Letters in Nature Project

First of all, I want all my readers to know that these are not my photos.

These were taken by my grandchildren, ages 7 (the twins) and 9 (the triplets). We took a walk into the woods on their property for a photo project that I sometimes have my students do as an assignment in learning to "see".

They all took turns using my point-n-shoot camera and I told them they have to find letters of the alphabet in nature. One of the rules were that nothing could be changed. They couldn't add, move or remove anything. These are a few of the photos they took in less than an hour.

We covered most of the alphabet. When one of them spotted a letter, they got to take the shot. This is a great exercise to improve your own eye. It's actually easier than it looks, and hey, if 7 and 9-yr. olds can do it, so can you!

Other than slight cropping to make the letter more obvious, these are straight out of the camera. These kids did a great job; don't you think?

Tom

Meet Tom. Tom is one of my grandchildren's cats. He had a partner, Jerry, who was recently run over by a car when he darted across the street. Now Tom is not allowed outside. We all thought the kids would be devastated by the accident; and they were--for a couple days. Mommy and Daddy explained that Jerry is up in heaven with Grandpa and Grandpa is taking care of him for them. They seem to be fine with that.

What's amazing is that their father doesn't especially like cats. He only agreed to allow the kids to have a cat after their Grandpa died to help them with their grieving. The one who's devastated the most is the kids' father. He's lost without that cat. It's amazing how an animal in the house can become a part of the family in no time at all.

I made this photo "just in case". It's too bad I wasn't able to make one of Jerry, but the cats are only a few months old, and I never met Jerry.

The kids love this photo, and since they have a link to Grammy's photo blog, I'm sure they'll be pleased to see Tom on it tonight.

This is for you all, Nick, Nathan, Noah, Austin and Alexis; Grammy loves you! XOXOXOXO

Church Overlooking Oswego, NY

I took this photo from the City of Oswego Library through the second floor window. The name of this church escapes me, but for this image, it isn't important.

I love the way it seems to be overlooking the city--sort of like it's taking care of it. The old architecture is also beautiful. In the Winter, when all the trees are bare, it's a lot easier to see the design, but this is the first time I photographed it in the Summer and I like the way it looks with the trees and only the tops of the houses showing.

Beautiful Lake Ontario sits just behind the church, where one can easily see the Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse. I love the City of Oswego, just not in the Winter. It is hilly, cold, slippery and with the narrow streets, it's hard to get around. Because it's so close to the lake, it gets lake effect snow 9 months of the year and it's not unusual to see more than 5 ft. of snow on the ground from January through April. It also snows everyday. The city is very good about keeping the streets free of snow and ice with their sand trucks and plows going out on the first sign of snow.

Eastern Ribbon Snake/CORRECTION: Eastern Garter Snake

I found this (and 2 others) along side the mountain trail at the Salmon River Falls in Altmar, NY. Originally, I thought it was a Common Garter Snake, but on closer look, it is definitely an Eastern Ribbon Snake.

The Eastern Ribbon Snake is in the Garter Snake family and look very much alike. However, the Eastern Ribbon is much more slender than the Garter Snake, but you can't tell that unless you see them both together. The definitive identification is by looking just below his mouth and at his eye. The Garter Snake has a white elongated dot in front of his eye and black lateral lines extending from his mouth to the lower edge of his jaw. This snake has neither, so it is definitely an Eastern Ribbon Snake. It doesn't really matter, since neither are poisonous and not aggressive at all. I'm just a curious sort and need to know everything. Don't ask me why, I've always been like this.

As you can imagine, I have no fear of snakes, spiders and bugs. However, I'm terrified of the Palmetto Bugs we have here in Florida. I know they don't bite, but they're so fast and so hard to kill. It's probably the only bug I kill other than Mosquitoes and Flies. Palmetto Bugs are Cockroaches, but fortunately don't nest in the house, but like flies are filthy and covered with all kinds of germs; and we all know why I kill Mosquitoes. Other than that, I have a problem with killing any living thing. They're all here for a purpose.

Enough about my philosophy, I'll be back tomorrow with another post. Stay tuned...

UPDATE: 8/8/2009
After an anonymous comment, I did some research, that is after he researched, and it seems that this Eastern Ribbon Snake is actually an Eastern Garter Snake. After a closer look at the lips and his eye, this snake has dark lines on his lower lips and no white spot in front of his eye, so he is indeed a GARTER snake.

I must apologize for leading you all wrong. I don't remember where I read the information I got on the internet, or a book, but either I got it mixed up, which is entirely possible, or the information I read was incorrect.

This article, click here, which the anonymous commenter so generously pointed out, explains the difference rather clearly and shows a photo of both snakes together. When seen together, they don't even look alike; but apart they are easily mistaken for one another.

The Salmon River Falls

While in NY I decided to take my grandson to the Salmon River Falls in Altmar, NY on CR-22. These falls are awesome. They drop into a gorge 110 ft. below.

This photo only shows 1 section of the falls. There are 2 other sets of falls to the left of this one. I don't get to see falls in Florida, so this is also a great treat for me. The last time I was there was in 2001 and all I had was a 2 mp digital camera. I wanted to see how they'd look with better equipment.

I must've chose the right time of year because they were really running fast. In 2001, I went in the Spring and there was only a thin ribbon of water dropping. The other 2 falls were hardly flowing.

These falls have a narrow trail leading up to them with only a small guide wire for fencing. Unfortunately, this has been the site of many teens committing suicide. It prompted the State of NY to close the falls for a long time.

As I look around the top of the falls, there's only small puddles of water on the rocks not more than 2 ft. deep--if that. The pool at the bottom is probably only about 3 ft. deep. I can't imagine where all that water comes from.

I'd love to go there in the Fall some time and see the colorful foliage. One of these days I'll remember to plan my trip for the foliage. I usually only go to NY in the Winter to see the snow and the Summer.

In order to get the falls so smooth I shot in Shutter Priority mode at 1/15 sec and F20 gave me really nice depth of field. I used my 18-55mm lens at 53mm, ISO 400 because of the low light. Exposure compensation was set at Ev +2/3 stop to keep the water white, and I used partial metering.