This weekend I tried to get out and catch some smallmouth, and get a little exercise in the process. As soon as I saw the river I knew the day would turn into basically a hike on a nice day, which is fine. The water was very high. I made a few casts here and there, but it was a washout.
I thought this was an interesting view, however. I'm standing on a railroad bridge that spans the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, looking downstream at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. The Shenandoah, entering this picture from the right, was much muddier, and I thought the clear delineation between the two was interesting. Hopefully you can see it in this photo.
As I continued on, I saw some nice scenery - as I always do there. This great blue heron, usually majestic and graceful, looked kind of like a dork trying to scratch his face with his foot here.
And the geese with their babies were out in droves. Or is it gaggles?
I wish my wife was there yesterday, she has never seen a Baltimore Oriole (other than the baseball kind). And I saw 6 or 8 of them! They were hard to photograph (this is the best of a half dozen attempts), they flit around a lot and like to be very high in the trees. But their song is beautiful and hopefully I'll get more opportunities to encounter these birds.
If you want to see, hear or learn about these birds, or any other birds for that matter, this is a fantastic web site worth bookmarking.
Sarah, Angie, Sarah and Sandy at the Preakness. Aren't they pretty? Well we were talking about this blog and Sarah on the left mentioned that, while she does check in from time to time, she notices that it mostly just has a lot of fish pictures. Well in the interest of appealing to a broader audience, I am taking this opportunity to mix things up a bit...
Time will tell -- three weeks of time, to be precise -- how special this moment was. But when Big Brown passed the field and then my camera lens on his way to the wire and the second jewel of the Triple Crown in the Preakness Stakes, I couldn't help but feel like I was witnessing history. 
The pictures speak for themselves, I think. What an awesome day of fishing at Rose River Farm. Beautiful weather, bugs coming off the water and most of these trout took flies off the surface. I used my 3-weight for a while. Talk about fun! Taking trout this size off the surface with a 3-weight is really, really exciting. 
This weekend I tried to get out and catch some smallmouth, and get a little exercise in the process. As soon as I saw the river I knew the day would turn into basically a hike on a nice day, which is fine. The water was very high. I made a few casts here and there, but it was a washout.
As I continued on, I saw some nice scenery - as I always do there. This great blue heron, usually majestic and graceful, looked kind of like a dork trying to scratch his face with his foot here.
And the geese with their babies were out in droves. Or is it gaggles?
I wish my wife was there yesterday, she has never seen a Baltimore Oriole (other than the baseball kind). And I saw 6 or 8 of them! They were hard to photograph (this is the best of a half dozen attempts), they flit around a lot and like to be very high in the trees. But their song is beautiful and hopefully I'll get more opportunities to encounter these birds. If you want to see, hear or learn about these birds, or any other birds for that matter, this is a fantastic web site worth bookmarking.
At the Kentucky Horse Park, at the huge trade fair as part of the Rolex event, we had the pleasure of meeting Shane Knight. Shane is a traditional photographer -- no digital cameras, no PhotoShop, no digital prints. He has some large images printed by hand and framed in beautiful rustic wood that are astonishing. I picture them hanging over a mantle of a great cabin or lodge. But I purchased these three images in a smaller size because I just couldn't decide on one. Another thing you should know about Shane: not just crazy talented, but one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Please visit his web site and support his art. He has stunning color landscapes and photographs of a variety of other subjects. But these western horse images are my favorite.
