The Nicest Little Girl

has become the nicest young lady. 

Her family was my 'upstairs' neighbor for about six years. I was pretty fortunate to get along with her mom and I enjoyed helping her out with her children once in a while if she needed it. 

They eventually sold the house and moved away and I've remained friends with mom and the kids.

Ambrosia is 18 now and is looking at journalism as a possible career and something to pursue in college. Currently she does assignments for a small local paper. Sometimes it is doing fact gathering and research and at other times she has to go to an event and take pictures along with her write up.

I gave her my old Nikon DSLR. She has been using it on auto and has really treated the camera well. She said it has come in very handy on assignments but she wanted to learn more because she was certain that she would be sent to cover sports events soon and wanted to have some guidance.

Our fun adventure today was to go find some ice formations and just walk and chat like we did when she was little. The conversation turned towards journalism, colleges, and careers.

We went to the look out first and I helped her do a run through on the Nikon. She took some photos from the look out and commented that her battery was really low. 

I had her remove the battery and stick it in her pants pocket next to her warm skin. She'd forgotten to bring her spare battery.

Outlook:

Every time I take this trail, I photograph this exact scene. It is amazing to go back through the past years and see how this view changes. The river was frozen over which is unusual this time of the year. Going out on the frozen river is not advised at all.

So Ambrosia learned a lesson in how to keep her battery warm in the cold weather.

We made it to the first ice falls and made our slippery way down the steep hillside.

When she could see the ice formation, I heard "Oh my. That is..."

I smiled. Yep. That. Is.

So we did a little photo lesson. We both had zoom lenses which would go from about 14mm to 200mm. We first shot the little ice formation at 14mm.

Then the 200mm zoom.

Ambrosia's comment was. "Look at the details!"

We moved further down the dry run near the Kickapoo River.

Again we did the same thing.

Zoomed in.

I pointed to the next section where there were two more ice formations and while we were looking at how to get to it, the wind picked up and started dropping snow on us.

I lifted the camera and said, "Shoot, shoot!"

We both marveled at the snow falling and blowing from the tree tops above.

Next up was an ice shelter and ice falls just to the south of the previous one.

I suggested she pick a composition and told her I was shooting for a black and white photo that showed off the zig zags and cascading ice falls.

We walked on and headed towards one more spot where the ice was forming.

Some fungi on a tree caught her eye and I told her to go for it.

I walked around behind her and took this:

Her battery was just about all done in, and we had to get back to her mom's house at a certain time.

She told me more about her journalism job and the schools she'd applied to and somehow we ended up talking about how to start a fire if we were lost with birch bark, birch wood, and chaga.

Her eyes brightened and she thought that would make a great story for her little local paper. "A story about winter camping!"

She paused, "And I could photograph the steps of doing it!"

"We have to do this more often," she said. She is a Senior now and going into her last semester. She said her class load will be a bit lighter and maybe...she ... we can get together more.

I hope so, she is one busy young lady, but still just as gentle and kind as ever. She juggles a lot of things, a part time job, school, and family obligations.

It was so much fun to see her discover things through the lens and then think up ideas of how she could use the camera. Spending time with her is always so enjoyable.

I'll go by the little bell on the blue yarn and ring it more often!