Commence Buck Fever

I never did hunting of any sort as a child, with the exception of maybe shooting at some barn swallows with my BB gun. That is, until I met my wife. Oh…no, she doesn’t hunt. Her father does. This was kind of a rite of passage for me into her family. I had big ideas of taking down a big buck upon stepping foot into the woods, with her family patting me on the back–beaming with pride. 10 years later…nothing. I never even pulled the trigger on one (I had a few does almost run me over–I could’ve stuck my leg out to trip them up while running past me).

That’s why they call it hunting, not killing (actually “harvesting” is the politically-correct term).

It would be nice to “harvest” a deer. Or so I’m told. I’m not real sure how I would do if ever presented the opportunity. Why, you might ask? Well, never having a whitetail closer the 100-yards from me, I never thought I’d feel that “buck fever” that a newbie hunter experiences. Until I started shooting at them with my Canon. That’s right, for now I’m going to try to “harvest” them with my camera. I still get a similar thrill of the hunt, and the rush of adrenaline also known as “buck fever”. I’ve heard about this before, but never realized what it can do to you, until I had walked into a “whitetail bedroom” during rut season. There were about 20 deer, half of which were bucks, and with all the snorting, grunting and crushing of stick and leaves, I just sort of froze. When you experience buck-fever, you don’t think clearly, you’re shaking from head-to-toe and it really dampens your shooting skills, whether it be a camera or a gun. With the wealth of county and state parks in the Twin Cities metro area, it’s real easy to get out with my camera, so hopefully I can calm the “buck fever” before I get back to the real thing.

I haven’t totally given up on hunting, and look forward to being able to take my kids out with me when they’re older. But this year I look forward to sharing some images with you right here. Stay tuned! Until then, below are some from the past. Feel free to comment below, to share some of your shots with me!

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Scratchings

From my sketchbook

Scratchings

Napoleon as a child

 

Wildlife Photography: Giving the Bird (a home)

 

 

An article by Outdoor Photographer Patti Fowler.

I’m excited! For the 3rd year running it looks like I will have American Kestrels nesting in my backyard.

The first year we saw it happen from the beginning when the male came in to check out the wood duck box to see if it would be a suitable nesting site all the way through to the last of the fledglings leaving the box.

We were first able to get pictures of the eggs and the baby chicks when they were about 2-3 days old. Just a few days later my neighbor and I were walking out to the box to get more “growing up fast” shots when we saw the female fly into the box. We thought she was just going in to feed and would be coming right back out. We waited for 15 minutes or so and she still hadn’t flown back out. With expert knowledge that Kestrels are tolerant of humans while nesting and that they never abandon a nest, we decided to try and get images of the female with the chicks. We were quick and respectful—limiting the picture-taking time to a count of 15 for each of us. The female Kestrel never even moved. It was an opportunity that I will never forget.

We continued to monitor the fledglings as they grew and eventually got brave enough to hang out in the hole of the wood duck box, screeching for one of the parents to bring them food. Did I mention the screeching? It is loud and insistent. After a full day of sitting by the box and listening to them, I thought I’d been to a rock concert!

Eventually it would be time to leave the nest, so we spent the entire 4th of July week sitting with fingers on shutters waiting for the big moment.

One flew out overnight or early morning. We saw him flying in the area, but we missed seeing it happen. The remaining birds were just frantic screeching, bouncing in and out of the hole and twisting their heads every which way searching for their “lost” sibling. One leaned out a little too far and ended up half in/half out of the box with one wing extended and flapping on the outside. He finally got control of his wayward wing and fell back in the box. If you listened closely, you could almost hear the sigh of relief.

Over the next couple of days the remaining birds came out and stuck close to home until the last bird clumsily flew, no…make that fell out. He cleverly “climbed” up the ladder we had  there to reconnect with the rest of his Kestrel siblings. While they were  getting used to their wings, both my neighbor and I were able to get within 10 feet of them to get the final portraits before the parents showed them how wings are supposed to be used.

In year two we added an IR video  camera and were able to see one of them pecking its way out of the shell.

I can’t wait for what this year will bring.

You can also visit http://www.windigoimages.com/ and type in “Patti Fowler” into the search bar to see more of Patti’s wildlife photography.

See Patti Fowler’s American Kestrels and more at GraphicLake.

Listen to an American Kestrel and learn more about them at WhatBird.com.

Organizing Your Workload: Are You Thinking Like a 5-Year Old?

My 5-year old son seems to have an interest in science. So much that he talks about me helping him recreate experiments he saw on “Bill Nye the Science Guy” DVDs that he watched at school.

He also asked me if I knew how storms were made. He continued, …”the warm air from the earth hypervates (he meant evaporates) and rises and meets the cold air in the atmosphere and creates moisture!”

This is going somewhere–I think…

He also pondered: “How can you weigh all the scales in the world?” I said, “put them on a scale.” But then he said “but I mean ALL the scales!’ I said, “well, take one scale and weigh it, then add that weight to the total weight of the others.” He proceeded “the scale would need to be big enough to weigh all the others and then you’d need 2 scales the same size in order to weigh the main big one, or it would break.

The conclusion: don’t weigh them all at once.

As web designers we all struggle with the need to update our portfolios, finish design projects that we’ve taken on, finding new clients, your real job, and spending time enjoying life with family and friends. When looking at your workload, be it design or just projects around the house, don’t try to do them all at once. You might want to, but it’s just not possible. So stop thinking like a 5-year old and just do a little at a time and only do the important things first. First off for me will be trying to explain the Theory of Relativity to a 5-year old, then on to improving www.graphiclake.com or www.ljsickmann.com, or maybe I’ll take a nap…this is too much weight to bare.

Here’s a great article from Freelance Apple to help you get things done. It’s simple, but it works!

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Going the extra mile

I recently entered @FrankPeak contest on Twitter and I won, simply by retweeting and then was selected randomly. I won a pack of 4 buttons! That was fantastic, but Frank went the extra mile by including great custom illustrations on the envelope (front and back) and on an inclosed postcard! Check out frankpeak.com to check out some of his excellent work and more buttons! My fav is the “Dooley” animation–that song is in my head CONSTANTLY!