If you were to ask around, many people would describe me as a photographer, maybe even an outdoor or, quite possibly, a full-blown nature photographer, of sorts, I would guess.
Others might beg to differ and say my strength is far more in line with the pen than with a camera and refer to me as an aspiring writer or, let’s be honest here, just an eager but grammatically challenged blogger.
Well, if you were to inquire regarding my opinion on the matter, I would say the truth lies somewhere in-between photographer and writer, and that is quite alright with me.
I look at my efforts here as much as a storyteller, for lack of a better term, than anything else really, a storyteller who relies upon several modes of expression to get his message out.
Sometimes the story is of an informational nature, and other times, like today, for example, it can be a bit more of a creative gesture. Sometimes it relies mostly on a few casually gathered images and other times it relies heavily upon the written word.
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Either way, I like to write and I like to photograph. And if I do my job right, they both come together well and work side by side with one another, portraying exactly what it is I want to say.
As strange as it may seem, I do consider myself as some sort of a writer, per se, as well as a photographer, one who never leaves home without his tired laptop or his reliable old friend, a worn-out but still functioning Canon Rebel T4i camera.
Being one who is never truly comfortable with the written word, however, but has longtime aspired to be an outdoor writer, I guess part of my offering here has to come from the camera as well as the pen.
That split might be more camera than pen actually if you go back several decades and ask my high school English teacher.
Today is certainly no exception as I put forth a blog post that relies upon a few simple images that certainly tell the story far better than I ever could by prose alone.
This particular writing delves far more into my creative writing urges than it does with my efforts to try and inform, even enlighten, about the Bear River Bird Refuge or nature in general, the main purpose for the creation of this site actually.
Oh, I know you come here for some outdoor photography tips, refuge insights, as well as a general interest in nature, so don’t leave just yet.
They will always be part of this website, but today is about, well, just writing what comes to mind after observing something I found quite interesting, even a little bit fascinating.
I’ll try and toss in a few photographic tidbits along the way with regards to the image data and camera settings, but sometimes, yes, sometimes I have to temporarily set aside the informational part of this website and just do what my inner self tells me to do, and that is just sit and write about what I saw and photographed that day.
As such, I did mention something about clouds in the title so let’s get started.
Much of my time lately is given to taking care of my elderly mother, which is the main reason why my blog posts have been a little bit lacking as of late.
As a result, I rarely find myself behind a camera or a computer nowadays, at least nowhere near what I would like to be, that is.
But during those moments where my services are needed and priority is given to my mother, I do have time to sit and watch things in nature that are close around me as we sit on the front porch each afternoon, enjoying the shade on a hot summers day.
This very afternoon, both she and I were casually enjoying the day on the front porch when I noticed a small patch of clouds start to appear in the otherwise clear blue sky.
The photographer inside of me decided to, for some unknown reason at the time, take a picture of the small, isolated cloud sitting high above.
A few moments later, the cloud was noticeably bigger, not by much, mind you, but it was surely growing with what little moisture it could glean from the parched atmosphere.
We are in a drought, a severe drought actually, and rainfall, not to mention clouds, has been in very short supply lately.
I am one to find enjoyment in the simple things in life, like a casually fluttering butterfly searching for nectar nearby or a trickling stream or small waterfall gathering steam as it heads down a steep mountainside, so, naturally, the quickly changing clouds above grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let it go.
I started to take an image every minute or so of the ever-changing solitary cloud to see what it would eventually turn itself into.
Sometimes even the smallest cloud can turn itself into a large thunderstorm on these hot summer days.
As the cloud continued to change and change, I kept photographing, minute by minute.
Soon, however, the cloud started to lose its momentum, and as quickly as it started to grow, it started to fade once again back into obscurity, eventually disappearing and leaving behind a perfectly blue canvas.
It was a quiet affair, only me and my mother were in attendance.
I had no idea clouds could appear so small, so quickly but yet grow so fast in such a dry climate.
The whole scene, blue sky to blue sky once again, lasted only about 10 minutes or so, but it was one of the most intriguing things I have seen in a long time.
Personally, I think we all need to take some time each week, just a few moments here and there, mind you, and sit and enjoy such moments, you know, the simple things in the natural world around us such as a solitary cloud in the sky above.
It doesn’t matter if we are hiking high atop a rugged mountainside or just casually sitting on the front porch, there is always something interesting to observe and enjoy about nature.
With all the chaos that is happening in the world today, we will lose ourselves in this hectic world if we don’t stop and enjoy some peace and serenity once in a while.
Every so often, we all need to put down our cell phones, turn off the tv, disconnect from social media, and just sit and observe the natural world around us.
Trust me, there is so much “artificial noise” out there from these and other sources, we have a hard time focusing on what is really important in life, what really matters to us.
Enjoying nature, no matter where you are, allows us to relax and regroup ourselves for yet another stint in the man-made world of bills, deadlines, traffic jams, and never-ending texts, phone calls, and instant messages.
Those things will overwhelm us, maybe even overtake us, if we let them.
We don’t have to let that happen, however, when we take a little time each week and sit and enjoy something simple in nature, such as an everchanging cloud formation on a hot summer afternoon or even a drive around the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route, one of my personal favorites by the way.
With regards to the photography tidbits I promised earlier, for all of these cloud images, I had my camera set at an aperture of f9 while shooting with an ISO of 400.
While using the aperture mode on my camera, this made the shutter speed run at 1/4000th of a second with so much light available at the time.
I also had the white balance set on the “cloudy” setting, which is where I normally have it even on sunny days.
It just seems to add a bit more color that way, so I oftentimes photograph with this white balance setting regardless of what the sun is doing.
To cap a most relaxing afternoon watching clouds, bees, butterflies, and dragonflies from the front porch, a California quail made a brief appearance and stood on a nearby rock for a few moments, posing as if it too wanted to be in this blog so, naturally, I had to oblige.
Quail are quite common in my mother’s neighborhood actually. They seem to have taken quite well to urban living as I see these quaint little birds almost daily in the yard, many times this time of year with small chicks nearby.
So you see, there is always something interesting nearby if we take a few minutes once in a while and enjoy nature no matter where we are.
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