I was out twice last week. Two different places, very different conditions. Not exactly the weather I had in mind but damn, I need a camera in my hand on a regular basis!
First place was in West Danby, near Ithaca. About 14-16” of snow, a little crusty too. Just crusty enough to hold your weight for a few seconds and then bam, you fall through the crust! But I had my snowshoes with me and it was tolerable. And I’m glad I went because it was beautiful out there! It was the kind of day that it didn’t matter if I saw anything or not, I was just thankful to be out there soaking it all in. Unfortunately, all I saw was a small group of whitetails, but that was enough to call it a successful day. The Otter family that I have been watching for the last 2 years moved their winter den down the road a little. I know where it is but it’s not in a good place to get any images. No worries, they’ll be back when the ice melts a little.
The next place was an old familiar spot where I spent a lot of time in the summer. Chenango Valley State Park was a favorite swimming and camping spot for us when we were kids. And recently I had been hearing that there was some open water that just might hold some ducks. My kind of place!
But you know how cold it has been lately and when I got there almost all of the open water was covered in ice. I did a bit of hiking but was running out of luck and I was heading back to the car when I passed by a tree right along the road by the swimming area. I saw, or better yet heard, a Pileated Woodpecker rattling the tree, so I stopped to get a look at him. It was then that I saw 3 of them in the same tree, making short work of a fairly thick branch. Of course my camera gear was in the car, on the other side of the tree. I tried my best to sneak by, but us old guys don’t sneak very well anymore. I ended up scaring them off the tree. But I also knew I hadn’t pushed them too far away so I was hoping they might come back. In about half an hour one of them flew back. I was able to get a few decent images in a high key style. The backlight was perfect for this type of image and I knew it wouldn’t be long before the sunlight was too harsh for any good pics. Click on the images to enlarge.
Two slightly different images and two very different looks. One picked by me and one picked by Lightroom. Nothing special, but that’s not the point. I was able to scratch my photographic itch and enjoy just being out there! The second image is better but the light seems better to me in the first pic. Either way I was just happy to be out there! Spring is right around the corner. Get your gear ready!
