4,000 Little Moments

When I started this journal nearly 11 years ago, my idea was to capture a moment every day.  Sometimes the moments would be big things, sometimes the most trivial of things.  But the idea was to create a place to record the moments, great and small.  I've recorded the happy moments as well as the sad ones; shared my successes as well as my fears and failures.

When I started, I wasn't really sure what kind of photographer I wanted to be; since then I have become a nature photographer who occasionally ventures into other venues but always returns to the place that feels like home - where the wild things live.  From the tiniest insects and arachnids to the slitheriest reptiles to the toothiest animals to the all the feathered things.  There's not much I don't enjoy pointing my lens at.

Along the way, I've become a much better photographer while still knowing I have much to learn.  I've learned a ton of relatively useless information about creatures, great and small.  I've lost my fear of spiders and wasps.  I've spent time freezing my tootsies off and sweating through every layer of clothing, all in the quest for "the" shot.  Sometimes I get just what I wanted; sometimes not.  

It may surprise some of you to know that there is something about this photo that I don't like and it is a direct result of my shooting it in the middle of the day under sunny skies.  But my Hubs said I should crop the shot tight, leave the patch of overexposed belly and post it. He says it tells a story and then pointed out that it's not often you get to see the tongue of a downy woodpecker.  So okay, here's my 4,000th blip.  

I have another big milestone coming up so I'll save some of what I have to say for that one (because, really, how much do you actually want to read my random meanderings today?)

Oh, and just in case you're wondering - this is a female Downy Woodpecker (above) feeding a fledgling male.  This will be the only brood she raises this year before she goes back to the normal life a woodpecker until it starts all over again next spring.  

Dark with orange today.

xo
Debbi