Month in Review: May 2025

Well, another month has come to end, and it’s hard to believe it happened so quickly.  The Memorial Day weekend marked the unofficially official first day of Summer, although the weather was more like Spring than Summer.  Temperatures were generally pretty nice during the month with morning temperatures mostly in the 60sF (15C) and daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s (21C and 27C).  Perfectly enjoyable.  But, the month also had to be one of the rainiest Mays we’ve had in a long time with 16 days experiencing some type of rainfall from a drizzle to heavy rain and thunderstorms.  Oh, well.  It won’t be long before Summer really sets in, and we’ll be wishing for the rain to come back.

IN THE FIELD

I was able to get out two more times this month.  My first trip was to the Big Dam Bridge area, where I walked along the Isabella Jo Trail.  There wasn’t anyone else on the trail since it was an early Friday morning when I went, which made for a wonderfully quiet and peaceful time.  It was so nice to hear the sounds of the birds chirping in the early morning light and to see the squirrels and even a couple of rabbits enjoying the solace as they prepared for their busy days.

When I first arrived at the trailhead, it occurred to me that mosquitoes might be a problem and one I hadn’t considered.  I didn’t let that stop me, though, and off I went.  My first stop was the bank of a small lake that runs along the trail.  Surprisingly, I did not encounter any mosquitoes as I stood there surveying the scene, but there were definitely some kind of annoying insects flying around, and they very quickly found me.  I don’t know what they were, but they seem to have an affinity for my eyes, and I had to constantly swipe them away.  I strongly considered packing everything away and moving down the trail.  Eventually, that’s exactly what I did but not before getting this image.

I continued down the trail, which eventually becomes lined with trees on both sides.  Everything was in deep shade that only added to the sense of quiet and tranquility.  I paused briefly to just enjoy the moment when I noticed this peaceful forest scene right in front of me.  I think it perfectly captures the serenity I felt at that moment.

I made my second trip of the month last week when I headed over to Dagmar Wildlife Management Area.  With rain again predicted for that morning, I wasn’t sure if I needed to even bother getting up.  But, I decided I wasn’t going to let a little raing stop me, and off I went.

Normally, when I go to this location, I normally drive along the road and see if anything catches my attention.  For this trip, I decided to try something a little bit different:  I would park and walk down the road a bit and really pay attention to what was around me.  Even if I ended up not getting any pictures, I would at least get some good exercise.

As I arrived at my first destination, I noticed, out the corner of my eye, what appeared to be a brief flash.  Watching the sky, I saw another flash.  Lightning!  I quickly pulled up the radar app on my phone and saw a large storm was headed my way.  No way was I going to get too far from my truck with that looming on the horizon!  So much for my walking along the road plan.  ☹️

I began driving again when I passed a small swampy area.  It’s an area I had tried to photograph a few times in the past, but those images never really impressed me.  But, this time the way the fresh Spring leaves stood out in the gloomy morning light really caught my eye.  I immediately pulled over, grabbed my gear, and got set up.  I was able to get this image before the sound of heavy rain coming through the trees forced me to retreat back to my truck to avoid getting completely drenched.

Once the rain subsided, I began making my way down the road in the opposite direction going deeper into the woods.  It wasn’t long before I came to a small parking area where a small metal bridge crossed what is normally a trickle of a creek.  Not today, though, as the creek seemed to be almost a raging river.  Stepping onto the bridge, I noticed the water was flowing over some rock creating a set of small waterfalls.  Naturally, I had to photograph them.

As I walked back to my truck to continue on my way, I noticed the way the water was funnelling through a channel of rocks as it flowed under the bridge.  As I watched the flow of water for a few minutes, I began to see patterns of light and shadow in the surface of the rushing water and became mesmerized by them.  I checked the radar once again (that poor app got quite a workout that day!) and saw another round of rain was approaching.  Fortunately, it appeared I had a good 15 to 20 minutes before it arrived, so I set up the tripod again and focused on a small section of the creek.

I experimented with different shutter speeds to see which would give me the results I was looking for.  In the end, a shutter speed of 1/8 of a second provided me with what I thought was the best rendition of the water’s flow pattern.

As it turned out, I didn’t have the 15 or 20 minutes I thought I had.  The rain began to fall again, only heavier this time, and I finally had to head for cover.

I continued down the road until I reached the end and had to turn around.  By this time, the radar was showing a line of very strong storms and heavy rain coming my way.  I decided that was my cue to head home and, even though I had to scrap my original plan, I still had a pretty good day.  And, that’s all I could have asked for.

HITTING THE LINKS

A couple of interesting items I read this month:

Visionary Photographer’s Landscapes Are a Love Letter to Nature – focusing on the amazing images of Norwegian photographer Arild Heitmann (article)

Photographer’s Incredible Nature Shots Were Mostly Taken in His Garden – just in case you need more proof that you don’t have to travel to exotic places to capture great photographs (article)

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again soon!