Shuttered.

I admit it: I have a thing for shutters. Especially exterior ones that really work. Lucky for me, living in an area that has seen European settlement for the past 300 years means there are a goodly number of extant shutters. Most are so layered in decades of paint I doubt they actually work anymore (given the increasing frequency of hurricanes, the home owners might want to look into that...) but they did at one time--they weren't just there for looks like most shutters are today.

I am particularly drawn to the "shutter dogs"--the hardware that holds the shutter open against the building. There are only so many colors and hinges that are used on shutters, but the shutter dogs seem to vary quite a lot.

These are from two buildings. The green-on-white are on the Cresse-Holmes house that houses the Cape May County Historical Museum's collection of artifacts. The green-on-yellow are the book bindery in Historic Cold Spring Village.

All photos taken with a Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic.

Ten Minute Snapshot of My Life

Ten minute snapshot of my life... In snapshots.

How things work in my life: I went out to pick up some bamboo tips from where I'd tossed them last year because I finally figured out a use for them. Saw a wee snail in a patch of fantastic light, thought it would make a neat picture. Went for the camera, snail was cruising and had nearly managed to get out of sight by the time I made it back outside so I picked up the piece of bamboo it was on, scaring the snail. Snapped photo anyway:

While waiting for snail to re-emerge, out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement under the tree a couple feet away and looked more closely to discover it was a spreadwing damselfly... First for the yard, woohoo! Bad lighting but I took a documentary photo anyway:

The snail being stubborn, I was then sidetracked by the way the light was hitting the milkweed blossoms farther past the tree. (You can actually see the pink blur in the background of the above photo.) I walked around for better angle on damselfly and for photos of the milkweed. Scared the damselfly, took flower photos:

(Oh, snap! Much better than they appeared through the viewfinder, what with all the sweat running into my eyes. Did I mention it was broiling outside and only ten o'clock in the morning--?) Looked up from the flowers in time to notice the damselfly settling back down. Took poor photo but perfectly adequate for an ID: Slender Spreadwing. You can even see the diagnostic pale veins on the end of its wings.

Spooked damsel again. (Must learn not to wear white when creeping around my yard chasing small insects...) Went back to look for snail: Gone. Those things can really boogie when they want to.

New damselfly for the yard list and a flower photo I'm tickled over: Well worth the mosquito bites. And I now have an idea for creating a leaf litter tray for future snail photo sessions... :) And the reason I went for the bamboo sticks in the first place?

Typical way the "stream of consciousness" path of my life tends to go. Eh, I'll take it.

Lensbaby Laurels.

Mountain Laurels, that is.

Kinda weird to have “mountain” laurels without mountains. We're lucky if high points in the county reach 20 feet above sea level! (We do have pine/oak habitat along the north edge, so in this case I guess vegetation trumps topography.)

Of course, I will also once again give laurels to the Lensbaby System. It’s perfect; it’s just the photographer who needs to learn to check the f-stop before hitting the shutter button and record which lens she’s using for which shots…

I actually remembered to check the status of the flowering (a thought prompted by a friend in North Carolina's posted photo of blooming mountain laurel) and so I finished off a day of errands by driving up to Belleplain State Forest late in the afternoon last week. Had to play a bit of peek-a-boo with cloud cover, but I lucked out and hit what looked like mid-bloom.

I was a bit startled to discover (upon sticking my nose into one of those bouquets) that these flowers have, for all intents and purposes, no aroma whatsoever...

Play Date.

Taking advantage of the fact we are (much to my surprise) having a Real Spring, I purposefully went on a wander earlier this week with my new Lensbaby system--a set of creative lenses that basically do special effects in-camera (saving hours of time at the computer messing around with an image editing program that I don't really know how to use anyway).

I made a point of stopping at two of my "must photograph here some day" locations: An old, old house still standing (barely) on the side of Route 47 and an even older cemetery in Cold Spring. Here's a sampling including stops at Cape May Point State Park on the same afternoon and Belleplain State Forest the following morning; many of these photos will develop into blog posts of their own.

One unexpected bonus of the Lensbaby lenses is that even though they were made specifically for "creative" work, the resulting photographs don't have to shout Special Effects! Because they are quality optics you can be quite subtle; this shot was taken in Belleplain State Forest with the Edge 80:

Even if a half-inch long butterfly lands a few feet away from you while you are shooting landscapes, you can crop like crazy and still end up with a decent image. (American Copper, one of two that fluttered past me in the cemetery.)

North end of Reeds Beach -

Shorebird Banding starts today!

Incidental Scenery.

I had mentioned my search for skunk cabbage in bloom to a man who surveys the local butterfly populations (and therefore knows the nooks and crannies of the county very well) who sent me off to some wet woods I had not visited for years. I missed finding any flowers until, just before leaving the place, I used my binoculars to take a second, closer look at a spot right where I had entered the property. I did find the skunk cabbage but it wasn’t as nice as the first batch I had found.

But I was glad I had taken the time to stop because I had forgotten how pretty a particular little stretch of the acreage was. I had the “wrong” lens for shooting landscapes (and was too lazy to go all the way back to the truck) but I managed a handful of shots that didn’t turn out too badly. (Hooray for really good equipment, even if the lens is primarily for macro photography.)

One reason I tend to shoot wide: I knew there was something to be found in taking few shots of the iced-in leaves without the sweet gum ball, but what the camera grabbed was not quite what I had in mind. Hefty cropping and exposure adjustment and BAM! That’s more like it.

The light was lovely, too... (That lichen should be attached to a twig of a tree by the little pale dot lower right; the twig that looks to be extending from it is not part of the lichen. There is a lot of such lichen on the ground after this winter.)

More warm fuzzies...

Bay Springs Farm Alpacas

Just a sampling of the herd. All different sizes, shapes and colors. (And personalities.)

(Is she a cutie or what?)

(The white one is standing on his back legs to peer over the fence.

There's an open gate just off to the left but it seems this way was is more fun.)

Leonardo! (They all have names but I only remember his.)

(The herd in the front of the farm are apparently not

visited as frequently as those behind the shop.

I was met with great suspicion when I went to take their photos...)

Warm Fuzzies.

I happen to know the owner of an alpaca farm located right around the corner from a reported skunk cabbage spot I went to check out last weekend, so I added the little llamas/mini-camels to my errands for the day. Alas, I remembered my shopping list but not the extra bag of carrots I happened to have and figured would make suitable rewards for beasties one hopes to cajole into being good models. Luckily the owner was well-supplied with crunchy munchies. Too bad the beasties weren't happy unless I was stuffing carrots into their mouths. Fair dues, most animals don't like to be petted by strangers and really don't like a great big eye being pointed at them, and herbivores tend to be jumpier than most. But other than twitching just as I got the camera aimed and focused, we managed.

And yes, they spit.

(Teeth of a grazer: serious teeth on the bottom, none to speak of on top. And just like some pet bunnies, one might even need a little Dremel-ing to help with an underbite every now and then.)

Interesting animals. Lots of body language and surprisingly verbal, as well. They look a bit like a cross between a camel and a sheep. And those eyes! Must be a grazer thing, those big brown orbs: Horses, cattle, deer, alpacas all have them…

Cloven hooves for nimble dancing. (Of course she stopped when I turned on the video!) And those long necks are great for wrestling.

Went back the next day because I realized I hadn't taken photos of the end product! While lovely in the natural colors and able to be dyed just about any shade, the real beauty of alpaca fiber is the feel--like silk...