Eastern Gray Squirrel Diet

Squirrels eat a variety of foods, including berries, nuts, seeds, mushrooms and even leaf buds from trees, like this one.  There is a tree in the side yard (I'm not sure of the name) that the squirrels love when it first puts out buds.  They are huge buds because they open into a compound leaf with several branches.  So, before they unfurl, the squirrels snack on them like eating an ice cream cone.

Bloodroot

I was having a lot of trouble with my Internet connection yesterday and didn't get to post all of the photos I wanted to post.  Here are the others.  One of the amazing things about this flower is the way it opens.  They close overnight, but as soon as the sun touches them, they open right up.  It is like watching a time-lapse movie with the whole process taking only a minute or two.

The plant spread and grow from an underground rhizomes, so the flowers appear to grow in colonies here and there.

The reddish sap, from which it got it's name, was used as a dye by native Americans.

Beauty in Hidden Places

Imagine putting all your creative energy into painting a Mona Lisa or designing an Eiffel tower or a pyramid and no one ever saw them.  How do you think you would feel not to have your creativity admired by other people? And yet, I am struck by some of the modern discoveries of things the Creator of all things made long ago that are hidden away from human eyes until someone stumbles across it in a cave or on a distant island.  Can you imagine being so creative that it didn't matter to you whether someone saw any of the distant planets and stars you flung into place?

The first time I was surprised by His creative beauty in a hidden place was when I stumbled upon an entire bank in the woods, covered by beautiful white flowers blooming away for no one to see.  It took me a couple of years to learn their name.  From looking at these little gems, you would never guess that they are called bloodroot.  Most years, they bloom earlier than almost any other plant, cultivated or wild.

I'm having a lot of trouble with internet connections this morning.  I wanted to post more, but perhaps I will be able to tomorrow.

Hummingbird Moth

Bugs don't get much cuter than this guy.  You would swear you have spotted a very small hummingbird. Their aerobatic abilities are about the same, able to hover, back up, zip forward.  You can see, it has an extremely long tongue.  And, unlike hummingbirds, it has antennae.  If approached cautiously, they are not spooky, but they don't tend to sit in one place very long, so it can be hard to capture one on film. I did have one rest on a leaf one time which gave me plenty of time to get some good photos.  It is a moth and not a bee, so there is no danger of being stung.

Nutty Squirrels

Squirrels can do some pretty funny stuff and can be a source of fascinating behavior if you watch them for a while.  Or they can just sit like a sphinx for long periods of time and try your patience.  I posted a couple of photos last fall of this pair "dancing" on the driveway.  I wanted to post this one also, but moved on before I did.  Try THAT on "Dancing with the Stars."

You may not believe this, but I glanced out a second-story window one spring to see two squirrels and a rabbit chasing each other in a ten or fifteen foot circle into the woods and out on the lawn as though they were playing some kind of game.  What was that all about?  I'll never know.

Summer's End

I was standing on the shore at the river one morning when I looked down and saw one lone leaf in a patch of sunlight.  Nothing was going on, so I took several frames before the sun moved on, leaving the leaf in shadows.

I think it interesting that an image can evoke an emotional response such as joy, sadness or peace, for instance.  This photo always elicits a feeling of sadness in me when I see it and I'm not sure if it is the personal experience of realizing another summer on the river was ending and the photography was going to take a hiatus, or whether it is simply the image itself that conjures up that emotion in me.

The Essence of Something

One of the dictionary definitions of "essence" is "the ultimate nature of a thing."  Depicting something's essence is my personal goal in filming things, no matter the subject.  Essence is why you can look at two pictures of the same loved one and know that, somehow, the photographer captured who the person really is in only one of them.  It is hard to describe because, ultimately, it is an immaterial quality.

Take daffodils, for example.  I have filmed a lot of daffodils, but seldom am I satisfied that I have captured the essence of the flower.  Yet, can you describe what the essence is?  I can't.  It is like what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about hard-core pornography - "I know it when I see it."  So, in the first photo, you have a very nice (ho hum) daffodil, but in the second photo, I think I have caught more of the nature of the flower.

If you are at all serious about photography - or even if you only take the occasional photo, try to think of how you can capture the essence of the subject you are about to film.