Imposter Seasons

 

"If I were a flower…I would be a sunflower. To always follow the sun, turn my back to darkness, stand proud, tall and straight even with my head full of seeds."

~Pam Stewart

It's late summer now, and but there are still some tiny sunflowers to be found along the roads here and there in the San Joaquin Valley. They always make me smile. I want to stop at each spot and take a photo, just so I refer back on cold days of winter, to keep me warm inside. The weather was perfect this summer. Not too hot, if not a little too cool. One night in July, I was actually shivering, while I was batting on the Franklin Bridge. I hardly got bit, there weren't nearly as many mosquitos as in years past. But there were sunflowers, which no matter what, they are always there in summer. That's a good thing, if not, I might not know if spring had ever ended!

Deer Crossing

 

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” 

~John Muir 

 

While out waiting for bats one evening, on the Franklin Boulevard Bridge, I was enjoying that night's twilight of mild summer temperatures, when I spotted a group of deer wading through the Mokelumne River toward the southern bank, and let me tell you, it was just what I needed to see, when I needed to see it! The Mexican Free-tailed bat is a yearly visitor to the bridge, with numbers that on some years reach as many as 200,000, but for some reason their numbers don't seem to have nearly that many this year! When that happens, the photographer in me has to rely on other things in nature to photograph. Birds, dragonflies, even spiders are some of my favorite subjects, and I do have plenty of those to share, but I had been hoping to see something new to try, and then the chance presented itself. It was one of those magical moments, when the camera was with me, and the camera was charged up, and the camera actually had a memory card in it. You see, I tend to forget all those things from time to time. But on this night it all came together.

 

As I said, it was magic!

 

And there's a lot more to share with you!