My co-editor, exhausted from all the picture viewing.
With thanks to {The Here-Unnamed Idiot GOP Candidate}, who has thankfully cast the specter of a nightmare in American Presidential Politics firmly into the garbage hopper, I feel I can now somewhat relax and devote some brain energy into non-panic mode, non-political pursuits.
I’ve been photographing things since I was a kid. When it first arrived, I took over control of the family’s Polaroid, which was quite quickly taken back after the film costs started to mount. Later, digging through my Dad’s Army stuff, I found a cool German 35mm camera (Zeuss/Ikon with a Compur shutter), and started experimenting with Tri-X and Plus-X black and white film, moving to occasional color after a couple of years. There are a few hundred images from this early phase. I shot in 35mm for a few decades, until digital arrived, and bought in early, with a 2 megapixel Fugi. The “free film” thing meant that I could shoot an unlimited number of images. So I did. I’ve amassed thousands of images from a variety of cameras stuffed into directories all over my hard drive. Once in a while I dig down through them into wide spaces of old memories and beautiful images.
This fall I was browsing through some of the early stuff and found some things I’d already forgotten about (out with the old and in with the new, I guess) and started to try to pull out some of the more striking things to share. I’d enjoyed many photo diaries here over the years, so I decided to share a few of these with you all, in this, my very first photo diary.
My wife and I were always avid birders, and we tried to attract as many to our feeders as possible. When we lived in Alfred, we were going through some 750 pounds of black-oil sunflower seed a year. We had collected a daily flock of 30 Mourning Doves, and over our 19 years in that place, we catalogued 75 species of bird from inside the house.
Some birds for y’all:
The Scarlet Tanagers, although rarely seen, are always such a delight when they arrive, they light up the scene with their intense color. We had put out oranges to attract the Baltimore Orioles, who were a no-show that year:
Scarlet Tanager and Orange Orange
This next one is a little fuzzy, the old house has original window glass from 1820 and is a challenge to photograph through. I did correct the exposure down as the black level had gotten too gray, which ended him up a little saturated. The Indigo Buntings, like the Orioles, come to sup nectar from the apple blossoms, and have been hanging around longer and longer into the season over the last several years.
Indigo Bunting
We have had bird boxes up in the yard for twenty years and have been consistently rewarded with pairs of bluebirds, raising their twittering chicks. One really lucky shot happened one day when I was waiting to grab a shot, halfway sticking out the back door, when a bluebird whipped past my head on the way to the nest. I roughly pointed and blindly squeezed the shutter; the gods of photography smiled upon me and allowed me this:
Say “Aaaahhhhh...”
One other nice “action” photo happened up to the lake, watching a Great Blue Heron approach from over the water with huge, unhurried wing beats, circled over our end of the lake, and then swooped down about twenty feet to our left.
Slidin’ into third, with many on base...
He hung out with the Gulls who were having a fresh water day for a change.
One fall morning, we heard a sudden commotion in the side yard where we throw the birdseed, a bang and a huge collective whoosh, a hawk had swept through the feeding station and scattered the troops. He was sitting about thirty feet away, disappointed, and with a look of such fierce focused attention I thought his twin laser beams would light the leaves on fire. He was ready for a meal.
This ain’t no disco, this ain’t no foolin’ around.
The wild turkeys in southern Maine were introduced in the late seventies or early eighties to re-establish the birds through their traditional range. On the first Thanksgiving in our current house, we had thirty-six turkeys in the back yard and a half-turkey in the oven.
Turkey Trot on a Maine street
Once in a while I hear the unmistakable hooting of a dinosaur, followed by loud hollow rapping sounds, which can only mean it’s Woody the Woodpecker, the Pileated. With the big red head.
I hear you knockin’...
So, some birds, very nice, but what else flies? I found this piece of wacky abstract modern art supping nectar from a Gayflower, what a mind-blowing design:
Sharing nectar with a kingly buddy.
He was enjoying the treat with a Monarch, who I’m seeing very rarely now, just two times this last summer, I find this population-collapse crisis gut-wrenchingly depressing.
Water-based images.
Here’s a trip to the rocky pool to cool off your feet. This is springtime New Hampshire mountain water, like an ice cube without the hardness.
Brrrrrr….. very cold
We did spend much time in lakes and rivers and the ocean. We loved to encounter Snappers and Painted Turtles and swim along (at some comfortable distance.) Here’s something we picked out of the water, thought it was a drowning caterpillar from several feet away, but as we approached, it became clearly a baby snapping turtle, in fine shape:
Lookin’ mighty snappy there, youngster.
Later, at the same pond, we found his Mom, just done laying a cache of eggs (the dirt on her back is from her back-filling the hole):
Aw, snap!!!
And at the pond next door, we saw these Painted Turtles warming up on a log in the spring when everything was busy waking up:
“Get in line, kids..”
Life on Earth.
Some more earthly creatures also have shared their space with us over time, here’s a sampling from the extended neighborhood:
Deer me.
I can Bearly see you...
Mobile shag rug
Red Squirrel in the promised land of sunflower seeds
Golden Garden spider, in full summer glory
So there, wasn’t too bad. Had fun, saw nice things, a good time was had by some. And, nothing said about you-know-who, how refreshing.
Remember, kids, VOTE VOTE VOTE. Remind your friends, your acquaintances, EVERYBODY. Be obnoxious about it. This ain’t over until the last ballot is counted. This is a do-or-die election. They may all be from now on.
Next time: flowers? I’ll start browsing...
