Scattered Thoughts . . .

Kenzie was walking around sort of like an agitated Marty McFly and Doc Brown... pacing back and forth... away from me and then toward me... she was even talking to herself and using her hands. I have no idea what was running through her head nor to whom she was talking but I thought it would be a good time to try to get a photo of her from a distance. She was a bit animated and making funny faces as she was doing this pacing back and forth so I thought it would be a good idea to try to capture a photo. I had one of my wildlife setups in my hand at the time so it was not really the ideal camera for this but I thought I could capture a decent shot anyway.  Kenzie walked away from me... I lifted my camera to my face, set focus for where she would be located when she turned to walk back toward me... she turned... funny face... click ...  She sort of looks like she is snarling at me... perhaps this is her Clint Eastwood face... or, as Joey Tribbiani would say, "her smell-the-fart

Sheila has been good at grabbing one of my cameras whenever I'm out on the sailboat. She's gotten some good shots of Lukey and me sailing as well as good shots of me sailing solo.  There was one particular day which was a very frustrating day.  It looked like a good day for sailing with the rough chop and stiff wind and I did have some really nice and exciting runs but the wind turned out to be a major disappointment after a few wild and wet runs. I didn't notice the problem with the wind until I lost all wind... I sat there in calm water all of a sudden... then, I looked more closely at the direction of the chop all around me... to my left, the chop was headed toward me... ahead of me, the chop was headed toward me... to my right, the chop was headed toward me... and here I sat in calm water. The wind all around me was blowing hard in very different directions.  When the wind blows hard it is usually a good thing for sailing but when it is coming at you from three di

While I wait for some paint to dry so I can apply another coat of paint, I thought I would write a little bit about some photos I shot recently. I was out on our dock one morning and I noticed this tiny wake about one hundred yards away... I grabbed the camera that had the longest lens mounted on it...  zoomed... I quickly confirmed it was a beaver. I was hoping to get a tail slap and a big splash but that never came. He just swam around for a little while and then quietly slipped underwater. I just wish he was a little closer to the house so I could have gotten a slightly better shot.... It was early one morning... one of those rare mornings at the lake with no fog and no clouds... over in a darkened corner to the left of our house, about one hundred yards away, I noticed a loon. He was alone and just paddling around in the dark shadows of early morning. I kept my camera focused on him... it was too dark for a shot though... a black and white loon in black shadows would have ma

I haven't written anything in about a week and a half because I've had some exceptionally lousy health and, more recently, I've been busy working on the house and out in the yard during my good health. Working on the house only happened after taking a few weeks off because of spinal problems. I managed to have a productive and busy weekend but I didn't get to touch a single thing that has been on my long 'to-do list'.   On Saturday afternoon, we had a broken water supply pipe due to repeated stress. The pipe just broke completely in two! The water was shooting out of the broken pipe like a garden hose with a nozzle on it! Water was everywhere! Our vanity was filled with water, soaking everything in the vanity. The flooring was soaked. On the positive side, the adjoining bedroom is a construction zone so no finished materials were damaged. The problem was gaining quick and easy access at a time when we needed to move quickly to minimize damage. The wate

Although these two photos look like things may have gotten a bit out of hand and some anger prevailed, that wasn't the case.  In the splashing photo, the kids were playing and laughing... I really have no idea what Kenzie was thinking when she had that scowl on her face in the other photo though. I don't remember anything of significance happening... regardless, in these two photos, Kenzie appears to have a bit of an attitude...

I'm always looking at the light and hoping to find interesting light as it contrasts with shadow, texture, and patterns. I constantly see the scenes in front of me framed as a photo composition in my head. I don't put the camera to my eye until I see a composition in my head which I find interesting. One evening, a pair of loons visited while the sun was setting. The sun was a bright orange and it was behind this pair of loons. The scene was actually quite blinding but I was able to see something interesting... I was just barely able to see the silhouette of one of the loons... just enough to be able to focus on the loon... all around this loon, the water was shimmering and reflecting the warm orange glow of the setting sun...  The moment I depressed the shutter release, I knew that this would be an interesting photograph... a different photograph... I like it!

About a week ago, I was headed out the door to try to catch a decent sunset. As I approached the door, I began to hear the familiar sound of a distant helicopter... fortunately, I had a medium length telephoto lens mounted on this camera body so I just picked up the pace and continued out the door to see if I could spot him in the sky... I got lucky... I even managed to capture the blinking strobe on the tail as well as some interesting color in the sky!

I wrote about this briefly a couple of weeks ago and included a couple of photos but I just put together a more cohesive set of photos today so I'll write about it again. On our first morning at the lake house this year, Sheila and I were sitting in the living room. The file info embedded in each photo shows that it was just after 5am (although, I thought it was two hours later but Sheila disagrees) ... it was dreary... rather dark... but the lake was illuminated by reflecting the brighter sky.  We were sitting there having some morning coffee... Sheila comfortable on the couch while I sat at my desk beside the couch. My desk overlooks the lake and I noticed something floating in the water directly out in front of our house but halfway across the lake. This is a good distance and it is very unusual to see debris in the lake so it caught my eye immediately. I pointed and asked Sheila, "what is that in the water?" At first, I thought it was just a big log floating wit

Every year, turtles are hatched on our lawn... they emerge from their buried nest, scattering broken shells and then scurry into the lake. We happily find the disturbed mound in our lawn covered with broken shells afterward and always wish we had been sitting there as these baby turtles made their way out of the nest, to the lake and then dropped into the water off our rocky shore.  Turtles can be seen all around the lake but you really need a fairly keen eye to spot them because they blend in so well with their surroundings... then they sit perfectly still until you get too close. Often, you don't even know there was a turtle on a nearby rock until you see what you thought was part of the rock quickly scurry into the lake with a plop! One day last week, I managed to capture a few good photos of turtles as we were kayaking around the lake. And, I have to say, paddling this far makes for a very long day of activity! I was actually hoping to capture a good photo of a bobcat bask

We've been spending time at Lake Groton for about seven years now. We often hear our visiting guests claim they saw a Bald Eagle flying while they were out kayaking. I've always had my doubts though. The unfortunate fact is that there probably are no Bald Eagles in the area. Vermont actually has a Bald Eagle Recovery Plan in effect because these birds are so exceptionally rare in our neck of the woods. There are a few known nesting pairs of Bald Eagles in Vermont (mostly around Lake Champlain where the water does not ice-over in winter) but no known Bald Eagles at Lake Groton. These birds are tracked closely by numerous sources and especially if there are nests. Knowing the exact number of Bald Eagles in all of Vermont and where they are located is important for this program. In all the reports I can find, the few Bald Eagles in Vermont are still near the area where they were introduced at the beginning of this program... near a wildlife refuge in Addison. Lake Groton is id