This is a follow-up to my last post from Several Days ago. That article was originally meant to be a post of images all made on one day, in the general region around my home. The concept is, a normal day in an average locale for nature photography. That usually means (to me) lots of variety. I start early, and photograph everything that I can think to search for, as well as anything that might catch my fancy or attract me visually. My example below of such a day is still weak compared to many days I have spent in the field, but to be honest, my files are kind of a mess, and locating folders that contain what I need is not that easy.

My memories of everything from that day are hardly perfect, but I do the best I can below to describe a normal day around home with my cameras in the car.

I rose a little late (for me) and made my location for a sunrise shoot right across the street from my house. I am fortunate to have a great lake, (pun intended) called Michigan almost at my front door. There are however, very few spots to be found to make pictures. This is the best place to shoot from.

I headed on down the road into Illinois and to a state park. The first subject that greeted me was a Common Snapping Turtle. I stopped, grab my camera gear, got out and began making pictures, only to be passed (in his car) by a “wildlife photographer” friend who did not take advantage of the circumstances. I guess he was looking for leopards, lions and elephants. I was happy to settle for the turtle.

There was still a tiny bit of dew left from the night before and I decided to look for macro dew images. I found only one shot and it barely carried any dew, but I was glad I did. You’ll never know if you don’t look.

I found a patch of Spiderwort and searched until I could isolate a few blossoms with a clean and simple background. I exchanged my 105mm Micro for a 300mm lens which allowed for even more isolation.

I spotted my first patch of Purple Coneflowers of the year on my next stop at the northern division of the same state park. I noticed some bees hovering about and waited for one to land. Macro wildlife photography is pure fun.

I headed on down the highway to a marina that I knew had some Red Foxes. I caught this guy looking at Dad as he returned from a hunt. I went back to the car and attempted to photograph some Warblers using the car as a blind, but I failed miserably. Birds of prey, wading birds and waterfowl are perfect subjects for using your car as a blind, but songbirds are challenging to say the least.

The next few hours consisted of a few non-photographic errands and lunch with a photographer friend.

Go west young man. That’s what I did as I headed to a Wisconsin state park. On my way to the park, while at the park, and on my way home, I made several attempts to capture interesting songbird photos from my car. It was not one of my most successful afternoons.

I returned home in the late afternoon to some very nice light. As I began unloading camera equipment to take in the house I noticed a male House Sparrow ( I know, everybody’s favorite) making some interesting poses in the pretty light. He posed perfectly for me as I rattled off my final pictures of the day. This is a full frame image with no crop. That means that I was close enough to this little bird with my 500mm lens that I must have had a set of extension tubes affixed to the back of said lens. That would have allowed me a much closer focusing distance.

Being someone who practices a form of visual craft, to me means noticing everything that has visual power. Being a lover of the natural world means having an incurable appetite to see, experience and photograph everything that she has to offer. Those two things combined, made me the sort of photographer that I was. I am grateful.

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I have always loved music and I can truly say that I have appreciated music from every era from the 1920s to current. I have always crossed most genres and that has been my joy. Variety is my love in most things. Rock (about ten different disciplines), blues, country, folk including Scottish and Irish, some jazz, big band, Motown, and on. Given when I was born and when I came of age, rock however was my mainstay. A rock icon, David Bowie, succumbed to cancer recently and it is always sad when a ground breaker has left us. I will admit, that David was not a favorite of mine but anybody who made as much of an impact as he did, certainly contributed value to rock and roll. RIP David.

May God Bless,                                                                                                                               Wayne