This has been an incredibly busy year, both with work and with being husband and Daddy. I did take one of my cameras with to Papa’s Pumpkin Patch this past weekend to accompany my boys, and I did get a couple of decent zip-line photos, but for the most part it was unremarkable photographically. I was just following my little dudes around and letting them enjoy the day and the amazing autumn world the PPP folks have assembled once again this year.
I did hit a milestone, on this particular camera I crossed the 28,000 photo mark. That’s what’s pictured above. While not a remarkable photo, it did what I wanted for memory’s sake: show my little dudes atop a large pyramid of bales with blue sky and a little bit of green leaves in the background. That’ll work.
If you haven’t gone to the Patch yet, make sure you do so before it’s too late! You can check out their schedule and other information at www.papaspumpkinpatch.com – they even post weather updates there so you can find out if they’ve closed due to rain or other factors. They also have a Facebook Page if you’re into that sort of thing. Don’t let it be one of those things you plan to do but then never accomplish before the season suddenly passes you by!
After our camera club’s meeting this morning I decided to poke around to find a photo that would benefit from the gloomy day. I didn’t have to look far, as I soon spotted these flowers left at the Global War on Terrorism Memorial over at Fraine Barracks.
I wanted to try to get one of those ubiquitous “sunset lens flare over the top of a sunflower field” shots recently, but I noticed two interesting things. One is that many fields I used to see full of sunflowers are now stocked with corn. The government’s tampering in the market by subsidizing ethanol is probably a factor in that. The other is that I’m a little late; all the fields I saw had sunflowers sporting tattered petals. There are still a bunch of these little yellow flowers left for some one-on-one time, but it looks like my plans for a stepladder and a field of beautiful golden sunflowers will have to wait until next season.
You be the judge. This old stump is pretty wild looking, as if it came right out of some sort of sci-fi movie.
While blazing the back roads of Morton County I came across this corn field while admiring the tall, wispy clouds. I kept saying over and over that these reminded me of the clouds when I grew up in the Montana Rockies. I was starting to really miss the mountains when I came upon this field. I dashed over to nab the top of the stalks with the clouds behind, then darted back to the truck. My little boy had just called me to say that he had finished his schoolwork for the day and wanted some Daddy time, and asked me to come home as soon as possible! Zoom.
I spotted this little guy in the road near Hay Creek as I barreled toward him in my dually crew-cab work truck. I turned round down the street a ways to see if I actually saw what I thought I saw, then doubled back to find him. My coworker riding in the truck didn’t see anything, but I was positive and had to prove it to myself. I pulled off to a side street, waited for traffic to pass, and bolted over to a tiny little spot in the road.
When I say tiny, I wasn’t kidding. This little guy, yet to be named by my little boys, is pretty small. As a photography enthusiast I like to think I can pick out details in the world around me, but to spot a quarter-sized lump walking across the road has got to be a new personal best.
My little guy and I waited for the rain to pass and made a dusk voyage out to the east end of town and let the little turtle go. One could call him Lucky considering that he would likely have been pasted had he remained on East Rosser. In any case, he’s got a shot at survival now. He wouldn’t have made a good pet and I try to teach my boys to be responsible with nature, so it was a teachable moment. After all, Proverbs 12:10 says, “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast…”