The cheap kit lens...and the twins

Sometimes I pine away for a nice pricey prime zoom. You know, the one that causes lens envy?
The kind you see pros walking around with? Those monstrous long lenses that weigh so much and are so big that they need a monopod or a handle on them? I'd need a pack mule just to carry one. Yet, in the back of my mind I keep thinking...

wouldn't that be fun???

And then I think about how I hike through the woods and my goal is to carry much less than much more.

I brushed the 'dust' off a lens I hadn't used in quite a while. I got it with my old Olympus camera, the one that is dying a slow but sure death. I purchased the lens over 7 years ago. It's the cheap $99 zoom kit lens. It works 40-150mm which translates to 80-300mm on a 3/4 mirrorless Olympus.

I had at one time in my life visions of becoming a famous wildlife photographer.
Okay, not visions really, just a passing moment.
I don't have the patience to sit for hours to photograph a trophy buck, awesome turkeys, or even regular wildlife. Sure, they interest me, but I'm not one to sit still for too long.

I walked out with some hot coffee in my little travel cup and started towards the blind I'd set up just after sunrise. I'd fed the mules, the dog, and set things up for hubby. As I came over the rise I could see a doe and her fawn far off in the meadow. Too far off to photograph. See?

I needed the pack Llama and that super big lens! Nah....

I got in the blind and got comfy. I sat on an overturned bucket that I'd placed one of those miraculous warming seats. You know the kind you sit on and it warms up? I guess they work as my rear end got toasty warm.

What can I say about that morning sunlight? Just.
Wow.

What could be more perfect than to have a couple of beautiful deer walk into the scene? So this was the cheap kit lens. 

Okay, not too bad right?

Then a cardinal did the most awesome thing. It landed on one of my favorite trees as I was sipping some hot coffee.

I shot through the blind window, tipping the open coffee onto my knee. 

I got a bird! I got it! I was so tickled that I didn't curse at my now wet coveralls with coffee seeping into my clothes under my old coveralls.

Wow!

I sat with a warm bum, and hot coffee seeping through my clothes and thought to myself. Perhaps I could do with this ol' lens after all. There are drawbacks to it. But the good thing is, it is a fair lens for the cheap price. It isn't fast in low light. 

I was sitting there just daydreaming a bit and watching the meadow when I heard a 4 wheeler in the distance. The meadow belongs to the absentee landowner. For several years we used the meadow to graze our large herd of donkeys and a few mares. The deal was, we kept the meadow grazed and mowed for the dude that owned the land so he could walk through the meadow come gun deer season. We'd reduced our herd drastically after Rich's cancer and stroke so we no longer maintained the meadow.

Without going into a long explanation, I'll say this. People I don't know now show up on this remote land. Especially during bow season. 

Well my morning of waiting to see deer in the meadow was done. 

The dude on the 4 wheeler would scare off critters. I must admit, he was not like the 4 wheelers that trespassed earlier this year. His machine was fairly quiet.

I was done anyway. I decided to come back about an hour before sunset to see if there was any action. 

I had plenty of things to do in the house.

~~~~~

I came back after doing chores.

The late afternoon light was as beautiful as the early morning light. The red oak really was showing off.  

Those yellow leaves are from birch trees. How they are still on the branches is beyond me, but they sure added color to a dull landscape.

OH!

There they were ...! The Twins! I'd seen them off and on all summer in my woods via my Trail Camera. Look at them with no spots! 

I crept into the blind and was able to take my time in grabbing a few shots of them.

Nothing to show off in any magazine or anything, but they were a joy to observe as they ate apples on the other side of the gate.

And after about 20 minutes, they were gone.

I was happy. The lens proved to work just fine. It got me close and personal to the twins.

I'd photographed a bird, I'd taken some nice late season shots of the meadow.
I'd say it was all good.

Sunday? We are supposed to get snow. I may have to take out one of the weather proof lenses and enjoy some more fun.

Just add imagination

"Do you want to go for a walk with the kids? We can go to the Reserve and do an nice easy trail...bring snacks?" I sent the question in an email to my neighbor.

We often went to my little creek for adventures, but the weather was supposed to be chilly. I wanted an excuse to get out of the house and visit with another female. And I wanted to go to my new favorite place. The Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

Off we went.

We took Harris Road Trail to the ponds. We detoured around the ponds which was good. 
That meant that I was knocking off one more trail that I had to complete for that Dam Trail Challenge. 
It is actually just called The Trail Challenge, I just like including the 'Dam' in it. 
This was one of those small intersecting trails that I'd missed the other times while hiking the south part of KVR.

The kids ran ahead while 'we' adults walked along behind just enjoying each other's company and conversation. 

The trail led around more than one frozen pond and of course the kids wanted to explore the ice. 

However with the recent warm days and melt downs I was super cautious and said emphatically NO! Lauren and I discussed our fears of falling through the ice and being trapped under it. 

Of course, I did something silly on the walk as we negotiated the path around the one pond. 
I blathered on to the kids about how in another month or so they could see Canada Geese, Mallards, a variety of ducks, and other birds. Did they want to keep an eye out for eagles?

I realized as I chattered on that Lauren was probably the only one hearing me. The kids were concentrated on the ice chunks in their path, the rocks, the stumps, and the pure adventure of the hike...and not the coming spring or birds.

I laughed to myself then. I thought, just enjoy the chatter of the children and the fresh but chilly air.

We came around a bend and there was a corn crib type structure. 
It was a blind set up with boards that you could open to watch those birds who would be coming to nest.
The kids ate snacks and enjoyed opening the little windows.

Sure, I tried to explain that this was a bird blind. That really did't impress my audience. Then I may have said that it was a way to spy on birds. Now that peaked their interest!

The only Eagle we saw at KVR was the finger puppet I added to my collection. 

I generally have a toy in my pocket of some kind even when I am hiking without children. 

Off we went again along the Old 131 Trail. The trail is flat and fairly straight. I think it was pretty boring to the kids. Up ahead near Star Valley there is a magnificent old pine that had been damaged by a storm. This pine became the place for the kids.

First we went to the benches and markers on Star Valley Trail. I wanted to show the kids the memorial. They were interested in the small pond created by the melt down. 
They were not being rude, they were exploring. A small pond with a mostly frozen surface is far more exciting than the little memorial. They could break ice up and throw it onto the surface of the flooded area and watch the ice splinter.

We had snacks and before the kids got wet, we moved away from the alluring little pond of ice and water.
The kids saw a trail that led across the field.

"Can we go this way?"
Of course! 
Off they ran, pausing at every area that had ice. 

Surely Mother Nature had put those little frozen places there just for them.

How can you compete with Mother Nature?

We went off trail as the kids wanted to see the river. They liked the huge chunks of ice that seemed stuck in it. I called them ice shoves, but they are actually ice floes. 

That did get some "cools!" from the kids.

I told them to lead on!
And they did.

I felt that the little trail would lead us back to the old damaged pine tree.
And it did.

However now the kids were busy. 
The adults merely stood back and let them play.

Play is the work of children.
It is very serious stuff.
~~ Bob Keeshan [Cpt. Kangaroo]

The tree and part of the branch that had broken off became something different that could only be seen through a child's imaginative eyes.
They played.

Lauren and I stood back and watched. 

I am always amazed at how quickly children can find something to play with. They don't need toys. Sticks, pieces of bark, or even a rock can become toys. A field of grass and a stump can become a fort or house.

Just let it go and let the children play, they will bring their own imagination.