Doe, A Dear Deer

After eight days of familial bliss and laughs of joy in a land of pure beauty, I awoke a bit before sunrise to pack the car and head back to the city and my office while my family slept soundly awaiting another day on the beach. In the pre-dawn period, I had a few shots of espresso before I departed and I thought of what I might blip today. With only two legs in my midst, I had few subjects in mind.

Then, my questions were answered. As I was pulling from the driveway and heading towards the highway, I saw the flash of her tail. I have been watching this young doe for the last two months. She seems to be clinging to our property and has loved teasing our dogs when they are behind doors and windows. My sister had spotted her lounging behind the garden shed a few days ago and I ran outside to get her image. But, on that day, she was a bit spooked as the light was quite high and I was quite visible and I only was able to capture her heading mostly away from me at speed.

But, today, she gave me a quizzical view, as if to say,"My, what in the world are you doing, leaving this place which brings you such joy?" In my mind I answered the question she never asked. My answer was all about the normal bullshit which one uses to justify one's life. I knew the question she never asked was the one that I needed to hear.

I also thought that she would run from me as the car came to a halt. But I was wrong.

I slowly put my feet on the ground and left my car with my camera in hand. She stayed still as could be. Then, she glowed in the dawn light. I could see her but the camera struggled. It was so dark that my auto-focus would not even function on the Nikon so I did my best to focus manually. At 3200 ISO (f 2.8/1-200th and 200mm) , the Nikon did quite well I think once she was pointed in the right direction. Surely it is not perfect but, for the next three hours as I drove to the office, I thought of her lovely face and the glorious week I had with my loved ones. I took a few other photos but my heart kept going back to this, the first if the day and taken on our land. I always go with my heart.


I am sitting in my favorite Twin Cities pizzeria right now. I worked until 9 pm and now it is a bit past ten. After eight days with nearly my entire extended family, I am having trouble going home to our home which has no wife, no children, no dogs and no life. John, who owns the best pizza place in the cities, is doing a great job keeping me entertained as is my iPad and the many wonderful images and words on Blip. It has been so great to catch up with many of you and there is more catching up to do tomorrow. Your comments, stars and hearts on my Eagle and fish blip have sent me soaring. Because of this special week and our family history, this Eagle blip means the world to me and you have made it even better for me........thank you! I am uploading todays image on my iPad whilst having the best pizza this side of Napoli and the ability to chatter with a very dear and talented chef. If one must "eat alone"....this is not a bad way to do it. I have had to compress the image from 32mp to 7.2 for the upload but, hopefully, it still works. Likely a bit better in large