Monday, March 30, 2009

Gray Areas

Raining all day on Sunday I thought I'd set the camera for black and white only, and get some practice in on the world of gray tones, since there wasn't much for color going on anyway...We transported ourselves to a wet and foggy Quabbin Resevoir for a post-lunch walk-around.



Kelly needed to feed the baby before we set out from the car, so I took a quick plunge into the woods nearby looking for stuff to shoot while she took care of business...



Right nearby us was a cool old foundation that I suppose dates back to the pre-flooding era...



...as do some of the gnarlier old trees that had fallen here and there...





By this time Kelly was done feeding baby-girl, and we got the battle stroller set up and rolling in no time.





It's a short walk past a picnic area and down to the water's edge. The reservoir levels are pretty high right now; I've been at this spot before when the water was receded far enough to expose a long wide beach of rocks. I was hoping to be able to step out farther and away from the tree cover for a mega-cool reservoir shot, but it was not to be...



We did luck out heading back up to the car though, when we came upon a family of five or six deer munching at the other side of the meadow we were on...







Kelly headed back to the car with the pea-pod while I tried to carefully inch closer and closer to the now very alert deer, who began themselves inching closer and closer to the nearby woods. I remember reading somewhere that the best way to approach wild animals is to move in a slow, zig-zag, stop and go motion, like a grazing animal would. This takes a lot of patience, at least more than I'm equipped with. So I kind of sped up the process, and soon we were both in the woods, moving, pausing, and staring at each other.



Obviously they were pretty well acclimated to human presence, because I never would have gotten this close to 'wilder' deer outside the Quabbin...



But even these guys had their boundaries, which I apparently crossed; they suddenly leaped away in unison, and disappeared like ghosts into the forest...

7 comments:

Cecil said...

The shots of the deer are outstanding; black and white was a good choice.

Looks like the little one is doing well.

Tony said...

Knock on wood, the little girl is proving to be an agreeable travel companion so far...

Jeffrey Byrnes said...

Great images of the deer!

emily said...

I love these pictures -- frequent is the evening when I'm driving home past the Quabbin and see a deer or family of deer dashing, pausing, or meandering along the wayside. These are the shots I wish I'd been able to get (as I'm driving in my car...).

Tony said...

Thanks Jeffrey...and Emily believe me, I know what you mean about wanting to pull over for a shot..!

Fishing413 said...

Great shots! The second and fifth are my favorites. The deer shots are great as well. What kind of camera are you using?

Tony said...

Hey Fishing, I'm using a Nikon D40 mostly, sometimes I'll use a Canon A-590...this post was with the Nikon...