Catching Up – A Walk Through LSU Campus

Wow!! I cannot believe it has been almost a year since I posted an update. There is no excuse for my laziness!! Though I have kept up with taking pictures with my Rolleicord, slowly developing and scanning the negatives, I was not as diligent at post-processing and sharing my shots!

Of the pictures I took, some were nice surprises while others were utter disappointment. I am still working on my timing and framing, trying to get comfortable getting closer to my human subjects without raising their suspicion, though some strangers were nice enough to pose for me: I guess that’s one of the perks of walking around with an antique around my neck feigning to know what I’m doing.

With COVID still raging this past year, Ricci and I solely traveled domestically to visit with friends, seemingly the only times I thought of carrying my camera with me. Only a few snapshots are barely worth sharing with you, scattered testimonies of my expeditions to the LSU Campus, Houston Heights, Hot Springs, Austin, New Orleans, Chicago, and Southern California.

Back in December 2020, Ricci and I walked through the LSU Lakes and grounds as part of a scavenger project for him and a pure practice round for me. I honed my techniques for stalking joggers, bikers, and other passersby, hoping to catch them in the action of everyday activities. In the end, I found it easier to catch glimpses of the surrounding nature and its living critters.

For this shot, I totally immersed myself with the birds hanging out on the banks of the lake, getting closer to them one step at a time, waiting patiently for one of them to look in my direction. This is the best I could do, this one deciding at the last minute to tuck in its beak.

I like this picture because there’s this duck (I think of the muscovy species) completely blending in with the cypress knees. It was very shady, and each step I would take to get closer would make creaking sounds, but the bird just stood there stoically. I tried very hard to snatch this shot, so just because of that, it belongs on the blog.

This picture was the nice surprise of my promenade on the LSU grounds. I followed him for a while, never staying still very long and always chasing around the tree as all squirrels do. I finally said a Hail Mary and pressed the shutter-release button, and the little creature was not only in focus but looking straight at the camera lens!