So I’m back from vacation and unfortunately, it was not as productive as I had hoped it would be. While I did manage to get out in the woods for several photography sessions early in the week, during the second half of our time away, I ended up sick and didn’t venture far from our rental cabin. This isn’t the first time I’ve ended up sick on vacation, but this is the first time where my family has decided to come home early because of it. I spent most of the ride home and the rest of yesterday sleeping while my body recovered, and then I also slept straight through the night and woke up several hours past the usual time when I would get up.

Despite this setback, I am looking forward to loading the photos I took up in the mountains onto my laptop and reviewing them on a bigger screen. Most years we do our family vacations in the autumn. It’s a great time of year for landscape photography, filled with misty mornings and colorful forestscapes. The white-tailed deer and elk are in their full antlered regalia and are on the move as hunters take to the woods. In spring, however, there is the opportunity to photograph fawns and other young wildlife and a whole host of nesting birds which only come to Pennsylvania during the breeding season. The blooming wildflowers are also different in the spring, and the new growth on the trees brings a wide diversity of greens to the landscape.

Regardless of whether we go on vacation in the spring or the fall, I always spend some time practicing action shots as our springer spaniel plays in the local streams. She loves the water and taking photos of her splashing after sticks creates some great keepsakes for my family. Sadly, we only got to take her to one of the streams once this vacation before I got sick, but I do know I captured some great images on that outing.

Although I had setbacks this past week, I will still make the most of the little I was able to accomplish. I’m still recovering from being sick, still sore and tired and trying to recover my appetite, but I did find some motivation up in the mountains. And now that I’m back home, I can work on things which I put on pause before I left as well. The hard part will be taking it slow until I’m healthy again.

Hezzie