Penning Photography Daily

Solo

From a cold Winter’s day of almost a year ago.

At Washington Park lagoon, while capturing images of various ducks and geese, these gulls were the bandits in the sky. Always on the prowl for food. Swooping down whenever someone tossed bread or whatever to the birds.

This one is particularly interesting to me. It’s hard for me to capture birds in flight. I have a Red Dot Sight (RDS), which hunters use to assist in tracking moving wildlife. It uses mirrors and a lens along with a red LED (light emitting diode) to superimpose a red dot on your object of interest, your target. I hold the camera at arms length and line up the red dot in the RDS with the bird and snap away. It increases my good to total shot ratio for fast moving objects. Some folk use an RDS for airplane photos. I use it for birds.

I was drawn to this picture today by it’s solo character.

I have been feeling a bit solo lately. My bride, Karen, has been in Chicago for a week on business. The nights have been long. I miss her so, when she is away. I go to pick her up in a few minutes after writing this. I’m looking forward to having her at my side once again.

Solo isn’t a bad thing. We’re each solo all the time, but also connected to everyone else. All the time, whether I acknowledge it or not. I have hope for all my solo brethren in this crazy world of ours. Some days that hope’s a bit hard to find, but I always do find it.