No, today’s title is not about the magazine of the same name. If it even exists anymore. It is about the necessity to love being in the outdoors if you truly make nature your photographic subject.

Now I have done a couple of weddings and one twenty fifth wedding anniversary. Indoors of course. I have done some product photography, indoors of course. At least one indoor shoot with a young lady model. I have also done some fine art inside. That of course is a matter of opinion, as to the art. Also, studio photography of a variety of subjects that I myself chose.

I have done some indoor architectural photography, but alas, most of my image making of that subject were exterior shots.

All but two auto races I photographed were outdoors.

Nature, live, raw and in the flesh so to speak, requires being out of doors. I thank God for that.

Warm, hot, cold, freezing cold, or on occasion, falling rain or snow, nature photography can be wet or cold..

Below, I welcome you to some very pleasant moments I had while out of doors.

Dark, light, warm and cool contrasts can be powerful. On the occasion below, which I believe was in Arizona or possibly western Texas, finding an exposure to flatter it all, was the job at hand.

I love being outdoors in the mountains. Below we have the Colorado Rockies. The most difficult part here was hiking at high altitude, with those low oxygen levels. Making the image was a pleasure and fun.

The Rockies, give forth a variety of types of mountain scenics.

There’s nothing like a quiet autumn day and some riotous colors.

This was captured in Wisconsin.

I know not what species these flowers are, but I know I enjoyed the peek-a-boo light and the drama that came with them.

Horned Grebe. Being outdoors near water, often provides some great opportunities.

Sometimes you are not truly outside when you are doing outdoor photography. Especially with skittish animals.

In this case I was in my car in order to (photographically) capture this hawk, but I have used photo blinds as well. I believe, that this is a Cooper’s Hawk.

Turtles were among my favorite subjects. This is a Painted Turtle I believe, and it was photographed with a tripod in a low position, whilst I was on my hands and knees.

One of my favorite critters, the Great Egret This species caused me to have many of my favorite outdoor moments. Early morning shots like this, aren’t captured from our bedrooms as we get that extra couple of hours of sleep. I thank God for that.

Capturing a wild creature in some form of motion, such as we see below, is special but it is more. It is poetry in motion. An act of God.

Finally, let us finish with one of my favorite (boy I have a lot of favorites) outdoor subjects, frost. Yes I do consider frost a subject in and of itself, but what holds that frost can help make or break an image.

I spend precious little time on social media these days, but I took a “trip” to Facebook the other day. I was pleased to see a posted photo from a great friend of mine, of a female Snowy Owl that I feel was also a sort of friend of mine. Kristen Westlake and I were planning a partnership in the form of co-teaching outdoor nature photography workshops. I was at a nature preserve one afternoon and discovered a young female Snowy Owl at a location between where she iived and where I lived. I emailed her and we met the next day at that location, and guess what, the owl was right there, almost where I found her the day before.

That all led to a great friendship and it has been years snce we last spoke, but how nice it was to see that owl again through Kristen’s image.

I write of the great outdoors, but see the truth below.

The only time I went outside the day I wrote this post, including before or after doing such, was to take out the garbage cans and then after pick up. retrieve them.

My how life can change. Remember to try to practice what you preach.

An observation.

If memories serve, my first blog was named The Observer. When I decided to make nature photography the center piece for what I share, I changed it to The Natural Observer as in nature. Eventually I decided to make it an offshoot of my nature photography business which was called, Earth Images or occasionally Wayne Nelson’s Earth Images.

Still, I will actually write about anything that that comes to mind.

For that anything, see below.

For all of my life, I like anybody watching television, has been flooded with this little thing they call commercials. They have changed through the years, but the basic principal never changes. Get your product or service out there, and convince
people to purchase it.

I know not just when, but somewhere along the line, the pharmaceutical industry decided to make TV their main form of advertising.

Over the years, those commercials became more and more boastful. We can work miracles was the main focus.

Well eventually, another business, that of lawyers and law firms turned to TV. Today, sometimes it seems like lawyers and drug companies make up most of what we see on TV.

The thing about drug companies, is they might deliver miracles, but they often also find ways to make sick, or kill a fair percentage of the people who use their drugs.

Then comes more lawyers (and courts) to the scene.

Finally, after billions of dollars of settlement money has been paid, mostly to lawyers but also some to those injured or made sick from the drugs, they decided to lay out every possibility that could be, might be, and would be, a detriment to those who use them, right there in the commercial. The lawyers of those pharmaceutical companies, no doubt made that suggestion.

With our drug, we can work miracles, but maybe we will kill you.

So now, after we hear about the “God level” miracles in which that little pill or that teaspoon of narcotic can deliver to us, we hear the “other side of the story. Right in the same commerical.

They warn you…..

Your eyes just might loosen in their sockets. You may have to take food via the “rear entrance” of your body, and keep your mouth open and free as to vomit uncontrollably. You might, just maybe, grow a new toe on your forehead, In fifty percent of recipients of our wonderful dream drug, it was found that they began to vomit.

They will list those hundreds of dangers, and will do so at 800 mph.

Listen fast.

Of course, this pharmaceutical company will eventually be sued by lawyers. They will also be defended by lawyers. Those lawyers will advertise on TV.

Both the companies and the atourneys, will all and all, become rich and successful. With our help.

There’s nothing like “sweet sarcasm” to dull the pain.

May God Bless and may we all smile,
Wayne