Little Miracles

A female robin decided to build a nest in the wisteria that climbs under the eaves along our front porch.  And thus, for the past couple of weeks,  we have had just the best time watching mama bring twigs and mud to fashion her nursery; we saw her sit and sit for about 10 days; and then we grinned like proud grandparents when we noticed little baby heads peeking out from the nest.

We were careful to give mama and babies their space (the above image was shot with a 600mm lens.) And, on the day that the babies left the nest for the first time, we kept our dogs leashed and made sure no neighborhood cats came near.

As I readied the image of the robin family for this post, another photograph came to mind, something I shot recently as a gift for a young woman, I'd guess in her early 20's,  who just had her first baby.  The woman was a phenomenal runner when she was in high school in the town where I live, and was a Pac 12 star in college. I have kind of hero-worshiped her from afar.

Because a really good runner's feet are -- in my mind at least -- kind of akin to wings, I thought these two images paired together nicely.

Whole Milk

After spending most of July in and around the very high mountains of Northern India and Nepal, returning to Seattle and sea level made August my Superman Month.  Everything physical that I have done now that I’m home --  like running trails near my house, or even hiking in the Cascades -- has felt so ridiculously easy.  The air here is like rich, fat-filled whole milk, compared to the non-fat, skim milk atmosphere of the Himalayas.

I lost weight on our trip,  but feel now like I’m gaining it back, just by breathing.

The pictures I’m posting today are images I’ve shot on hikes in the Cascades during Superman August.  Above is Sherman Peak on Mt. Baker as seen from the Ptarmigan Ridge Trail. Below are wildflowers along Lost Creek Ridge near Glacier Peak.

I miss the adventure and excitement of India and Nepal, but, at the same time, it does feel good to be home and enjoying a Pacific Northwest summertime (oh yes, the living is easy.)

 

Obsessions

I was on the cross country team when I was in high school many (MANY!) years ago, and to this day I run (or bicycle or hike) nearly every day.  Last week I was in Ohio visiting my mother -- she still lives in the same house where I grew up -- and my morning running routes were familiar to me indeed because I was covering the same sidewalks and roadways I ran 40-some years ago.

Running is by far my favorite kind of workout, but, photographically speaking,  it does have one downside: It is pretty much the only thing I do where I don’t have a camera with me...not even a phone camera. I sometimes wonder how many photographic possibilities I cruise right past and don’t even see when I’m running (however it's best that I not think about that, because, though I might be O.C. about exercise,  I’m more obsessive about making pictures.)

I was in Ohio for four days and I ran two mornings and the other days I went for one-hour walks, one of which was in fresh snow. It was that day that these two images were made. The above picture was “found” while the other was “arranged,” and I go back-and-forth about which I prefer.  I’ve put both photographs on my iPad,  and, as I review work in the coming months, maybe I’ll decide one is better than the other. 

Or maybe I should just go do a workout and think about the images. After all,  forty years of running, cycling and hiking have given me the certain knowledge (wink wink) that a brain swimming in endorphins can find answers to nearly all of Life’s Questions.