So I’m adding something new to my resume: Bird chaser. :-
Monday was supposed to be a relaxing day. I had intended to paint the house some more, but the weather (yes, the tropical low which has provided nine inches to DC has dumped about 2.5 inches in our area in the last two days) has been uncooperative.
But I decided to get up early to go into the studio to do a couple of errands and download some files to edit Saturdays wedding (another blogged wedding is on the way!) While taking out the dogs before going to the studio, though, I saw two baby chicks from our house wren’s nest that hangs in the red maple near the corner. I have had my share of baby chick stories (I nursed one back to health back in ’89, helped two learn how to fly about six years ago, etc.) so I was more sure that leaving them alone was going to be better than doing nothing.
So I went to the studio and got my tasks done. After a stop at the store I came home and saw the two chicks still sitting in the same place – right in front of the gutter downspout extension (a ten foot piece of 3″ PVC) and was glad it wasn’t raining really hard or these two fellas were going swimming.
I went into the house and told Diana to come have a look at the babies. She did and we marveled for awhile, but then got concerned. We get a lot of stray cats around here, and live close enough to wildlife that we see foxes and other predators nearby all the time. This got us a little concerned. And… we decided to put the babies back up in the bird house.
Now, those who know me know I’m 6’2″ and at least 200 pounds. I’m no small man. So when “we” decided the babies needed to go back into their nest, and since Diana had no shoes on, this meant that I was elected bird catcher.
Imagine these little chicks… okay, here’s a picture of one who was elusive enough to hide behind the downspout block…
So here’s this big guy flailing around on the ground with big hands, big feet and crawling on the ground to get one little bitty two-inch long wren chick. Since no pictures were taken of this feat, you’ll have to settle on your visions. After I caught the first one, I was too gentle with it and it would jump out of my hand. So I cupped my left hand over my right so it wouldn’t get away. Now putting it back into the nest… I open my hands right next to the opening to the nest and PLOP, the little critter jumps out of my hand and five feet back to the ground. Thankfully there’s grass and clippings to break the fall. Not that it matters!! They had to have jumped or fallen out before!
So, three tries later I get smarter and create a cone with my hand and put the bird into it so his head peeks out the top and cover it with my other hand. As I get to the bird house again, I put the open end directly in front of the opening and he goes in – sort of. One of his wings gets caught on the opening and he squeaks a bit at me. So I adjust the wings and in he goes. I sigh a happy relief that I’ve preserved the life of at least ONE of the birds and go after the other one.
This one apparently was watching the entire chase of its brother and runs AROUND THE TREE to avoid me. Now you already have this vision of me crawling around on the ground chasing a baby chick, now add to that a vision of a tiny bird outwitting me by running around the base of a tree that I cannot get near because of the downspout extension on one side, low branches on one side, and my own lumbering bigness trying to avoid stepping on the poor fella. So as elusive as he was, he ends up standing right next to my shoe (two inches) and panting away while I’m looking down thinking “there needs to be an easier way to be Mr. Nice Guy.”
A few more maneuvers later, I capture the second chick and duplicate the cone transfer into the bird house nest. Thinking I’d done my best, I look to Diana who seems about as happy as I am that we have kept the baby birds from becoming cat snacks. And then PLOP, one of the jumps OUT of the nest… not falls… JUMPS!!!
This is when we decided it was meant to be. I later learned that they abandoned the nest due to some bug infestation. I won’t even go into that.
I took a camera out later and saw one of them headed for cover under the bushes in front of the house. I later found that both were under the side deck (which has 1″ lattice – no cat can get into that) and were still being fed by momma. Here’s a parting shot of the baby bird who was camera shy at first.
I’m not chasing baby birds anymore. And please don’t call me for advice. I’m not good at it. :-[
The last of the dance studios we do each year, this one usually has the longest continuously running show and a few surprises that we don’t even know – and we are insiders. 🙂
From beginning to end, it was chock full of flying dancers, cuteness and light, some eerie moments and the best entertainment for the buck for this weekend.
I wish I had time to post all 3,000 images we took (we actually took over 3,500, but editing brought that number down considerably), but it would take days to do so. They will be online for the dance parents, but you’ll have to talk to one of them to figure out how to see them. While we enjoy sharing our work, we value our client’s privacy more.
Here are a few from the show.
We’ve done some photos for Jacquie before as a student of Shepherd University. It was with great pleasure that we were afforded the opportunity to take some photos with her fiancee, Jonathan for their hometown newspaper and family pictures.
Jacquie and Jonathan are getting married on August 5 in Oak Hill, WV where they grew up and met in high school. Both recent graduates from Shepherd University, Jacquie is working as an English teacher in Loudoun County and Jonathan is working in retail management at the new Home Depot in Ranson, WV.
They are a darling couple with a lot of smarts between them (such as insisting on finishing their education before getting married). I enjoyed the time I spent with them, and was glad to have Diana sit in on the presentation of their proofs.
Both their families are still in and around Oak Hill, West Virginia, but Jacquie has a lot of family on her mom’s side in Guam. Since many of those relatives won’t be able to attend her wedding in August, pictures are very important to them.
We want to wish Jacquie and Jonathan the best of luck in their upcoming wedding. We just have to convince Jacquie to relax first. 🙂
This is a catch up post. Back in May I was so behind on my blog that it was hard to get caught up. But I am. This is about Marcia and Greg’s wedding.
They were married on May 13. Diana was their minister and it was probably one of the more interesting weddings I’ve been to.
Before the wedding, there was a reception. The reception was very much like a big picnic, with a huge tent, lots of food, and yard games. It was held at their home near Charles Town and the weather was just beautiful for it.
After a beautiful reception (sounds strange, huh?), the ladies all went to the Carriage Inn in Charles Town to get ready for the wedding, while the guests ate, drank and enjoyed the music (provided by our friend Greg Sanchez of GS Productions). After the ladies returned, the wedding got underway (albeit a little later than they’d planned), and it was just lovely.
Following the ceremony, there was a dessert reception where cake and other goodies were served. More music, lots of dancing and plenty of fun visiting with friends and relatives.
We did manage to get quite a few formal shots. The one I liked the most is below.
Many thanks to gracious hosts Greg and Marcia for their hospitality. Congratulations also on a wonderful wedding and best wishes for a long, happy marriage.
Mary Lowe called early in the week last week and asked me to take some photos of her family on Saturday, June 17 at a family reunion that she quickly put together. When I got there, there was a wedding party in the lobby having pictures taken.
As family members began to trickle in, and as the wedding party moved to another part of the Clarion, I set up my lights and got ready for the picture of the group. Essentially, it was my task to take a picture of about 50-60 people on the stairs in the lobby. Setting it up took some time, as people are often not as tall as they think they are or think that because they can see the photographer that the photographer can see them.
Well, as it turns out, we didn’t do so bad. It took six tries to get this one, but everyone’s eyes are open and I can see almost everyone’s face clearly.
I also took shots of other family groups for review by them. It was great working with everyone, and especially seeing Mary and her family again.
By the way… in case you’re viewing this Andrew – I DID remember your name eventually. Right? :-
Tony
When I first heard from Ashley late in 2005, she was adamant that *I* be her photographer. I was honored, of course, but was also anxious to do a good job. When I heard from her mother Terry a few weeks later, I knew I was in for a great wedding experience.
Saturday’s wedding was at 1:30 at the Tabler Presbyterian Church in Inwood. Small and very traditional, the church has a lot of Taylor history and was a natural selection for the bride for her wedding. When I first met Jeremy in early 2006 I saw both a man in love, and one who knew how to have a good time.
At the wedding, after the bridesmaids had come down the aisle and the flower girl and ring bearer had done their duties, Ashley entered the room. Jeremy was completely agog and I heard him say from only about five feet away “Oh my God, she’s beautiful.” I also took this image.
After a nice little ride up to Martinsburg in one of the cutest little antique cars I’ve ever seen, the party was about to begin. But not without its share of delays. A couple of the bridesmaids were delayed by a wardrobe malfunction (don’t ask – just leave it at that).
But when things got started, they were non-stop. Greg Sanches (GS Productions) was the DJ and knows how to keep a party going. No stranger to fun, the bride and groom and the wedding party all participated in the revelry.
At the cake, Ashley and Jeremy celebrated his brother’s one-year anniversary, a nice touch from a very thoughtful bride.
When it was all said and done, Ashley and Jeremy had a great time, as did I.
One of my assignments this month for Valley Homes and Style magazine was Rocky Ridge Farm. My objective this morning was to drop Diana off at the studio a little early and head over. It’s about 10 minutes from the studio. Well, I was late.
I was late – you’ll like this story – because there was a tree in the road from my house to the studio, which is normally about a ten minute ride. On River Road, part of the route to the studio, a large tree had fallen onto the road. We pass by that tree every single day. The tree is (was) huge. What’s worse is that the tree fell onto some trucks that are owned by the Valley Tree Experts and totalled two of them. Now I feel for the guy who lost his trucks. I’ve actually met him a few times. I’m sure that insurance will replace the trucks. But don’t you find it ironic that a TREE fell onto the trucks of a company that cuts down trees? ;-
Anyway, once I got to Rocky Ridge, all was well. Once the introductions were done, I got to work on shooting the interiors. This is one of my favorite shots of the living room.
After doing the interiors, we wanted to capture some of the elements of the farm life. The owners raise goats, cows and chickens. They also have bees for honey. The children were very cooperative and offered to hold a couple of the baby goats for a photo. Shortly after this, they got into the enclosure with two calves, one of which chased them – much like the family dog might chase you around the yard.
After awhile and introductions to the chickens, the owners talked about their plans to renovate another abandoned farm in Jefferson County. This last shot was to satisfy my obsessive need to take pictures of flowers in really good lighting situations. Enjoy!
Oh, and look for the upcoming issue of Valley Homes and Style. We should have two layouts in there. The magazine is available at our studio and many places around the area. It’s distributed free of charge.
Tony
So I’m editing pictures this afternoon, and came across this one.
Some captions that came up:
“Am I on the right base?”
“Did I hit the ball?”
“How can I be out if I can’t see the base?”
What would you add as a caption?
So we had a lovely session today. After a long day of moving files and sorting dance images, it was very welcome relief. As always, I never know what to expect when someone shows up for their sitting, outside of usually knowing how many people there are.
Today when Charlotte arrived with her two girls, I knew it was going to be pretty wonderful.
Charlotte was putting together a Father’s Day gift for her husband (Bill) and brought along the family dog (Chloe) as part of the extended family. We started in the studio with some fun shots, and then moved to the park for more pictures.
Of course, at these ages they are just precious. Abbi and Sofi were great at posing and were two of the most cooperative and polite little people we’ve had in our studio recently. And with all the little names and things that made Abbi laugh so hard, it was no wonder these were also two of the happiest children we’ve seen in recent memory.
Because we can print small quantities of orders in-house, we agreed to print a small part of her order so that she would have it ready by Father’s Day.
I don’t think I’ve laughed so much at two little girls (and one pretty crazy mom) in a long while. Thank you, Stebbins girls.
Tony
Tuesday night was a lot of fun. I went to Hedgesville High School to take action photos of the Hancock division of the Academy of Dance. When things got started, a number of the Martinsburg division dancers also participated in this dress rehearsal for the Hancock school. It worked out well to give the performance an overall length that is worthwhile for the students.
Here are some of the images. The older girls are from the Martinsburg school.
This is Cassie, and I’m pretty sure this is her last year at Academy of Dance. A graceful dancer with a lot of promise.
These little ones were very cute, as a medley of religious-based songs played as they showed off their ballet skills.
Jenna is the dance studio owner’s (Becky) older daughter. I think she’s also just graduated high school. Becky has all of her children in dance.
These were the cutest kids of the night. They came out to some choo-choo music in a Conga-style line and everyone was just cracking up. They did a few dance steps while out there, then got back into the choo-choo formation and waved as they went off stage. Made the whole night worth it. 🙂
There are some very talented kids with Academy of Dance. Each year we’ve photographed all of their stage action photos in two rehearsal nights. The second one is tonight and about twice as many numbers are included.
Hope you enjoyed the show. 😉
