I dropped off Victoria at school so that she could bring her science fair presentation board to school without risking damage on the bus. After doing so, despite the cold and the bad light, I committed myself to going to Green Lakes for another walk. This time, I would park near the camping registration and take what Christine tells me is the yellow trail to the campgrounds.
It was cold, but not freezing, and the air was mostly still as I began my walk. Large flakes of snow were falling, and I didn’t want to get me gear wet, so I hung my camera cross shoulder under my jacket with a 25mm prime, stuffed my macro lens in my front pocket, and started off. The snow was pretty and I thought that it might be nice to photograph on the tree branches, so I selected some tree branches at the beginning of my walk that were receiving the best light and I shook all the old snow off. I planned to return in 90 minutes, see what I could find, and possibly get out the tripod for focus stacked images of fresh snow on pine needles.
The walk up to the campgrounds was pleasant but remarkable. I stopped to take a picture of some berries only because I wanted to practice with the macro lens, not because I thought I’d ever want to hang the picture on my wall.
Once I was in the woods on the far side of the campground, I tried capturing some images of snow that had landed on bark, but I failed to find a composition that appealed to me before feeling the wind at the top of the hill and deciding to return to the beginning of the trail to look at those branched that I had shook off.
On my way back, I was delighted to come upon a pileated woodpecker. I was also frustrated that I wasn’t carrying a longer lens. I see a woodpecker once or twice per year at the park and hear them more often than that, but they are typically skittish and rarely as close of low as this one was this day. I stood still and watched it work for 10 minutes as it was very much focused on its job at hand, seemingly unaware of my presence as I slowly changed lenses and did the best that I could to capture a few images as he chipped away at the tree and large chunks fell to the ground. Only once I tempted fate and tried to get a little bit closer did the bird fly away.
When I returned to the branches that I had cleared off earlier, all was as I had hoped … except for the wind. The snow was soft, the flakes were easily distinguished, but the dang branches could not stay still in the stiffening breeze, so I was left to take handheld images of a few select flakes that I was able to identify on the swaying branches.
Even so … it was a Friday morning better spent at the park than at the office.