What will I be given today...
I just finished attending (and hosting) my third Jim Doty Photography Workshop. Jim is the Author of the DSLR Exposure for Dummy's book. He is so enthusiastic and inspirational that I always come away with more photographic technique knowledge and inspired to be a better photographer.
Bill and I are working hard these days and don't usually have a full day off to simply do what we want but this past Sunday we did. We got up early, Bill didn't want to waste a minute of our precious day off, so off we went by 7:00 in the morning. It was a gloomy, foggy, dark morning didn't seem like a great day to go and take photos but that's what we set out to do.
One of the things that Jim Doty repeats throughout the photo workshop is a quote from photographer photographer Minor White "Don't ask what will I take today, ask what will I be given today" So although we wanted to go to the U.P. to photograph wildlife and spring flowers we were willing to be open to what we were given.
Our first stop was a place that Bill has checked a few times already this spring for yellow lady slippers. I was beginning to think he did not know what he was talking about. As we drove along I thought see, nothing. But then there they were!
And while we were photographing Lady Slippers we found this:
A miniature iris that grows nowhere else in the world but in the Great Lakes Region. Most of the world's Dwarf Lake Iris population lies within Michigan's. Hard to tell from this photo but this little flower is tiny, maybe two inches across at the most and very low to the ground.
Then we found this:
A beaver skull in the woods. Look at those teeth!
By this time we were hungry so we stopped a t little mom and pop style restaurant with great views that you couldn't see because of the fog but they had hummingbird feeders everywhere and so we were given this opportunity:
On we went, destination Seney Wildlife Refuge. It never disappoints. After purchasing a couple of mosquito jackets we found this:
The quote Jim uses from famous photographer Minor White "Don't ask what will I take today, ask what will I be given today" is also used by National Geographic Photographer Dewitt Jones who adds "and will I be open enough to see it". Dewitt Jones also expounds that we should "celebrate what is right with the world". Bill and I did that Sunday on our little photo safari and I hope that we can do it every day!
