November, 2009

I have awoken to the reality that I have seriously neglected my blog and the few people who actually view my photos or read my ramblings. It has been several months since I have taken the time to update this thing or process my photos. In short, from November to now, I have been exceedingly busy and have suffered more than my share of procrastination towards doing non work or domestic related things. It isn't because I haven't been using my camera or seeing the world around me...far from it...but more because I think winter has brought on some form of hibernation of the mind. But...here I am posting a few of the more interesting things I have seen over the last few months.

Something Different...

November rushed in this year with obscene cold and a few brutal snow storms. Taking pictures in the snow and cold isn't the most enjoyable thing in the world. Above are a couple of interesting shots of snow falling through a birch tree with an older style sulfur street lamp as a back drop. Interesting lighting. This streetlamp has kept me occupied a couple of times this winter with its eerie glow and changing intensity.

This winter has been a time of stunning sunsets. Growing up, I never remembered seeing much by way of winter sunsets. Typically, winter here is predominantly overcast and when the skies clear...it is typically cold and nasty. Thus, one tends to ignore the outside. I suspect that the reason I don't remember such sunsets isn't because they didn't occur, but more because I failed to notice. I find it interesting, the things one begins to notice as one ages and as life's events tune ones eye to look for those things that are interesting and different.

Something different...Something Dripped

A bit morbid, yes...but still something worth showing. I had one of the best hunting seasons that I have ever had. It won't be remembered because I harvested the biggest deer and it won't be remembered because I had the best experiences. It will be remembered because it was perhaps one of the strangest hunting seasons that I have ever had. I didn't see much by way of large deer this year. What few large bucks that I saw threw me into a succession of events that have me still scratching my head and kicking myself in disappointment. Three times this year I missed trophy bucks. Both instances were at the culmination of some of the hardest hunting that I have ever done. And I have never missed before. But at the end of the season, only ten minutes after flat footing it a couple of miles and literally walking face to face into a monster buck....and missing from 10 feet away...I managed to get this little guy. This marked the end of a great season of seeing wolves, mountain lions, new country and the realization that I am not as young as I used to be...but by God I can still do it and I still love it more than ever. He might be small...but boy does he taste good. Even if I can no longer climb mountains or hike for a week into no man's land and even if I may someday be hunting from a wheel chair...I will still love every second of it.

And that marks the end of a very long ramble. I still have about 2000 photos to go through. Enjoy.