Driving through our neighborhood about 60% of the homes have a porch. All these have a couple of chairs, sometimes rockers, sometimes sofas, or porch swings. There is never anyone in them! People seem to never sit out front of their homes anymore. Years ago people would sit outside and enjoy the cool of the evening, wave at neighbors, and occasionally come across the lawn to talk to someone from the area walking by. At times they would invite them to sit on the porch with them and offer tea or something else to drink.

We seem to have lost a lot by becoming more involved with our computers and televisions. It's one of those romantic nostalgic pieces of life we seem to be continually losing like steam engine trains and soda fountains where we could order a black cow or fizzy or a milkshake made with real hand-dipped ice cream.

We can't turn back time but in so many ways it would be nice if we could.

I have posted the recent arrival of a new Grandson last week. My wife and I have joined our daughter and son in law in assisting them until they get settled and things calm down and in the groove. Daughter had a last minute c-section so she is dealing with that issue.

My wife and I have been sharing the night duty patrol in taking care of Kieran.

Late last night my wife was exhausted and had laid in bed with grandkid laying on her legs and stomach.

I walked in the bedroom and the lighting and composition seemed perfect to me. No camera, just cell phone.

My wife of nearly 37 years and pushing the 60 year envelope never ceases to amaze me with her beauty and kindness, and hard work Here they both are at 2:00 AM Monday morning.

Hi all,

I just returned from Kenya where I was leading a photo tour. Due to all the rains over the past few months, Kenya is GREEN! And the wildlife are responding by having lots of babies.

I managed to break my Canon RF 100-500mm a week before the trip, so I did almost all of my photography with the older Canon 200-400mm with built-in 1.4x and used the spare camera I bought just before the trip - the mirrorless RF 6 II. I had my Canon R5 with me, but test at my Idaho home a couple days before flying to Kenya seemed to show the R6 II was even better at detecting animal eyes than the older R5, so I stayed with the R6 II. It worked well and I did well with every situation. I used Auto ISO for exposure and exposure compensation nearly all the time and kept continuous autofocus active on the shutter button. While I was a huge fan of BBF for 30 years, I find I no longer need it with the newer camera controls. I did try to buy the newly released RF 200-800mm but no luck as usual with new Canon gear. Actually, I am hoping to buy the Canon R1 and the 200-500mm lens I have heard about, but neither are available. If I can't get the new flagship Canon camera and the new fast zoom lens by fall of this year, I plan to drop Canon and move over to Nikon. Dixie just got the Nikon 600mm f/4 with the built-in converter - what a beast!!!! I wish I had that option in the Canon line. Canon needs to speed up getting new products out there.

For those who are interested in a Kenya Safari, we are planning another one that runs later this year and into 2024. Parks we photograph include Amboseli, Samburu, and the Masai Mara. I have led over 40 photo tours to Kenya and we do it well. Unfortunately, a Kenya tour is not inexpensive as Kenya fees keep going up. We only put three photographers in a safari vehicle allowing everyone to shoot out either side of the vehicle easily, and we fly from park to park. That makes the tour cost more, but it is WAY better for everyone! I still have another 50,000 images to sort through! Kenya is truly an amazing experience and while it is the most expensive trip I lead, it is also the most repeated trip too!

Last October we travelled to Churchill, Manitoba for 5 days to try for polar bears. The first 4 days gave us terrible weather with constant 40-50mph winds, blowing snow, and of course cold temps. What bears were around were not moving and we saw a few but very far away, at least for my camera gear. We did have some nice encounters with Red Fox and what they call Cross Fox (a color variation of the red fox). One curled up Arctic Fox, a few Ptarmigan, and Arctic Hares were also seen. The very last day the wind was at a more manageable level and the sun was partially out! Driving around we finally had a nice encounter with a Polar Bear walking up the coast line. It really was beautiful.

So these are some of the photos from our trip...

Dave

What inspired me to post this is a small pleasure I have enjoyed for the last thirty-three years since moving to the Lehigh Valley of PA.

We are on the flyway for Snow Geese coming down from Canada. The geese will come down around dawn and fill many acres of the harvested corn fields in the area. They are eating the kernels thrown off as the harvesters load corn into large dump trucks that haul them out of the fields. In addition to kernels being thrown off by the transfer process, additional kernels get jostled out of the trucks.

In the late afternoon, after feeding all day, the geese take to the skies and look for a lake or pond to land in for the night. They form massive V-shaped formations that stretch for miles. Tens of thousands make this transfer from fields to water each day. This goes on for about three weeks until colder weather drives them farther south. Sometimes you can catch these formations set against a great sunset and that is truly awe-inspiring.

I love standing outside and watching as wave after wave of these geese fly over (better they fly over a little off from directly overhead as they can plaster an area with droppings -- my car and driveway have been victim to that on several occasions). You can hear them from a mile away. Sometimes the stream of honkers lasts for ten or fifteen minutes.

Remembering films I've seen of D-day, also makes me think of the waves of bombers the Germans must have seen as the formations flew over in support of the Allied landings at Normandy.