AND THE AIR TURNED BLUE
Just an impulsive note here while I’m in the grip of great angst…………………………….
Working on too many things at once………..still hadn’t set the camera back on
the tripod since I returned from down south………….and TWO,,COUNT THEM TWO!!!!!!!!!
huge red-tailed hawks were in a dog-fight in the sky above the Sycamore tree..
The air absolutely turned blue as a result of my running back and forth, back and forth,
yelling, “WHERE DID I PUT THE CAMERA?,,,WHERE DID I PUT THE CAMERA?”. The dog
was too afraid to tell me, what with all the swearing and all…Of course there is
no photo to show you……I’ll be spending ALL day, jumping up from my chair, looking
out of the Window Into The Woods, sitting down and jumping back up again, trying to
catch them if they return……I NEED BIGGER WINDOWS!
The flight crew
Today has been insane.
We had some snow and I decided to toss some corn, peanuts and seeds
on the deck for the birds…Well, it got interesting!
Blue Jays LOVE peanuts, so the war was on. I couldn’t stop shooting images
as you’ll see here. The squirrels tried to get in on the act..they’re great at grabbing
a peanut, running out into the snow and furiously burying it in the snow. It will
be interesting to see how that turns out. Two of them got a little feisty, territory was
invaded and then it was off to the races!
So needless to say I went a little crazy and here in no particular order is the result
of my “watching”.
“Being Bob”, part two.
Bob’s life is interesting to observe. For some reason, unknown to me, he is
low man on the totem pole of the herd. If it were up to me I would make him second
in command. Many, many times I’ve watched him
in the pasture off by himself grazing for a bite of grass that looks promising.
He is usually by himself, while the others usually travel somewhat together.
Joe usually has an entourage. Talk about the “King of everything”.
I’ve actually had a horse repeatedly step
between myself and Joe to prevent me from coming too close.
Bob on the other hand is a little more easy going. He does seem to have one
friend and that is Mac. Every so often they get together to “wrestle”. There’s
usually a lot of posturing and face-making…..a few well chosen insults that
are usually no worse than, “so’s your mama”, and “eat dirt”.
I know that I posted a little before about “being Bob”, but it seemed like
someone should really champion Bob and I decided what the heck, I LIKE
Bob, I’ll do it! He can join my herd anytime.
So here are a few more images of Bob. Three of these were taken on an
absolutely golden afternoon, and he does look more “golden” than normal.
He and Mac were having a good old time.
Lots of coaxing on Bob’s part, but eventually Mac decided to “rumble”.
The black and white I love, because Bob stopped and stared in the window
for a very long time. I like this because Bob definitely seems to have a sense
of self. I like to think that he is the most introspective of the
horses and most in touch with his feelings…now you know I’m just kidding
here right? Joe the head of the herd, might have been in the running for most
introspective, but he tried to push me once just to get an apple..
Last but not least, is Bob expressing his opinion of me and my opinions of him.
Best Buds
Come on,,,,play with me
Woo-Hoo.....RUMBLE!!
Bob Reflecting
Bob expresses his opinion of me.
O.K., so now she’s crazy.
We had a mini-blizzard tonight. It snowed for hours
and the woods were transformed into a dream land.
At midnight the snow had just stopped and I was closing up the
house. Lights out for the backyard, and within five
minutes my little ghostly deer floated in from the woods.
They came as a group, five in all, with the little fawn
travelling right in the middle of the group. Unfortunately,
I had not scattered the corn over a large enough area and
within minutes they were fighting.
This was not just one doe lunging at another, this was the four
mature does standing straight up on their hind legs and going
for each other. I watched for a moment getting more and more
alarmed.
When I saw the little fawn get rushed and stumble
to the ground, that was it. I hurried out to the kitchen,
grabbed the bucket and went to the garage for more corn.
When I opened the back door, one of the does stood and listened
to me reassure her that I had good intentions. Always like to give
them a heads up, you never know. She tolerated that for a moment
and then she was off like a shot, along with the rest of the herd.
I trudged through the snow in my boots,no socks, nightgown and heavy coat.
As I scattered the corn, I just shook my head and thought “what am I
doing?” Couldn’t have slept though, knowing that they would be back, and
the baby was going to take the brunt of the fighting if I didn’t give them
the chance to spread out and feed.
The upside of my little adventure is that it was beautiful and still out there
in the yard, surrounded by the dark of the night and the beautiful
snow laden trees. May sound crazy, but it was awesome.
Again, I’m a lucky girl.
But will I ever get to sleep tonight?
The Angel Horses
Still rummaging through images from previous adventures with the horses and
I found “The Angel Horses”.
Early one morning I decided to head over to the barn to see if I could capture
some good images of the herd. The light had been wonderful for the last week, and
I was kicking myself because I had gotten a late start. The sun was a little higher
in the sky than I would have liked, but by then I was enjoying the ritual of heading
out and getting my “equine” fix.
I spent some time watching the boys up in the front pasture, and then wandered around
the side of the barn. Standing as if they’d been waiting for me to arrive, were these two
beauties. They were soaking up the warm morning sun, standing close to the white barn.
In post-production, I decided to play with the exposure a little because the sun had been so
intense and I liked the over-exposed look it had given the original image.
Regarding the image with the two Angel Horses, let me know if you like the image that
is more over-exposed, or the one showing a little more of the yellow in their manes. Thanks!
All rights reserved
All rights reserved
All rights reserved
I was in the land of Sunshine just awhile back and this image
keeps coming to mind. Not my best work, but I love the golden glow
of the sun lighting the body and the angle of
this shot lets you see the streamlined form of flight and
for some reason I just love it…………
“Being Bob”
I hope you don’t mind if I share a few more images of the herd.
I was reviewing some images today, and these just jumped out
at me. This winter has not been nearly as “snowy” as last years,
and I haven’t ventured far from “the window”. For some reason,
inspiration has been elusive and sometimes it helps to go back
and look at a shoot that had me fired up.
I captured the image of Socks, while he was standing in the
barn door, hence the black background while the snow fell.
I love the interaction between the horses in the other images.
On the one hand, you have bonding. On the other hand, you
have rejection. It’s tough “being Bob”.
Horse Talk
These two handsome fellows live very close to “The Eye and The Fly”.
I absolutely LOVE these guys..
There had been a LOT of teenage behaviour going on between Bob and
his buddy Mack. Joe is THE BOSS, and when he’d had enough of
their silliness he stepped in and let Bob know it was time to knock it off.
I have SO many images of this herd. Their owner is the nicest man and I’ll
always be grateful that he allowed me to spend hours and hours with the herd.
Before Joe puts a stop to the fun!
The Understanding
Copyright all rights reserved
Hawk attack
High excitement and therefore the images are not too sharp.
This happened so quickly that I was literally running to move
my camera into position.
I saw this hawk land and as I got into position the squirrel was in
attack mode! He was literally face to face with the hawk and
trying to drive him away!
Within two minutes the whole episode was over!
<a 
The Eye and The Fly
There have been and are times that I venture away from the window
and capture images that “speak” to me.
This is one of my favorites, “The Eye and the Fly”. I loved the
ice blue eye on this little paint pony and didn’t discover until
I was reviewing the images on my computer that the sensor
on my camera had another image in mind.
It seems like a “complete” image to me. I spent my childhood
around horses on the weekend and where there’s a horse…
there’s a fly
