Boolie

IT’S ELLIE!

Watching my favorite show, Adventure Time, with my sweet pup.

On our walk this evening a little boy up the block asked if he could pet Ellie and I said yes, she’s a pretty gentle soul. He was squealing in delight and couldn’t stop hugging her until his mom eventually pulled him away so we could continue on our walk.

Across the street we could see Yum Yum, a sweet puppy who may be Ellie’s biggest fan, she just desperately wants to come say hi to Ellie whenever she sees us. She used to pretend she had to go the bathroom so her owners would let her outside, and then she’d run over and mob Ellie with licks to the face, but they eventually got wise to her little deception. I can’t blame you Yum Yum, Ellie is pretty great.

A couple of years ago at the dog park we met a woman for the first time and as Ellie went up to her (surreptitiously sniffing her pockets to see if she was carrying treats) the woman started petting Ellie and crying, she said Ellie reminded her of her dog who had died earlier in the year. I understood all too well, the death of our cat Scout was still fresh in my mind, and I started to offer to take Ellie to a different part of the park when I noticed she was smiling through her tears and wanted to pet Ellie for a while longer.

On two occasions I’ve had teenagers, after watching Ellie and I play in the park, separate from their friends to come over to tell me what a wonderful dog Ellie is. I don’t have kids of my own so I don’t normally get to see teens in such unguarded moments, but it’s very sweet.

It’s a little funny how someone as painfully shy as I am ended up with a gregarious dog that spreads happiness wherever she goes. I sometimes wonder if she gets a gray hair for every moment of joy she brings into the world, the price she pays for being such a great dog, it would certainly explain the many gray hairs. If so, I hope she gets many more.

Backside

One benefit to earning an animal’s trust is that you can often watch it for a long period of time. The downside is that it often has its back to you as it doesn’t consider you a threat. I had been watching this bittern hunt on the far bank for over an hour when it swam over and sat down right in front of me. It turned around to scan the water and I loved the geometry formed by its body and beak, its two round eyes sticking out from the side of its head.

Late Flight

After spending a sunny fall day at Ridgefield, I found myself near sunset photographing ducks and coots feeding in Rest Lake. Suddenly a few tundra swans took off from a distant part of the lake and kept coming in my direction until they flew by my car. Sadly I didn’t have time to change settings on the camera so some things weren’t set up the way I would like, besides which I don’t normally shoot birds in flight so it’s not something with which I have much practice.

Nevertheless it was a nice ending to the day. I took a few more pictures of ruddy ducks and then headed for home.

At the Edge of the Ice

A female bufflehead surfaces next to the ice in a rapidly thawing Horse Lake. I felt bad for her, she had been feeding on her own, the only bufflehead on the lake, when a male/female pair flew in and started harassing her. She’d move off on her own, minding her own business, but the other two would still frequently swim over and chase her away. She was the first bird I photographed that morning but this picture is from an hour and a half later near the end of my time watching her.

The Pintails

Six pintails stand amidst the melting ice of Horse Lake. They reminded me of teenagers lined up along a wall at a dance, a little too nervous to take to the dance floor, especially the males who looked like they were decked out in formal attire. In truth they were a little ill at ease and anxious for the ice to finish melting, as they are as awkward on the ice as they are graceful in the water.

Sunny Day, Cloudy Day, Same Day

On a sunny afternoon, this seemingly happy wood duck raised his head to stretch before resuming preening some of the hard-to-reach areas. I don’t often see wood ducks in this part of Long Lake so it was a treat to watch him. Five minutes later the clouds rolled in and changed the lighting as he paused during his preening ritual. I love shooting on both sunny and cloudy days and on this day got to do both frequently, but the constantly changing light levels made it challenging to correctly meter the scene and I often didn’t keep up fast enough.

Do I Know You?

I’ve often photographed a lone female ring-necked duck on Horse Lake, wondering if its the same bird that returns from one year to the next, but this one was on nearby Long Lake. Might be the same bird, of course the ducks move around especially when they get spooked, but I don’t have any way of knowing.

Follow the Eyes

One thing I’ve long wanted in a camera is the ability for the focus to lock onto and track the eye of an animal I’m photographing. It would have come in handy here, I was testing out my Canon mirrorless camera to see how limiting its poor autofocus would be if used as a backup in case my main camera failed. I had been watching this bittern that had been mostly sitting still, with some occasional preening, when it suddenly threw its mouth wide open and shook its head about. While the camera had focused fine on the bird while it was sitting still, by the time this shot was taken the bittern had already moved far enough that it isn’t in good focus.

The technology is moving in this direction for photographing people at least, but I fear it will be a while yet before we can do it with moving animals. While my main camera would have handled this situation much better, it still requires thinking about it’s many autofocus modes, and I’d love to spend less time thinking about the technical side of photography and instead just enjoy the animals I’m watching.

The Wayward Feather

This song sparrow was working the same bit of floating branches as this red-winged blackbird but with a different technique. While the blackbird hunted for food by moving debris about with her beak, the sparrow was using its feet to do the same. Curiously it had one tail feather askew but it didn’t seem to be impeding it in any way that I could see. I saw the same bird on another day with its downward-facing feather but I suspect it fell off in short order as days later I saw a sparrow working the branches with all feathers cooperating.

Life Finds a Way

I had been photographing this hoary marmot with telephoto lenses when I decided to switch to a wider angle to show the amazing landscape that this animal calls home (the waterfall in the background on the far right is at the end of the Nisqually Glacier on Mount Rainier). That’s when I noticed that a small collection of plants was growing underneath the lip of the big rock, protected not only from wind and snow but also from being crushed by hiker’s shoes. I like photographing plants growing in seemingly inhospitable locations as I’m intrigued by how often life can take root if given the chance.