Shoot This! Connecting To Nature

My favorite way to connect to nature is with camera in hand. When I’m out and about, I’ll see something that speaks to me, that lights me up inside, and when it happens I have to capture that moment to share it with the world. Hoping to share that indescribable wow.

I first became enamored with taking pictures forty years ago, when I was ten and received a Polaroid Zip camera. These days, my cameras of choice are a Canon Powershot SX 280 HS that lives in my purse, for every day point and shoot moments, and my big gun, a Canon 70D.

Today was a perfect day to get out and shoot. I had no plans that couldn’t wait (laundry and cleaning), and the weather decided to change from buckets of rain and flooding to a beautifully clear and sunny day.  The first photo-op that caught my eye happened as I drove my son to school. To have to pass it by was a bit of torture, but I was home in a flash, and grabbed my camera.

Running out the door, I caught the backstays of the morning sun shining through our woods. There is something about crepuscular rays that always speaks to my heart.

When Little Man saw this photo, he said, “It looks like God.” Love that.

After playing around with the fog and sun, I put on a camouflage jacket and my boots to head across the waterlogged field next door. Walking through the field I followed deer trails and side-stepped small rodent holes.

At the edge of the field is a row of young trees that serves as a buffer to a small river that is home to spawning salmon. This time of year, we have many bald eagles around, hunting for fish in the river and small animals in the field. Standing above the young trees are a handful old trees that make for excellent look-out perches for the eagles and other birds of prey.

There were a few eagles in the largest tree (one whose spirit is very old and majestic). I took a photo, walked closer, took another photo, and walked closer, waiting to see how close I could get before I spooked the eagles.

I manage to get fairly close to this one before it flew off.

After the eagle left, I stood by the river, waiting for more to come by. It was a gloriously sunny day, and frankly, I was just grateful to be outside in sunshine. As I was standing there, filled with gratitude, I saw something floating down the river. Expecting to see a branch come around the bend, what I got instead was a great surprise.

A pair of merganser ducks!

A little while later, I could see that the eagles had moved to trees up the river, far enough from me that I wasn’t going to pursue them. Content with having been outside for almost 2 hours, and having a handful of potentially decent photos, I started making my way back across the field.

A neighbor’s barn was looking particularly inviting. As I looked the other way, toward our place, the fog was hanging around in the shade.

Most of the puddles from the recent rain were just that, puddles. But I came across one that was still partly frozen.

As I walked up the driveway, our majestic bigleaf maple tree caught my attention. It’s mostly covered with moss, and ferns love to grow from the moss. When it has leaves, they grow over a foot across: hence the name bigleaf maple.

The ferns especially favor the north side of the tree.

A final walk down the yard to check out the large puddles left behind by the past several days’ rains yielded more inspiration.

Thus concluded my communing with nature… until Little Man came home, and we went out to the field together.

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