clouds1&2

I shot this once before, but the clouds here were big puffy ones. I like big puffy clouds! (The original is here.)

I couldn't make a final decision on the crop, either. I think the smaller one has a little more punch, but the bigger one has more expansiveness (if that's a word!).

it's déjà vu all over again...

leaky

Untitled-tracks3

Tooling around with 4x5. The details on the big negatives are nice. I look forward to bringing it to a wide open landscape area...I'm not yet used to framing for a 4x5, only having shot 6x7's with the camera. Then again, my scanner can only handle about 3-1/2 by 5, so I end up chopping the top or bottom anyway...

pondscape

chopped down

gone

Our little cutie is gone. No eggs, no mate, just gone.

One afternoon I noticed that she and a male were building the nest together. Mourning doves are monogamous, so he must have been her partner. After that day, I didn't see the male again.

I learned that they "take turns" at the nest, with the male usually tending to it during the morning and afternoon. Since I always saw the female there during the day, I thought that perhaps they were the avian "odd couple". Then I realized that she was there morning, noon, and night.

Sans mate.

I'd like to think that he ran off with a younger, hotter bird-babe, but, given the monogamy of the species, I suspect that it's a bit more likely that he somehow met an untimely demise.

And so, I now know firsthand what empty nest syndrome is like.

:(