Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

Recently I've been sharing some of my photos with friends. One friend emailed me privately, asking if I had at one time studied photography or worked as a photographer because I "have a good eye." I truly appreciated my friend's kind words, and as I mulled them over, I was taken back to my time as an undergrad, when I was studying photography. I loved everything about working with film. Not long into my first black and white photography class, the TA wandered in while I was working one evening. I had just developed an image of a wind chime that hung on the front porch of my parents' old farmhouse. I had achieved a nice range of tones with the image and the TA remarked about this. I was really pleased I was understanding how to work my camera as well as the enlarger and chemicals. I spent hours in that darkroom, determined to learn as much as possible about black and white photography. The professor of the class showed up for the lecture portion but left the lab co...

One of the best parts about cycling along at 14 miles per hour is the opportunity to really see the nature surrounding us. I love stopping on the bridges spanning the creeks throughout the countryside. Yesterday, I stopped to watch the swallows emerge from under a bridge, dipping and diving through the air, hoping to get me to move along. I turned to look in the opposite direction, wondering how the late-evening sun might look as a backdrop to the creek. That's when I noticed this beauty. I could tell from the size I wasn't looking at a hawk. Given I was probably 100 yards away, I figured I wasn't going to get a very good picture of it, but I was going to try. I pulled out my little camera I carry with me and zoomed in as much as possible. I snapped a photo then enlarged it on the camera screen. To say I was just a tad bit excited to see an eagle would be an understatement. I kept snapping photos, hoping at least one would give me a decent image. This one made the cut. It...