Good Morning, Sunshine

"Wake up Shutterbug," I heard. I opened my eyes and it was Randy. "It looks like a bloody sunrise this morning," he said enticing me out of bed.

Last night we ran out of propane to heat our cabin and hot water. It is easy to fix...just attach a new propane bottle. The problem was that I let it run out and so the pilot light burnt out. And, I didn't remember how to relight it. So I adapted, adding my hooded sweatshirt to my evening wear.

The real pay off came in the morning when I was dressed for the early morning shutter call.

It was 5:30 a.m. and the skies were clear except for the clouds over Latouche Island. I hurried to retrieve my camera from the Creekside dining cabin. The light and clouds were reflecting off the water. And, the colors were changing as the winds moved the clouds and the sun rose higher.

We watched, hoping to see the illustrious bloody sunrise, an event that occurs only a couple of times during the season. Lia and I were about to give up on the sunrise when an eagle flew towards the cove. Hurrying, I moved towards the cove, camera ready, to photograph the majestic bald eagle.

And, there he was, perched on a low tree. How lucky! I only had a 70mm lens so my zooming power was pretty low. Up went his wings, as he took off the limb, flying in front off me as though I had directed his flight. And, then he hit a tree top...so strange. I'm not sure what happened because I was watching through the camera view finder...maybe he tried to land on it and it was too weak or...I don't know. The eagle turned, staying in front of me, and then flew up and out of the cove towards the bay. Wow!

I was so excited. "I got it," I told Lia. "The eagle flew right in front of me," I explained. And then we looked at the pictures - blurry. Ugh! A few were okay. I guess I got too excited and moved more than my Super SteadyShot feature could accommodate.

We took another look at the sunrise...the color was fading so we headed towards the cabin to relax. A sip of coffee and there gliding over the bay...the elusive blue heron. I grabbed my camera, switched lenses and ran towards the beach. The blue heron was perched on the left side of the point and with my 210 mm lens I could zoom in on it. I started to climb onto the sea rocks, took another picture and the blue heron flew off.

I ran around to the other side of the point where I had seen it perch before...and there it was...waiting for me. Now it was so near. Shooting as I moved closer, he looked as if he was preparing to spear a fish near by, angling it's neck into an "S" shape. But, no luck, he straightened up and flew off.

We are in for a beautiful day at Port Ashton. And it began with a shutter...