Maybe I should just find another hobby to obsess over. But I haven’t learned all I want to learn with photography yet.
It’s the same with watercolor painting. I like to paint, but what do you DO with all the stuff you produce?
I need to learn to be ruthless and throw stuff away.
We remodeled the basement, and in that process moved everything that was piled down there out to the garage, into the guest rooms, the dining room, the living room. What once were slightly disorganized piles of stuff hidden away are now slightly disorganized piles of stuff all over the house.
The remodel is essentially done and it’s time to move this stuff back. But would it make more sense to put most of it at the curb? Perhaps without even looking at it? Because if I look, well, that’s how I ended up with 250,000 images stored on my laptop and me with decision paralysis.
Stay tuned. Or not. We can always figure it out tomorrow. Or next year. I think I’ll go look through some old image files.
Extended holiday spirit
“Oh Christmas Family,” I thought as I drove to band rehearsal last night. “I’m glad we’re not the only people who haven’t unplugged our holiday lights yet.”
The people in this house put up their holiday lights early and leave them late into winter every year. On winter Tuesday nights as I drive to rehearsals I always smile when I see them. And I’m always sad when their lights eventually turn off.
I smile because we do something similar. Each year we put lights on one tree that sits on the corner of our lot, visible from two streets.
During the dark cold winter nights the lights on that lone tree warm me, and it turns out, our neighbors too, who always comment their appreciation of our beautiful tree.
Every winter I leave the tree lit until the end of February. And this year it seems even more important to light my little corner of the world.
These images were taken last night, after our rehearsal, using my handheld phone. Hence the focus. But I wanted to share with you what a beautiful night it was, with stars peaking out of the clouds and an almost tropical breeze. 44 degrees in Michigan in February is tropical.
Trust me.
Wordless Wednesday
Last but not least
We were cold and tired. Our feet hurt, my back ached, but we were happy, knowing that we had each gotten several really good images of our favorite birds. It was time to drive home.
We each climbed into our respective cars for the trip out of the park. But there was one more place we needed to check out before we left. Because, on our drive into the park we’d both, separately, noticed a single swan sitting in a blue pool of open water in the frozen river. It was a stunning scene, but neither of us had pulled over.
When we climbed out of our cars at the Nature Center the first thing we said to each other was “Did you see that swan?” I offered to drive back there right then but she said, “No, we’ll stop on our way out.”
Neither of us really thought that swan would still be there on our way out. If we’ve learned anything doing outdoor photography it’s that if you see it shoot it. Nothing ever looks exactly the same again.
But we let the swan idea go and headed back into the woods in search of the birds you’ve seen in my previous two posts. In fact I sort of forgot all about that swan, I was having such a good time with the little birds.
But when we packed up the car for the return trip we decided if the swan was still there we’d stop. And wonder of wonder, when we drove across the bridge above the river there were dozens of swans!
Obviously we pulled over and climbed out of the car, forgetting our cold toes and fingers.
Standing out in the open, up on a bridge, as the wind blew and our fingers turned to ice we kept shooting until we had half again as many photos as we had already taken!
There were lots of swans, but I was most interested in the three that were near me, just below the bridge I was standing on.
There was the single, beautiful swan directly below us as well as the couple off to the side. It was like a photo shoot with beautiful models. As they moved, turning their heads and posing, we kept shooting.
Neither of us wanted to leave, it was so beautiful. In fact at one point I got back in the car. After all, how many pictures of a swan does any one photographer need? And then the wind picked up and the feathers on our swan blew in the wind.
And I had to get back out and keep shooting. Of course, wouldn’t you?
I swear, if you live close to this park in Southeast Michigan I’m surprised you’re not already in your car heading over there.
In fact, just say the word, I’ll meet you.
Change Is Hard 