Archive for ‘May, 2008’

The pond

Some photos of a different type for today, Sunday, the day of rest. These come from the pond adjacent to the soccer fields in Whitefish. The soccer fields, baseball diamonds, a housing development, a condo development, North Valley Hospital (brand spankin’ new!) and multiple medical and dental specialists offices now exist in an area that used to be marshy, wetlands. They believe they have taken care of drainage issues… The pond and some surrounding wetland acreage is home to birds, ducks and whatever other critters like Montana and marshy wetlands. It is a pleasantly noisy (bird, frog, etc.) and pretty pond. Below is what Karl and I saw on Friday when we walked here between appointments I had in Whitefish.

***note added…I need help identifying the bird. I thought it was a type of warbler, but now in my house (YEA!!!) and I did find my bird book but on flipping through did not find this bird. I’m in the throes of getting settled so will take more time later…unless someone can identify for me. The photos are 2 different birds – one has more read red on the top of its head. They were about the size of a robin. And the bird of prey – I’m not positive whether that is a hawk or a golden eagle. My impression when I decided to try and get a photo was that it was an eagle because of it’s size and manner of flight. Help, please!

***5/15/2008 addition Mental Pause Mama and my friend Kris identified the bird as a Yellow Headed Blackbird. Additionally, Kris and my neighbor Mikee are the deciding votes for Osprey as the ID for the bird of prey…a difficult id as I did not get accurate color in the photo. An interesting note is that Kris reports that the local newspaper ran a color photo of a Yellow Headed Blackbird that also had a red and orange “tinge”…anomaly of light or real color ????

Pond

Pond

Pond

Pond

Pond

Pond

Pond

Skywatch Friday

Tsannie (commenter annbb) of The Tombstone Chronicler invited me to join Skywatch Friday which is hosted by Tom Wigley on his blog Wiggers World

***edit 5/9 7:45 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time: I’m not sure of the “rules” or more gently, the “customs” for Sky Watch Friday. Thought I should disclose that these are not SOOC. I use Photoshop and/or Lightroom to boost color, correct white balance and/or exposure, etc. I have learned a lot about my camera settings from using the software and vice versa and sometimes I love the SOOC shot and leave it alone, but I also love playing for effect.

My skywatch Friday photo has been in my photostream on the right of the blog but never part of a blog entry.

Sunset

Taken on April 9, 2008 just south of Tontogany, Ohio – rural Bowling Green. Sunset. I boosted color and contrast with Lightroom.

And an extra – taken last night on the evening walk by my home – Snow squall in the mountains. Just north of Bigfork, Montana.
Me and my Karelian Bear Dog, Karl – camera on a nearby stump…

SnowSky

Contrast and color boost with Photoshop CS3.

Park by Flathead Lake

When I have errands in Bigfork, Karl and I usually take a walk in the state park that sits between the village of Bigfork, Bigfork Bay and Flathead Lake. There are several trail loops of different distance, but our favorite is a combination of 2 that take us from near the park entrance, up and over a hill and then down to the lake. We putz around the lake front and then loop on the road back up the hill, around the far border of the park and finally back to our starting point.

Today was the second time we walked in the park since returning to Montana. I was thrilled to find these little purple-magenta wild flowers – they are a favorite of mine. I think they are called “common blue-eyed grass” and they are like a mini-iris. I love iris which may explain my love of these beauties. Now, if someone sees these photos and says to themselves, “Oh for Pete’s sake, those are ….whatever” – feel free to leave a comment with the correct name… ***Reader Montucky from Montana Outdoors supplied the correct name: Shooting Star, from the Primrose family (Dodecatheon pauciflorum). Thanks Montucky!

mini iris

mini iris

mini iris

The sun was out, but there were also clouds throwing shadows on parts of the lake. The lake has been “drained” a bit…it always amazes me how much water they must let out to drop the level of this large lake this amount – see the sand and the islands? – the sand bars will be covered with water leaving the trees on small islands as soon as the mountain snow melts and the lake fills to its normal level. There is concern about flooding this year as the snow pack is so heavy and spring has been cool. A sudden warmup will melt the huge snow pack quickly sending more water than the rivers and lake can handle. Flathead Lake is the largest fresh water lake west of the Mississippi – larger than Lake Tahoe – that is a LOT of water.

Lake

Lake

As we finish the loop walk, Karl is getting a bit warm. We’ve been in the sun for about 1/2 of the last loop. Even at 50 degrees – full sun on a black dog…he gets hot and the tongue comes out. There is water in the Jeep and we make for that.

Karl

Karl

A nice walk in the park by Flathead Lake on a beautiful day…

Seeing what’s there

A camera mimics the human eye in many ways. If you go outside in bright sunlight and squint as hard as you can – even use your fingers to squish your eye a bit…that is the same as setting the aperture on a camera to a very small opening which for some reason is a very high numbered f-stop but my point is…squishing down the eye’s pupil is the same as making a camera’s aperture small. Try it – you will SEE that everything is in sharp focus – from up close to far away.

If you have ever had your eyes dilated for an eye exam, then you know what things look like through the camera when the aperture is open wide…again somewhat confusingly – a small numbered f-stop in a camera means the lens is wide open. Back to remembering what it is like after the dilation – too much light, hard to focus…in camera-speak, a short depth of field.

Now, the camera also has shutter speed and ISO…I’m ignoring those… The point of this post – is the human brain. When we “look” at the world, we look with not only our eyes, but with our brain. Our brains can spin, filter and focus. A camera captures everything that is there.

Here is the photo of my front porch – taken to show the wreath and the placque:

In the large window to the right there is a blue blur -my reflection. When I prepared this photo for the original post, I saw the reflection and I toyed with the idea of removing it. I decided that it was subtle and blurry enough to leave – that it did not distract from the “subject” of the photo which was the overall “front porch” and the situation of the wreath and placque.

But Beth, a friend and reader of the blog, commented

“Love the hint of your reflection in the window. Consider playing with that a bit more – I’m always intrigued with layers of meaning in the visual image”

Hmmmm…..it made me think.

What we see

It made me think about what we see with our brains, with our mind….versus what is really there to see.

I’m not proficient enough to seriously sharpen and bring into focus, the reflection of me in the window. I blurred everything else so that the reflection is somewhat prominent.

But the point is…we tend to look at the world, at all of the things we “see” daily, with “brain focus”. We edit with our brain what we see with our eyes. As a new and enthusiastic photographer, I see the world a bit differently since I started using photographs to illustrate my writing, my “points”, my life. I am often as surprised at what the camera captures as I am the direction my writing takes. The camera and to some extent, the writing, they see what is there.

As I took the photo of the front porch, I “saw” through the camera, the front porch. But the camera saw and recorded “me” photographing the front porch. The camera sees what’s there – I am starting to see what’s there also.

The woodsy part of the walk

The spectacular mountain views posted a few days ago are from the eastern edge of my property as well as a loop Karl and I walk at the start of our twice or sometimes 3 times daily walk from home. That mountain view loop is on an adjacent “sub-division” – 5 and 10 acre parcels that have been sold but nothing built – and I hope they stay that way for awhile!

We complete that loop and then come back across the southeastern edge of my property and begin another loop that circumnavigates the edge of the 40 acre parcel of state land that is adjacent to my southern border. The state parcel is landlocked which means that access is across all the properties adjacent – all 6 of us. I have seen one “neighbor” on this land once. It is a beautiful piece of land – mostly flat but two of its borders have magnificent valley and mountain views. Karl and I usually walk the logging tracks that run inside the border by a bit. We have peek-a-boo views of the mountains beyond but it is mostly a woodsy area.

When I first moved here and walked out on that parcel, I scared myself silly – got disoriented as to which direction was “home”. For a while I activated the navigation system on my cell phone so I could see my position in relation to my house. Gradually, though, I came to know the various “stands of trees” – they are all familiar to me now and I know where I am. There is a group of 5 ponderosa pine – 4 form a diamond and the 5th is the center cross point. I wish I could capture that in a photo but there is no way save from above. There are several pretty copses of small trees and evergreens. Other places there are just trees that I recognize. There are several downed trees from windstorms that occured since I’ve lived here. There is the place that last year I found wild orchids – I’m keeping watch as now I know how to use the camera functions to get those miniscule blossoms in focus.

For now, though….this Glacier Lily….and a bit of the walk and places that Karl and I know:

Above, one of the logging paths that make it easy for me.

The end of the loop – the return to home.

Hello the horses

I had a quick visit with the horses in the photos below. They live near where a friend is living temporarily and belong to the owner of the cabin she and her family are renting. The horses are obviously used to people and probably used to the people having horse treats as they came over to see Karl and me immediately – snuffled my neck and shirt trying to find something horses like. Karl loves horses – at my previous house there was a horse pasture and round corral. My neighbor rotated her 3 horses through my pasture so I had the fun of watching and petting them without the expense of food and vet – plus I didn’t have to have the pasture mowed! Kelli wanted the horses to be okay with dogs so we worked together – me training Karl to not approach from their rear and Kelli working with the horses to be calm with Karl. Karl would take a toy out to them mornings – repeatedly baffled that they would not play. All 3 of the horses were “lay-down” nappers – Karl liked to join in that activity also. I have photos from then that I will find and post when I get a chance.

But today’s photos – the horses at my friend’s…

Horses

Horses

Horses

Horses

Horses

Horses

This is their view….poor horsies…