Another beauty from the outdoor art museum, that is Cave Hill Cemetery.

People often ask me, "What's the best camera?" Of course the correct answer is, "The one you have with you..."

Shot with an iPhone, through my car window, while stopped at a traffic light. I didn't even have time to roll the dirty window down!

From my Thanksgiving-day walk. I think the male Cardinal looks a little crazy... The Downy Woodpecker wouldn't give me a good shot and the Turkey Vulture was circling over my car!

Never can get a satisfactory shot of one of these guys. Probably my favorite bird, the Cedar Waxwing. I still think they look like they come from the future! I just wish they would come around more and maybe land a little lower on the tree for once..

It was a dark & dreary day at Tom Sawyer Park. At times it was so dark I didn't think I had enough light for photos. I had not really seen anything all day that was particularly interesting, so I decided to walk out through a thick area of woods. Along the way I got bored, stopped walking, and started looking at my phone (which I NEVER do in the woods!). I don't think I was looking at it for more than 5 minutes when I heard that tell-tale blowing sound that deer make when they sense danger. I turned around and there she was, but only for a second. I wasn't in a hurry, so I just kneeled on the ground and waited. Eventually she walked back with another deer, but never as close as the first time when she snuck up on me. I had to stay low so I "walked" about 50 feet on my knees while peering above the random foliage. Each time I could see her cautiously looking my way, I would bring the camera up and then not find her in the viewfinder. Put the camera down and there she'd be. Camera up, she's gone, down, she reappears. "How can this be?" I wondered. Eventually her timing was off enough that I did get two shots. I was beginning to think that this was some sort of disappearing, Ghost Deer.

Like Icarus, sometimes I fly too close to the sun...

I got another chance to fly with some hawks today. I initially saw one and wanted to get up in the air to greet it but, just at the top of my launch, I almost ran into a second one that I didn't know was there. I rolled to one side to avoid startling hawk number two and flew over to the original hawk and hawk number two followed along.

My camera is just a tiny mobius bolted to my hat but it captured some dramatic lens flare in this short clip.

I recently got to fly a few seconds with some hawks that drifted by on a thermal. I say they were hawks but I really don't know if they were or not because they were too far away. I was so excited when they showed up that I descended to meet them and I think I probably descended too quickly and scared them away. If I ever get the chance again, next time I will move in more slowly. They will probably still fly off but maybe not as quickly.

Because they were so far away, you probably won't be able to see much on a phone-sized screen. I recommend at least a laptop but, if you have sharp eyes, maybe you can get a glimpse of the flight even on a phone-sized screen. I recommend you crank the resolution up to 1080p on the youtube widget and view full screen.

The birds enter from screen-right at about the 2:00 minute mark.

Why, hello there...

Here's Robin...

A tiny, female Downy Woodpecker.

I got to watch a parade of deer walk past my hiding spot today.

The temperature was 15 degrees when I saw this chubby little female cardinal. She was in full warm-up mode.

This little guy was so cold that he was all puffed up.

This past Saturday, I stumbled upon a deer doing Yoga in a cemetery.

This gal was hanging out with the buck, elsewhere on this page. I'm not sure what she has going on between her eyes, but she looks like she has a sort of third eye growing there.

This is the same buck seen elsewhere on this page. Before I got those other shots in the clear, I played hide-n-seek with him throughout the woods.

Have you ever had a dream where you are standing in a field that is totally empty except for you and some regal animal? Yeah, me either but if I did, I think it would look a lot like this real-life encounter.

Squirrels are usually reluctant models. This one, however, had a card that read, "I'm Ready for my close-up!"

I have been taking photos of the deer in Tom Sawyer State Park for years, yet I have never seen, let alone photographed, a Buck with a set of antlers. I have heard them snort before but never actually saw one. Earlier in the day today I played hide-n-seek with this one and got several photos with various branches and sticks in the way but I was happy with them because you could clearly see that it was a buck. Then, as I was leaving, he came right out in the open and seemed to actually want to be photographed. I started out about 100 yards away and slowly made my way toward him, stopping every several yards to get closer and closer photos. Then he just walked away.

Just look at the neck on this guy!