Bee Calm and Carry On

It's the first day of Fall here in New England. But all I can think of is Summer and the sunflowers.

There is a place in Griswold, Connecticut called Buttonwood Sunflower Farm and for two weeks in July it turns into a magical place with acres and acres of giant sunflowers. I spent a Saturday there in July photographing these giants, taking in their quiet majestic beauty. It's a sight to see and if you live in the area or are passing through during this time, stop and check them out!

Buttonwood Sunflower Farm, 2012

It was early that Saturday when I got there and I was meeting up with several fellow photographers to test our macro photography skills out on these golden flowers. We spread out, finding our own way through the fields, the sun starting to climb and the crowds still a few hours from arriving. Buttonwood started this event several years back and use it as a fund raiser for Make-a-Wish of Connecticut (a truly wonderful organization btw!). The memory that is the strongest of that day was the sound of the insects, bees in particular. It was so quiet it felt like I could hear a thousand bees buzzing, all happy to be there and going from sunflower to sunflower, seemingly drunk on the pollen.

My favorite picture of the day, and it was hard to choose, is this one. I call it "Glutton". And I think you can tell why. This bee was intent on collecting as much pollen as his body could carry. I love the detail in the photo and the feeling it gives you of this small creature intent on his mission to bring his bounty back to the hive.

Glutton

As I was there among the bees and flowers I remembered an event sponsored by the Attleboro Garden Club, of which I'm a member. Earlier this year the club sponsored a fascinating talk, given by a local Massachusetts beekeeper and owner of Little Beehive Farm, Tony Lulek. His insight into bees, their habits and how they live was fascinating. Did you know that virgin Queen bees lay two thousands eggs a day? That, of course, the Queen is female as is all the worker bees? Fertilized eggs become female worker bees and unfertilized eggs become male drone bees (who, umm, are really just there to well, service the Queen... ahhemm). And did you know that honey bees build the hive in a hexagon shape because it's the strongest shape in nature and holds the most honey? Fascinating!

Incoming!

So as I was there that day, remembering Tony's talk of the bees, being outside around them felt very peaceful. After all, they were just doing their job and it hit me that those bees could have cared less that I was there, they had a mission and by golly they were going to fulfill it. After all, they have a Queen waiting back at the hive they need to keep happy. To quote a popular saying right now, the morning was really all about "Beeing calm and carrying on!"

If you want to add a little sunshine to your Fall, take a peak (a different kind of leaf peeping!) at the full gallery of images.

Mountains, Lakes, Grizzlies... Oh My!

Did you ever have a really amazing vacation, come home super refreshed and for some reason, maybe about a week later have a bit of a let down? Well, that's been me the last two weeks. After seeing the amazing, seriously jaw dropping grandeur of Glacier National Park in Montana and seeing the otherworldly Mt. St. Helens in Washington, things around home, well, seemed a bit blah. Don't get me wrong, I'm an East Coast girl, I love almost everything about this part of the country that I live in. But really, we don't have anything that looks like Glacier around here. There's no active volcano sitting locally ready to blow at any moment (there is still a "blast zone" around Mt. St. Helens ... seriously!).

So it's taken me a bit to get back to what is my normal routine; sleep, work, photography classes - you know, life. And part of the funk is feeling that while I wanted to share my pictures, somehow keeping them to myself felt like the experiences were still just mine. But that was a silly thought and sharing is caring, right?

Here is one of my favorites of all that I took. This is Bowman Lake at the upper west part of the park. I followed the map to this spot, driving a half an hour down a one lane, rutted dirt road to reach it. The whole time I was literally talking out loud to myself; "why did I do this?", "how far have I driven!?", "oh my god here comes a pickup and there's no where to pull off?!?". I was starting to worry about the state of this poor little Nissan Sentra I had rented and wondered how much coverage I have on my own personal insurance if I go off the road into a ditch when I finally made it to this spot. I wasn't the only one there but it was still a peaceful spot, everyone just seemed to be enjoying the beauty and stillness of the area. At one point I spotted a Bald Eagle flying overhead, out over the lake. I sat there for almost an hour, soaking it in, letting the stress of the drive wash away and taking a picture of the lake every few minutes.

Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park, August 2012

Another favorite might be more about what it took to get myself to one of my other favorite places in the park and the worry that around the next corner would be a Grizzly. Seriously, everywhere in the park are these signs...

Scary right? So you'd be a bit leery too if you were trying to get to a spot off of the super twisty road know as Going to the Sun Road while it's still dark (4:30am), having bats fly out of the rocky mountain walls at your headlights (one bounced off the car!) to reach Logan Pass, the midpoint and what feels like the highest spot on the road. I wanted to be there for sunrise and I was but what I realized quickly is that I was pretty much the only one there. I then got a bit wussy and only went so far down the trail because, well, I was by myself and there were more warnings not to hike alone, threat of bears and oh, a new one, mountain lions! I'm happy though that I got to see the view from up there and how the light was coming across the mountains while the moon was still visible.

Logan Pass, Glacier National Park, September 2012

Overall, there is something I realized when I was leaving Glacier. It's a destination that I'll be choosing again and again over the rest of my lifetime. Exploring beyond the Sun road, going deeper down those trails (Grizzlies or not!), taking a ride down the rivers and paddling the lakes. It's nice to know and I think safe to say, that a place that has been there for a thousand years will be there a thousand more.

For more pictures of my time at Glacier, please go to this gallery @ http://www.malundquist.com/Travel/Glacier-National-Park/25713215_gdpNZp 

p.s. I actually DID see a grizzly, from a nice safe distance (300 feet), kind of cool.

Grizzly, Many Glaciers Entrance, Glacier National Park, September 2012

Michelle's Manic Adventure

It has been awhile since my last blog, a year almost. It felt right to kick it back off while on vacation in Montana, right outside Glacier National Park. My goals are simple, see it all, photograph it all. This might be a photographer's Mecca.

I've been thinking of this trip for what feels like forever but its more like four months and the time leading up to it both work and personally was nothing short of chaos and madness. But it hit me recently that while I feel like everything is out of control it's all good. Work is crazy but I have a good job that challenges me and offers me a lot of opportunity. Personal is busy as well but of my own making as I try to continually learn more about photography though it means a lot of my free time is spent taking pictures and working them through an editing process. With all that though, where is the problem in any of that really? 

This vacation overall is a bit of getting lost and found and lost again. Something I think I'm doing everyday but at least the outcome here will be some great pictures (she says hopefully...)

RANDOM PICTURE ALERT: Driving out of Spokane on Wednesday, my colleague and I stopped by our clients Alpaca farm. Here is one of the cria's (babies) I met. So cute!

The last days of New England Hummingbirds

I'll start by saying that Fall is my most favorite season here in New England. Cool sunny days, crisp nights, beautiful foliage... it's the best. But there is one part that makes me sad, the migration of my summer friends and garden visitors, the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds that visit my feeder and flowers. As an ode to these quirky, wonderful little birds who make me so happy whenever I see them, I put together a quick video of the best of my photos from the last few months.

And as Fall leads to Winter, I'll keep this great quote about Hummingbirds (care of Papyrus Card Co) close at hand and wait for their return in the Summer of 2012.


The Hummingbird
Legends say that hummingbirds float free of time, carrying our hopes for love, joy and celebration. Hummingbirds open our eyes to the wonder of the world and inspire us to open our hearts to loved ones and friends. Like a hummingbird, we aspire to open our hearts to loved ones and friends. Like a hummingbird, we aspire to hover and to savor each moment as it passes, embrace all that life has to offer and to celebrate the joy of everyday. The hummingbird's delicate grace reminds us that life is rich, beauty is everywhere, every personal connection has meaning and that laughter is life's sweetest creation.

Photo fun with my iPhone

Over the winter I joined the ranks as an iPhone user and quite honestly have never looked back. Blackberry, who? And one feature in particular I've come to love, love is the camera on the iPhone 4. It's an 8 megapixel camera which is more than enough pixels to capture detailed images. On a side note, one thing I learned early on in my photographic journey is that the megapixel count does not make the photographer, it's up to you to have an eye to see a picture and take it. You can have the best equipment but it won't matter if you can't frame the picture right.


So in using my iPhone camera it's fun to see all the things you can do with a picture once it's taken with the help of a few cool photo apps that anyone can download and use. Check these out if you want to take your iPhone camera pics to the next level:

• Noir - Turns your iPhone pics into cool looking film noir images. Super easy to use. Check out my cat Felix, who looks even more super cool with a noir effect added.

Felix at Rest | 2011

Filterstorm - Lets you fix your iPhone pics in multiple ways; hue/saturation, white balance, crop etc. Here is a before and after of the same picture to show you what it can do.

Beach @ La Push, WA (before) | 2011

Beach @ La Push, WA (after) | 2011

• PictureShow - Fun app that lets you set borders around your images, turn them into black and white, apply fun filters or add text to the image.

Boston Holocaust Memorial | 2011

Each of these are under $5 a piece to download and can give your images a fun POP! Let me know if you use these how you like them or share your own apps (and images!) from your favorites.


Happy picture taking!

We are not alone...

I randomly saw a news blurb that Friday, July 8th was the 64th anniversary of the alien crash landing in Roswell, New Mexico. It immediately brought me back to a trip I took with my friend Carol almost 10 years ago now to New Mexico. I've been in Roswell, been to the UFO Museum there that documents the crash and Carol and I even tried to find the crash site ala a xeroxed, hand drawn map of the site we got from the Museum. Even better Carol and I talked to an elderly gentleman who was one of the military men assigned to move the alien bodies. I have pictures somewhere of Carol and I with him, pre-digital, but did scan this one a few years ago of us standing in front of a re-enactment to the alien autopsy. Let the mocking begin! But in all seriousness, I've always believed there is other life out there in the Universe. To paraphrase the movie "Contact"... it's an awful waste of space if we are the only ones out here.

The trip started in Albuquerque and we drove as far South as Las Cruces and then finished in northern NM in Sante Fe. What sticks out most about this trip was we had a BLAST. There was really no itinerary, each day we decided how far we felt like driving and what we wanted to see along the way. We didn't have reservations, just figured out where to stay based on where we ended up or when we got tired. This worked out really well overall though I do remember one night it was getting darker and darker and the area was pretty remote. There were no "Motel 6's" or "Super 8's" off the road for us to get to and we started to suspect we might have to sleep in the car. Finally we saw a sign for a place and though it was higher than our price range it was better than the car. It turned out to be a spot where hunters stayed, and while my memory is hazy I think we were in Capitan, NM. I just remember the road was really, really dark. Though the best part of that place was waking up in the morning and having breakfast at the diner attached. It was only then that we realized we were in a hunting area and the individuals surrounding us were of the woodsy hunting types. Two city girls in our jeans and pressed shirts kind of stood out.


I wish now that I could recreate that trip, with my current camera and photography knowledge. I love that part of the country, particularly White Sands, NM where there is a beautiful National Park. White sand made from the wind that comes down off the mountains and across a lake, the wind deposits a residue that I believe is calcium which then as it dries leaves behind a huge white beach sand like area. The most amazing thing is driving through these mini mountains of white sand that is cool to the touch. Now that I've remembered this trip I'm on a mission to find the pictures and scan them. I think I might have been using a throw away camera at the time.


There are so many places to go, so many places to see both in this country and beyond. This memory makes me realize I need to plan my next trip. Where oh where to go...

Hello July! Wasn't it just January?

When I wrote my last post it was January and in my usual fashion I was full of motivation... "I'm going to write in my blog, all the time! Yeah!". Well, here it is July and it's only my second post of 2011. But in the spirit of new beginnings, lets try this again. I've also been getting lots of good encouragement from my friend Bridget who enjoys my photo excursion stories. This one is for you B!


So it is July and there are two things you should know about me -- I don't like heat and humidity (really, really don't like) and I'm a City Girl. I can count on my hand how many times I've gone camping and I don't actively seek out woodsy situations. So this just past July 4th I was kind of surprised to find myself blazing a trail where there wasn't one with my photo friend Joan in the woods of Rehoboth, MA. Now I'm sure a few of you reading this are probably thinking -- oh come on now, how bad could woods in Rehoboth be? Trust me, they can be bad! This excursion started innocently enough, Joan emailing me earlier in the weekend to see about "shooting" on Monday morning. Quick aside, when I use "shooting" in future blogs please know it only involves a Canon digital camera, no firearms or defenseless animals are at risk here. Back to Joan and shooting on Monday morning... "sure I say, where to?" Joan suggests stalking Hummingbirds at her neighbors house and then looking for cool mushrooms in the woods near her home/farm. At this point I needed to ask more questions but didn't because I wrongfully assumed the mushrooms would be down a manicured path not too far from Joan's. My wrongful assumption hit me full in the face at the same time the branch did as I was traipsing through low brush (no, none, zilch path) blazing my own trail as Joan blissfully said, "I've seen the mushrooms up ahead, really, it's not that far". In all fairness we really didn't go far and were in hearing distance of her neighbors at all times but as I'm stepping through calf high forest growth, sinking into suspiciously soft earth and out loud asking "What about ticks?!?" I'm starting the "WTF?!?" dialogue in my head. This inner voice is berating me for not asking more questions while also realizing I'm too quick sometimes to say "Yes" and not really think about the situation I might find myself in. Anywho... back to the pathless walk. Remember earlier when I said heat and humidity are not my friends. Well on Monday morning in Rehoboth it was hot and very humid, I felt myself sweating like a crazy person, literally felt like I could have shook myself like a dog and sprayed water for a good distance. Also, too, I'm carrying a Slingpack w/ my camera miscellaneous over one shoulder and over the other a tripod that has my camera on it. At this point I'm thinking I should have paid a few more dollars for a carbon fiber, lightweight tripod as it quite simply felt like the tripod/camera weighed about 20 pounds. 


So I'm sweating and screaming the inner "you dope" dialogue in my head while trying not to have a complete freakout about the bugs that are actively trying to land on me. Rehoboth, like most of Southern Massachusetts, has a lot of water which equals swamp areas which equals bugs. I had sprayed myself once while looking for Hummingbirds in the nicely manicured neighbors lawn after a horsefly the size of a bird bit me on the arm. But now the profuse sweating is wearing that off and I announce that I have to stop and re-spray. I take out my bug spray and wonder if it's got the "bad for you but good at bug repelling" DET while Joan, being the good environmentalist and holistic person she is, pulls out her lemon verbena scented wipe. After layering up twice I think I'm ready to move on. I ask Joan how much further because at this point I've not seen much of any mushrooms and I'm feeling my ability to cope slip further and further away. She calmly answers "oh, not much further". We start walking again and at this point I hear it... the loud, so loud, buzz of something big and mean circling my head. I can't see it but am busy swatting at it every few minutes. I seriously am ready to start swinging $1,000 dollars worth of tripod and camera in a circle around me to move bugs and brush out of my way. After a few more minutes of this, and really, now with some perspective I can say that we were in no way "lost in the wilds" but I was starting to panic that we would be walking deeper into the woods and closer to more bigger and meaner bugs. I think this is why I literally yelled -- "THAT'S IT! I CAN'T TAKE IT! I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!". Poor Joan, she really had good intentions but I'm a City Girl remember and I had reached my heat, humidity, woods and bug limit. I think I heard Joan chuckle but like a true friend understood I was at my end and simply said -- "OK".


The way out was a bit easier than the way in as I insisted we make friends with neighbors she hadn't met yet as it meant we didn't have to fully walk through the non-trail forest brush but instead up a dirt path that lead to the side yard of a house. I hope I apologized enough to my friend and Joan, if you are reading this, thank you for listening to me and heading out of the woods when I asked. I also appreciated the cool down in your air conditioned house and the cool sparkling water. I think it took me about 30 minutes but I finally felt like a human being again and the pouring sweat did eventually stop.


Bottom line and the lesson learned here is that I need to ask more questions of my fellow photogs when excursions are being suggested i.e. will there be blood sucking bugs involved? what's the expected heat index? will there be a path to follow or should I plan to bring a machete?