#Humility #AdventWord

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What is more humble in all creation than the sparrow? When humans are not trying to shoo them away from our feeders for “serious” birds, or otherwise treating them like a nuisance, we tend to pay them little mind. The Bible uses the sparrow to make a point about God’s extravagant attention to even minor, inconsequential details–like sparrows. Sparrows are small, commonplace and nondescript. Or so we think. Until something happens that draws our attention to them in a new way. For me it was the snow and ice storm of February 2021 that grounded dozens of hungry birds in…

Creature Encounters

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I can’t think of much that is more gratifying than an up-close and personal encounter with one of the scores of amazing creatures with which we share this planet. I use hashtags to identify themes in my photography, so go online and search for #CreatureEncounters. You’ll find more of my fave works. Recognize, of course, that when I say “up close,” I am speaking relatively. I never was very close to the osprey and its prey in Angel of Death. But our encounter extended for a 15 to 20 minute period as I followed the bird clutching its prey from…

Catching up…

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Some years start out slow. This one did. Then all of a sudden I have images in three shows and haven’t said a word bout it. So here goes. “World Untamed”–what a super show theme! Right up my alley, don’t you think? Marin Society of Artists is hosting the show in their Virtual Gallery from March 30 through May 30. You’ll be able to see the show here. Many thanks to juror Paul Kratter for selecting my work. Urban Osprey was a natural to submit to this show. The very civilized telephone poles in the background put in high relief…

December: Birds & Blooms

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I shoot lots of both! It’s a fitting way to end this special edition of #YearInReview, giving you a glimpse of my world for the past two years. December 9, 2022 – The older I get the more I prefer the dead and dying flowers. That’s not at all a morbid thought. Truly, it’s not. I love so much the shapes they take as the petals dry: twisted, crinkled, yet graceful. Their colors reach a peak of intensity. Their age spots dignify them. May I age so beautifully, eloquently. December 26, 2023 – Goal achieved: An American Kestrel (Falco sparvarius)…

July: Count Them if You Can

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Hot. July 2023 was hot, hot, hot. It is perfectly sane and respectable to just stay indoors in Louisiana in a normal July, and July 2023 was hotter than most. But you can’t see or count butterflies indoors, so…. a bunch of the incurable fortify themselves with bottles of water, field hats, and energy snacks, and out they go. July 31, 2022 – Knowing which flowers to plant is hugely helpful if you want to attract butterflies to your home, and Charles Allen wrote a book about it!* So counting butterflies at Allen Acres is great fun. Beauties like this…