It was the following weekend, and because of the failure by making a big trip out of the day. I stayed closer to home this time and went to a different nature center.
Now this place was off my map because it was rated so highly online. Meaning it was very popular. And so it was, even on a Sunday. By mid morning I had talked with several people. Now I’m not complaining about this because I knew what I was getting into when I went there. But I had never been and it really was only a few minutes from home. Perfect to spend some of the morning and duck out before any crowds starting coming in.
When I first arrived and started walking along the trail, one of the first things I saw was right in front of me. A deer watching me carefully.
Now it was still very early in the morning, and I was walking through the woods. And I imagine it was cloudy, so the ISO was set incredibly high. Even with this nice newer body that processes low light much better, the grain with 6400 ISO is a bit much to me.
So I just embraced it, made it a bit more like a black and white painting.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm - 1/500 Sec - F2.8 - ISO 6400
Another subject that would catch my eye is a squirrel, flicking their tail up and down. By this point I was trying out my new Canon 1.4x teleconverter.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 5000
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 3200
I settled in for a while to a bird watching spot. They have little covered shelters made with viewing windows. I sat out there in the cold for a while, until I started walking around to find other spots. By this point the people were out, and I did have two very interesting conversations with the same man. When he was first coming down the trails with his dog, and again when I was heading out and managed to find him again.
He was very nice, very political which I am not. But knowledgeable about photography and full of questions. He had been doing it for many many years longer than I had and I wasn’t bothered to have a conversation for a while. He showed me some great pictures he had taken over the years that were on his phone and we talked about many photography related subjects, and a lot about other stuff as well.
He was a wise old man, immigrated from a European country many years ago. I was fascinated to hear about this, how different things are now. He said a company he worked for years at actually wanted him to succeed and make more money. They entirely paid for the cost of him going to school to get an engineering degree. Which he used for many years with that company before moving on and coming to the US. He probably could have gone on for hours, well for even more hours than we did wind up talking.
Really more than anything, to hear stories like that make me feel like I’m playing it too safe. And over the last few years I’ve been slowly pushing myself. Can I live on a cheaper diet? Maybe I don’t need all these luxuries. Watch some videos about camping in your car for an extended period of time. Thinking about driving way off away from people for a month long wildlife expedition.
Either way, what I’m doing now isn’t working for me. 40 hours of workweek doing something I don’t enjoy is tiring.
But back to November, one last thing I took a picture of before leaving was on the way to the car. I spotted this little guy darting across the trail.
Canon 7D Mark II w/300mm + 1.4x - 1/800 Sec - F4 - ISO 2500
This was great, even fully cropped in I was getting some nice detail. And he’s a cute little chipmunk that had just stuffed his cheeks before he ran off again, to a much simpler life.