A few weeks ago, a friend showed me this nesting tree near me. It’s located behind a fast food restaurant, in between two strip malls, if you can believe it. I pulled out the tripod Neil left me, and sat behind the stores to watch these beautiful creatures flying in and out of their nests.
I couldn’t get close, so I used my lens with the greatest zoom. These aren’t the best quality, but I still like them. They tell a story of resilience and community. You’ll notice that among the egrets, there was a pair of herons, and several red-winged blackbirds.
Let me know if you have a favorite and have a fantastic Monday.
#1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15#16#17#18#19#20: Here’s my setup and how far away I was (taken with my iphone).
These were taken with my Olympus E-M1 MarkII, using a 75-300mm lens and edited with Lightroom Classic.
She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbor: “Winter is dead.” —A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
Yesterday, I returned to Coyote Pond to see if it might be a good place to take senior portraits (yes, yes it is). My first visit was during a rainstorm, and I took some of my favorite pictures of birds. This time, the sun was shining brightly and the entire morning felt like magic.
Sure, some of these photos are too bright and the focus isn’t technically perfect, but I’m so in love with these images. The world right now feels unsettling, and I’ve got too many things to think about, but there are still baby geese and turtles and ladybugs. I can’t stop thinking about how much Neil would have loved these photos, and maybe you will too.
Let me know if you have a favorite and have a fantastic day!
A crane sat staring at the moon. I couldn’t stop my van to take its picture because several cars were behind me, but I saw how it lifted its elegant white neck to show reverence. A few minutes later I found a spot to pull over and startled a field of crows who took off noisily, letting me know I’d disturbed their quiet sunrise.
My camera helped me worship the full corn moon, to capture it sitting on branches and bobbing between power lines. I was struck by how much of an outsider I was to this scene, but also how much I long to remember my connection to all things.
As the bright moon faded into the blue morning, the sun took over the sky. It blinked over the horizon blinding me temporarily, and my eyes fell on the plastic Superman dangling from my rearview mirror and it reminded me I’m doing my best. We all are.
“That is where you’ve always been wrong about me, Lex. I am as human as anyone. I love, I-I get scared. I wake up every morning, and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other, and I try to make the best choices that I can. I screw up all the time, but that is being human, and that’s my greatest strength. And someday, I hope, for the sake of the world, you understand that it’s yours too.” —Superman
Let me know if you have a favorite photo and I hope you have a fantastic day.
In 44 days, my book will be out into the world. A book with my words inside and my name on the cover. It’s a strange feeling still buried beneath all the details of self-publishing, but I wanted to acknowledge it here. With you.
This week, I got the Library of Congress number and started Instagram promotions. Next week, I’ll receive my proof copy, meet the bookstore manager to plan the book signing event, reveal the cover, and begin pre-orders.
It’s all happening.
It feels like it did when I published my first blog post—terrifying. Will anyone but my mom buy it? I recently came across an interview with David Bowie where he said, “If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”
I’m going out of my depth, and it’s scary.
So for today, I’m going to share with you photos from a recent trip I took to Dillion Beach. Photos of water, birds, and starfish. These photos make me feel safe and I hope you like them. Let me know if you have a favorite, and I’ll see you next week with my heart in my hands.
The sea spoke of you. Its voice, usually thundering and loud, lowered to a rhythmic whisper. I listened as the fog hugged the sand and the birds scurried in search of scuttling breakfast. I listened as my heart hurt for the world and my beautiful baby girl turned 17. I listened as your pain became mine and my pain became yours. I listened and listened as my body felt it all, as my heart broke and repaired itself again and again and again. I listened. The sea spoke of you.
“To the ocean I offered a seed and its body dissolved it like time, composing a life.” —Howard Altmann
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We are at Dillion Beach (yes, again) celebrating my daughter’s 17th birthday. I’m amazed I can still find things to delight my camera and I hope you are too. Please let me know if you have a favorite. As usual, these were taken with my Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”—Heraclitus
Our bodies hold onto pain and memory. We can feel it take root within our bones and we can either address or ignore it. I’ve spent the last five years ignoring it, but recently I’ve taken up swimming daily. This practice is slowly returning me to my body. No longer a stranger, we are becoming one again. Pain and all.
I share this and these photos as part of the journey of rediscovery. Look closer. Look again. You might see something different.
I’d love to know if you have a favorite image. I secretly have my favorite. Can you guess?
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These photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW.
A sentence with “dappled shadow” in it. Something not sayable spurting from the morning silence, secret as a thrush. —Winged and Acid Dark, Robert Hass
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to create an image that contains an S curve. This is exactly what it sounds like—you look for anything that curves similarly to an “S” in either direction. While simple in principle, I must have been looking in all the wrong places because I found this quite a challenge. As such, the last few photos don’t contain a curve but are included just because I like them.
Let me know if you have a favorite and have a wonderful week.
“You can frame a moment. But you can’t frame life.”—Armin Houman
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to fill the frame with the subject. As I tend to take a lot of macro shots, I wanted to challenge myself to find something different to fill the frame.
As I started out this morning it began to rain, a wonderful surprise, so I decided to take a drive. The tree above and the first seven photos are all from around the Lincoln area and taken from my car. The rest of the photos are from my yard. Let me know which one you think best fits the challenge and if you have a favorite. Hope your week is wonderful!
Also, you may remember last year I was writing a short story a week. It just occurred to me it might be fun to see what story I was writing this exact time last year and include a link with these Monday photos. So, here you go:
“Behind the camera, I was invisible. When I lifted it up to my eye it was like I crawled into the lens, losing myself there. and everything else fell away.”—Sarah Dessen
This week my assignment for the 52 photo challenge was to use one lens. I only have one and was originally going to try and modify the challenge by setting it at only 50mm. However, once on the trip, it felt like one too many things to worry about. Instead, I focused on capturing things I love—lichen, moss, and the dark greens of the Oregon and Washington coast. I spent time as a fairy sitting in the woods and as a romantic staring at the ocean waves.
The cemetery shots are from one of the oldest in Washington State, Oysterville Cemetery. The broken wagon, chuch, bible, and roof photo are from the Oregon ghost town of Golden. It was established in the early 1840s and some of its buildings were restored in the 1950s as film sets for the TV show “Bonanza” and a few Western movies.
Wouldn’t it be nice if every day could be filled with mossy adventure? Let me know what photo you like best and have a wonderful week.
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Photos were taken with an Olympus OM-D and edited with ON1 Photo RAW
If you want to join the 52 Photo Challenge, you can find all the information at nicolesy.com
Bridgette Tales 