Favorite Photos from August and September
A perfect email for a Friday afternoon.
Well, my intention was to send a favorite photos email out once per month, but I slacked off and skipped sending it in September, so now you’re getting two months. I hope you enjoy these!
This is my niece Amelia. When she visited us in August, I said, “Let’s go for a walk and see some deer.” We were lucky and saw A LOT of them that night. This isn’t a high quality photo (zoomed in with my phone), but I love how it captures her unease when I said, “Back up more so you’re closer to the deer when I take the photo.” Classic Amelia side-eye.
These coneflowers and the next few photos were from a walk through the woods in Eldora, Iowa, ending with scads of turkey vultures in snags overlooking Pine Lake. What a beautiful area!
As I returned to Quaker Heights Camp (the place I was staying in Eldora) after my walk, I came up the drive and thought to myself, this image could be from 40 years ago! That old summer camp could be a great location for a nostalgic movie. Maybe I should write it.
One morning I woke up early and decided to climb Mount Trashmore in Cedar Rapids and take some photos. I didn’t end up creating the shot I was hoping to—Full moon setting over the city; I’ll have to try another day—but I did get a few others I liked.
I can’t decide which of the above two I like more, the one with 3rd St down the middle or the one with the buildings centered. What do you think?
Taken at Linn County’s new Bird Preserve. Most of the birds I saw were here on the fence near the parking lot. It’s a beautiful new park, though.
On the way to Cancun, we took an early flight, so I got to see the sunrise from above the clouds. (Emmy gets a little annoyed when I lean over her to take photos, but she also always gets the window seat, so it evens out.) I like the cloud castle off in the distance.
And of course, I felt obligated to take a beach sunrise photo.
The last few pictures (including sunrise photos) were taken with my phone. If you’re looking at them on a big screen, you can tell they’re lower quality/resolution. But still, it sure is handy to have a camera in my pocket everywhere I go.
In the park near my house, there are quite a few deer. It’s not unusual to happen upon them very close to the road that goes through the park, and since it’s in the middle of the city, they don’t get too worried about people. Here are a couple of the guys I’ve met along the trail and visited with recently. (It might even be the same buck at two different times, before and after he had the fuzz on his antlers. I couldn’t tell for sure.)
Hope you’re having a happy start to your October!
Courtney
P.S. I just reached over 100 subscribers on Substack this week. Thanks for being one of my first! When I get up to 100,000 or so, you’ll be able to say, “I followed Courtney before Courtney was cool. Wait. Is he cool yet?”