Delayed Thanksgiving Note

So I was hungry on the morning of Thanksgiving and that gave me an idea to quickly (and I mean quickly) photograph just a few of the things I would be thankful for that day. By the time 1 pm rolled around though I was more into the eating mode than photographing so I don't have images of the other things like the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy. But here are the ones that were just waiting around that morning.




AND IT WAS ALL SO GOOD!!!

1/2 HOUR TRAVEL TIME

So today I made a trip from home to Oregon (normally a 12 hour trip) in just a half hour. Anyway that would seem to be the case but of course it was all done in photoshop. I took a picture from a session today near my home and removed the background and then put a new background (from Oregon) in it's place. Just for the fun of it.

Thanksgiving Roses

I brought some roses for Marie so we would have a centerpiece for the table this year. Then of course I had to photograph them. I did the first pass with them dry and then sprinkled them with some water. Luckily I had asked what was in the first spray bottle and when I discovered it was full of clorox I figured that it wouldn't have been very good for the roses. here are the results.

Unexpected Deer Hunt

On Saturday morning of the Art Show I stepped outside of the barn and went to the back of it to photograph the ducks that were on the pond. I took a couple of pictures and then looked back toward the front of the barn to see if any visitors were coming and thus I would need to return into the barn. To my excitement I saw instead another visitor of sorts just passing by the show. I knew he had been there earlier since one of the other artists had seen him just before I pulled up. I shot one picture and then dashed behind the barn to the other side so that I could see him as he came into the field by the barn.


He had not crossed the fence yet from the canal (recently put into pipe this last summer) where he was walking and so as I reached the front of the barn I was able to stay to the side of it enough not to attract his attention to me. I took another shot and then realized that he was about to jump the fence so I quickly changed the camera into rapid sequence mode and took another shot as he approached the fence. Then he looked down the road and changed his mind since another artist was now driving up. (I decided a few seconds later as I tried to take his pictures as he then ran a few feet up the canal and found out that my camera battery had just died. I would have missed the jump had he jumped.)



I reached into my pocket grabbed the next battery and started up the road after him. I took a couple more shots just in case I couldn't intercept him since we were both on foot and I am much slower. Lucky for me however he was in no real hurry to get back to the mountain and I was able to make the 1/2 mile hike a little more quickly than he did.


I rounded the corner with the road and started down the next road to where I figured he might jump the fence and cross the road. He decided to jump however on the opposite side and downhill from where I was so that I barely could tell that he even jumped anyway. He then came out onto the road and was breathing through his mouth. I don't think he was really too tired even though it looked like it.


I gave a short whistle and was able to get his attention without spooking him. He turned to look my direction and I fired off some more shots. He continued his course toward the mountain and luckily for me again it was in a semi circle around me so that I was able to go a lot less distance to be able to intercept him again. I took more pictures as he went past the weeds and up toward the hill.



It looked as though he were going to go a lot further than I had thought before turning toward the hill so I fired off some more shots just in case I couldn't catch up again.



However he turned East just in time to get past a small area where I could then see him clearly again. I whistled again and he again looked at me and this time must have realized that I was staying pretty close to him so he decided to cross the road a little faster than the previous time and of course I fired off several more shots. (I use to do that as a young man only there were puffs of dirt kicked up each time but still probably about the same number of shots with the same outcome. I have been very OK with shooting with the purpose of both of us walking away and my having only a camera to have to carry and not a rifle and a dead deer.) I figured my hunt was over at that point because I had no desire to chase or even try to follow him up on the mountain. I had the pictures I figured that I could live with and he would probably live a whole lot easier by not being spooked into a full run even though that would have made for some great shots as well.

Wild cat.

Early this spring I stepped into an old camper that we have in our yard where I store some of the yard supplies. I heard a low growling sound coming from under an old tarp and then was able to finally focus on a mother cat with 3 kittens. I did my business with as little interference as possible to the family and left. For the rest of the summer I have watched as these three kittens have grown and are just as wild as their mother. There was a yellow one (was accidentally killed by a car this fall), a gray one and a black one. I see them more often now as the weather is getting cold and food scarce. In fact I have began to leave food for them and the mother, still very wild and scared of me, will almost come up to me as she asks for food. I have yet to get good pictures of them but last weekend when our son and their little dog was visiting I couldn't resist getting the camera after the dog had chased the smallest of the kittens into the tree. It is a cute little cat but still very wild as far as I am concerned. I can see the wild in it's eyes and don't know that it will ever come to me and I will probably never try to get it to since I like wild cats that can help take care of mice around my yard.