I'll stop soon...

Yet more dahlia...

Meg took this shot of the dahlia with some morning dew...

More Fawn pictures

Now that this year's fawns are getting bigger, we see more of them and they are getting closer to the house. This little guy was visiting our front yard yesterday morning...

Fireworks!!

Yesterday was Thetford, Vermont's 250th birthday which was celebrated with a wonderful fireworks display!

Contrasts...

Black and white. Light and Dark. Terrible news and Joyous News. What a tapestry.

More Dahlia...

I told you that I wouldn't be able to stop at just one photo of our blooming Dahlia. Here is the proof in the filtered morning light with just a little dew clinging to him.

Fawn...

We saw the two fawns we've been tracking this summer the other night near the house. It made me pine for a fast long lens because of the weak light and the distance involved but that sort of stuff costs real money. This one came out OK though and shows off our youthful visitor nicely!

Web

We found this sparkling web in the morning light yesterday. The dark trees provided a sharp contrast as the morning light lit up the droplets of water.

Dalia doh!!! "Dahlia" time...

This won't be the last picture I post of our Dahlia. This guy has been with us for several years now - lying dormant in the garage all winter and then coming to life every summer. It seems (to have) a deeper color than in past years and is just gorgeous.

Indulgence...

I'm endlessly fascinated by the lilies in our back yard. They are so beautiful by themselves and serve as such an attraction for all sorts of winged creatures.

Deadheading...

It's summer and time to be deep into the Dead. 

It's hot!

Meg got this shot (through the screen) of this guy succumbing to the hot weather. It's just too hot to stand up!

The lillies are blooming!

Summer is in full bloom here in Vermont.

New Book Available!

We are really excited to publish our first book through blurb.com! We actually developed the book with the intention of entering it into the Photography Book Now competition but amazingly missed the submission deadline.


This is a travel book consisting of some of our favorite photos from around the world (that sounds more exotic than it is) rendered in Black and White to explore the textures and new meanings hidden behind the color.


Take a look and let us know what you think!

Travels in Black and White. by Tyler Brown Meg Kremzner | Make Your Own Book

Juvinile Robin

The other day at work, an interesting bird was clumsily feeding outside my window. I guessed correctly that it was a young robin. Sadly I was shooting through tinted glass but was able to Photoshop out some of the distortion. 


Beautiful bird!

Shroom...

This time of year, completely out of the blue, mushrooms appear all over the place. There are a tremendous variety of them ranging from those crazy Indian Pipe things to the more conventional lawn based toadstools.


I found this one yesterday morning and just love how the toadstool looks sprinkled with little flavor crystals.

Fawn...

Meg snapped this shot of one of this years fawns in our front yard. These youngsters are all ears and legs!

Squirrel Week - Episode 4 - The finale

It has come to my attention that not everyone enjoys observing the callous indifference that our squirrel and chipmunk friends have for our plans, whether those plans include putting seed out for the birds or growing geraniums free from the wanton deadheading of mischievous red squirrels.


I certainly won't attempt to change your mind about such things but I will point out the simple joy in letting go and watching how nature decides to conduct itself. It's sometimes cute, sometimes comical, sometimes family oriented and some times decidedly menacing and without mercy. I'm entertained by the former and squeamish but accepting of the latter especially when we find our predatory friends (foxes and raptors) in our neighborhood.


In the end I'm thankful for the opportunity to see all these creatures doing their thing despite the huge messy, destructive footprint we humans have made on the land. When I think of our impact, I really would prefer not to control whether the red squirrel misbehaves and nips of the near blooming bud of the geranium. I'm just psyched he's here and having a good day!


Oh and sometimes it's just funny.

Have a great Friday Red!

Squirrel Week - Episode 4

The other day, after feeding the bird, I started sneaking up on this red squirrel cleaning up underneath one of our feeders. I kept moving closer to him until I could have reached out and touched him (or so I imagine). He looked like he was always keeping one eye on me.

I shot this with the 50mm prime lens at about f/2.0. It's fascinating to spend time with this lens: unable to zoom without walking or crawling, stuck with the same field of view, oblivious to shutter speed because you can get to f1.4 and getting wicked sharpness right out of the camera.

I'm also falling further and further in love with square cropping for so many photos these days.

Squirrel Week - Episode 3

Enough swallows - let's get back to the task at hand.


This little guy was trying mightily to get up our steel bird feeder but kept slipping backwards. Truly one step forward for two steps back.

We interrupt Squirrel Week to bring you...

Swallows have nested in one of the birdhouses we put out this year and their young ones (which we can hear cheeping sixty feet away) are about ready to start trying to fly. As the day gets closer, they are getting bigger and hungrier. The parents are flying back and forth constantly bringing bugs home to feed the youngsters.

Meg snapped this shot of Junior opening very wide for a delicious bug dinner... Open wide!!

Squirrel Week - Episode 2

I sat with this guy for some time in the late afternoon sun as he munched on black oil sunflower seeds. It would be an overstatement to say that he was "working with me" but he did seem to understand the flattering affect of the sun's rays.

Squirrel Week - Episode 1

We have tried over the years to cultivate an environment for birds around our home. We have seed feeders in the yard, feeders in the woods, we've put in a maple tree that has blossomed into it's own ecosystem and our rugosa roses are sufficiently tall and thorny as to provide protection from even the most persistent raptor. 


This has resulted in not only a nice variety of bird species (though no Northern Flicker this year...) but also a ton of grey squirrels, red squirrels and chipmunks. Though I know some regard these rodents as pests, we've come to enjoy observing the relationships between these various species and the various members of each species (red squirrels being the crabbiest of the group). They each have their own personality and their own level of tolerance for us humans.


This week we'll post some recent photos we've been able to snap of these guys.

There is no doubt  that red squirrels enjoy a good view. We found this fellow surveying the scene as we approached one morning to refill the bird feeders.


This is not the first time we've found a seemingly "human" appreciation in red squirrels for a good view. I posted this picture in February of last year of a red squirrel enjoying a morning snack while watching sunrise from the very top of our Christmas tree which had found a new home on our deck after the holidays.

Gray Fox...

We've been experiencing visits from a gray fox (we think - do you agree?) which has discovered that our bird feeding, and thus our squirrel and chipmunk feeding, has led to a productive hunting ground for Urocyon cinereoargenteus.

Meg got a couple shots of this guy (gal?) lapping up sunflower seeds near the stone wall in our front yard (see below). It was only afterwards as he was shooed away that we realized he had already taken one of our little chipmunk friends.

It's tough to sympathize with the fox that kills the helpless chipmunk but of course he is what he is (a carnivore) and his family needs to eat as well. So it goes; no Hanover Co-Op meat counter for this fellow. 

Vermont ferns...

I love these ferns near our house this time of year. They surround and envelope the open areas of the woods. The solemn trees emerge from this sea of green to reach for the sunlight above. When squirrels and chipmunks run through them, they rustle like a scene out of Jurassic Park.

Vermont Sunset...

Last night's sunset was a treat...

Tuesday...

Somedays you wake up and you go to the Taj Mahal. 

Some days are otherwise... 

Gray Tree Frog

In the seven plus years we've lived in our home, we have on three occasions found a small mild mannered toad-like creature on our porch or deck.


The first time was in August 2007. This fellow showed up near the welcome mat on our front porch. Not interested in us in the least and seemingly completely quiescent. We were leaving that day for a vacation in Maine and when we returned he was of course gone.

Two years later in May we found a very similar - though noticeably rounder - creature occupying a spot on our back deck. The patterns were very similar and we asked around to find out what this amazing toad (we thought) was. The answer was that it is probably a Gray Tree Frog.

This year - again two years later - we again found one of these fantastic frogs on our deck, this time resting right up against our back door.

Will we see one of these again this year or will it be another two years before they return? What causes them to come up on our deck? Why do we never see them in the wild?

Memorial Day (continued...)

As I've made my way through this Memorial Day, I'm thinking of another veteran in my family who deserves our thanks. My brother in law Mike is a Vietnam veteran whose experience during those years was anything but positive. However in recent years, he has embarked on a pretty amazing mission: to visit Vietnam memorials in all fifty states.

I was able to join Mike and his friend and fellow veteran Steve as they visited memorials in New Hampshire and Vermont. Everywhere we went, folks were interested to hear Mike's story and to help him find that elusive tiny memorial - or stretch of road - dedicated to a local hero who served in Vietnam.

I spent less than two days with Mike and Steve and quickly learned what an emotional roller coaster this venture is. At the New Hampshire Veterans Cemetary in Boscawen, NH, we learned that someone comes every night to play taps at sundown. Every night. Rain, shine or snow. The night we visited was no different.

Mike got to know this story, he got to know and thank the trumpeter (who was originally from the Upper Valley) and to include this as a chapter in his 50 state quest.

Read the details of all Mike's travels in his blog.

Memorial Day

On this Memorial Day, I thought I'd post a few notes about some of the veterans in my life.

My Mom served in the WASP (Woman Airforce Service Pilots). She packed her bags in Michigan and traveled to Avenger Field in Sweetwater Texas to train with other civilian women to fly military aircraft. She towed targets and ferried planes - tasks that freed male pilots to fight overseas.

In the end around 25,000 woman applied to the WASP program and 1,074 graduated. For years, the WASPs were not even considered veterans. In 1977 Jimmy Carter changed that and last year the WASPs were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Here is my Mom being saluted by her military escort for the ceremony after receiving the medal.

My Dad served in the 34th bomber group of the 8th Air Force as a Flight Engineer on B-17s flying out of eastern England. Near the end of the war, the 34th participated in a little known humanitarian mission called Operation Chowhound by the Americans and Operation Manna by the British. Germany occupied Holland and during the latter part of the war deprived civilians access to food. Over 18,000 Dutch died during the winter of 1944 which became known as the Winter of Hunger.

In April and May of 1945, the RAF and the 8th Air Force started running food drops to Holland. Dad recalls flying to Utrecht and dropping rations into a stadium full of people who had somehow managed to spell out "Thanks Yanks". Years later, he met a young KLM Flight Engineer who said he and his family were eating tulip bulbs when the B-17s arrived.

My father in law Leon served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the 406th anti tank infantry regiment of the 102nd Infantry Division known as the Ozarks.

Lee diffused land mines which must have been terrifying work. His photos show what must have been some very tough times - this division worked its way all the way across Germany and was  just 50 miles from Berlin when the war in Europe ended.

My nephew Patrick served in the U.S. Navy on the U.S.S. Cole and was one of the 17 sailors killed on October 12, 2000.

He is sadly forever frozen at 19 to us. He would be 30 years old now and I often think of what he would be doing with his life had it not been cut short so early.


Thanks to all these veterans and all veterans everywhere.

Wonderland...

Grey Morning...

Early morning in Ocean City, NJ.

Monochrome...

I also made a monochrome version of the Wave Swinger which brings out the myriad of detail on the contraption when you're not distracted by all the cool colors.

Wave Swinger...