Interesting Sounds.....

This was quite an interesting morning.  It was a short shoot because I was scheduled to run a race later in the morning.  It was my first competitive race and I was happy with my finish.  This is back at
Arbor Hills Nature Preserve again.  My main focus was going to be the lake and then anything else I had time for before I had to leave.

One thing I have found about these shoots is the sounds of the morning when no one is around.

There were a lot of sounds as I was walking through the park to the pond.  Birds chirping, the wind rustling the grass, the creek flowing underneath the bridge.  As I got to the pond, I heard bullfrogs, which I had never heard in person before.  With a nice and clear sky, everything was set for a great shoot.

As I came up on the pond, I looked around just to make sure I didn't potentially come up on a bobcat taking a morning drink.  That would have made for a bad start to the day.  So, the coast was clear, I set up and started shooting.  That's when things started getting weird.  I heard a splash, which I think was a bullfrog jumping in the water because that sound stopped.  However, that early in the morning, it was quite a startling sound.  lol   So, more shutter clicks and SPLASH!!!  I about jumped out of my skin.  I thought that a tree branch had fallen in the water... until that "branch" started swimming.  As I was standing there watching it, SPLASH!!!  another "tree branch" started swimming.  

I stood there watching trying to figure out what I was looking at.  Unfortunately, it was still pretty dark at this time, so I couldn't really focus on the objects.  All I know is that as they were swimming, they were displacing a lot of water.  Not a lot was poking above the water and I kept hearing large splashes that I couldn't see.  It was quite interesting and a bit unnerving since it was still so dark.  I decided that discretion is the better park of valor, so since I didn't know what I was looking at, I had better get out of there.

So the rest of my morning I walked around to see what was what and I came across these two pictures.

 Here is my tree stump again.  This time in color and in HDR.  I really like this shot.  I will probably take this picture every time I come to this park.

This little guy hung around and let me take lots of pictures of him.  I was even able to slowly move in with my tripod to get even closer.  I'm guessing he gets fed from time to time.

So, as I didn't get as much morning time out here as I would have liked, I plan to go back out there next Sunday.  It will be my first revisit to a site, but there is still more of the park for me to explore and my curiosity about that pond is still pulling at me.

Until next time...