“Here’s a pretty thing…”

A few years ago, there was a time when I was a member of a Canadian duck camp, and every year starting in mid-September until the last weekend in October we’d make the 4 hour drive from home to an old cabin north of Morson Ontario to spend anywhere from 2 to 5 days a week hunting ducks on magnificent Lake of the Woods.  It was the greatest thing ever, but sadly the time spent away from my family combined with the investments I needed to make in new music gear and the demands on my free time exerted by heavily booked bands forced me to bow out.  I fully intend to return along with my sons in the not-so-distant future to share the mind blowing experience with them.  I was going through an old online photo album, and I came across this lovely shot.  It was taken from Drennan Point at the west end of the Basil Channel looking out into Big Traverse Bay at sunset.  Though you can’t see it clearly in this photo, there’s often a magical shimmer on the horizon at the point where the planet curves away, and it’s one of my favorite sights on all the earth.  I shot only two Bluebills the whole day and was thoroughly outsmarted – made a fool of, really - by the small flocks of Mallards and Black Ducks that would occasionally cut the base of the point, and yet I snapped 4 or 5 of my favorite photos ever including this one of Lucy and this one of some interesting clouds.  Like I said, it’s about so much more than simply shooting at ducks…