Caddo Lake TX is by most hours, just a purdy lake. At sunrise and sunset it takes on a totally different personality, one that can be described as dramatic and romantic. I’m back for my second week to shoot here, this time for the fall color. Leaving the dock before 06:00, we motor out under the expertise of Capt Rich to the location he thinks will bring us the best sunrise. Yesterday morning he nailed it, as he always does! The glory of the morning you can see below in the 24mm view below. I wanted to speak more of the ancient cypress so picked up the Z600f4 TC, engaged the 1.4x and shot through the bows. Both say differently the same story of the morning for me, the drama of dawn.

Our feathered friends bring so much joy with their very existence! Their diversity in size, shape, form, color and life is often hard to all take in as they do nothing more then go about their daily lives. And for photographers and birders, they bring us a challenge that few other subjects come close to doing. How do you find them or how do you get close or how about figuring out who they are or what they will do next? And the real big question, how to you make that photograph that brings back all the wonders that is, a bird? Looking forward to your joining us! Click here for more details and to register.

As I sat there in that moment on a cold, hard, metal seat in the bottom of the boat, I was swept away by the moment! Before me is a mother Kodiak Brown Bear who had never seen me before just fifteen feet away. Behind her on the shore were her two, eight month old cubs doing those cute things cubs do so naturally. I couldn’t afford to burst out in the laughter that was inside as that would literally, rock the boat. The mom continued to snorkel as she caught salmon coming closer and closer with no hesitation. I had dialed in what I wanted for white balance, exposure compensation, shot at 400mm rather than 560mm and was as low in the boat as I could physically get. The moment, the experience, the encounter was perfection! It is one of many special memories critters have afforded me over the years. I am incredibly fortunate.

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit … Wisdom is knowing not to use it in a fruit salad! You can point your lens and capture one background, repoint and reshoot to capture a subject and then point in another direction for another and then later, assemble the pieces to make one click. And a year from now after doing all of that, what will your memory of the moment, the photograph, bring to your heart? Photography is and will always remain the way we can stop time, capture memories. When you look back on your photographs that you cherish, you need to know what made that moment special!