fog and fun and Chelsea Clinton

post #325
      I've had a busy week photographically - our photo class assignment was to present contact sheets for 80 photos and then decide on 6 of them to work on before making fine prints this coming week on the Epson 4800 printer which the University uses as a work horse.  With luck, the new version of this printer will be available before the end of the semester.  I do believe I will have even more trepidation using newer than I already have for tried and true. That's my problem, though, nobody else's.  The theme for these photos is supposed to have something to do with a personal connection to land in some way  -- so of course I headed down to our beloved waterfalls since they are an emotional siren for many of us. Here are two photos from Wednesday late afternoon and Thursday; R. helped by carrying my tripod down for me. She then returned a couple of hours later to bring it back out. Sweet! T. loves her book about seeds.

Good help is priceless.

Lucky for me, the sky was cloudy (no glare) and actual water was coming over the highest of the falls!

I'm using the tripod here. That big waterfall looms to my right.

A second "project" this week was the discovery of early morning fog when I woke up. Such a fleeting moment is always a way to get a literal jump start on the day! There were those magical glistening spider webs everywhere (see one place with them 7 photos from now.)

The barn is in each of the next three photos.

 from the front of my gallery/house:

my driveway looking its best

          I will be showing more photos from the waterfalls next week, after I have lived with them for a bit and perhaps tried some tweaks on them for the class. I want to mention some other work I did, some on Friday and more yesterday, gathering photos for the second book that George Ella Lyon and I have had on the back burner for a couple of years.  George Ella is making a presentation today at an elementary school neear Cincinnati, and she'll be showing the PowerPoint that she assembled for "Apple Orchard, Bluebird, Creek". Shw wrote it and I have provided most of the photos. After hearing about the responses from the kids, I'll share more.
 
        Lately I have been quiet on the blog about the strange, challenging behaviors coming out of the White House and Congress this month, but that doesn't mean anything is getting better. I hate to hear all that nonesense about the press being an enemy when the constitution defends the need for open, reliable, and accessible information as a protection from secrecy and corruption. It's called Democracy. Get over it, tweeter. If truth is to be told, it will have to be by the press, since there are as many lies as ever coming out of the White Lies House.  History tells us sowing lies is a classic strategy for causing confusion, establishing unrest and then seeking control.  I'm proud that so many people who understand this are speaking up. Maybe soon some real Republicans in leadership positions will find their hidden backbones and do the same instead of being bamboozled by someone who doesn't dare to show his tax returns or speak with civility to his fellow Americans in all their variations.
        
       Anyway today I wanted to celebrate The Curious Mind that is not afraid of new ideas. I happened to read today's New York Times Book Review interview with Chelsea Clinton. I was amazed and heartened by the tone of her words as well as by the range of her reading -- with two small children around! (I know, she has household help.) So here is the link to that article even though I know most viewers may be understandably too busy to read it.  

        Now here are the last three photos for today:

headed to the pond

passing some fog draped webs en route to the pond

returning to the waterfall area for some fun and some boots in the creek

My thanks for visiting, listening, watching, and wondering with me what life is all about.
    

finally, some fluff -- on the milkweed

post #158
     This month is the beginning of my fourth year posting weekly on this blog.  Wow!  It's still fun to do, so I look forward to everything I can't imagine yet that will show up here in the future. In honor of the occasion, I plan to post a review of a few of my all time favorite photos.  I can't start that today, however.  I'm too impatient to share some very recent images made last week.

     The overall scene I was working in:

      Busy milkweed bugs, bigger and badder than when they were younger and without markings -- doing vital work?  It looks to me like the milkweed pod has finally opened up or is it being opened up by the bugs? 

 

         The reason I wonder is because this next pod has split open and the the seeds are sitting there neatly folded together before the wind blows them out and about.  But no bugs. 

       The next picture is kind of a miracle.  I was on my way to town, after all, with not much extra time to get where I was headed.  This particular group of milkweeds is on the way, and there is now place to pull off of the road nearby.  I had been gone five days so I stopped to check out the scene.  It was 6 pm with full sun on the plants, usually not a good light for a photo.  However, when I looked more closely, I saw a grasshopper on the one pod that was open -- with seeds starting on their way.  After the frog and the spider visitations earlier in the milkweed evolution, I was literally disbelieving that I was now seeing still another visitation.   And within the only few minutes I had.  I did realize I needed to stop thinking and just make a photo in a hurry before the grasshopper moved on, the seeds blew away if a car came by, or the light changed.  Hand held camera.  Holding my breath.

 

  

          The remaining photos are more of what I saw when I returned the next morning around 8:30, with an overcast sky. I didn't get any other good grasshoppers shots on day 1; my focus on that moving target was off.  It happens.

next morning, 8:40 a.m., seeds dispersing

from the other side, grasshopper gone, seed pods on their way, bugs still busy

what is visible from a passing car -- just 3 plant clusters

This shows some farm activity across the road, next to where my car is sitting.  Anyone from the neighborhood will now know exactly where I was!  And will be again soon.

ONE LAST NOTE: I now have seen the actual book I wrote about last week!  The cover looks even better than I could have hoped.  Nice!  Great job, Counterpoint Press. Bravo!