Apr 2, 2014 | Random Thoughts
but it wasn’t just ten minutes ago …..
Lying in bed about an hour ago when there was crash in the kitchen. One, single, noise. Sharon says, “There’s a critter in the house.” I go back to sleep.
Thirty minutes later, our dog jumps up in the bed and is lying there not really sleeping. I’ve gone back to sleep.
At 0400, I hear another loud noise upstairs so I’m sent to investigate. I have our dog with me and I no sooner turn the corner into the living room from the stairs then I see a gray flash going behind the TV, our dog in hot pursuit.
I get our dog downstairs, a net and Sharon upstairs and for the next ten minutes it is Loony Tune time as I chase a flying squirrel around the living room. Did you know them suckers are fast?!
The squirrel finally went down the stairs and hit the tile floor where it meet its match. The tile floor! It did a burn out on the tile not able to move an inch. No traction. I netted it and released it back on tree outside.
So, how did you spend your 0400 this morning?
Feb 4, 2014 | Random Thoughts
Sharon & I have spent a lot of time working with kids over the decades, sharing our passion for our wild heritage with them but this is a first. An “impersonator” went in my stead and it sounds like he was a HUGE success. We want to thank Mike for sharing the passion though the lack of a mustache is the dead give away!
Thanks Mike!!!!
Hi Moose,
Today was dress as your favorite character day at my elementary school. I dressed up as you (as best I could!) and had the students who were still in costume come down at the end of the day while our librarian snapped a photo. I went into each classroom during the day and showed them my “Moose Peterson ID” (the plastic sleeve on my photog jacket). I explained that you were a world famous wildlife photographer—and that you helped save endangered species. This made you quite popular! I told them to go home and google your website so you may get 500 hits over the weekend!
Enjoy,
Mike Schwinden, Principal
Mitchell Elementary School
Needham, MA
Jan 20, 2014 | Random Thoughts
His words make you think, his photos make you feel. Perfect!
Jan 9, 2014 | Random Thoughts
I was flooded with emails from an image I posted on G+ yesterday in regards to my comment, “rejected.” “How can you take rejection” one emailer asked. Another simply said, “You get rejected at this point in your career?” Failure is part of photography, from the taking of the image to getting it printed in a magazine and a whole lot more. Living in the editorial world, I have a filing cabinet drawer full of rejection notices, and that’s before the days of email! You have a lot of ways you can take rejection. In the world of editorial, I always ask why the images didn’t work. In the early years, it was because the images sucked and I often got an ear full how I could improve. Taking heed of what I was told, my photography improved. That’s how it works, you learn and grow. When rejection happens now, it’s not an image quality issue, it’s a simple, the photo didn’t work for the story being told. Now I still ask why, what’s missing because storytelling is very important to me. But I don’t take any of this personally, I embrace it as a learning possibility even if it hurts.
May 25, 2013 | Random Thoughts
Your service, patriotism or passion!
May 8, 2013 | Random Thoughts
After posting a photo of the B-26, I received an email from a reader. It told telling me about his father, a WWII vet and B-26 pilot who really liked the photo I had blogged. I sent the dad two prints of the aircraft, a small gesture of thanks for his service. …this is why we must share our photography!
I wanted to let you know my father received the prints you mailed him. They are absolutely gorgeous and he was so excited and happy to see them. He pours over every detail and keeps telling me what a good airplane that was. I asked him what he liked best about flying. He got very still and quite for a long minute, then smiled and said “cloud hopping, the sense of speed”. For a moment he was back in 1942, young and strong and confident, a 21 year old Citadel cadet, flying the most advanced aircraft in the world with all of life still ahead of him. He wasn’t just remembering his youth he was reliving it, feeling what he felt over 70 years ago. What is such a moment worth when you are 92, nearing the end and in constant pain from arthritis and cancer? Everything.
