Light Hunting & Bugs

 

Charlie followed me on a morning walk but won't go down the road where the Naughty Dog lives. He is a smart guy and doesn't forget things easily. He is probably smarter than I am.

I have to pick him up to go any further down the road. I'd only come to the ridge to hunt down morning light, dew drops, and spider threads.

The oats offered a great place to shoot but to get the light I wanted...

...I needed to walk past the Naughty Dog House. I decided to just go back down into our valley. I'd look in the Winter Paddock. 

There are tons of interesting things to see. 

Charlie was relieved and he hurried ahead of me.

It was another dew filled morning and I wanted to find connections and threads glistening in the morning light.

I don't usually go to the winter pasture as it is a mess of weeds. I know...mow it. True enough. I need a bulldozer first to level it. At present, it is a pasture of weeds, gullies, and rocks. The Dexter Cattle used to keep it clean as a whistle. 
If I could convince my neighbors to add their goats to the pasture I would. I'd even put in extra hot wires and a goat gate.
Oh well.

This was another Long Lens experiment. I should not have been  surprised at how easily I adapted to it. My father only had a long lens on his camera. He let me frame photos with it and pretend to take pictures. He had fun asking me to figure out the exposure and fstop for different situations. One of his mantras was sunny sky--- f11 at 125. 

There I go off on a tangent again.

It took a great deal of work and maneuvering, but I finally got those gossamer threads!

It was still early so I decided to hunt around for more cool things. Our heavy wet dew fall had added just enough moisture to the ground to produce some fungi.

It turned into a great day for hunting insects.

I did this while weeding and dead heading my flowers near the house. I used the macro lens for these shots.

I have waged a little war on the Japanese Beetles. I smack them off my 4 o'clocks into soapy water and watch them drown.

I'm mean aren't I?

I wish the birds would eat these. 

Today it is raining and cooling off. What a delight. The grass will grow and the yard will need mowing.

Well, we needed the rain and the pastures needed to grow!

Charlie and I will be packing for our short adventure this weekend.

Spiders!

Charlie was nagging me early this morning.

I waited until the sun was breaking over the trees and decided to go look for dew laden spider webs. You can usually start finding them about this time of year.

I walked out back to check on the mules and noticed webs hanging from a dead ash tree in the meadow.

It looked like I'd have to go into the meadow to look for dew laden webs.

I found them.
And Charlie enjoyed getting totally soaked in the tall grass.

He got busy with something in the grass. I'm sure he was seeking out tasty bits of rabbit poop or deer poop.

I found a large web and walked over towards it.
It started to wobble.

I saw something yellow and thought I'd get closer.
That is until I saw what it was!

YES! Large spiders do make me squeamish. I was grateful I'd chosen the prime 85mm lens that allowed me to put some distance between myself and this fella.

Apparently this is a 'Garden Spider' and if you get near its web it will bounce its web to distract predators. I had to wait a long time to get a clear shot of it.
Note the grasshopper in the web on the left.
I wondered why I haven't seen these before. Maybe I just wasn't looking properly.

I got a few shots and then decided to move on back home and get some well deserved coffee.

I got sidetracked by this ox eye daisy...

It was just soooo perfect.

And as I headed towards the house, I saw another large web that I hadn't seen on the way out to the meadow.
Probably because the sun wasn't shining on it when I walked passed it.

Viola, another Black and Yellow Garden Spider!
This time I didn't scare it.

And that is how my Friday started.

Morning mists

This morning I yawned and walked past Morris who was sound asleep on the couch.
I checked the time.
I had plenty of time before sunrise.
I stretched, yawned some more and then glanced towards the north east.

I could see a hint of clouds through the trees and another hint of pink.

Dang!
The rest of the day was destined to be overcast according to yesterday's weather report. More heavy thunderstorms and torrential rains.

If anything interesting was going to happen. It was now.

I grabbed a cup of coffee from yesterday's pot and put it in the microwave while I put together some photography items. I rushed around like a maniac. The Nikon, should I take my phone? Okay phone.
The old Fuji point and shoot? Yes always have a point and shoot.

The 85mm lens or... yes take that one but leave the 35mm lens on. I rushed around while I waited for the coffee to warm.

Mr. Morris never even moved is head. At one point he opened an eye and then closed it as if to say. "Too Early Lady, Go Back To Bed!"

Had it been a year or so ago, he would have been underfoot and pouncing on me.

I swept out the door and headed to the car. Years ago I may have just walked, but I have found a fantastic spot on the ridge that never seems to fail me. Driving is just quicker.

I nearly slid to a stop on the gravel road. I'd seen the fog in the distance and was in a hurry to get to the high point above it.
Until I saw "the Island". This area usually gets predawn fog and presents itself as an island of trees surrounded by fog.
Sometimes I am lucky enough to get the cattle in the photo too.

I took three shots and used a program called Microsoft ICE [Image Composite Editor] which is free to put them together in a panoramic type shot.

I was stunned when I got to my parking spot. Which is actually a pull in spot for cattle to be loaded and unloaded from a huge pasture that belong to my ridge neighbors.

I am just experimenting with trying to get what is called a blended shot together.
I expose for the sky and merge it with an exposure for the foreground.
I walked through the weeds and got soaked.
This year the north east field was soy bean. My lucky break, I'd get to see sunrises all fall without the corn in the way.

I set up the camera and tripod to try and get some neat foreground and sky shots.
Well the fog came in so hard that I had to give that idea up.
The fog confused my Fuji camera. But by the time I got back to the car...

The landscape was disappearing.

I got back in the car and headed towards home.
Since the fog was moving slowly from east to west, I pulled over on our gravel road and parked.

When the sun peaked over the trees, the fog had enveloped the landscape.

Time to go home and make the coffee.

But.
But...
Oh wait.

What did I see?

I love landscapes and small details.
I absolutely love fog and heavy dew.
Did I say how much I love fog and heavy dew?

And last but not least. I thought it would be a fun challenge to take a shot that made the soybean field look beautiful.

Not bad.
The light seemed just right to get an interesting shot.

When I walked into the house with my camera bag, Mr. Morris looked up and then yawned. He seemed to wink at me and then went back to sleep.

I do love early mornings, fog, sunrise, and heavy dew.