We owe you all so much, thank you is the least we can say to you everyday. Here’s some thoughts for us all to consider on Memorial Day.

Heres a few surprising things you probably didn’t know about Memorial Day:

1. It commemorates the end of the Civil War. Freed slaves and Union troops held the earliest Memorial Day celebrations in May 1865 – just a few weeks after the fighting ended.

2. Memorial Day was first celebrated on May 1 or May Day. The first recorded Memorial Day observance occurred on May 1, 1865, when U.S. Troops and freed slaves celebrated in Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston was the city where the Civil War started with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861.

3. Memorial Day is also about prisoners of war (POWs). The first Memorial Day celebration in Charleston on May 1, 1865, was held to consecrate the graves of 250 Union prisoners who died while in prison. The prisoners were called the “Martyrs of the Race Course” because the camp where the prisoners were kept was constructed at the site of a former horserace track.

4. Memorial Day is a Christian holiday. The original Memorial Day in 1865 was marked by the singing of hymns, and readings from the Bible.

5. Memorial Day has been celebrated historically May 30, not the last Monday in May.

6. Memorial Day became an official holiday in 1868. Union war hero General John A. Logan organized the first Memorial Day and designated May 30, 1868, as the first official celebration.

7. Logan chose the date because no Civil War battles were fought on the day. He was hoping to promote peace by not reviving wartime hatreds.

8. General Logan was the head of the first modern veterans’ organization; the Grand Army of the Republic, which represented Union veterans. Logan Street in Denver and Logan Circle in Washington D.C. have been named after the General.

9. Memorial Day was first celebrated by African Americans. Most of the participants in the first Memorial Day celebration in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1865 were freed slaves. They wanted to thank the Union soldiers who had liberated them as well as celebrate their freedom.

10. Memorial Day is a celebration of freedom. The first Memorial Day was organized by former slaves who also wanted to give thanks to God and to the fallen Union soldiers for their freedom.

11. Memorial Day was originally called “Declaration Day” by General Logan. The term Memorial Day was adopted by ex-Confederates in the South who did not want to celebrate a holiday they felt was confined to the Union.

12. Memorial Day did not become a federal holiday until 1971. An act of Congress in that year created the modern Memorial Day by designating the last Monday in May as a national holiday.

13. Southerners did not start celebrating Memorial Day until 1886 when the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Georgia, held a service to commemorate the Confederate War Dead.

14. Some states hold separate “Memorial Days,” nine Southern States still recognize Confederate Memorial Day; which falls either on the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, or the day General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died.

15. Ironically enough, Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own Confederate troops. On May 2, 1863, Confederate infantry mistook Jackson and his staff for Union Calvary and opened fire on them after the battle of Chancellorsville. Jackson was hit and died eight days later from the wounds and other complications.

16. Even though the first celebration was held in 1865 in Charleston, South Carolina. Waterloo, New York, was recognized as the official birthplace of Memorial Day by federal legislation in 1966. Waterloo was one of the first towns to close businesses to honor the war dead in 1866.

17. Over 20 towns around the United States claim to be the “birthplace of Memorial Day.” Communities that claim to have held the first Memorial Day festivities include; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, Columbus, Georgia, Columbus, Mississippi, and Carbondale Illinois.

18. Americans are supposed to pause for a “National Moment of Remembrance” at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day. Congress passed a resolution encouraging such a moment in 2000.

19. The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day (May 30) 1922.

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Whether you’re just starting out or have been shooting critters for decades, you will be explore a new locale for the first time to see if it is a productive photographic locale. You do your homework, you talk to folks who have shot there, perhaps even hired a guide who says he knows the secret spot, you’ve seen the photos from there and yet when you go, nothing, nada, zilch! This has happened to me countless times, just happened again. I call it getting skunked. Back in the day it hurt as money and time were too tight to comeback with no images to show for my effort. The one thing it did do was harden me to the simple fact that just because I show up doesn’t mean the critters will. In the last few weeks I went to a new place for Kodiak Browns which turned out to be way beyond my wildest dreams of a shoot. Then came back to a new place on the Alaska mainland for Bald Eagles which was a total bust. It’s just the way of the world which I now know and accept. In fact, it inspires me to get out even more often, more intently and with more of a smile in my heart knowing those times it does all work out are just that much more sweeter. It’s the way of the wildlife photographer, things from time to time are simply not as advertised.

Renting is a great solution for so many situations in photography. The number one is trying a piece of gear before you buy it to make sure it’s really what you need. The trick here is to rent for at least a week and over at least one weekend. You want time to shoot with it, look at the images and then shoot some more. While you might think the price tag is hefty doing this, it is a lot less then buying that piece of equipment and then finding out it’s the wrong one for your photography. And now there’s an added reason why renting might be the thing to do. With the ripple effect of the pandemic on manufacturing of everything from refrigerators and computers to our cameras, some pieces of gear are simply not available at the moment. Rental houses though have inventory that you can take advantage of for your shoot. You’ve planned that great trip and planned on obtaining that new piece of gear for it, don’t sweat it, just rent it. Photography must go on!

I’m up in Alaska shooting and the one reason why it’s so green in summer is because it rains a lot. I keep on shooting in the rain because I know that as long as I can take it, so can my camera gear. That’s because I always have a clean, white, hand towel with me. If I’m not staying at a lodge, I take one with me. Otherwise, I “borrow” a clean one each day from the lodge to use (returning at the end of the day and grabbing another clean, dry one for the next day). This is NOT to cover up my gear when it’s raining or snowing. This is to take care of the gear AFTER I’m done shooting and before the gear goes back in the bag.

The weather never worries when it comes to my gear. My simple rule of thumb is if I can handle the rain, so can my gear. The key is this simple, the ambiguous white towel. If I’m going out shooting in the elements, then the towel is inside my jacket staying dry. If my gear gets wet, the front filter has drops on it, I use the towel to blot it off. Here’s the key to this, NEVER wipe your gear dry. You must BLOT it dry! Wiping will force the moisture into places it must not go. Blotting permits the towel to soak up the moisture. I use a clean, white, dry hand towel because it absorbs so quickly and easily. And being white, it there is dirt on my gear, I will quickly know so I can deal with it later when inside. Many like the microfiber clothes, I do not for this purpose because they don’t absorb as quickly and speed is everything. Things like lens hoods can be wiped dry as they have no crevices nor electronics. Zoom lenses that are zoomed out can be wiped off and must be prior to being zoomed back in. All other surfaces, blot them dry. I’ve done this for four decades and have never had a piece of gear go down on me. It’s why a white towel is an essential tool in my bag!