Category Archives: Crazy things i do to amuse myself

Crazy things i do to amuse myself, Small truths, Travels with the flock, Wanderings, Wildflowers

Side of the road

17 Comments

You wait in the car on the side of the road
Lemme go and stand awhile
I wanna know you’re there, but I wanna be alone
If only for a minute or two
I wanna see what it feels like to be without you

I wanna know the touch of my own skin
Against the sun, against the wind
If I stray away too far from you, don’t go and try to find me
It doesn’t mean I don’t love you, it doesn’t mean I won’t come back and stay beside you

It only means I need a little time
To follow that unbroken line
To a place where the wild things grow
To a place where I used to always go

If only for a minute or two
I wanna see what it feels like to be without you
I wanna know the touch of my own skin
Against the sun, against the wind.

A thousand miles there and back to spend a day with friends, old and new, gathered for the New River Birding and Nature Festival might seem crazy to some…

In fact, probably it was crazy to do, but the singing birds, the people, the chance to wander alone looking for wildflowers in those riotously rich West Virginia mountains … it’s all kinda irresistible to me.

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Lyrics from “Side of the Road” by Lucinda Williams.

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Photos:

(1) Windflower (Anemone sp.) Among my favorite wildflowers, Anemones are heartbreakingly beautiful and delicate

(2) Showy Orchis (Orchis spectabilis) I dragged Jim McCormac out in the near dark yesterday to show me where to find this beauty

(3) A giddy me photographing blooming May-Apples

(4) May Apple flower (Podophyllum peltatum) The parasol-like foliage of May-Apples is cool enough, but the flowers are especially lovely; more so cause you have to lie with your face in the dirt to photograph them where they hide beneath the leaves

😉

(5) Fire Pink (Silene virginica) So named not because of their color, obviously, but because of the scissor-like notches on the petals… thanks Susan!

Fire Pink and silly me photos by MevetS.

Crazy things i do to amuse myself, I like to make lists, In the neighborhood

34

6 Comments

A ritual walk on the sand, the brittle night and the wide blue sky of Winter boundless above us. With frozen lips I named the couple stars I’ve managed to learn and wondered why I didn’t choose to learn the warmer summer sky.

😉

I’m tempted to start my naming with the Big Dipper and its arrow to Polaris; the Big Dipper being the only constellation I’d learned as a child and which I’ve since learned (thanks to Steve) is, instead, an asterism.

I turn my back to the chill wind and its view of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor to start instead with conspicuous Orion, whose belt (another asterism and don’t I sound smart?) points the way to Sirius and Canis Major and Canis Minor… in that general area, too, someone’s imagined a rabbit, but I don’t see it.

A couple spins (I did a lot of spinning to reorient myself in the sky and avoid the wind) and high in the sky I find the almost familiar “W” of Cassiopeia, whose name I can’t pronounce correctly, especially not with such numb lips. From the corner of my eye, a new one, the Pleiades, overhead.

That’s five at least, isn’t it? Have I learned my quota, can I get back in my car and out of this relentless cold, please?

The dark and the hush deepen, all a part of the beauty that touches the quick of understanding. We came for the night, as well as the stars, and it was there all around us. When at last my stiff fingers had thawed and I was on my way home again, the magic was still there. It’s more than the stars; it’s the cold and the wind, and the old, old stories across the sky.

34 in my 39 by 40.

Crazy things i do to amuse myself, Snapshots, Wanderings

4/100

5 Comments

I’ve sort of fallen off the bandwagon the last month or so with my stranger pics… probably I’ve lost my nerve for it, but this guy…

Hmm.

Everything about him wanted to be photographed, I think.

😉

I dashed up to him across the jetty, asked his permission, snapped the photo and dashed off… feeling really, really embarrassed.

I wonder what it is that makes a stranger feel approachable enough to me…

I wonder what it is that makes a stranger interesting enough…

I wonder why I haven’t had the nerve yet to approach a woman…

This photo is #4 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at Flickr 100 Strangers or www.100Strangers.com

Crazy things i do to amuse myself, Snapshots, Wanderings

3/100

6 Comments

This is Will. I don’t know much about him, but we met that day among the photographers at Conowingo. He has a couple galleries on SmugMug… some nice pics there.

I anticipated being able to take a fair number of *easy* stranger pics that day, but found the prospect of approaching other photographers much more daunting than I’d expected it to be. At some point during the day, with a false sense of bravado, I set out to find the guy with the most intimidating camera gear and the least approachable face. I walked up and down the line of people spread out along the shore below the dam and just couldn’t make myself do it.

😉

Will didn’t have a very big lens, but he also isn’t very friendly-looking… until you get to his eyes… there’s the faintest hint of a smile brewing there, I think. I like that it’s obvious on his face… in those wrinkles… that he spends a lot of time outdoors.

This photo is #3 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at Flickr 100 Strangers or www.100Strangers.com

Birds, Crazy things i do to amuse myself, Snapshots, Wanderings

2/100

7 Comments

This is Otis… he’s a photographer from Virginia. We met today at the Conowingo Dam in Maryland where we were both photographing the bald eagles that congregate there in the winter.

Truth be told, with my little lens, I was mostly photographing the other people that were photographing the eagles…

Talk about camera envy!

I hesitate to call anyone I met today a stranger… there’s a certain camaraderie that exists naturally among birders and others who enjoy the outdoors. I do know, however, that many of us prefer to remain behind the lens. Otis was an exception to that and I was glad for his smile (and to know that much of his set-up, intimidating as it looks, is homemade and affordable.)

More about the eagles in another post.

This photo is #2 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at Flickr 100 Strangers or www.100Strangers.com

Crazy things i do to amuse myself, In the new neighborhood, Snapshots

1/100

15 Comments

“Hi. I’m Laura. Can I ask a favor?”

“Sure. What?”

This photograph was the favor I’d asked.
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I love people-watching. It’s easy.

Approaching a stranger to ask for their photo is not.
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I’d been pacing up and down the boardwalk for nearly an hour, trying to get up the nerve to approach someone and ask. That in itself was a fun exercise… looking into people’s faces for something interesting… imagining the stories one might tell if I worked up the courage to talk to them.

Most wouldn’t even make eye contact.
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He’d said no the first time I asked. I smiled and thanked him, but didn’t back away. We talked for a bit and eventually, I asked again. He agreed, reluctantly, wanting to remain anonymous. He relaxed enough to tell me about his street art; after thirty minutes or so I felt okay about taking out my camera. He never once froze, or smiled stiffly at me, or stopped talking. It felt kinda like magic, this thing that my camera let happen…
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How would you feel if a stranger approached you for a photo? What might make it enjoyable for you, or not?

So tell me… could you do it? Does the thought of photographing 100 strangers terrify you the way it does me?

It scares me. A lot. I’m shy! That’s kinda how I know it’s the right thing to do, the right direction to head in to stretch myself in unpredictable and meaningful ways. Once a week I’ll try it. It’s about photo-making yes, but more about stepping outside my own box and what feels comfortable to me. Maybe I’ll get a good photo once in a while. Certainly I’ll meet some interesting people who I never would otherwise. A camera is as good an excuse as any, I think.

Birds, Crazy things i do to amuse myself, I like to make lists, In the neighborhood, Pastimes

17

9 Comments
Juliet’s snared you, little one, perhaps startled you into our nets…

interrupted your song or nest-building to carry you away for a moment…

our temporary prisoner, an object of study.

Tom wants only to fit you with a tiny numbered bracelet…

and to blow gentle kisses among the feathers of your breast…

to measure the distance of your wings and the length of longing in your journey…

to hold you up for a portrait; your bright eye looking to the sky for escape…

to release you, your bit of fire no longer contained; his open palm and our thanks for this moment in your life.

Sandy Hook Bird Observatory and CUNY-CSI are partnering in a banding study of spring/fall migrants, as well as breeding birds, at Sandy Hook. They put out a call for volunteers to help with recording data and running birds from the nets to the banders. Between schedules and poor weather, today was the first chance I had to help out and so I spent the dawn hours today with them, mostly trying to stay out of the way and taking pics.

#17 in my 38 by 39. Time is running short…