Suprise After The Shoot

Sometimes, you see things before you shoot. Sometimes, its afterwords. I discovered a mother coyote with five pups just at the edge of a grassy area three years after I shot the image. Then, there are times when you discover it on the second or third edits but didn't see it when you shot the image. Such was the case yesterday and it was a double whammy! Both were birds.

The first shot in the field was to check out a light standard over a ball field. If you don't know by now, you will here because falcons and birds of prey like hawks and ospreys and/or owls and eagles like to watch over their territories from the highest vantage point. Light standards are a good place to look for raptors and  I have found pairs of red tail hawks, red shoulder hawks, and kestrel hawks all sitting on light standards. So naturally, that's the first place that I check.

The second shot is usually looking for unusual signs or signs that stand out among the normalcy of everyday life. This second shot was after spotting that unusual display. The low angle level of signs are either super good or just plain dull. No in between. The high angle shots are standouts or super duper jackpots. So you need to look for both. If you see something don't just jump at the shot. Pull back in a parking lot or away for the close up and observe for a bit. You begin to see a pattern of how things fit in with others (businesses in a strip mall) or they stand out and just beg to be shot. Those images are the keepers usually.

 In this particular instance, I know that military recruiting offices are rather mundane. And while I'm sitting in a parking lot checking my Gas Buddy app for the lowest prices in the area, I spot a section of the strip mall that sits behind the normal flow of traffic. It's an unusual layout and I go by it time and time again just not paying much attention. In fact, I was there because the app in the past has proven that STORM was the best price in the area for gas. When I got there, all the pumps were being ripped out and the station on the app was showing closed. Across the intersection was a Tom Thumb Grocery and gas station.

Finding the unusual branding of this recruiting office stood out and all but waving to come shoot this as being different. As I started to shoot, a stern looking big built guy in military green and white fatigues came out and just stood looking at me. I put down the window and said to him, Everything looks good but where is the Coast Guard. He did not find that funny at all and got into his Mercedes without saying a word. I wondered what his demeanor was with the young recruit prospects and how many actually signed up at his office. He was that typical "drill sarge" [en persona].

A Kestrel Hawk with Fledgling. It looks like mom brought lunch in for the fledgling.

Do you see it? Look in the bottom portion of the "C"

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A mourning dove sits on a nest.Peace!

As it turns out, long story shorter, It was different and when I got home and was editing it, surprise number two was just awesome to me. I hope you like it as well. 

The Art-of-Living Experiences

It has been a while since I have dug deep into my backpack for a dose of Arthur Gordon. Catherine Marshall, the author of, "A Man Called Peter", calls Arthur Gordon's book, "A Touch of Wonder", a luster of commonplace events of everyday life.

To carry this intro a bit further, Dr. Donald E. Smith, President of the Institutes of Religion & Health simply says that Gordon's book is a "book that recaptures for the reader in an extraordinary way the excitement and joy of life." Well. There it is. The excitement and joy of life. Having felt that same way upon the first reading of my "go-to" book of common everyday events, it's baptized in bible holy water, so I don't let it replace the bible, but the pages are well worn like one another. I guess to put it in common terms, one could say, one is like thinking you need to call 911 and the other one is knowing you must call 911. Good ole common sense steeped in experience from cover to cover in both books. One doesn't replace the other, but when you use them both together---the power that Moses called forth from above to part the Red Sea can send shivers up and down the spine.

Anyway, There are a few stories that I have read and re-read so much, I should have them memorized, but I'm practical and save that energy for other things because I carry the book with me and I can landmark the story in the book as well as a GPS accurate map.

Today, the stories that call out are these:

1. I'm Aware of You
2. A Spark Jumped
3. Unlikely Friendships
4. Memorable encounters
5. The most beautiful unorthodox things
6. Discard that rain coat
7. 6-x's
8. Perhaps---the way everything of consequence begins.

 My most read story is: The Stranger Who Taught Magic.

For one, I have walked the sand dunes in the Carolina's, been flounder gigging up a backwater stream,meet older men that taught so much about life's purpose and had them disappear in death or places unknown. In short, that 13-year old boy fisherman could have been me growing up and it was a learned balance, like a good solid education that no one can ever take away from you. To have both is just an awesome experience, even when there are those that still want to see  you fail, or when you stumble, step on you as they walk on past. I try to forget those. It's like memorizing something that is in print and readily available to your fingertips. Why memorize when you can use those cells for more thing of equal or higher level consequences.

Just this week, I saw a bumper sticker on a car that said to the effect, " Pray for Peace in Jerusalem." On either side of the car were stickers for  a protestant church and on the other a Madonna. Both would signal to most that the person was fairly religious.  Yet, I saw something different. I'm thinking to myself, "lady, Jerusalem could not be in better hands,"  meaning that Jesus said, " I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again and receive you unto myself. And there are scriptures that speak of a new Jerusalem descended from heaven when Christ comes again. SO, it does not matter what happens in Jerusalem, the Lord has that well planned out. Which brings to point: the faith that this woman seemed to me to be shallow to not know or to have reached that  point of reference; that while the power of prayer is well documented, she should have known that there are other places to be praying for other than the most sacred of cities ever made mention in the Bible and Torah and Koran. Critical thinking is like a puzzle. The big picture always wins over the microscopic agendas of the weak that want us to believe that they are stronger.

A great sign. Their big digital could not do what this sign does....stops traffic.

Yes, the topic of life. Some call it poetic justice

A Morning Dove Observes

Hum! The related post will follow

Since last check on my hive, the bees not only survived the winter but have begun to wax in the opening for more control of the hive's temperature.



A feel of Transylvania in Dallas.

It takes courage and strength, even today, as these words were spoken after the death of Moses as the sign suggest with the Old Testament Book of Joshua 1.

Henry, Gas Up the Jet, It's Out Behind the Barn

Some things just all fit together regardless of how they are related as a whole. Today, was just one of those days when every thing fit like a glove. It was a great day weather wise and that just made it even better.

December has been a hot and cold kind of month anyway and I don't mean weather.  It's just one of those Murphy Law things that is good one minute and bad the next. It's usually hits during December, too! So when the stroke of luck is good, especially during December, it's always kind of like that magical gift.

Today it was just a good day and for that, I'm thankful.

A genuine word



The two men are just hanging out!

Henry, Gas up the Jet. It's Out Behind the Barn.