Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Fishing


I'm not sure why, but there's something deep inside my soul that gives me the ability to stand on the side of a lake, river or stream all day long, and toss and retrieve a lure or bait for hours.  Until it gets dark. It's just so hard to put the fishing pole down. I can remember camping at Atwood Lake, in my early teens, getting eaten up by mosquitoes, basically doing the mosquito dance at dusk, until I absolutely couldn't stand it anymore.  I don't care what type of fish I catch, I have always loved fishing.  I can thank my dad and my grandfather for that passion.

They got me started at a pretty early age.  My earliest fishing memory is Goodyear's Wingfoot Lake Park, a private retreat area for Goodyear workers outside of Akron.  It isn't private anymore- in fact, it's now a state park.  But there, probably at the age of five or six I remember catching a tiny little bluegill and a nice fat crayfish.  The rest is history.

I don't remember my grandfather fishing very often.  He just didn't participate in the sport very much in retirement.  I think by that time, he put most of his effort into golf.  But when he passed on last February, I went through his THREE tackle boxes, and found some pretty amazing fishing tackle spanning decades of fishing history.  I've been going through it this weekend.  I'd like to select the most valuable and interesting pieces and mount them on a shadowbox to hang in the wall.  Heck, I think there's enough stuff to fill three shadow boxes.

Although I don't do it much anymore, fishing is something that first sparked my interest in nature and wild animals at a very young age.

-Tom

Monday, January 16, 2012

Maine Glow



While we were visiting Megan's parents in Maine this past holiday season, I did what I always do there- I take plenty of photographs.  Since I've been going there five years now, I have to make a conscious effort to find new images.  It's SO easy to just take the same pictures year after year.

One late afternoon, just as the sun was dropping, I decided to walk through the woods surrounding their home..  The dominant trees of this particular area are balsam fir, white pine, hemlock, red oak and yellow birch.  Even though the light was really great, I couldn't find a subject that was interesting enough to my eye.  I then turned around, and noticed the small but specatular patches of light where the setting sun came through the forest.  I used my telephoto lens to single out these areas of reflected and refracted light, shooting straight into the sun.  Making sure I didn't look through the camera at the sun, I snapped several images that I was really happy with.  I've never quite made this type of photograph before here, but I am really pleased with these.  Yes, there are  plenty of lens flare, normally considered a "problem", but to me, the technical flaws are what makes these images interesting.

No matter what you're doing, be it looking for rare plants, searching for wildlife, or photographing the natural world, take time to look at things a different way- you never know what you might find.

-Tom


Friday, January 13, 2012

Photography Exhibit January 21 - February 18 in Crestline, Ohio


I'm quite excited to announce that I'm going to be doing another photography show.   This time, I've received an invitation from Crawford Park District Director Bill Fisher to exhibit my work at Lowe-Volk park near Crestline, Ohio.  I'll be showing sixteen of my most compelling works (i hope).  I'll be at the nature center on Saturday January 21 for a reception.  I hope my friends in north central Ohio will be able to make it! 



 Here are the details from the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum:  

The Crawford Park District will begin its nature photography exhibit featuring native Ohioan Tom Arbour at 1 p.m. Jan. 21, providing an opportunity for visitors to meet Arbour and view samples of his work. The exhibit will be in Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center, 2401 Ohio 598. The nature photography exhibit will continue through Feb. 18.  Arbour is a wildlife research technician for the Ohio Division of Wildlife's Olentangy Wildlife Research Station. His interests include a wide variety of natural subjects, but he is particularly interested in close-ups of insects and sweeping landscapes. Although his work is primarily Ohio-based, he has a large body of work from his wife's home state of Maine. He has recently photographed nature subjects in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Carolina, Florida and Puerto Rico.


Arbour's photography has been exhibited at the Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center of Worthington and the ODNR headquarters in Columbus. His nature photographs have appeared in multiple ODNR publications and web pages. He is perhaps best known to Ohioans for his Ohio Nature Blog (www.ohio natureblog.com).


I hope to see you on Saturday, January 21!

-Tom


Thursday, January 05, 2012

Sunset


Lately I've been showing photographs of the sunrise, but this evening, I photographed the evening sunset.   I was struck by the contrast between the natural lines created by the gnarled bur oak limbs and the crossing angles created by the contrails just above the horizon.

-Tom