Three years ago I was discussing photography with a fellow photographer, pictured below.  We were discussing places for good photography in the DC-Baltimore vicinity and he mentioned Shenandoah Valley.  He also showed me some photos of deer he had gotten there.  He was pretty impressed with how close he got to the deer (although - spoiler - I eventually got closer).  I was impressed with the deer photos and his description of Shenandoah Valley.  I resolved to visit it.

It’s been nearly a month since I put up the bird feeders in our house and I have been enjoying them nearly every day since then.  In fact, the only negative has been the cost of bird food.  But, as my mother-in-law put it, I get the benefits of having birds without the hassle of having them as pets.  At first we had a few birds visiting the feeders each day.  Now, during the busy bird breakfast hours, we get multiple birds at once.  Interestingly, on the whole, the birds to not fight with each other.  Rather, if there are more birds than spots at the feeder, they will queue up on nearby branches.  I was very surprised by this behaviour because I thought they would surely fight over this nearly infinite food source.

Wow, it was a lot warmer this time of year last year.  Right now it’s in the 40s-50s outside.  Couldn’t dress like this now.

See the photojojo page on the web.

Things have changed a bit since last time, so I decided to once again cover what flickr thinks my 20 most interesting photos are.

A few days ago, Mai told me that photos of landscapes make her feel lonely.  That really caught me by surprise.  The usual response to photos such as the one above is one of awe.  People usually feel a new appreciation for nature and/or that spot.  And, sometimes, people express a desire to visit that place too in order to experience it themselves.  But I never thought someone could look at a landscape and feel a sense of loneliness.  (Unless, of course, the photographer meant to invoke loneliness by selecting a certain type of photo or white balance)

My latest Photojojo capsule.

One in 1,600,000.  That’s odds of randomly meeting someone I know in NYC excluding my wife’s family.  And yet, due to construction on the Q line, Danielle and I found ourselves on the bus with Katy Ho, who we hadn’t seen since graduation.

I’ve often remarked to my wife that it was odd we hadn’t seen any friends in New York.  And she always reminds me that New York has eight million people and the likelihood of anyone we know being in the same place as us is pretty slim.  I know this is true, but I strangely feel as if New York is a more intimate place.  I think it has to do with the fact that because there are eight million people there, you’re almost never walking alone on a street.  The city seems to be overflowing with people and it seems inevitable that you’d meet someone you know by chance.  But that’s just an example of how bad the human mind is at figuring out probability.  Katy was coming home from yoga and dinner with some friends.  And if the train tracks hadn’t been under construction, we would never have met up.

Recently I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot of people repeating some version of the mantra, “a great photographer can make a great photograph with any camera.”  They’ve then been following this up with, “therefore, why not just use an iPhone or point and shoot.  There’s no reason to buy an SLR anymore.”  Like everything else in life, the truth is gray rather than black and white.

Almost since we moved into our house we’ve been fascinated by the birds we have seen in our front and back yards.  Both the wife and I love birding in general and I love photographing birds.  So, after a bit of discussion we decided to get a bird feeder.  We ended up getting two of them to accommodate different birds and different seed types.  Then I dug a hole and attached the bird feeders to a stick we had in the garage.  I read a few books on birds and expected it might take a while for the birds to discover the feeder.  I was extremely delighted the following day to find birds at the feeder when I got home from work!  These little guys would flit out of the woods, peck a bite, and fly right back out.  So it was very hard to get a photo, especially with the sun beginning to set.  At the end of this post is the best shot I got.