PhotoAbuse – The Blog

Click for a few more pictures

I didn’t plan on doing much on Sunday. I never do.

I did want to go to a local flea market to visit with my Uncle Jack and have a look around. Kieran and I showed up around 8:00 to find the place hoppin! We visited with Uncle Jack for a while and then took a walk around to see if there was anything interesting out there. I did end up finding an old Dads Root Beer crate. Perfect size for storing all my clamps, tape, and misc stuff.

We got home around 11:00 or so and chilled until the Sox game started. They have been on a tear for a month now with a 24-5 record since early June. No one is more surprised than me! Not only did they win Sundays game against KC, they thumped them 15-5! With Detroit losing to Minnesota, the Sox also go into the All Star break leading the AL Central!

After the game was over we met up with Wanetta and Logan for an afternoon walk at a nearby lake. Wanetta called me earlier in the day saying the she saw the beavers out swimming around and wanted to see if they would come out again. About 5 minutes after we arrived at the beaver lodge we heard a big splash and then a pretty big beaver appeared. Couldn’t tell if it was protecting its territory or if it thought Logan was a big black beaver. Logan was fetching sticks and the beaver kept patrolling. After about an hour, it started drizzling out and we headed home with plenty of time left to relax!

Click on Gracie for a few more baby pictures

It’s been a pretty cool 24 hours!

Last night I stopped by my sisters house to see the new addition to the family. Gracie was celebrating her 9 week birthday in fine form! She fits right in over there and spent the evening messing around with Libby and just doing the explore thing around the yard.

Best of all, she doesn’t seem to mind being photographed! Liz was my VAL for the evening and did a great job. I used a 16″ softbox with an sb600 for these pictures and was pretty happy with them. Gracie stayed in any one spot for approximately 4 seconds so things moved pretty quickly and it was actually more fun watching her wander around than it was making pictures. Very cool pup and I look forward to making some nicer pictures down the road!

This afternoon I stopped over at my friend Wanetta to see what’s been going on. Wanetta is a bigtime hiker and bird watcher and has shown me more cool things in the woods around here than I could have found in a lifetime. She also has the most interesting dog in the world, Logan! Well, I’ll have to put this afternoons conversation into the I didn’t see that one coming category for sure.

“Hi! Hows things been going? Anything new?” “Not much, same old stuff. I have a brand new fawn in the backyard” Huh?

It seems mom gave birth last night and a neighbor thought there was a fox in the backyard and came over and told her about it. The mom took off and the wobbly baby just sort of wobbled towards the back of the yard.

Wanettas back yard is a miniature nature preserve so it didn’t surprise me all that much for some reason. But a fawn? I had never seen a brand new one before. She said it was in the high grass in the back and I asked her to call me if it got up or if mom showed up. She called me this evening as I was picking Kieran up and we stopped over to see the youngun. Kieran didn’t know what to expect when we went back there and was pretty surprised at what he found! I only made a few pictures and while they aren’t the best, they are my first baby deer pictures. We didn’t want to freak her out too much and left quickly.

Hopefully mom will be back tonight or Wanetta will be breaking out the baby bottle and some goats milk!

Well, that’s all I have to share for now. Hopefully I will make some interesting pictures this weekend to share. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Morning Update: I talked to Wanetta this morning and the youngun is gone and all the food she left out is also gone. Good news on a Saturday morning!

Another Update!: I got a call from Wanetta Sunday morning. She was looking out the window this morning and saw mom nursing the fawn. Looks like the fawn will be around for awhile! Maybe some more pictures to follow depending on if I can get close enough without causing problems.

Not much of a story this time around. Just out making pictures whenever I can!

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3 out, 1 to go! The babies are leaving the nests. I have been watching 2 families this spring. Each family had 2 babies this year and they are heading out into the world this week. I have gotten so used to them peering down at me it seems odd to see them out, sitting on a branch 60 yards or so from the nest!

They look a lot bigger out of the nest too. They don’t fly yet. They just hop from branch to branch, usually in different directions. The parents will keep an eye on them and feed them until September or so.

The 2 babies near the slough hung out together for the first day but when I went out there later in the afternoon, there was only 1. That’s the guy in the picture. I have no idea where the other one went. I looked for quite some time to no avail.

The nest down the street from me still has one youngun in it. His/her feathers are still pretty light so it might be a few more days before it leaves. The other one was about 60 yards or so from the nest yesterday.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again. Sort of sad in a way. I tried to visit a couple times a week at least. They are amazing animals to say the least. Total stealth when flying and it’s also pretty darn hard to see them sitting on a branch. They blend very well with the surroundings. I will miss them but still look around for them on my walks. Even if I don’t see them, they’ll see me and think to themselves, “There goes that crazy guy with the camera again!”

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Another sign of spring! The Ring-billed Gulls are back around. Not that anyone misses them when they’re gone but the do provide some practice shooting a moving target! This is good practice in tracking a subject. It comes in very handy if you shoot sports a lot. By doing this every once in awhile I know what my camera will and will not lock on to and that makes for fewer wasted frames in the future. At least that’s what I tell myself…

Click on the youngun for a few more pictures

Went out in the woods today for a short walk. The deer have broken into their normal sized groups now that the weather is a bit nicer. Also of note, a lot of the bucks are shedding their antlers. They look a little unnerved by the whole thing! I brought my usual bag of apples for them and held on to the last one.

As I was making pictures, one of the bigger does walked right up to me and just stood there looking at me. I was down on one knee looking up at her wondering what was going to happen next. So there we are just sort of looking at each other and she steps right up to me and bends down with a look on her face that said, “I know you still have an apple in your jacket. Hand it over. Now!”

I set my camera down, pulled the apple out of my pocket, and held it out to her. She bent down, sniffed it, and calmly took it out of my hand. The other deer didn’t know what the heck to do. She ate the entire apple less than 2 feet away from me. Would have made some great pictures but as life would have it, I had a zoom lens on and she was way too close. Figures.

After she was finished, she just looked at me for a few seconds, turned and walked back to her crew. All out of apples, I made a few more pictures and headed out.

I haven’t seen any geese or ducks lately because all of the lakes around here have frozen over. As I was driving today, I spied a creek with some open water. Filled with ducks. I found the secret duck refuge it appeared. I made a few pictures and headed home. A good day. You have to love it when the Blackhawks beat Detroit, and you come home with some good pictures!