The Words Behind the Picture

Hey, y’all. Long time no posting, eh?

Things are going great, mostly. The not-so-great thing? I am STILL struggling to find my missing writer mojo. You know, that hard to describe thing that makes a person want to write. My writing muscle! I’ve apparently lost the desire to use it. I have also run out of rational explanations and plain old excuses to explain the problem.

Rather than waste any more time trying to understand why, I’m just going to move forward.

I figured I would try and ease my way back into blogging by combining two crafts that I enjoy; writing and photography.

Recently, I’ve come to realize that photography is really just a lazy way of capturing and sharing memories with people. When I look at one of my own nature photos, I “see” more than an image. I can usually remember the feeling of the place, too. And why I took the pic in the first place.

I’ve always just assumed others look at my images and experience the same thing. I figure people see my photos and either can see/understand why I took the shot or can at least appreciate the photo for its quality.

Turns out, I may have been wrong.

Right or wrong, as a form of exercise for that atrophied writing muscle of mine, I’m going to start doing posts about particular pictures. I can only share one image per post and I need to write something about the image. I’m thinking the writing will happen in the morning, so the pic may be from the day before. I may throw in some old pics, too.

The rules are loose and may change. Why create pressure? I want this to be fun for me and, hopefully, something others will enjoy, too.

Wish me luck as I struggle to get back into shape. 🐸

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We’ve been at our current location for about three weeks now. We are staying at a campground on the eastern end of Dauphin Island near the mouth of Mobile Bay in Alabama. The campground is adjacent to the beach AND an Audubon Bird Sanctuary. It’s also across the street from the Mobile Bay Ferry landing.

When we first arrived on this small barrier island and I visited the beach, I was delighted to see large bird footprints in the sand. I thought that meant this was a “wild” beach. As it turns out, those tracks were Harry’s. He is, indeed, a heron,  but he’s not particularly wild. He is a regular on this beach. So much so, that campers know him by name. I see him on the beach often.

The other day, while walking around with my camera, I was taking pictures of a heron on the beach that I thought was Harry. I even said, “Hi, Harry,” as I snapped some pics.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, I heard some honk-squawking to my left and turned to see the real Harry gesturing wildly at me from the water’s edge.

That other heron was an imposter! Or an interloper. Maybe both.

Harry made some crazy poses for me and then, after I had had time to snag a few pics, took off.

He is a proud, handsome fellow, isn’t he? Not only did I capture a great pic, but a fun story, too.