I did IT!

What was it? I think you can guess. I experienced a whole new world. I made it to the sand without getting stuck. I owe this to the confidence Roy has instilled in me and the ability of the ibot. Check out this video.

I was relieved, amazed, in awe. I spent almost an hour enjoying being at ‘ground level’. My perspective has changed for the longest time or since I’ve been at the coast and in a chair, I have been looking down on the beach. I’m ok with that perspective but I’ve added another perspective (ground level) to my photography viewpoint. I guess for me it was like I was able to get closer to the action. I can describe it as running down a hill to get to the bottom of the action and joining your friends.

What made it practical and possible for me was a sand mat. Some local communities here on the coast of Oregon will lay out mats so it goes over the soft sand to get to the hard sand.

I am very thankful for the opportunity to get closer to the sand. I need a little more confidence before I totally attack the sand with no training wheels so to speak. The facts are simple, yet I keep going back to my joy and exuberance and feeling of escaping the restriction of not being able to get close to the shore.

Just the power of sitting in front of the ocean. I watched this girl who was running on the wet sand and the joy and surprise that was on her face when a small wave rolled up on her feet. You can tell she wasn’t expecting it. I am so thankful to be able to see the joy and body language up close.

I saw her and her family later in the day when they were walking past me to head up the beach. I asked her if she enjoyed herself and if that was her first time. The answer she gave me was yes to both. It felt like I was experiencing a first with her. I asked them to pick up a rock for me as a memory of my first trip to the beach.

After my excitement settled in, I sat there and waited. I waited for the birds that I knew would come, the people that walk down the beach, and a few landscapes change when the surf rolled in. After snapping some pictures enjoying the breezes, it was time to head back to the parking lot and load up the chair and head back to Brookings from Gold Beach.

Perspectives change and develop when you embrace new tools in front of, or underneath you.`

When they let you practice.

Birds or for the fact any animal who will stand or sit while I try different settings on my camera. This is what happened one day when I came out of the post office in Keystone SD. Roy noticed it first and was shocked how intense it was in grabbing his seeds.

I grabbed my camera and zoomed in on this American Goldfinch watching him so intent on grabbing the seed off the end of the stalk you could tell he was on a mission. I just wanted to share with you the pictures of him and his seed.

It was a fun 15 minutes spent with this bird.

When we don’t see buffalo

We hunt locations for milky way and moonshots. This was what we did and I was able to get practice in on my camera. The lake we discovered is Lakota Lake, right around the corner. So, it is a short drive. We pull up and there were geese with young goslings just feeding on the grass. Of course when I lift my camera they do start to run.

I was able to navigate near the shore and capture this goose trying to be a flamingo. I told him that was a good impression but you don’t have the right color to be a flamingo. I don’t know if my new bird I see everywhere on our travels has changed from a Magpie to a Red Wing Blackbird, because they are everywhere.

After heading back towards the car I was able to be still enough and watch the geese return

We decided to find out if it was worth trying to photograph Mount Rushmore from the tunnels today seeing I had the energy. This is from one of the pullouts in the park that you can see Mount Rushmore. We voted to get up early one morning and do the tunnels.

On Wildlife loop we saw some pronghorns just playing near the corrals so I set about snapping pictures.

The next day we decided to head into town and drop off laundry. (yes, I drop off my laundry so I have more time for pictures.) On the way we stopped by the lake that I use for milky way shots to see if it would work for a moon rise shot. It might if there is no one on the beach that evening. This gave the osprey the right amount of time to catch a fish, which we didn’t see. We saw him circling and waiting for a place to land. Even though it was just a trip to the laundry I grabbed my whole camera bag. Glad I had because my bazooka lens was needed because he was way up in the tree.

I also have some news my brother Dave and my sister-in-law Candi are here for a week. We have Mount Rushmore and Reptile Gardens in the near future.

Fly Away Home

Both the sandhill cranes and Roy and I are doing just that. Tonight, (Aug 31) is our last night in Fairbanks we head down the Parks Hwy and eventually to Whittier and the ferry. The cranes migrate every year and they congregate at Creamer’s Field in Fairbanks before flying south. It was neat watching Canadian Geese and Sandhill Cranes sit side by side each getting fat for the trip south.

The third weekend of August is the Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival. This was our first weekend in Fairbanks, so we headed over to see what was flying overhead. We also went over to the field a few times before the festival to take some pictures of the cranes.

Here are a few pictures of the cranes just hanging out and flying about.

I was in one of the photo blinds waiting for the birds to come to me. It took a bit of time, but they moved slowly towards me with cute little movements and even some one-legged posing.

The birds seemed to be happy just to hang out and fly every once in a while.

That is until the bald eagle comes around looking for dinner. This got the birds to fly up all at once. I really need to work on tracking these birds when they take off En masse. I also think they need to give me an alert saying we are taking off. They do make an alert with a vocalization I just am not sure what that is.