More Through the Windshield (PG LXXXVIII)

This is another Mail Pouch barn along the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Bedford, Pa. This one is only a few miles east of the other one, located on the north side of mile post 138. And to avoid Police brutality (and Bradley's afore mentioned cavity search) I opted to shoot this one at 70 MPH. I mean 65 MPH. If you've from around these parts you may recall that our illustrious Governor tried to sell, I mean lease, the Turnpike. A foreign company sent engineers to study the existing conditions of the road and it's structures. Someone turned these two suspicious characters, who were taking pictures of the bridges, into the Police as terrorists. Way to go Ed.

Scattered Flurries

Tuesday morning, November 4th, found me back at the old familiar Snag. The wind sure knew how to blow up through the creek drainage and seemed to be aimed right where I sat. Early Tuesday morning the snows started and combined with the wind this picture pretty much sums up my morning. The elk would've had to run over me before I'd see them. My perch at the Snag only lasted until 10 AM. It was time to sit this one out and thaw out the moustache.

The Peaks That Shall Remain Nameless

These two prominent peaks were my reward for my Monday morning walkabout while on my Colorado hunt last November. Located at the top end of the shooting gallery and over 11,000 feet in elevation this meadow turned and seemed to keep going. I walked more, kind of to the center left of picture three and watched another vast open meadow until near noon. Nothing. Just some jays and a squirrel. Remember by this point seeing an elk at 800 yards would have been a successful trip. We later found out there is one crevice you can use to get to the top of the flat peak. Good thing I didn't know this at the time or you'd be looking at picture from the top.

The Cormorant

This, I believe, is a Cormorant. A Double Crested Cormorant to guess more precise. Any real birders out there be sure to correct me on this, or any of the birds that show up here. This cormorant spent the whole weekend right here. Perched on this fallen tree. The first picture is from Friday evening, the second is from Saturday. Sunday morning? He was right here. Well I'm not a birder, just a picture taker, and birds seem to sit still long enough for me to snap off a couple shots. The names are normally Googled or from The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds. Interesting useless fact... Notice his posture in the second picture? Well it turns out that Cormorants lack oil glands to preen their feathers with so they sit with their wings spread out to dry. Useless fact number two... the name is a French word taken from Latin that means Sea Crow. Thus endeth the lesson.

The Privy

Hey, look, I found another one. Where? Right out in the open. Not too far off the main road. Right beside the back road. This here privy is the lone survivor of urban renewal. Expansion. We all know we need another shopping center. Obviously it has seen better days. The seat was gone and boarded up. Probably served as a tool shed in it's final years. And lets not forget to mention the lean. I'm sure the old farmer would never have guessed that the barn would burn down, the farm would sit empty, the house would be demolished and any hint of the life he lived would be erased. And the only evidence would be the old #$%*house.

Taking the road less traveled... Good Idea

Spotting and recognising the obscure... Brilliant

My daughters expression when I hit the brakes

and she realized the camera was in the car... Priceless!

Don't Let the Sun Go Down

This was the view from the balcony of my hotel Saturday evening. We were coming back over from Assateague Island as the sun was sinking and I stopped on the bridge between the Islands to get a picture and... dead battery. The only sunset or sunrise I would see all weekend and I've got a dead battery. We hurried back to the hotel and plugged the battery in while I set the tripod on the balcony then I loaded the battery and got my pictures. Otherwise I'd have gotten a bigger sun on some of these. The only sun all weekend and these picture were totally worth the trip.

Looking to 2009

This is just the first of many gull pictures you'll see here in the coming weeks. At least they would sit still while I figured out my camera settings. This past weekend (my 3rd Annual Christmas at the Beach, I may have mentioned this before) was a working lesson on light settings. I would go from a white gull in the sand on the beach to a heron hiding in the brush waiting for lunch to swim by. I'd snap 3 or 4 quick shots of the heron and when I would check my shot it was under exposed so bad it was black. (This lesson worked in reverse also.) So I'll bet I deleted 50 shots at the time I took them. But maybe this lesson will help me later.

Looking to 2009 I hope to keep the pace I've set and continue to grow and hopefully you all will notice my pictures getting better. I don't plan on changing format but I hope the quality will show.

Happy New Year folks. And thanks for stopping by.