Mistakes Can Be Beautiful

  Most folks do not like to admit to mistakes.  I have no problem with it.  If I do something wrong or the outcome is not perfect,  I will happily say it was my fault.  I figure that mistakes are just learning experiences so looking at it as a lesson learned can make all the difference in the world.  So what?  I goofed.  I admit it.  I will attempt a "redo" and hopefully things will have better results.  There are those who see this as a weakness.  Their way of coping is to blame others or to hide the evidence.  Nope..not me.  

  In photography, there are a lot of opportunities for mistakes but sometimes not many chances for a retake.  This is especially true when photographing nature.  The bird will fly away, the otter will dive beneath the waters or the clouds will shift and the chance for the perfect picture goes with them.  Still, it is better to have tried than to give up and think it is useless to attempt.   The other day gave me the chance to admit a mistake but to find a bit of beauty in that mistake.  I was out trying to photograph the sunrise but there was a misting rain that kept putting water droplets on the camera lens.  At first, I was a bit dismayed that my pictures would all have weird reflections but, then, I gave up trying to dry the lens between shots.  This, my friends, was a mistake as each photo after that had odd little "rainbows" or irises dotted on it.  Nary a pretty sunrise photograph was taken.

  
  Once I had the opportunity to review the pictures that I took, I realized that not keeping the camera lens clean was not a good idea.  Irises everywhere!  However!  Through that mistake came the one chance to have a creation that cannot be replicated if I tried.  My mistake of a wet lens turned into an unusually interesting photograph.  Definitely, it will never win any awards nor will it be lauded as "art" but I find it quite lovely.  It is a good day when a mistake actually makes you smile.  This one does.  I call it a happy accident.

Well, It Is That Time Of Year!

  Photography like everything else in this world can be a bit tricky, to say the least.  Just when you think you have the perfect photo, something goes awry and leaves you befuddled.  The thing in the picture looks nothing like the thing you saw.  Maybe it is not the camera lens that is off, perhaps it is that image that is perceived between the eye and brain.   

  Late this afternoon, the curtain in the living room was pulled aside a bit allowing the setting sun to shoot a beam of light into the house.  The walls in this room are painted a dark, burnt umber (almost black) so the beam was amazingly bright!  It almost looked like a portion of the wall was on fire.  Not one to miss an opportunity to play with the old camera, I started snapping photos.  It was not long before the sun set behind the pines and my fiery light was gone.  But I had photos!!

  When the pictures were checked, that beam of light looked more like some material item hung on the wall instead of a ray of light.  There was no translucent quality, no background texture...nothing.  I might as well have hung a white pillow case up there and took photos!  The image did not even have the brightness that I had hoped to capture.  Something went terribly amiss!  

  I now possess a crazy photo that will have to have an invented tale to go along with it.  Perhaps, due to the time of year, this could be a photograph of a visiting ghost!  Yes, lets blame the poor quality on the fact that this was an apparition floating about the Little Bayou House!  Sounds good to me!

I Was Wrong

 Unlike some folks, when I am wrong, I am wrong and I admit it.  No problem.  Why argue a dead point?  If a mistake is made, own up to it.  Do not try to justify your mistaken ideas.  Do not try to prove the other person wrong.  Just say "I was mistaken." and let it go.  SO...that said...I owe my husband an apology.  I was wrong.  He was right.  I had long disbelieved something about a critter here on the Bayou.  I fully thought it was a myth that male catfish will actually brood the eggs after the female lays them.  I had to see it before I believed it.  Well, I saw it so now I am a believer.  He does, indeed, carry them in his mouth.  During the month or so of brooding the eggs, the male catfish does not eat.  He survives on built up fat in his body.  Sometimes even after the eggs hatch, the little ones will linger in his mouth for protection from predators.  He guards them until it is safe for them to be on their own.  Discovering this, I have a new found appreciation for the lowly hardhead catfish.  

  Late this afternoon, I headed to the pier.  It had been a long day of pushing the lawnmower about the hillside and I needed a break.  As usual, Moe, the heron, visited making net-throwing a necessity.  The bird was hungry so I caught him a few little mullet.  Also in the net, was a medium sized hardhead catfish.  My first thought was to use the catfish as crab bait so I shook him free from the net and picked him up to de-horn him.  There was no use in getting stabbed by one of those prongs!  That hurts!  It was then that I noticed his bulging lower jaw.  Hmmm...interesting.  Just about that time, poor Daddy Catfish gasped for breath and three eggs fell out of his mouth!  Oops!  After a few photographs, Daddy Catfish was gently placed back in the water with his horns intact!  Hopefully, he will find the three errant eggs that were also dropped back into the water.

  So, Mark, I cede to your wisdom on this matter!  I have lived on or near the Bayou all of my life and never knew about the struggles of the male catfish.  I have learned something new and interesting!

Oh, Moe!

  Moe, the heron, comes to visit every day.  He stands patiently on the end of the pier while I do my chores.  Once I get to the pier, he flies to one of the posts and waits for me to ready the net.  As I begin to throw the net for his meal, he flies to the pier and follows me.  With him just a few steps behind me, I am always afraid that the net will hit him but, so far, he has been agile enough to avoid it.  After a good mess of menhaden and mullet fill his belly, he flies back to the post while I fish.  He knows if I catch a catfish or croaker, I will fillet it for his dining pleasure.  It has become quite obvious that the bird is spoiled rotten!  Still, I like him and he does pose rather nicely for photographs so I have no qualms about the extra work it takes to feed him.

  Today's photo session was going well except that one picture turned out rather weird...cool...but weird.  The lighting is strange, the contrast is strange but what in the world caused all of those concentric circles??  Out of a dozen or so photographs, this is the only one that is strange.  The others are fine.  I had not changed the settings on the camera nor even changed positions while photographing Moe.  Other than him doing his usual "posing", everything was exactly the same.  

  I have no idea what caused the difference in the results but whatever happened, the picture is rather unique.  So, either I can look at this as a huge mistake with no explanation or I can see it as "art".  Sometimes, mistakes can be beautiful in their own right.  I guess this is one of those times.

Just Pretending!

  It is easy to be fooled at times.  There is a small length of rope down near the marsh that, even though I know it is there, always makes me do a double take.  Invariably, I think "Snake!".  I get excited, pull up the camera ready to take that incredible photograph before I remember..."Oh, rope".  The "Rope" just does not bring as much enthusiasm as "Snake" does.  The snippet of rope catches me most every time and it is for that very reason that I do not fish it out of the marsh when I do cleanups of the place.  The rope is innocuous and. for the most part, inconspicuous.  It has become sort of a fixture and its absence would seem weird.  

  The rope being mistaken as a snake is the same as a log being confused as an alligator.  With my bad eyesight (and failure to wear the spectacles), many of floating logs have been "identified" as the gator.  Imagine my surprise when I find that I have spent twenty minutes getting the perfect shot of the all elusive log!  Well, what happens with you have two "logs" floating out on the Bay?  Surely one is the gator!

  That happened recently.  I spied two items floating out on the water and figured one had to be the gator.  Usually, I can tell by watching and seeing which log is "swimming".  Both were....at least, both were moving and moving in the same direction.  Two gators?  That was just too much to ask!  And it was....not two gators...not two logs.  

  My two floaties were not two of the same even though their directional movement was similar.  One gator and one large board were drifting just a few dozen feet apart.  At least in this situation, I did not feel too embarrassed with my photograph.  The gator is in the forefront of the photograph!  Whew!  Not a mistake this time...sort of....maybe!  So, was the gator pretending to be a log?  Or was the log pretending to be a gator?

Method in my Madness!

Ok..so I suppose I should not confess to making a huge mistake in the kitchen but today's baking was some what of an experience! It stormed all day giving me the opportunity to do some much needed housework. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I decided to bake! It seemed to be the perfect day for some type of treat. After searching through the kitchen, I still had no idea just what I wanted to make so I asked my son what he would like to eat. A definite "Peach pie!" rang down from upstairs..so that settled it. Aha..I could take the lazy way out! There was a store bought pie shell in the freezer! I am not sure just when or where it came from, but I was going to use it! I grabbed a quart jar of peaches from the shelf and drained the juice into a large pot. I needed to thicken the juice for the pie. Not thinking, I dumped some of what I thought was cornstarch into the cold liquid and started whisking it to remove the lumps. AACCKK! What was happening?? The approximately two cups of peach juice was foaming and frothing like a wild, rabid animal! And it was starting to GROW! The more I stirred the frothier it got until it started climbing out of the pot! What was happening to my peach juice..I could not use this in a pie..it was scary! The juice continued to foam up over the sides of the pot..oh my! What had I done? I shoved the pot to the back of the stove and grabbed a dishtowel to clean up the bubbles. That done, I went to the shelf..peered at the different cans, bottles and boxes. I imagined myself the mad scientist looking over his supply of chemicals..what would produce rabid peach juice?? hehehe..ahh..There is the solution! I can now take over the world with mountainous bubbles of peachy juice!! hehehe! Back to reality..I realized that I had inadvertently poured about four tablespoons of BAKING POWDER into the juice instead of cornstarch. I would have never guessed that such a reaction could have taken place. Such a waste (or was it??)..and I still needed to make this pie. I took down another jar of peaches and preceded to thicken the juice (this time with cornstarch) stirred in most of the peach slices and filled the pie shell. This was popped into the oven to bake while I pondered the pot of ever-growing, rabid juice. I am one that hates to waste anything, so out came a large mixing bowl, the flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, buttermilk and baking soda. (Yes, I know..no eggs.) After putting that into the bowl, the still frothing juice was added. I stirred it together and poured it into three pans! The peaches (leftover from the pie) were gently folded into this batter and the the whole bunch of them were set in the oven to bake. About forty-five minutes later the timer sounded. What came out of the oven was spectacular. Maybe not in aesthetics but in taste this concoction was astounding! It just proves that if all seems hopeless, keep trying..sometimes mistakes can produce happy results.

I might have had better pictures but my son cut into the "mistake" as soon as it came from the oven. I had gone to bring my two brothers each one and when I returned, all my son could say was.."You can make some more of this mistake..it is delicious!"...........The pie still sits uncut!