August, 2007

Today I went up to Island Park to go birding with my friend Cliff. We took his boat out on Island Park Reservoir and tooled around looking for shorebirds. We found a few neat things, but nothing unusual. Probably the coolest bird was a Peregrine Falcon harassing a bunch of ducks. We got off the reservoir just as a storm was hitting. It rained and blew pretty hard.

On the way home I stopped at Fun Farm on the Henry’s Fork to see if any fish were rising. None were, but I did see this sight and had couldn’t resist taking some photographs. The most surprising thing was that there was another photographer recording the same scene. I don’t think I’ve ever run into another photographer when I’ve been out shooting. It’s probably because I don’t photograph many rainbows.

Rainbow, Fun Farm, Fremont County, ID 2007

The other morning Jacob was having a hard time sleeping. Susan got up with him at 5:00 or so. At 6:15 he was crying again. Susan said “it’s your turn”. I faked like I didn’t know what was going on, but eventually got up and changed his diaper and tried to put him back to bed. He wanted no part of it, so I put on his favorite show (Spirit, an animated horse movie). At that point I wasn’t tired, so I decided to photograph a cellar that I knew needed morning light. It was nice to be out for sunrise and I actually got a photograph I like.

Potato Cellar, Teton, ID 2007 (view #1)

Potato Cellar, Teton, ID 2007 (view #2)

This is my last week watching the boys on Tuesdays and Wednesdays before I start teaching again next month. Kevin has gone back to school, so now I spend the days with Jacob and Ethan. I’ve found that the time passes more quickly if we find things to do. Today Ethan wanted to catch grasshoppers and Jacob likes to throw rocks in the water, so we went on a drive to monkey falls (basically an irrigation canal that dumps into the Teton River. It really is a fun place, but apparently can be a little dangerous. A BYU-Idaho student died there a few weeks back (there’s a story here).

Anyway, we had a great time. I caught a few frogs, we caught some grasshoppers, and everybody got to throw rocks in the water.

Monkey Falls, Wilford, ID 2003

Ethan and Jacob at Monkey Falls, Wilford, ID 2007

Leopard Frog in my Hand, Monkey Falls, ID 2007

Ethan Holding the Frog, Monkey Falls, ID 2007

Grasshopper on Milkweed Leaf, Monkey Falls, ID 2007

Ethan Holding a Grasshopper, Monkey Falls, ID 2007

So, here’s another view taken significantly after sunset.

Broken Tree and Homestead (horizontal), Madison County, ID 2006

I’ve been scanning old negatives over the last few days. I’m pretty happy with some photographs that I didn’t feel that great about at the time. This is a sequence of photographs I made of a clump of trees and an old homestead SE of Rexburg before and after sunset.

Broken Tree and Homestead, Madison County, ID 2006

So, the boys and I went out to the Snake River west of Rexburg yesterday to catch bugs. It was just about like I expected, Kevin was slightly bored, Ethan threw a few fits, and Jacob was mostly happy to be there, but he didn’t like sharing the butterfly net. We did manage to have a little fun, in spite of only catching a few white butterflies and a couple of grasshoppers. Ethan soon grew tired of catching bugs and talked me out of the digital camera for a bit. He managed to get a few decent photographs and I remembered to set the camera to auto-focus.

Ethan, Kevin, & Jacob, Beaver Dick Park, ID 2007

The next three photographs were taken by Ethan

I noticed a few mosquitoes around, but didn’t think much of it. Ethan and Jacob must have gotten a couple of good bites. This morning both of their left ears were swollen and pretty funny looking.

Ethan’s swollen ear

Jacob’s swollen ear

If any of you long time readers are having deja vu, it’s because a similar thing happened to Jacob when I was watching the boys about a year ago. I posted it to my blog last August. Go here and scroll down to find the post. If you don’t feel like doing that, then here’s the picture I posted last year.

In spite of our lesson in priesthood meeting today about keeping the sabbath day holy (some people had some bizarre opinions), I took Ethan photographing on this sabbath evening.

I saw a couple of potato cellars the other day that I wanted to photograph in evening light. Kevin used to beg me to take him places, now he’s content to stay at home with computer games, pokemon, and his gameboy. Ethan now wants to go everywhere with me, which is nice sometimes. Anyway, we had a good time. He wanted to photograph, so I let him snap away with the digital camera. Even though they’re not in focus, he made some cool images. I like the ones he made of me photographing. I put a couple of them together in photoshop.

Me Photographing a Cellar (photographs by Ethan), Newdale, ID 2007

Potato Cellar, Newdale, ID 2007

So, the Madison County Fair was held this weekend. I was asked to help judge the photography, but when I arrived somebody else had already done so. They always seem a bit disorganized. I was asked to serve on the committee next year, which I’m happy to do.

I took the kids Saturday morning and we sort of had fun. There isn’t a whole lot to do at the fair. Jacob liked looking at the animals (from a distance). He wouldn’t pet or get close to any of them. Ethan and Kevin had fun going down the big inflatable slide thing. After an hour or so, we couldn’t find anything else to do. Afterwards we went to Horkley’s for beverages. I may have to blog about Horkley’s some time. It is truly one of the crown jewels of Rexburg.

I realized that I made a very similar post about the fair last year. The main difference I see is that the boys are much more grown up, especially Jacob. You can view the old post here. Here are this year’s images:

Eight Grain Silos, Moody, ID 2007

Twenty-Five Bank Swallows, Moody, ID 2007