Emil St-Hilaire

I would be scared of the rattlesnakes,and scorpions...

Lainey

Great photos, Gary. Love the Park Avenue Perspective.

To Patty and Jim and those sleeping on the ground. You are tougher, much tougher than I am. No way.

Ryan is half way through is soccer season. Rick and I have been on soccer duty most weekends as his parents both work Saturdays. He's been scoring at every game. 2-3 goals. He's pretty darn good so far. Tried to be goalie for a while today. Nope, that's not his position. They scored two against him in a short time, but still won 6-4. He scored three of the goals.

Here are some pics.

Using his head.


Fancy footwork warming up. He said it was doing it wrong, but it looked OK to me.


During the game


Team pic. He has two coaches. This woman more often has been the coach. I don't know much about soccer, but I wasn't far from her today. She really seems to know the game, and she's great and patient with the kids, on and off the field.


With his cousin who played earlier. Converted to B&W to draw less attention to the shadow on Ryan's face. (probably didn't help much) Didn't have time to get them to a shady spot.

skunkworks

Thanks for the compliments.

Lainey: I liked your B&W shot best. B&W photography has always been a draw to me.

Patty: I’m in agreement with the others -- no lying on the ground. I’d sleep on the deck, but not on the ground. Uncertain where Kennedy Meadows was located, Wikipedia provided me with that of information. It has a population of 28 and even provides the demographics of the town!

gary

Kyras

The only reason I didn't sleep on the ground when I went the last time was because the place that I find flat enough had ants where I'd lay my bedding. I like the ground spot better then the deck because I can see more stars as I look north, which is the way I always lay. The deck was more convenient though to use the bathroom in the night. Snakes aren't out at night. I don't worry about anything except ants in my bed. I have seen scorpions up there but only two in 22 years.

Morris

Patty, don't bet on it. The fattest rattlesnake, and the loudest I've ever heard was out across my front driveway about 9 o'clock at night. He (or she) started shaking her tail when I was still 40 feet away. Got a flashlight and took a picture which is now one of my screensaver shots. I'll send the picture if you want to see it.
You wouldn't catch me sleeping on the ground at Kennedy Meadows unless snakes were hibernating.

Kyras

Hmm. Well, call me a stupid risk taker, then. Over the 22 years there, we've seen around 4 rattlers. They tended to be in a shady spot during the heat of the day when we found them. One was where my Kyras liked to sleep. It had to go. I'm going back up this Thursday for a couple of nights. Last trip I had a friend with me and it would've been more fun alone, so I'm going alone this week.

Lainey

A little local color. Ginko trees. I didn't even know we had these trees around here. This is in RI at Colt State Park.


I took this one as I liked the sunlight to the left,(it was late in the day) and I liked the path as well. IF time permits, I'd love to go to this area again when the trees have more color.


Someone in a photography forum I hang out in suggested this pic would be more complete with a person or animal in it. Maybe so, but I just like nature, things that depict solitude, at times.

Scooterboy

I think that a person or animal would have distracted from what you were seeing. Each to their own but I think they are wrong.

BTW, nice pictures!

Lainey

Thanks, Dave.

dlq04

I really like the first one! The shadow makes it since it pulls your eyes right into the picture. I like the second one too. If something were in the foreground in the area of your name, not necessarily something large, I think it might add another dimension. I might suggest cropping out a bit of the bottom just to see what that does. There's no charge this time for my suggestions.