Another foggy sunrise called to me this morning. I love the way fog accentuates some patterns and diffuses others. The colors in the fog really came out when I brought this image into the computer and worked with it a bit. Amazing.
Last year on Labor Day I caught Mushroom Fever while visiting with my aunt. What is Mushroom Fever? Did I eat a magic mushroom and find myself teetering on the precipice of insanity? No, I became infected with a passion for finding and photographing as many different mushrooms as possible. In my aunt’s yard, full of oaks and pines, I found some mushrooms of amazing color. Since then, on the property of friends who have the same infection, we have located so many shapes, sizes and colors as to be mind-blowing. Magic Mushrooms! This is a sampling of the over fifty different kinds of mushrooms I’ve seen in the past year. If you have property with woods, take a stroll, find a place to sit and rest and just look around. In a few moments you will be surprised by the appearance of mushrooms all around you. Look for very small ones, yellow ones, white ones, purple ones, coral-shaped ones and colonies of mushrooms on dead logs or at the base of trees. In Virginia, now that we have had a few rains and a lot of humidity, you are likely to find them everywhere. But, be careful. Mushroom Fever is contagious. A friend caught it from me just yesterday.
Flower photography is not my forte. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to get a shot that’s different from every other flower shot ever taken. I use my long lens, then my macro lens and still I’m not happy. I find myself looking for a bug, a butterfly, a bee, anything that moves so that I can watch it through my lens. Anyway, here are some attempts at flower photography. As summer wanes and fall colors approach, maybe this little bit of color will bridge the gap.
Dixie, Pepper and Molly
We have three horses. Two of them came to our “ranch” almost 8 years ago as 6-month and 8-month-old fillies. The youngest one, Dixie, is a beautiful black Saddlebred/Tennessee Walker mix with white markings on her mane, her tail and her legs. The older one is Molly, and she is a brown and white Saddlebred, half-sister to Dixie. They are as different as night and day. Molly is a lumbering, large, peaceful animal whose only goal in life is to eat. She has almost foundered a couple of times. Dixie is very spirited, energetic and she spooks easily. Almost two years ago we adopted another mare who was rescued from a terrible situation in the middle of one of the worst winters we’ve had in a long time. We call her Pepper because “she is a bit spicy.” Pepper was rehabilitated in an equine hospital, then she went to a foster farm. It was there that we went to claim her as ours.
Getting Pepper in the trailer was an amazing feat, but once we got her home, letting her out of the trailer was even more scary. She had never had a halter, and in fact, had never really had human contact. Her instincts told her to run. She ran right into a fence in a relatively small paddock area where she was released, breaking the top board and partially damaging the second one. But, she didn’t get out. With my husband’s tender loving care and a lot of patience, he has turned her into a sweet and loving horse.
Yesterday, our three precious horses made their way out of our pastures when my husband left the gate open. They always wait for him at the barn in the mornings for their rationing of grain. Yesterday he trusted that they were waiting there as they do every day. So, the gate was left open. The sneaky devils found their way out and took off running through our neighbor’s yard into her eight-acre pasture which is fortunately fenced all around except in the small section they found as they made their entry into her property. My husband took a rope and closed that opening in the fence, then followed them through the fields until Molly lost interest in running. Remember, she is the large, lumbering horse who would rather eat. Putting a rope around her made it easy to lead her back home, and with a little help the other two eventually followed. Problem solved. This is the third such adventure with our horses in eight years and it takes about an hour from start to finish. And, for me, it is a terrifying experience.
Three months ago I had the good fortune of going with a group of artists to a little town in Umbria called Todi. The town was quaint and safe and I explored almost every corner. Well, there weren’t really many corners because the town is on a hill and everything seems to be in a circle, with small roads winding in and out and up and down. I spent a lot of time with my images when I first got back, enough that they started to bore me. But today I revisited them, and I discovered some that I had hardly noticed before. Here is one of my favorites. It’s similar to another I have printed, but there is more fog and more detail in the valley. If you hadn’t noticed already, I LOVE FOG!! This was the view to which I awakened every morning and often while brushing my teeth I was pressing the shutter button at the same time. It has some resemblance to my beloved Virginia except that Umbria’s hills are green, while our views seem to pick up the reflection of our Blue Ridge Mountains.
Umbria in the Fog
Today I made it to the farm in time to see the feeding of the forty calves. At birth the calves are separated from their mother, and they are taught to drink milk from a bucket not long after. Sometimes two fingers are put in the bucket of milk, and the calf sucks at them.
Then the fingers are gradually lowered into the milk until the calf discovers it. One calf I saw today was two weeks old and still hadn’t learned that, but most of them learn the first day. The calves are separated into groups of eight and kept together in stalls based on their age. As they get older, they are moved one stall to the right, until they get old enough to be released into the field to eat grass. They are given about a quart of milk a day, sometimes with supplements, and grain is added as they become able to feed on something other than milk.The fun of watching this was the introduction of the buckets to the young. Each bucket was filled with an appropriate amount of the milk mixture, then two men each held two buckets in each hand. They walked the buckets up to the fence line, then on “Go” the buckets were placed on the ground in reach of the calves. The babies were eager to eat and each had their own bucket, but if timing wasn’t right, there could have been a commotion. It didn’t take long for them to finish their milk. Afterwards, they licked each other’s mouths, “sucking face,” if you will, to get the milk leftovers.
One calf had a little gastrointestinal distress, and she had been lying in the stall alone. She was encouraged to get up and walk but would be put on cow’s milk if the problem didn’t correct itself soon. Sometimes that’s the best solution for a calf. Supplements will help, too. The care that is given to these calves, and in fact, to all the animals, takes time and patience, and people who love animals. These animals are very lucky.
renovation realities
Digital Photography Tips, Recipes, Technology and Photographs from The Mansurovs
Photography. Life.
Life through the eyes of "cookie"
...for those who appreciate doors...
** OFFICIAL Site of Artist Ray Ferrer **
Birthplace of James Madison and Southern Plantation
Where observation and imagination meet nature in poetry.
We meet weekly, and host: Review & Critique of New Works. Our Annual Spring Show is in May and our Annual Fall Show is September - October. Contact: Trish Crowe 540 948 3079
Portrait, Sports, Landscape Photographer in Central Virginia
FILM INSPIRES!
Patricia Temples Photography 