Yesterday, I shared the little adventure I had to even get to this 360-acre wildlife refuge about 30 minutes from my home. Today, I’ll focus a little more on the photos I got while I was there.
I went mostly just to check the area out and see if it was worthwhile for a photo shoot–and also to try some sunrise photos and hopefully some herons.
Well, as I mentioned yesterday, the sunrise happened while I was still trying to get to the front side of refuge, so I didn’t get photos of that.
I saw two herons. Both were just standing on the edge of the river–one was too far away to even consider trying to get a picture of, and the other was this one:
That was the closest I could get, even with my longest lens. So, the bird photos seemed to be a bit of bust and I decided to head back and concentrate on some macro shots instead.
There were bees, damselflies (which I got plenty of photos of!), flowers, all sorts of macro opportunities. But then I saw a few small, seemingly uninteresting spider webs. These were the little webs that are built right down on the grass, stretching from blade to blade–not the big, interesting webs that hang in between trees. Of course, you’re also far less likely to run smack into one of these and get it, and possibly the spider that built it, tangled up in your hair.
But usually, you just wouldn’t even give these little webs a second glance. But the way I see them is different–I noticed that, although it was after 9 a.m. by now, it was still shady enough that the dew hadn’t yet dried from these webs. So I got down on the ground and took a closer look and this is what I saw:
Before leaving, I walked down to the “homestead.” I never actually made it up to the house; I spent all my time down at the barn and could have stayed there another hour or two–some really great photos just waiting to happen there!
As I was leaving the barn, a shadow passed over me–the kind that tells you (at least if you’re a photographer who likes to take pictures of birds), that you probably just missed an opportunity for a bird picture. Suspecting it was probably one of the herons I’d hoped to find, I looked up–but it wasn’t a heron. It was this:
First Eagle picture, ever!! I was so excited! The wind was starting to really pick up at this point, and so the eagle was just catching the drafts and soaring around in circles. It would disappear behind the trees on one side of the road, then come soaring back overhead, only to fly off toward the river. Then in a minute, it would reappear and circle back over toward the homestead. And I would turn around, taking pictures of it, hoping to get one or two that were decent. Finally, it disappeared in the trees and I decided to head on home. Only, by this time, I’d spun myself around so much, that when I started to walk down the road, I couldn’t walk straight and almost fell over into the ditch! A person with dizziness issues should really try to remember NOT to spin themselves around in circles and then try to walk straight!
More pictures from the Seven Islands trip are posted on my Flickr page, and hopefully I’ll get some more up soon.
The Way I See Things 