Quote of the Week

"One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils."
- Woodrow Wilson



Monday, September 9, 2013

Things You See Along the Side of the Road

I am fortunate enough to live in a great location. I have a small house on 8 acres of land between the Governor Knowles State Forest and the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area. A great place for an outdoors lover to be.

Both areas attract a lot of tourist traffic. From hikers and hunters to fisherman and photographers. Some of the photographers I see when I'm out in Crex have some very impressive equipment. Giant telescopic lens, tripods, light meters,etc. A lot of cash invested into their hobby, that's for sure.

I've seen some real amazing nature and wildlife pictures taken by people from around here. Sunsets, inspect, plantlife, flocks of geese, deer, bear,etc. Many of the photographers this area attract have a lot of talent. But sometimes the photographers can be a road hazard.

Many times I've seen some have their car stopped right in the middle of the road with their gear scattered about. Once I came upon one setup on the road right where the gravel road came out of a series of sharp turns. I stopped and politely recommended the guy to move his car off the road. It was late afternoon during duck season. I could picture a truck load of hunters come racing around the corner faster than they should, trying to get to there favorite evening hunting spot on time. He responded with "F you! I can park where I want!" Gee, sorry for trying to keep you, your gear, and your car from getting ran over.

Tonight on my way home from work I saw another photographer set up in the middle of the road. I no longer bother advising photographers about blocking the roadways. Even if I still did, I wouldn't have said a word to this guy. It wasn't because he was stopped in the northbound lane of the straight stretch of County Road F. It was because of the what he was taking a picture of.

As I slowly drove by, the guy was focusing his camera with a ginormous telescopic lens sitting on a high end tripod at his subject five feet in front of him in the ditch. The subject for the stop in the road for a photo was a roadkill deer. Nothing fresh either, one that was bloated and quite ripe.

I guess if you drive up here from the cities with thousands of dollars worth of photography equipment to take wildlife pictures; you're not going to pass up any photo opportunity.

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