childhood memories – Page 4 – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

A Walk Up The Blacktop

Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Summer Daydreams 63020a” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

The warm breeze and bright sun pulls me back through the river of time to the days of innocence. In a simpler age when the road was paved with tar and on a hot day one might spin on a heel and leave a mark on the blacktop. The roads always seemed to be lined with daisies and in a few spots blackberries hung out over the berms. I remember walking over a mile or so to the general store with a little change. Along the way I would just reach out and pull a handful of berries off of the canes to enjoy as I walked. We’d buy a glass bottle of Mountain Dew that at the time still had a hillbilly on the logo. On the return trip there was the daisies. As we passed by insects of every kind hopped or flew to a better location. Butterflies were often so interested in flowers that they didn’t notice our approach until we were almost on top of them. Then with ease they would simply flip to a different bloom a little farther into weeds. We’d follow the clusters of daisies until we ran out of paved road. That’s how we knew that we’d made it home. Hone is always were the blacktop ends and the dirt road welcomes you back.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

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Reunion With An Old Friend

Color Photography

Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Juniper Berries 62020a” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

The breeze carries that familiar scent into the cab of my big blue truck. When I was a kid this Eastern Red Cedar was barely a foot tall and now it towers above my like some whispering giant. I reach out through the driver’s side window and hold onto the branch for moment. To me it was like shaking hands with an old friend and I swear that somewhere deep beneath the thick foliage there was a wooden smile. The branches are covered with the little blue berries which will not ripen until much later in summer or early fall. The cedar is thick enough to block out most of the sun and cool the heat of the day. My friend will be comforting those who pass by for hundreds of years after I am gone. And for these yet unknown kindred spirits there will be the connection of a majestic conical cedar on the edge of a gravel road. But will they know it’s secrets? Will they know that there’s a large deposit of natural clay at it’s roots where young boys used to dig and harvest clay with a stick? All of toys that couldn’t be bought were formed from the very earth itself. In fact we learned early in life that this type of tree always marked a place where the clay was easy to access.

Today as I stand beneath the stand of cedars I’m struck by how out positions are reversed. I used to tower over the tree but today I am the small one. I reached out at touched the branches one more time before climbing back into the truck and heading home.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

https://youtu.be/FDcrY6w8oY8

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.

Thank you again for your support of my page!❤

Encountering Tadpoles

Color Photography, wildlife

Hello Friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Tadpoles 52620a” all of the photos are my original work and are available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

There’s nothing that says you’ve had a childhood in the country like catching tadpoles. When I was a kid it was still common for teachers in Grade School ( Elementary School in some parts of the world) to lead children on a field trip to a pond or a large mud puddle to catch tadpoles and teach us about life sciences. Frogs and Toads start life as herbivores. They eat the algae that grows in the pond or in the case of tonight’s feature image the mud puddle. Contrary to popular belief not all species of tadpoles eat mosquitoes. Only the spadefoot toad and certain types of tree frogs eat mosquitoes. I suppose that means that if you bought bullfrogs or leopard frogs for your landscape pond and wondering why you still have mosquitos it’s because they are the wrong species.

In order for the tadpoles to survive the water hole has to be stable. It takes about 12 weeks for them to be able to survive on dry land. The main reason why transplantation of tadpoles is discouraged today is because of the possibility of transplanting waterborne weeds and diseases with them. However, I have to question how the weeds and diseases survive in a puddle that might only last a few days.

Image Titled “Pollywog 52620a” showing the size as relevant to a U.S. quarter.

As I approached the mud puddle to get a better look at the tadpoles every pebble on the ground sprung to life! No bigger than a kernel of corn the pollywogs began running from the giant. I knew that if I wanted a closeup without squishing them all I’d need to get creative. So I tossed a quarter onto the ground and attached my long lens to the camera. I realized that the pollywogs were queuing on my shadow so I moved around a bit and used my shadow to drive this little guy close to the quarter without squishing his brothers and sisters.

Aside from eating pests frogs and toads are important to medical science. In full disclosure I only skimmed the article but Tadpoles are being studied to help organ transplant patients.

Decades ago a Russian scientist discovered that certain frogs have a substance called Magainin after the Hebrew word for shield. The substance was reported to be like kryptonite against bacteria, fungi and viruses. They even developed a topical ointment that helped heal diabetic ulcers however the FDA rejected the application because there was already a product on the market that worked. However, academics still keep the research alive so maybe one day we’ll have a choice in which medications we allow into our own bodies.

As I write this article I have a Gray Tree Frog singing outside my office window and I wonder if it’s the same one from last year. I’m not sure what kind of frog or toad these tadpoles will turn into. Just judging by the size I’m guessing that they are tree frogs. The puddle was on the fringe of woodlands and wetlands so they might be leopard frogs. Either way the encounter took me back in time 40 years when my brother and I would dip mason jars into a local pond or mud puddle and discovering that it was teaming with life.

Hey Friends! Just a quick reminder that Lloyds Lens Photography is available for portraits!

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To book me simply reach out using the Contact Page and we’ll set a date. If you’re within a 50 mile radius of Summersville West Virginia all travel fees are waived.

If you would like to Follow me on Facebook the web address is

https://www.facebook.com/aviewfromthelens/

If you’re enjoying my blog and don’t want to miss a post then you can sign up for email alerts on my website.

https://lloydslensphotographyllc.com/

https://youtu.be/FDcrY6w8oY8

Have you checked out the Zazzle Store?

I’m now using Zazzle to fulfil orders. What this means for you is a secure way to place an order, discount codes & a broader product selection! Simplymessage me on Facebookoruse the contact form on my websiteand tell me which image you want and I’ll reply with a direct link to where you can place the order.

Thank you again for your support of my page! ❤

A Foggy Morning Of Adventures Past

black and white photography

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Willows And Fog 2620” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

If not for the roar of Kanawha Falls the river would be completely lost in the thick winter fog. The big blue truck glides to a stop along the muddy shoreline below the hydroelectric plant. The raindrops drum steadily against the metal skin of the truck as I set the brakes and hop out to catch the willows silhouetted in the foggy sunrise. The mists rise from the falls and create a wall of mystery in the background. As a child I loved to play in the fog. My young imagination filled the fog with primeval creatures like dinosaurs and wooly mammoths. Legendary beasts roamed the fields and forests cloaked in heavy mists. In the days before Link and Zelda adventure was found wandering through enchanted lands when the fog shielded my eyes from the mundane. Even today I can imagine the coils of a prehistoric serpent sliding silently through the water. With a dead branch for a spear and an innertube powered slingshot I hunted these beasts back into extinction. As I got older the evening fog served as a perfect backdrop for a game of kick the can at twilight.

Even today I’m resisting the urge to don my rain gear and set off into the mists in search of adventure. But the ticking of a clock beckons me deeper into adulthood and I climb back aboard the big blue truck and return to highway with only the image in my lens to fuel a few daydreams. Childhood it seems is toughest on those that are only young at heart.

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The True Story Of My “Pet” Hawk.

Color Photography, wildlife

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Watching From Above 22718” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

The little boy played in meadow doing things that a country boy in the 70s and 80s would find natural. He climbed trees and rocks. He caught salamanders and crayfish out of the creeks and puddles. He made swords from sticks and did battle with the trees standing in for the bad guys. One day he was having an adventure down in a marsh when he had that eerie feeling of being watched. He scanned the trees and bushes but there was nobody. He looked for signs of a bear or coyote but the woods was empty. Then he looked up. Perched on a branch in the top of a nearby walnut tree was the largest hawk he’d ever seen. It sat there like a statue only cocking it’s head every so often. He was profoundly curious about the raptor. He’d never been this close to one in wild before. The hawk was large for a hawk but too small to be a threat to him or the cattle. So he watched the hawk back. After a few moments he tried to speak to it in the same calm voice he was taught to use around pets and livestock. The cocked it’s head to the other side but otherwise didn’t react. After a while he got bored and moved his adventure to another part of the farm only to find that the hawk had followed him. Ove the next few days this pattern continued. No matter where the boy played the hawk turned up eventually. So he gave the bird of prey a name worthy of an avian hunter. The name was “Falcor”. A combination of Falcon and his favorite comic book hero at the time which was Marvel’s Thor.

I was the boy and Falcor was real. Although every time I tried to tell someone about my “pet hawk” they smiled at my wild imagination. I don’t know if Falcor visited other people or even if they noticed when he did. I kinda doubt that he did because he never seemed to come around when other’s were present. After a few times of being given “that look” by my friends and family I stopped mentioning him. For several years I’d go on one of my walks in the woods and Falcor follow me in the distance. He never got real close but he would always be in a nearby tree. I couldn’t explain why until one day when I was older I told the story of “Falcor the hawk” to a professor in my wildlife biology class. He was the first one to actually believe that the hawk was more than just the wild imagination of a little boy who played in the wilderness. He also had a pretty logical explanation for the bird’s odd behavior. He had done some work with The West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center and theorized that Falcor had come out of that program and that for some reason I must have reminded him of one of his caretakers. So it turns out that Falcor may have been waiting to be fed. Whatever the hawks motivation was to follow me around for a few years he still the coolest “pet” that I never actually owned and he has severed as the inspiration for a couple of characters in a couple of fiction stories that I will finish one day. Even today I’m reminded of him every time I see a hawk that seems to just be hanging out near humans.