My photography efforts have stayed very close to home in the past six months since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Most of the camera roll on my phone involves my two-year-old, with a few of the new house that we are moving into next week.
My most common subjects in the summer are always the flowers in my yard; I gave a few examples for this recent challenge. Since then, I’ve been working on close-ups of flowers, something I’ve always struggled with in terms of framing and focus (my phone does not have a good macro setting). I was really pleased with this hydrangea from my front yard. I will miss this bush when we move!
I used the editor in Google Photos to give it just a tiny bit of pop. I’ve also been doing some cropping for better focus.
Need a feel-good news story to pick you up today? Here you go. It’s certainly nice to see Ohio in the news for non-COVID reasons.
The Akron Zoo, where I worked briefly about 10 years ago, recently got a new resident: a blue lobster. Employees at the local Red Lobster restaurant, which is literally down the road from me, discovered this specimen in one of their shipments and reached out to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which put them in touch with the Akron Zoo. It turns out that only one in about 2 million lobsters are blue, which certainly makes this lobster pretty special!
A blue lobster taken at the Lobster Trap fish market by Jane Carter / CC BY-SA
“Clawde” then got adopted and relocated to the zoo, which happens to have a lot of experienced aquatic animal keepers because many were hired on there after SeaWorld Ohio closed in 2000. After settling in there, zoo staff discovered that the lobster was actually female, and she was renamed “Clawdia.” She’s being housed in the Komodo Kingdom building where the aquatic exhibits are located, though you can’t visit her yet as all zoo building are currently closed to the public due to COVID-19 precautions (the zoo itself is open).
Ahhh winters in Ohio. We live at the very bottom of the Lake Erie snow belt, so while it could be worse, we get a lot of snow. And when it’s not snowing, it’s cold. Every winter I dream of being a Florida snowbird in my retirement someday.
But as much as I hate driving in the snow, I am fascinated by its beauty. Flakes gently floating in the air. White fluff piling up on black branches.
My toddler loves to go outside and leave his tracks in the fresh-fallen snow. It’s also fun to see who else has been in our yard! Here a squirrel friend was sitting; we also frequently see deer prints.
Of course, who would want to live somewhere where it’s always winter and never Christmas? I love the whole Christmas season; it brings light to the darkness.
Autumn is Ohio’s best season: the colors, the weather, the events! Even a car ride is a joy, but I really love visiting state parks at this time. Here are some views from Mohican State Park near the northeast part of the state.
I love identifying leaves in the fall (the tree in the featured image is a sassafras, which have some of the most beautiful colors). Here are some posts to get you started with some basic leaf IDs:
