photographing the red fox

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red fox 2734

I watch and photograph a red fox watching my cat in his catrun. When the fox hears my camera clicking, she stares at me a moment and then curls up on the hillside as if to nap. I hope she’s not dreaming of cats.

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Suddenly, the fox sits and stares up the hill into the forest. Another fox is coming, perhaps interested in watching my cat, too, but he’s apparently not welcome to join us.

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I wonder if they’re already aquainted and have a long history of greeting each other this way.

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After a few seconds pushing match, the newcomer slinks away. And we, the first fox, my cat, and I, go back to watching each other while I make photographs of the fox.

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After a few minutes, the fox leaves. I hope both foxes have gone searching for rodents, their natural diet.

Captured with a dslr and 100-400 telephoto zoom lens in cloud filtered afternoon sunlight. Cropped a bit to let you in on the details of each image.

pronghorn

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pronghorn pair in Oklahoma panhandle

Driving the backroads of the OK panhandle at midday we came upon these two beautiful pronghorn. They were far enough from the road that they didn’t seem to feel threatened when we stopped to watch yet near enough to photograph. Handheld with telephoto zoom at 400mm, more midday sun and wind than wanted, and a few moments cooperation from the pronghorn. 

little deer

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baby mule deer

Two fawns and a doe hurried by my home one evening last week. Of course, I had the “wrong” lens on the camera for such an event, but didn’t have time to change. I cropped much of these two images away to show you the cute spotted babies. I do hope they come by again. I’m keeping my best telephoto lens on one of the cameras at all times.

baby deer

wildflower gardening

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 blue columbines 

In my world,  flower gardening means weeding.There’s nothing to plant.   I let all native wildflower volunteers grow and remove most  (can you ever get them all?) invasive weeds.

 paintbrush

The wildflowers have grown so much in this summer of rain the garden path has almost disappeared. Bees buzz busily at the flowers and ignore me as I push through on the path.

wild blue flax

I learned the common names of all the plants several years ago, but have forgotten many.  There are wild roses, bellflowers and blanket flowers, asters and daisies, and pussytoes just to name a few.

blanket flowers

Granite gravel soil makes weed removal rough, hard work. The tall dandelion with enormous sead head is allowed to stay as it doesn’t spread and take over like the shorter invasive ones.

   dandelion

Let nature do it’s thing. Photography it.

Wildflower gardener. That’s me!

Two Bucks

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little buck

big buck running in rain

As I wrote the title for this post, I thought of a story that has absolutely nothing to do with the two mule deer I’ve been photographing this week.

I keep two bucks in coin on a shelf in my studio to remind me of the sale of a photograph at a local show a few years ago.

The man told me he was a couple of dollars short of the price and had begged some small coins (mostly pennies) from a friend. He said he wanted me to know that the desire to own one of my images compelled him to beg. We laughed over the dangerous addiction collecting my images might become.

little buck

I’ve named the two mule deer big buck and little buck for the relative sizes of their velvety head ornaments.

fungi

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 mushroom 1455

I counted at least 7 different kinds of mushrooms while hiking this week. I went out to photograph wildflowers, but came back with as many images of mushrooms as flowers. A local news station has reported many dogs sickened and some dead from ingesting mushrooms. I’m checking our property and keeping an eye on my dog, Charlie. He likes to taste everything.

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 There were big red ones, too, but they’d been trampled by deer or elk. I like the curly ones, above, that look like a salad. I don’t know which are edible. If every summer were as wet as this year, I’d study them so I could harvest and eat the right ones. Instead, I buy my ‘shrooms at the grocery in Conifer – safer that way.

mushroom 1459

I’ve been printing for this weekend’s show, my 5th one this summer, and hoping the weather forecast is correct with only a 10% chance of rain Saturday and Sunday. If you are in Colorado, stop by the Tommyknocker’s Mining Days Festival in Idaho Springs this weekend and say hello.

Independence Day Favorites

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A few of my long exposure fireworks captures from the 4th.  A little late, I know, but I had a show on the 5th and forgot all about posting these until I saw a friend’s fireworks images today on facebook.

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fireworks 1028 by Con Daily

fireworks1015

fireworks 1015 by Con Daily

fireworks1053

fireworks 1053 by Con Daily

paintbrush

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paintbrush II by Con Daily

Wildflowers are a summer thing, like the local festivals in consworld. Both flourish in the summer and keep me busy photographing, printing, and showing.

This year, afternoon rains have been very good for flower and stormy sky photography, however, not so good for packing up and breaking down the booth at outdoor festivals. Am I complaining about the rain? Never. The paintbrush image, above, was captured on a stormy day less than 1/2 mile from my home.