I’m pretty sure this is actually the first robin I’ve seen this year. I ran out to Fox Island over the weekend and he was flying around eating berries off of the Sumac bushes. (You can just see the berry in his beak in the larger shot) I’m guessing pickings are kind of slim for a robin in Indiana at the end of February.

First Robin of Spring

Sadly, I don’t have one of those huge telephoto lenses that costs as much as a used car (and I’d probably never carry it around if I did), so I had to make do with a little wider framing. Considering I was experimenting around with old manual-focus lenses, I’m pretty pleased with what I got.

Since I was stuck inside at Luke’s place last week during the snow, I felt obliged to take the camera out and test out the weathersealing. Calvin (their dog) was more than happy to provide me with a moving target to practice tracking objects.

Calvin #1

It was a task that played well to his strengths. He is, of course, a naturally helpful dog…

Luke & Calvin

Calvin #2

Oaks, North Mountain, Maryland

Appalachian Trail #1

Earlier this month, I took a week and headed out East to do some hiking on the Appalachian Trail. We set off from Harper’s Ferry, WV, and hiked north into Maryland (and then back). We lucked out on the weather (it only rained one night) and were fortunate to avoid any injuries or encounters with bears.

The trip was a bit of a bust photographically; once we got up onto the ridge there were only a couple of spots where we could see anything through the trees. So I don’t really have many of the sweeping smoky vistas that you see from other parts of the trail like Shenandoah or the Smokies. I did come back with a few good shots though, and I’ll be posting some of them over the next few weeks.

As a reminder, you can click on the inline images in my posts to view larger versions.

Wreckage #2

This is the reverse view of the shot from a couple posts ago.

C.A. 1926

Obviously the barn had been there for at least 80 years before giving in to the elements. Insert obligatory comment about how “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” here.

Wreckage

There were some extremely high winds a few weeks ago that tore the roof completely off the barn and blew one side in. In case it’s not obvious from the photo, there’s not a whole lot to block the wind out there.