why i otter...

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Western NC Nature Center Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
What, you couldn't see that one coming?
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white fang

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Western NC Nature Center Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
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because i haven't done a turtle in a while

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Western NC Nature Center Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
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redd foxx

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Western NC Nature Center - Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
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no cougar jokes*

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Western NC Nature Center - Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
*Not if you know what's good for you anyway.
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now you seem 'em, no you don't

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Western NC Nature Center - Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
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log on

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Western NC Nature Center, Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
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grey wolf siesta

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Western NC Nature Center, Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
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THAT would kill your sofa cushions

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Western NC Nature Center, Asheville, NC, USA - August 15, 2011
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sky watch friday #93: goin' fishin'

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 This image and others available for sale at my RedBubble Site!

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The World in Black & White - 2.15.2010

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"Was That Really Necessary?"
Raleigh, NC - August 2005 (Click to embiggen)
To see more from the WBW Community of Bloggers, visit The World in Black & White

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Photographically Challenged #34: Legs

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"Champion of Breakfasts"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

Photographically Challenged Fridays on Why? What Have You Heard?

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TTL #18: "Pilgrim Shadow"

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"Ride, Boldly Ride"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

TTL Saturdays on Why? What Have You Heard?

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Photographically Challenged #32: Table For One

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"Better make it a light breakfast"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

Photographically Challenged Fridays on Why? What Have You Heard?

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Single Lens Reflex #14: "Free"

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"Free Falling"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

Single Lens Reflex Sundays on Why? What Have You Heard?

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Thematic Photographic 82: "2009 - The Year that Was" v.1.0 - Snow! Twice! With Special Guests, Helga the Amazon She-Hawk and Litle GTO

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"Helga the Amazon She-Hawk"
Raleigh, NC - January 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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"See? I wasn't imagining it!"
Raleigh, NC - March 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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"1967 GTO Hardtop Coupe"
Raleigh, NC - May 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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This week Thematic Photographic takes a look back at 2009 in pictures. If it was important to you, it's important to us. So show us what you saw in the year gone by.

These weren't events of national or world importance, they were of photographic significance -- to me anyway.

It began in mid January when a once-crippled and rehabilitated female red tailed hawk named Helga was released into the wild at the local riding stable where she was found with a badly broken wing. The Triangle Land Conservancy contacted me about using a couple of my shots form the release in their newsletter, which I thought was pretty cool. they were supposed to send me a couple of copies when it came out, but either they forgot or they didn't use the work after all. Either way I never heard any more from them and I kept forgetting to contact them about it.

Yes, Virginia, it does occasionally snow in Raleigh, NC. In Inauguration years. The last time anything frozen fell out of the sky here was the day before the Second Coronation of Bush The Younger. That storm was a metaphor for that election in a way. An innocent looking inch or so of snow because of a freakish temperature pattern turned to a half-inch of sheer ice that paralyzed the entire city. It was as insidious as it was perilous because it didn't appear that it would amount to anything problematic, but before it was over there were tales of motorists spending the night in their cars on the Interstate and children spending the night at their schools because the buses couldn't navigate the snarl.

Neither of the snows of 2009 held such peril for us, both of them practically melting before the echoes of "Ain't it pretty" faded. This shot was one I took at about 2:00 AM March 2, from my front porch. I wanted to be sure to document the event in case it was over by the time I got up.

Once the snow had melted, the thunder started. On hand at this first of two car shows I shot in 2009 were no fewer than three pristine 1967 vintage Pontiac GTO's. (There may have been more than three, I got there late... as usual.)

Update: Apparently TLC has a subscription to my feed and nobody realized I hadn't gotten copies of their May-June newsletter (with the photos of Helga) until this post surfaced in someone's reader. So there are two copies on the way now. The power of G**gle in evidence again, eh?

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Thursday Challenge #55: "Open (Week 1 of 2)"

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"Free"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)
Next Week's Challenge: "Open (Week 2 of 2)"

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Thematic Photographic 80: "Abstract" v.1.0 Accidental Abstract

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"Noire... In Color!"
Wake Forest, NC - February 2009 (Click to embiggen)

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This week's Thematic Photographic is exploring the abstract. Normally, that's the name I give to shots I screwed up but like anyway. Which is typically followed by, "It's art, get over it." This opening salvo in the world of abstraction is just such a shot. Occasionally I have a brain fart and forget to check my exposure settings. Either that or I forget that I'm shooting manual exposure (especially if I'm shooting in full daylight which is where I'm most likely to just let the camera do the thinking). On this grim, dismal fine February afternoon when I spotted this flock of Turkey Vultures perched on Wake Forest's water tower. I couldn't tell at first what they were, just that they must be pretty big if I could see them from two blocks away and there were a bunch of them. Naturally, this was a photo I had to have, so I quick hopped out of the truck and commenced firing. Without checking my exposure. And since these were among the first shots I'd taken that day I couldn't work out why the light looked so flat. It took several more shots before I noticed the meter was blinking madly at me to inform me that I was grossly overexposed, and by this time I'd moved on to the next target of opportunity. But the results were intriguing even if they were technically ahem flawed. had these been a different type of bird that might not have been the case. (Although I suppose large crows or ravens would have worked nicely.) But with the white water tower blended into the gray background of the overcast sky, only the darkest parts of the shot have any definition. I probably could have duplicated this effect in Photoshop if I'd thought of it (in fact there may be a filter specifically for it) but my hand to God, I didn't. This is more or less straight from the camera, albeit recurved slightly to gain some contrast.

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Image is Everything #13: Nevermore

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"S'aint Nobody"
Wrightsville Beach, NC - November 2005 (Click to embiggen)

Image Is Everything Thursdays on Why? What Have You Heard?

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TTL #4: "Breakfast Club"

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"Waiting for a Date"
North Topsail Beach, NC - July 2009 (Click to embiggen)

TTL Saturdays on Why? What Have You Heard?

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