The warmth of the full sun on a Saturday afternoon in September proved to be the perfect opportunity to take the new camera for some outdoor shots. I knew exactly which direction to point the bike; arriving at the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge I discovered that other people had the same idea. A handful of other cyclists and weekend photographers were there too, to get a little serenity of one kind or another. It’s so calm here, and there’s so much great scenery to take in. All around us, signs that the seasons are changing; you can sense it in the air, the colors, the smells. The sun’s lower path across the sky casts a different light across this space.
There were several varieties of waterfowl quietly basking in the sun out on the open water, not exerting a great deal of energy. A long way off, a heron stood along the shore, looking proud of his territory, but since there were no challengers to speak of, he got to just practice that regal pose that make herons so cool looking. Canadian geese murmured to each other as they sat on the water, but there was little to get too excited about, and they seemed happy to just chill a bit. A pair of sandpipers provided a few minutes of entertainment along the pond’s edge, then flew off to who knows where.
The new camera is going to be fun, I can tell already! Okay, I must confess, my camera looked kinda puny compared to the other super-duper big camera lenses other people were using. I’m sure they were getting up close and personal to the birds across the water; I on the other hand had a more general-use lens and was perfectly happy just snapping shots with it.
This outing was more about the camera than the bike, but combining both things was really fun. It’s a different way to ride a bike, that’s for sure. I had to use a backpack to carry the camera, and I stopped a lot more frequently to take pictures than I would have otherwise. A 22-mile trip might usually take a bit over an hour, but this time it was twice that long, and worth every minute.
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