Cameras

Old camera

I recently upgraded my camera.  Some of the photographs on past blogs were taken with an old film camera.  I purchased that little point and shoot 35mm camera when I was in college.  (Oui that ages me)  It still takes great pictures, but the flash no longer works and it’s getting harder to find film.  So I had to break down and get a new camera.

I did a lot of research before I made a purchase.  It was important for me to find a camera with a view finder.  That took me a long time.  I played with a couple different cameras at the store before I made a decision.

New camera

These photos are taken with the new camera.  There are still features I need to figure out but that will come with time.  I did learn that my new digital camera is heavier than my old film camera.  I need to change the shoulder that I carry the camera on often.

Hiking is a great way to enjoy the beauty of nature.  Taking photographs is the best way to take that beauty home with you.  Never take a cutting from a plant.  Never ever try to bring a bug or an animal home from a hike.  Always leave the nature in the forest.  [Duh, I know but there is always that one person who will try.] Sometimes you’ll see a place to scrape your boots so you don’t bring seeds, or bugs from one forest to another.  Use them both before and after your hike.

That leads me to another saying hikers use.  Leave only footprints, take only pictures. 

Pack out what you pack in.

Silhouettes

Silhouettes

 

In light bark

and dark bark

the trees stand

bare-boned

naked

against

the winter sky.

By Anna Grossnickle Hines

Used with permission.  From Pieces:  A year in poems and quilts, Greenwillow Books (an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers), © 2001 by Anna Grossnickle Hines.

www.harperchildrens.com

www.aghines.com

Clouds

Clouds are my favorite weather element.  The meteorologists have all sorts of long Latin names for the different kind of clouds.  I have four:  puffy, wanta touch, see through, and stormy.

The big white puffy clouds are great.  Lay back on a warm summer day and watch them roll by; there’s no better way to spend an afternoon.

Low clouds that look like you can reach out and touch them usually occur on cool fall or early spring days.  Sometimes they come before a storm.  They always have a cool ripple design.  It sometimes looks like waves moving across the sky.

See through clouds can sometimes be called Jacob’s Ladder.  Seeing the rays come to earth through the clouds always makes me think of God’s glory shining down to us.

Storm clouds can also be very interesting to watch . . . from the safety of your home.  One day I got home from work and decided to go for a walk.  It was about five in the afternoon a beautiful summer day.  My route was a circle.  I started traveling east.  I could hear rumblings behind me so I decided to cut the route short.  When I made the turn to go west back to my house I saw the storm rolling toward me.  My pace quickened.  The sky started to turn a green color and the clouds started to spin though no funnels formed.

I got to the house just as the tornado sirens went off.  I hunkered down in the lowest most interior room I had for about ten minutes very long minutes.

The tornados stayed away from my home that day.  That’s the closest I’ve ever been to a tornado.  After watching news stories of the damage they cause, I hope I never get any closer.

Pack out what you pack in.

 

Sources:

            Clouds by Trudi Strain Trueit, Franklin Watts, a division of Scholastic, Inc. © 2002.

www.truditrueit.com; www.scholastic.com

Consideration

In the wild, it’s kill or be killed.  Survival of the fittest.  Sadly, the trail is becoming that way as well.  Consideration is going to way of the dinosaur.

Sunglasses wrapped around trees.  Candy wrappers on the ground.  I see it more and more.  Yes, the sunglasses make a funny picture but I didn’t stage it.  The shades were there first.  A little critter could chomp on it and part of it gets stuck in their throat.  How do you do the Heimlich on a squirrel?

Hikers have a saying.  Pack out what you pack in.  I use it as a sign off for this blog.  It means simply this, everything you bring in to the woods, bring out.  All the food, wrappers, bottles – everything.

It’s a very small thing but it’s important.  Sunglasses and wrappers don’t disintegrate.  Everything goes back into the earth.  Well, everything but man made stuff.  That doesn’t disintegrate.  Animals try to eat it but can’t.  It has no value for them but they’re not smart enough to let it go.  The garbage we leave on the trail does kill the smaller animals.

Show some consideration to those who make their home in the woods, pack out what you pack in.  That makes the trail cleaner for my pictures too.  Thanks.

Pack out what you pack in.