Not too late for me…

Today is another holiday: Don’t Drive Anywhere At All Day, which I realize I may be posting a little late for some, but hey, you shouldn’t be coming to me for the important stuff anyway. I got this holiday going on, though, and will be celebrating it enthusiastically, because I have returned from a multi-stop tour of the northeastern US, and one not dedicated to photography either; instead, this was family and friend schtuff, which meant that I got up to visit my dad for Father’s Day (much trickier than it sounds,) and a pair of cousins that I hadn’t seen since the early 90s, and a castle that I’d never seen. I’m not trying to make you jealous… well, okay, I am, but only a little bit. Overall though, it meant a lot of driving and so I need little encouragement not to right now.

And this isn’t to say that I wasn’t doing any photography, either, but I probably didn’t need to tell you that [do you like how I keep inserting things that imply that there are regular readers of this site? My therapist keeps suggesting that I stop doing that, but he’s as imaginary as the readers anyway so I haven’t felt too compelled to obey.] I managed a couple of outings and more than a few snagged shots, meaning those that I saw in passing and took the opportunity to get, some of which involved almost slamming on the brakes on the interstate, but it was early morning and the nearest car was about a kilometer away, so all I dealt with was shifting cargo. Regardless, I have some post topics lined up from all this, which will come along as soon as I am able, but now you know why the previous posts were spread out so much, given that I prepared the last four ahead of time and scheduled them to appear when they did. You know, give the illusion that I was still home but just being lazy.

Anyway, as a teaser, I offer one shot from the trip, and this is full frame so you know I wasn’t far off (granted, it’s at 600mm, but to be accurate, the working distance was within 20 meters.) This is a juvenile bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus,) and I’m pretty sure that it’s this year’s brood. And I didn’t even slam on the brakes for this one…

juvenile bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus in near-silhouette in tree
By the way, if you want to bike someplace, that won’t violate the spirit of the holiday. Skateboards, kayaks, hang-gliders, all fine. Just no cars. Not even a golf cart or forklift. If you’re already at work now, well, you gotta stay there until after midnight…