PhotoAbuse – The Blog

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I got bored this afternoon. Nothing really interesting on tv and I wasn’t in the mood to read anything. I would have ended up taking a nap!

I have been wanting to make some landscape pictures lately but it has been pretty darn hot out around here lately and I kept using that as an excuse not to.  Well, my boredom overcame my fear of heat and I took a stroll around the slough. My trusty thermometer showed 91f as I walked out the door.

I took my camera w/kit lens, my 50mm, sb600, and a tripod with me. Lately when I have been out in the woods I haven’t had my 50mm with me and really regretted it. It’s the only macro lens I have and to say there are lots of possible macros out there in the woods would be a big time understatement!

I drove over to Yankee woods and walked from there. It’s not that long of a walk to the slough but it seemed like it took a lot longer today. Things were very quiet in the woods today. Not much wildlife to see. I’m thinking they were all laying low until the sun went down.

This has been a good year for Dragonflies for some reason. Lots of them and they don’t seem to mind the heat in the least. I came across a few that were in the mood to pose. Glad I brought the 50mm with me.

A couple of hours later I was on my way back to the van and then back to the air conditioning! It was pretty darn hot out there but I’m glad I got off my butt and took the walk!

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

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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…

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You gotta love March! It’s that time of year when you know warmer weather is on its way but just aren’t quite sure when it will actually show up. Tuesday we got a taste of whats to come. Mid 50′s for the first time in a long long time! A little rain, but who cares? Mid 50′s!

While I am by no stretch of the imagination a bird watcher or photographer, I have always liked knowing what wildlife lives or visits my neck of the woods.

I stopped by my friend Wannetta yesterday to see how she was doing. Wannetta is a big time birder and loves to hike all over with her faithful companion Logan. She said that a couple hundred Sandhill Cranes were over at the wetlands Monday evening and that she was going to stop over there in the afternoon to see if they were still there. I told her I might stop by too and see what was happening. Before I left, I just had to make a picture of Logan. He was kind enough to hop up on the picnic table for a quicky portrait. I only had my camera with 1 sb600 but I think it worked ok. Logan is a great dog. He loves to fetch stuff and is always trying to drag huge branches around. Pretty funny to watch that! I think he would be a very good frisbee dog. Very agile and quick. Good lookin too!

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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!

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Took a trip over to the woods today to see how the deer have been holding up in this cold weather.

I went to the usual spots and didn’t see them. It was mid morning and maybe they were still in the woods. You never know with these guys. I usually head out there with a bag of apples for them and thought I might be bringing it home with me. It was right about then that I saw a small fella walk out onto the street. Too small to be out there all by himself so I wandered over in that direction.

Not only were there deer there, I think they were all there! I don’t think I have ever seen a group that big over here. Usually it is between 5 and 10 but there had to be at least 30 in this group!

Needless to say, the bag of apples went fast. The ground is pretty snow covered so I figured they’d be hungry. Usually when they are done snacking on the apples, they wander off. Today though, everyone hung around and just seemed to be enjoying the warmer weather. It was in the high 20′s for the first time since Christmas. The younguns were playing around and even got mom to play around a little. The bucks even stuck around. I didn’t see any of the big guys around but some of the mid sized guys just hung around and even seemed to pose when I broke out the camera!

It was good to see them.