Always have a camera

This is something I am learning... I carry a Canon Power shot with me whenever I am on two wheels. A small camera but takes great photos and even has a decent zoom. I really love the art of Photography and recently purchased a Nikon D60 digital SLR camera. Sam & I now both have digital SLRs and we have taken to doing photo safaris whenever possible. Our skills are minimal but we are trying... we just keep taking pictures. The only way to learn is by doing - fortunately, with digital cameras it is fairly easy to tell if a photo might turn out ok.

Couple weeks ago we visited Sam's sister in her place in Alachua, this is a 4 1/2 hour drive but we took the scenic route and took our time. We stopped at several parks to practice using our cameras. The results were mixed -- we took lots of pictures but only a few were worthwhile. Eventually, we will get better and take more useful shots and fewer out-of-focus ones.


We discovered a number of parks we had not heard of... we will return and explore each park more completely.
One park in particular was truly amazing. We entered one of the Big Bend Wildlife management area and headed to the Hickory Mound Impoundment. We drove down this dirt road that seemed to go forever. We began to wonder if the drive off the highway was going to be worth it. Then we turned a bend and discover the impoundment, wow! A huge marsh area that is a birder's paradise! In a short amount of time we saw numerous birds. Totally Awesome! We are looking forward to coming back throughout the year, this area is part of a migration path for many species especially in the winter cycle.

June weekend

This first weekend of June has been very pleasant. A wedding in the family brought many of us together to celebrate the start of a new chapter in the lives of two families. The ceremony was done in the Episcopal church the groom grew up with, the bride was beautiful of course and at the couple's request, the festivities were kept low-key without much pomp & circumstances... it was nice.

We used this event as an excuse to explore the countryside.
We took our sweet time driving into town, traveled a new route. I have a new camera, a Nikon D60 DSLR and I was excited at the prospect to try it out. I love taking pictures, capturing a moment in time and seeing the unique beauty of the moment. Photography is an art form -- I am a fledgling student of the craft. We saw numerous birds (which I have discovered are VERY hard to capture in the camera) and we have found this new route is a pleasant drive. We even realized at least 4 new locations to put in our canoes/kayaks that we have not tried yet.

Although summer has not officially begun, in Southern Georgia it seems the Summer season is in full swing. At one of our stops, we discovered an enormous field of wild blackberries. Gorgeous!
Seeing these berries brought back memories of childhood, picking buckets of the berries (eating twice as many as made it to Grandma's kitchen) and watching blackberry "doobie" made by grandma and Ma-Ma (my great-grandmother) basically a cooked down fruit with rolled dough cooked in the fruit -- a cobbler without crust. Yummmmm! One of those dishes I never did learn how to make. I may ask Mom if she remembers how so I can take a stab at re-creating a childhood memory. :-)