14 Comments

This was great as usual -- wise, insightful, & funny. I just wrote above about my whole radar camera trap thing, and even though I do love wildlife photography & even fiddling around with some weird stuff, in general, I agree that it’s best to not take a picture at all, but just be in the moment. (That said, there are definitely photos I look back on and realize I never would have remembered this if I hadn’t taken a photo. It’s a balance I guess.)

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I don't think we need to permit the shit out of things either. There is very little "free" entertainment for people to experience. I don't judge the birder walking through water considering what over-fishing and over-hunting has done. I'd like to see as little engine noise and pollution as possible in the few natural spaces we have left. Tis not much of a Garden State anymore.

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Really loved this :-) I think I’m going to try reading The Gift of Fear even though I’m kind of afraid to! (worried my imagination will go into overdrive imagining all the scenarios in the book) I definitely don’t want to try another self-defense class.

Beautiful photo!

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Just a note from the peanut gallery to say that it’s not that scary at all -- it’s way more about trusting your gut. And I’m a total wimp so I’d tell you. 😁

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I haven't read the book in years, but I don't recall it being too much of a scare fest, other than examples of when to trust your intuition and not let bad people manipulate you by appealing to your politeness.

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This is a great one, Tom. And that closing photo!

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Yeah, it deserved the win. Sometimes I want to practice serious photography, but I think we miss being in the moment, with a camera on front of us all the time. And then there is all the post processing work! This one was taken with a trail camera.

I thought about buying a drone for photography, but similarly, that alienates is from the surroundings even further.

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That’s incredible that it was taken with a trail camera! Sometime or another we should play with the truly wonky setup I bought to try to capture animals at night on safari. I guess it’s probably a little like this, the animal trips a laser & your actual camera takes the shot, but I’ve never gotten a really great photo partly because I live in the city & can’t be leaving my camera outside by itself.

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My friend Neliza just left a trail camera out in Big Cypress somewhere. I'm intrigued. We should do this.

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Yes! I’d love to do it in the Pines somewhere! Or wherever you think would be good. How did things turn out for Neliza?

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They just placed it, so we'll find out. I'm not sure where would be good in the Pines. People keep places very close to their chest. But I'll see what I can find.

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I used to make a lot more effort with my camera than I do now. I often consider doing it again but you're right: it spoils much of the experience for me. But I do love sitting at my desk and capturing the birds outside my window, so maybe a similar setup somewhere on occasion would be worth it too. I've mostly been considering doing audio recordings in certain spots. It's a different kind of snapshot, doing that, that I find equally pleasing.

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TERRIFIC, TOM!

Joyce

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Enjoyed 😍

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