Having Coffee With The Moon

   I had to laugh first thing upon waking this morning.  This past weekend, the nineteen clocks in the living room were turned forward an hour just as we are told to do.  My brain did tell me to do that.  It did not tell me that it was going to "spring forward" as I set the clocks.  I work on my time and, even though I repair antique clocks, I did not "change time".  In fact, I awoke an hour earlier than I did last week!  Yep, 3am rolled around and I was brewing that first pot of coffee.  Cinnamon rolls made yesterday and piping hot coffee never tasted so good!

  Since no one else in the house was up at this hour, I figured I had better vacate the place as to not wake them.  My coffee and I headed to the Small Gardens to sit in the cool air.  As soon as I opened the front door, I was taken aback by the big, ole moon staring at me!  After a night of thunderstorms, the sky was clear and the moon was bright.  I just had to take a picture!

  My trusty, 15 year old camera did well focusing on the moon through the branches of the old oak tree.  When you can use old technology to photograph the moon and see craters, I figure you must be doing something right.  Son is right...it does not take much to entertain me...or maybe it does.  That moon is a pretty spectacular thing.  So is rising at the right time.  And that camera is special!  Let's not forget coffee...coffee is pretty spectacular, too!  Maybe just life in general is spectacular.

Not Just Older...Better!

     It is no secret that I take a lot of photographs of the wildlife around the Bayou.  That is one of the whole points of this blog.  I want to be able to keep a history of what life is like here for my grandkids that rarely get to visit and for anyone else who just enjoys nature at its best.  Wildlife here abounds as this is one of the few places left to be wild (as life should be).  Most everyone that knows me has an inkling of my passion...especially Son.  Since he spends about as much time outdoors as I do, he has been witness to me climbing trees, crawling through the underbrush or simply "waiting" for the right moment for a critter to emerge from the marsh.  He has seen it all.  This led up to a series of photographs that are rather remarkable because of a single factor.

  It was midmorning when a Great Blue Heron decided to perch itself high on a dead pine tree that sits at the edge of the marsh.  With nothing between the bird and my position on the board path leading to the pier, it was the perfect photo opportunity.  Of course, that meant that at least a dozen pictures had to be taken even if it was with the old camera that I kept in the yard as I worked.  (The new camera comes out only when the weather is clear and when I am not liable to forget where I put it when working!)  Finally, the bird tired of my antics and flew off over the marsh but I was happy with my efforts.  

  Then the big discovery!  As I made my way up the hill, I noticed Son coming from near the greenhouse.  He had a big grin AND...the new camera!  It seems that he had seen the heron and knew that I would want some photographs.  The bird was being doubly photographed!  Later, when we viewed both sets of pictures, we realized that they were eerily similar!  He and I both took pictures of the bird as it changed poses but our respective cameras must have been clicking at the same time!  Now I have two sets of photographs of the same bird but slightly different angles. 

  This all did bring one thing to light, however.  Like I said, I was using the old camera and he was using the new.  My old one is from 2007....the new one is from 2020.  You would think with all of the "upgrades" with modern technology, the new camera would produce far better photographs.  Personally, I think the old does.  Son is far steadier than I am and has much more knowledge of the buttons and gadgets on the camera.  His photographs should have been far clearer.  The old camera stayed on one setting, I was using a driftwood post as a tripod and I was actually farther away from the bird.   When we were examining the photographs, Son finally could see what I have been saying about the new camera's pictures being "grainy" when they were enlarged.  He had a technical explanation for it but did agree that I should use the old camera as long as it is still working. Just to be certain, we swapped cameras and experimented and had the same results. The old camera had clearer pictures regardless of who was using it.  IT IS BETTER!  Maybe being old is not so bad after all.  (In each set of photos above, the first ones were taken with the old camera.)

The Art Of Lingering

   Late this afternoon, I found an old camera that had stopped working a few weeks back.  I opened it up and found that the "chip" still had photographs on it so I did the whole rigmarole of getting the photos off and onto the laptop then discarding any that were a blurry mess.  One caught my eye and made me think that the "one good photo per day camera" had really tried its best on that one.  It was a picture of the sunset and, to me, those are always intriguing.

  The whole thing about this photograph being special may not be in the picture itself nor in the skill behind it but that I rarely get to watch the sunsets anymore.  Son frets over me being on the pier when no one else is around.  He keeps a watchful eye out for his old mom.  I fully understand his reasoning as I am not as steady as I used to be.  This photograph was taken while he was still working on the little skiff.  I had wandered down to see if I could help carry up any tools as he finished up his work.  The sky was darkening and he knew I would want to linger just a bit.  So...he found things to do while I photographed the sunset.  Then...we ambled up the hillside.  He was satisfied with the work on the boat and I was plumb elated with the opportunity to "linger".  It was grand!