I was in a sleepy (lazy) type of mood today, so I just grabbed eight sort of ordinary images to post and write about.  They are an octagon of nature….so to speak.

Owls. Who doesn’t love an owl. Well maybe voles, mice, small birds and small pets. Owls are superb, silent killers.  Just the same, people love owls. Especially photographers.

The only decent images I ever made of an Eastern Screech Owl, in this case a gray phase, was in March of 2008. This sleepy critter was catching forty winks in a tree cavity that was about 15 feet from the entrance of a YMCA. It barely opened its eyes as people came and went.  Or for that matter, for the big goof who stood  with a tripod and camera snapping pictures. 

It’s eyes are (barely) actually open in this photo.  My guess is this is a female by the time it spent in the nesting cavity rather than in a nearby tree.

In photography as in life, sometimes we just take what we’re given.

These two baby Great-horned Owls were among the dozens I photographed over a three or four year period. This cavity, was in a cemetery. Eventually the cemetery cut down the tree in between nesting seasons, as the crowds of photographers and onlookers grew exponentially with each new season.

I’ve shown this image before, and I actually struggle to understand what my fascination with it is.

This old bending Juniper Tree stands on the edge of a Colorado Rocky Mt. canyon that is almost a mile deep. There was no way to actually show the tree in conjunction with the depth of the canyon without, well hanging over the canyon. I took many chances in those days but standing on the very edge of that canyon was not one of them.

This is a section of the side of that canyon, which is called The Black Canyon of The Gunnison.  I loved the way in the late afternoon, the contrasting mix of light and shadow added drama to an already dramatic location. Strangely enough, I lived in Colorado for six years, and never even visited this site.

Sometimes you have to leave where you are to discover what you had.

You all know how much I love sunrises/sunsets. There are endless ways to show their affects in a photo.

Wolf Lake Wisconsin, was one of my “go to” locations for sunrise.  This particular image is one of layers. Putting the horizon dead center, caused an equally split image of sunshine and clouds.  A mirror? My exposure for an image like this would normally be a manual 1% spot exposure of the second brightest area of the scene, in this case next to or below the brightest area you see.

Sunrises/sunset photos need not contain any part of terra-firma. In this scene, while the clouds were lit up by the rising or setting sun that was below, a closer cloud blew in in front of it all, and became a silhouette. I layered it the best I could in front of the brightest spot to record this odd image.

I show a lot of fox pictures on this blog. That is because I have a lot of them. For three or four years I was blessed. This handsome male was among the last of such critters I photographed. At least so it seems. My experience is, in Red Fox families the females are always prettier than the males. They are in fact, foxes.

The out of focus plant life actually serves to somewhat frame my subject, and also causes to render him even sharper than the image actually is.

I often think I might be close to having as many dewy dragonfly pictures as any photographer that I‘ve known. At least, among nature generalists like myself.

The more dew the better!! This insect was going nowhere for a while, as it probably weighed three times its weight with all that dew.

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One of my most common subjects on this blog, is what I call my “slice of life” reports. They can have taken place from when I was about five years old to yesterday. The good, the bad, and the goofy things I have seen, or done myself. Occasionally they are big subjects, but mostly I write about the little things.

A month or so ago I wrote about how when I was using the self-checkout lane at a grocery store, I inadvertently did not charge myself for two containers of yogurt.  One yogurt did not make the proper sound when I scanned it, so when I got home I checked my receipt and found out that I actually got two free yogurts. I subsequently wrote in this blog, that it’s what you do when nobody’s looking that lets us know who you are.

Well, yesterday I finally paid the store back for my yogurt caper. I actually paid for one a week ago by scanning a single yogurt twice so I would be charged for one more than I received. Why did I not do both of them? An employee came near me and I was afraid he would think I was stealing. I mean, what kind of idiot intentionally overcharges himself/herself?  I felt like a thief as I attempted to pay back what I owed the store. I finished my repayments yesterday and it feels as good as if I was paying back a $1,000 to a mom & pop store, instead of a total of $1.24 to an international chain store.

I have written about this incident twice on this blog not because I did something so great. I realize that if it had been a $1,000 it might have been a little more impressive. I share it with you because even making good to a trillion dollar business for only $1.24, makes you feel good about yourself. I also wanted to show God that I will do the right thing.

It is amazing how believing (and knowing) that there is a God above, causes us to do the right thing. There is always Someone watching!!

Have a great day and happy trails,
Wayne