I Went West—She Went East

One of the things that amuses me is people who think Molly’s success in photography is because I tell her when or where or whatever. Plain fact…..beside how to read a histogram, she has figured it out on her own. She also has a knack for finding subjects and not spooking them. I’ve seen her walk up to “salt shaker” distance on wild birds and some day I expect to see our backyard birds eating out of her hand.

Last night she told me that she had seen wild turkeys at a spot on her way grocery shopping and she planned to be there early. I had planned to go to a spot in Illinois. So when the alarm went off at 5:30 am, we went our different ways after a quick breakfast. I ran off without my rubber boots which made my spot in accessible. She went to her secret spot (no, I don’t know where it is and she hasn’t told me LOL).

Here is the result of her morning shoot. Shutter speeds range from 1/80th for the deer to 1/2000th for the coyotes.
Click for larger image.

Green Tree Inn, Elsah, Illinois and 1 day and 29 years

Molly and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary at the Green Tree Inn (http://www.greentreeinnelsah.com) in Elsah, Illinois this past weekend
(Big THANK YOU to Carolyn Schlueter).

We had never stayed at a B&B and really did not know what to expect. After meeting the owners, Connie and Gary,any trepidation disappeared. These folks are the real deal. It was like we had known them all our lives. Their operation coddles….no ….pampers their guests. We stayed in the Robin’s Nest Room and it was great. Tastefully decorated with antiques,clean and a bed that I would be tempted to steal,yes, it was that comfortable. Comfortable would be an understatement. Breakfast was First Class,homemade cinnamon rolls, apple crisp, sausage, heavenly hash browns,baked eggs. I broke my diet with no regret and no guilt. We will be back and we would recommend it to anyone with no hesitation.

Quote of the trip was when one of the other couples heard it was our anniversary and asked how long we had been married and Molly said 1 day…………and 29 years. She was,as always, eloquent. LOL

We had our DSLR’s set up for wildlife so I used our little point & shoot to photograph the inn.

DSCN0618

Pushing Spring

The weather certainly has moderated from high’s in the 20’s to near 60’s or more. I went and did a little photography at Riverlands Saturday afternoon and early Sunday. May have pushed my ‘recovery’ from the cold that won’t go away. Temperature Sunday morning was 36 degrees with a Northeast wind. My old 1DMKIIN is like an old Ford I had in high school….just doesn’t like the cold and takes awhile before it decides to work. Come to think of it, I take more time to get going when it is cold these days. I have to admit that it has tried my patience from not working but I just can’t see replacing it just yet.

Anyway, here are a few essentially straight out of camera (cropped and sharpened only) from the outing. Now back to the medication and ‘house arrest’ LOL.
(as always–click for larger image)

Framations Gallery – Beyond the Lens IX Update with slideshow

Got an email from Amy Wilson telling me that the Framations website has been updated to show the updated results page for Beyond the Lens IX and slideshow.

To see the updated site (and to see yours truly with the beard that was shaved on Valentine’s Day by popular demand LOL)

click this link Framations Gallery Beyond the Lens IX Results and Slideshow

Go see the site and enjoy some very good photography.

additional information that may be of interest:
Carolyn Schlueter took many of the photos in the slideshow.
There are also several St Louis Camera Club members in the slideshow.

The Cold That Will Not Go Away

I have had a cold since the first week of February. While the major symptoms have come and gone, I have a dry cough that just will not go away. Have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. With all the cold and snow etc, I have been on ‘house arrest’ under orders from Warden Molly. I did get a short pass to photograph a few backyard birds from the large pop up blind.

Call it making “lemonade”.

It may look like a flash was used but it is reflected light from a cloudy sky due to the 7 inches of snow in the back yard.
Manual metering +2 stops off the snow at 800 ISO (The old MKIIN gets real noisy any higher).

click for larger view