There would be no trees allowed to take root and grow where they clearly ought not to. Some, of course, will see a monument to life’s resilience and persistence, instead of ruined sight lines.
As a general rule, I like big birds. They don’t flit around or hide in dense bushes.
On the other hand, when they do move, they can quite quickly move out of the camera’s frame.
Exactly because they aren’t rare, pelicans offer me the chance to get them in motion, making good photographic subjects. Although there is that regrettable tendency to poop and to pose in the same place . . .
Splish, splash
I was takin’ a bath
– Bobby Darin, 1958
Ah, one of the many Bobbies of my childhood. This sort of music shouldn’t be so memorable, but those lines have embedded themselves in our culture, like it or not, and they surely came to mind as I watched the spray this little duck was generating. Continue reading
I’m just overwhelmed by bodacious birds and bridges, and amazing beach scenery! I need a break.
You too? I know! Let’s look instead at some fabulous forest reflections instead.
We saw this flat calm pool on a late January meander through Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge. I couldn’t decide which photo I liked best, so you get both.
Porcelain bathroom sinks. Yellow fibreglass insulation.
Four months after Hurricane Irma, the debris from the storm is still piled up beside US 1, the highway running the length of the Florida Keys. All the stuff is twisted, torn, bent, cracked, crushed, sodden, mangled, gutted, or generally busted.
Nylon rope. Life jackets.
Continue reading
Talking via email with a fellow blogger this week — something about intended humour gone unnoticed, if not entirely awry — led to a general conversation about how hard it is to predict where readers will go with any given blog.
Seth Godin’s piece a few days later breaks open this observation in a new way, as he so often does.
You might not need more exposure to the new.
Instead, it might pay to re-see what’s already around you.
Indeed, I expect this is true for all of us, time to time. So here’s to re-seeing what’s all around us.
Crocodile Crossing
Yes, despite what you may have seen here, Florida is more than birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, and more birds.
It’s also reptiles in unexpected and disturbingly close places.
Early one morning, in the midst of trying to capture well-lit, tack-as-a-sharp photos of big birds that show every feather in great detail, I am offered something else.
So I take it.
Always in search of a different perspective – at least visually – I like to consider birds’ feet, as well as their faces.
Sometimes it works.
Posted: 2025 Jun 13
Thanks to John Whitman for this slightly dismayed face from downtown Ottawa.
This space is available for other submissions.
