Any of us who have more than a nickel’s worth of years behind us, have a lot of memories floating around in our conscious or subconscious mind. Some are sweet as fresh strawberries and some are more like spoiled fish.  While’s there isn’t anything worse than living on nothing but memories, the good ones can still fill us up in empty times, and lift us up when we are down and out.

I am sort of an odd combination of realist, and dreamer. I know both the good and bad of my past, but I am more than willing to squeeze out the bad to make room for the good. In fact, sometimes I am now able to see the good in what was previously thought of as the bad. I am always grateful for anyone who’s path crossed mine in days of yore. I am especially grateful for the blessings they left me with, even if I was too blind to see them at the time.

I am most grateful, when every once in a while, one of the souls that walked with me yesterday, appears today to let me know that I had a positive affect on them. That I left something behind that is worthy of remembering. It may well be, that they are seeing the past (or just me) with “rose colored glasses”, but I’ll take what I can get.

Sometimes yesterday’s news is good news.

Now for yesterday’s pictures.

Wildlife photography can bring out the creative or artistic side of a photographer, but mostly it just humbles us because we are soooo dependant on our subject and what they do. They share with is the trait of having a brain. They think and make decisions. I have always felt that when it comes to wild animals, they are the artists and I am there to capture and share the story they have to tell.

There’s nothing like spending five hours with Bald Eagles fishing, fighting, soaring, diving and of course preening. Point and click, click, click.

It’s hard to beat a Yellow-rumped Warbler who’s willing to pose in front of you with a clean blue sky as a backdrop.

Maybe even better with a cooperative female Red-tailed Hawk.

Things are looking up! Looking up at a bird can be uncomfortable for the viewers (and photographers). Sometimes your choices are slim. I was headed for the grocery store when I spotted this hawk. I could pull into a traffic lane to stop and have a little bit of working space (which would flatten our perspective), drive across the four lane road and make a huge crop when I got home, or shoot for the sky. Like I said, with wildlife the subjects make a lot of our choices for us.

Gray Catbirds are among the clowns of the bird world. More ham than bird. That’s a bit of orange in the mouth.

Baby animals of all kinds make the job of the wildlife photographer a dream. They are cute, and we get the credit. These are Canada Geese goslings.

My view of wildlife is that if it is not vegetable or mineral, it is an animal and therefore wildlife.

A Widow Dragonfly. Even the males are widows.

Japanese Beetles are not popular with humans. Thankfully photographers are not human. That was a joke.

Fish are not vegetable or mineral, so they too are animals. This is not a very good picture. There are one or two decent “fish shots” hidden in my files, but this will suffice to prove my point. I will photograph anything.

Enough wild animals.

I always loved finding groups of wildflowers and looking for compositions within the group. When I could not find a literal, physical comp, I would compose colors. In other words, look for some sort of balance to the colors. These are one of the many forms of wild Phlox.

I tried to treat flowers just like a human model. This Purple Coneflower decided it had had enough of droopy petals and lifted them up towards the sky. Well, at least that’s what my imaginative look at the wild world seemed to say.

Animal, vegetable, and now mineral.

Sand and light are a a subject in and of themselves. White Sands New Mexico.

Keep yesterday in your own way, but remember, the bad is always accompanied by the good.

God Bless,

Wayne