ink_in_hand (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ink_in_hand) wrote2009-06-30 01:54 am
ink_in_hand) wrote2009-06-30 01:54 am
Entry tags:
Lots of photos, slow connectivity beware
Promised to get this up during the weekend, failed, beat myself up, then kicked my ass into gear.
On June fourth I purchased a camera. I've been looking at the various brands and models for a little while, until this point I'd been borrowing my parents from time to time but doing so was impractical for many reasons. So when a camera shop was having a sale, I finally got one. (And a free $90 printer too :D) For the rest of day and the one following I devoured the manual and played it safe, I did not want to screw up and damage it.
So landscape pictures of things that were alive but not moving were in order. The above is the path that I take into the woods to the east. It curls around an artesian spring fed pond, and yes it is a pond even though it does have five islands in it. You can see the first one behind the big evergreen in the foreground. It has a dead tree right in the front there.
Here is the beginning of the second island, you can see how thin it is. At this point the path isn't close so there's some maneuvering through brush to get to the shore.
I was using this birtch tree to play with exposure, the light can change quite significently when the forest thins and thickens, and the wind pushes the trees around. Unfortunately I looked over the fact that a camera in storage may need it's batteries charged. So back I went when it died to plug it in until the next day.
Continuing the trek down the path, it pulls even further away from the pond. Both this and the birch were taken east facing towards it.
Unlike the day before, my sister's dog, Seth, came with me. She's still a teenager and as a social butterfly goes out a lot with friends leaving him to sulk. He's absolutely devoted to her but the amount of time she spends with him is minimum. In this I couldn't get the exposure to work right so it's all a bit washed out.
The main path eventually connects with the neighbors road. It's just one lane and ends at their house, so there's no using it to get to mine. But it does make for a good scale as to how tall the trees are.
At this point I'm on the other side of the pond, I don't know how long this has been here but as you can see in comparison to the ferns that it's one huge fallen tree.
The back and at this side of the pond for a ways is a cedar swamp. Not full on famously southern state size or even much to make a note of for the area it still has some neat trees.
And a close up of the roots.
This is the point that it got interesting. While I was taking the above photo I heard Seth, who wandered off to explore because the human was doing boring things with a little black thingy, bark. And with that, a sound I never heard before. I turn in time to see him chase this little brown blur across the incline that was behind me towards the way back home.
I start running, but not before I wrangle my camera back in its' case. I reach one of the grassy clearings and I find Seth searching for the fawn. In the ten seconds it took to get this, Seth found it again. Shame on me. He saw it because of where I was looking.
Fawn took off again.
There was a group of closely grown trees in which it hid. I encounter my first of many battles with sticks in the foreground messing up the focus of what's behind them.
The pond is right there and the clever little thing tried to get to it to swim away from the danger. Seth didn't like this and was preventing it from jumping in. This was the point where I got that really nice photo in my previous post.
Eventually the fawn got by him. But he isn't one to be suaded by a little swamp water.
As I'm yelling at him to back down, trying to stay close and not gouging an eye out from not minding the trees and branches lining the bank, he keeps to to bite the fawn. As I said before this is one clever and resourceful little one, hooves are good for kicking big predators. And Seth was well introduced to this mode of defense.
Mother shows up. By this point I'm completely submerged within this disassociated mindset in which all but focused intent has been stripped away. I now know what angry mother and terrified fawn sound like. Yet she was spooked off by me, even though I was analyzing the threat she posed. Deer, though they prefer to run are not something to trifle with.
This is my best shot of them in the water. He keeps circling the fawn, preventing it from getting back OUT of the water. It's getting exhausted from all this. I keep pacing back and forth along the bank behind the brush. This isn't an easy oh trees, oh shoreline, oh water situation and I'm a big human compared to them. It's trees, water. I can't even walk along the shore as the trees are so thick, it's walk(poor word) to the water, call the dog, call the fawn, back out, follow them, and try again.
Just seconds away from putting my camera on a branch and jumping in myself the babe swims straight to me. Here I was calling it over and over because Seth didn't so much as glance or flick an ear my way trying to get him to back off, and I'm trying anything urging it to come because I'll protect it, I didn't really expect it to listen! And before he could get the tiny thing I crouched down, put my arms around it as a barrier and snarled at him. It was difficult not to touch the babe, it was so wiped out that it could barely even stand or even shake water off. It didn't want mom to leave it if there was any human scent on him/her after all this. It was only sheer reflex that had me bracing it when it nearly fell back in to the water and that thankfully was only my arm.
Seth is still circling trying to get at it and I'm trying to keep him away while simultaneously getting the fawn to higher ground. I'm cooing(and I'm not ashamed to say that) and encouraging it, that it's a good babe. It doesn't so much as come up to my knees, and I'm five foot four. Finally I get enough distance between him and the fawn to get him to finally focus on me.
By this time I'm angry as hell, and wooo boy does he realize this. He almost jumps into the pond himself to get away from me. I grab his collar as I hadn't bothered with a leash (as he's usually listens during walks in the woods) but with a well bitten hand to thank for it. I want to stay and make sure that the fawn will be alright but that won't happen with the dog still around, and I'm too far away from anyone to call for assistance. There was nothing but to haul him all the way home because I wasn't going to risk letting him go to run back and finish the job. I don't let go until I have him locked in the utility/entrance room. And I finally notice how much adrenaline I'm running on.
So yeah, it was one hell of an experience. Afterwards I realize I lost my back up memory stick, one of the camera case pockets wasn't all the way closed and it must have fell out at some point during the whole thing. I went back and tried to find it but no luck. I also checked to see if small, brown and spotty was still there, but he/she wasn't. I'm hoping it's mother came back after I and the dog were gone.
Apparently it has a cub. Which means it, now a she, isn't just passing through. But that's not what really has me gnashing my teeth (because now I won't be able to wind down in the woods as Ineed like).
What really, really has me pissed is that I might have just been left in the dark.
I don't really take the time to talk to people around here, most are much older and while I really have nothing against them we don't have anything much in common either. That and there's no pressing need for me to socialize as some who can't go a day without surrounding themselves with others. So I tend to get the news about the locals from my father, who does talk with them.
Apparently, he debated on not telling me that this big, potentially lethal animal has a CUB. As in instant mother rage should anything dare threaten it. There is a reason we use 'Mother Bear' as an analogy for protective parents. And he figured I would be STUPID enough to go LOOKING for it. The only reason he said anything was in case I accidentally got near it.
I'm not a moron. Really. I'm not. Your superiority complex is stifling, that you actually said all that to my face. While you didn't say "stupid" out loud, I heard it very clearly. Just because I get SSI because my brain is wired so differently that human standards don't really work with me doesn't mean that I'm retarded. Fucking hell, just.... rarrggg. Thanks a lot, your faith in me is staggering. I really thought you were starting to understand me, to actually start to connect instead of your condescending remarks all time. It really looked like you were trying, and I took the risk and opened up to you more. So I thank you for the reminder me of how things truly are. That I was actually stupid enough in believing you were changing. Horror of horrors, I was actually starting to have faith in people. That they won't look down on me, or have so much pity in their eyes that it chokes. I hate it, loathe it because people with pity and sympathy won't do a goddamn thing but still say they support you.
I'm not a child and it's been years since I've been a teenager and why I still try to please you I don't think I'll ever understand. Why your words still have an affect on me I cannot comprehend. I thought I cut my heart of you long ago, though apparently I was mistaken as with only a few times with feeling like an equal I'm running back to you. I'm a fool and a moron in a completely different way than you'll ever imagine of accusing me of.
Just..... what the hell. And that was a lot more rant than I planned on ranting.
On June fourth I purchased a camera. I've been looking at the various brands and models for a little while, until this point I'd been borrowing my parents from time to time but doing so was impractical for many reasons. So when a camera shop was having a sale, I finally got one. (And a free $90 printer too :D) For the rest of day and the one following I devoured the manual and played it safe, I did not want to screw up and damage it.
So landscape pictures of things that were alive but not moving were in order. The above is the path that I take into the woods to the east. It curls around an artesian spring fed pond, and yes it is a pond even though it does have five islands in it. You can see the first one behind the big evergreen in the foreground. It has a dead tree right in the front there.
Here is the beginning of the second island, you can see how thin it is. At this point the path isn't close so there's some maneuvering through brush to get to the shore.
I was using this birtch tree to play with exposure, the light can change quite significently when the forest thins and thickens, and the wind pushes the trees around. Unfortunately I looked over the fact that a camera in storage may need it's batteries charged. So back I went when it died to plug it in until the next day.
Continuing the trek down the path, it pulls even further away from the pond. Both this and the birch were taken east facing towards it.
Unlike the day before, my sister's dog, Seth, came with me. She's still a teenager and as a social butterfly goes out a lot with friends leaving him to sulk. He's absolutely devoted to her but the amount of time she spends with him is minimum. In this I couldn't get the exposure to work right so it's all a bit washed out.
The main path eventually connects with the neighbors road. It's just one lane and ends at their house, so there's no using it to get to mine. But it does make for a good scale as to how tall the trees are.
At this point I'm on the other side of the pond, I don't know how long this has been here but as you can see in comparison to the ferns that it's one huge fallen tree.
The back and at this side of the pond for a ways is a cedar swamp. Not full on famously southern state size or even much to make a note of for the area it still has some neat trees.
And a close up of the roots.
This is the point that it got interesting. While I was taking the above photo I heard Seth, who wandered off to explore because the human was doing boring things with a little black thingy, bark. And with that, a sound I never heard before. I turn in time to see him chase this little brown blur across the incline that was behind me towards the way back home.
I start running, but not before I wrangle my camera back in its' case. I reach one of the grassy clearings and I find Seth searching for the fawn. In the ten seconds it took to get this, Seth found it again. Shame on me. He saw it because of where I was looking.
Fawn took off again.
There was a group of closely grown trees in which it hid. I encounter my first of many battles with sticks in the foreground messing up the focus of what's behind them.
The pond is right there and the clever little thing tried to get to it to swim away from the danger. Seth didn't like this and was preventing it from jumping in. This was the point where I got that really nice photo in my previous post.
Eventually the fawn got by him. But he isn't one to be suaded by a little swamp water.
As I'm yelling at him to back down, trying to stay close and not gouging an eye out from not minding the trees and branches lining the bank, he keeps to to bite the fawn. As I said before this is one clever and resourceful little one, hooves are good for kicking big predators. And Seth was well introduced to this mode of defense.
Mother shows up. By this point I'm completely submerged within this disassociated mindset in which all but focused intent has been stripped away. I now know what angry mother and terrified fawn sound like. Yet she was spooked off by me, even though I was analyzing the threat she posed. Deer, though they prefer to run are not something to trifle with.
This is my best shot of them in the water. He keeps circling the fawn, preventing it from getting back OUT of the water. It's getting exhausted from all this. I keep pacing back and forth along the bank behind the brush. This isn't an easy oh trees, oh shoreline, oh water situation and I'm a big human compared to them. It's trees, water. I can't even walk along the shore as the trees are so thick, it's walk(poor word) to the water, call the dog, call the fawn, back out, follow them, and try again.
Just seconds away from putting my camera on a branch and jumping in myself the babe swims straight to me. Here I was calling it over and over because Seth didn't so much as glance or flick an ear my way trying to get him to back off, and I'm trying anything urging it to come because I'll protect it, I didn't really expect it to listen! And before he could get the tiny thing I crouched down, put my arms around it as a barrier and snarled at him. It was difficult not to touch the babe, it was so wiped out that it could barely even stand or even shake water off. It didn't want mom to leave it if there was any human scent on him/her after all this. It was only sheer reflex that had me bracing it when it nearly fell back in to the water and that thankfully was only my arm.
Seth is still circling trying to get at it and I'm trying to keep him away while simultaneously getting the fawn to higher ground. I'm cooing(and I'm not ashamed to say that) and encouraging it, that it's a good babe. It doesn't so much as come up to my knees, and I'm five foot four. Finally I get enough distance between him and the fawn to get him to finally focus on me.
By this time I'm angry as hell, and wooo boy does he realize this. He almost jumps into the pond himself to get away from me. I grab his collar as I hadn't bothered with a leash (as he's usually listens during walks in the woods) but with a well bitten hand to thank for it. I want to stay and make sure that the fawn will be alright but that won't happen with the dog still around, and I'm too far away from anyone to call for assistance. There was nothing but to haul him all the way home because I wasn't going to risk letting him go to run back and finish the job. I don't let go until I have him locked in the utility/entrance room. And I finally notice how much adrenaline I'm running on.
So yeah, it was one hell of an experience. Afterwards I realize I lost my back up memory stick, one of the camera case pockets wasn't all the way closed and it must have fell out at some point during the whole thing. I went back and tried to find it but no luck. I also checked to see if small, brown and spotty was still there, but he/she wasn't. I'm hoping it's mother came back after I and the dog were gone.
Apparently it has a cub. Which means it, now a she, isn't just passing through. But that's not what really has me gnashing my teeth (because now I won't be able to wind down in the woods as I
What really, really has me pissed is that I might have just been left in the dark.
I don't really take the time to talk to people around here, most are much older and while I really have nothing against them we don't have anything much in common either. That and there's no pressing need for me to socialize as some who can't go a day without surrounding themselves with others. So I tend to get the news about the locals from my father, who does talk with them.
Apparently, he debated on not telling me that this big, potentially lethal animal has a CUB. As in instant mother rage should anything dare threaten it. There is a reason we use 'Mother Bear' as an analogy for protective parents. And he figured I would be STUPID enough to go LOOKING for it. The only reason he said anything was in case I accidentally got near it.
I'm not a moron. Really. I'm not. Your superiority complex is stifling, that you actually said all that to my face. While you didn't say "stupid" out loud, I heard it very clearly. Just because I get SSI because my brain is wired so differently that human standards don't really work with me doesn't mean that I'm retarded. Fucking hell, just.... rarrggg. Thanks a lot, your faith in me is staggering. I really thought you were starting to understand me, to actually start to connect instead of your condescending remarks all time. It really looked like you were trying, and I took the risk and opened up to you more. So I thank you for the reminder me of how things truly are. That I was actually stupid enough in believing you were changing. Horror of horrors, I was actually starting to have faith in people. That they won't look down on me, or have so much pity in their eyes that it chokes. I hate it, loathe it because people with pity and sympathy won't do a goddamn thing but still say they support you.
I'm not a child and it's been years since I've been a teenager and why I still try to please you I don't think I'll ever understand. Why your words still have an affect on me I cannot comprehend. I thought I cut my heart of you long ago, though apparently I was mistaken as with only a few times with feeling like an equal I'm running back to you. I'm a fool and a moron in a completely different way than you'll ever imagine of accusing me of.
Just..... what the hell. And that was a lot more rant than I planned on ranting.