Traveling in Place

Hate Is Hate and Love Is Love

...We chase the melodies that seem to find us

Until they’re finished songs and start to play,

When senseless acts of tragedy remind us

That nothing here is promised, not one day.

This show is proof that history remembers

We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.

We rise and fall, and light from dying embers,

Remembrances that hope and love last longer.

And love is love is love is love

Is love is love is love is love –

Cannot be killed or swept aside...

- from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acceptance speech at the Tony Awards

These words are excerpted from a sonnet that the creator of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” composed yesterday and read when he received the Tony for Best Original Score. Listening to his passionate, tear-filled delivery was cathartic, not only for the people in the auditorium, but for millions like me watching at home who had been struggling all day to find words for how we felt. The worst mass shooting in American history had taken the lives of fifty young adults and injured 53 more, targets of an ISIS-inspired, mentally disturbed gunman who entered an LGBT-friendly nightclub and opened fire with high-powered assault weapons he had legally purchased.

Look at the Birds

Here’s a follow-up to the last post about the robin. Hardly a spring goes by that a pair of these orange-breasted birds does not build a nest, lay blue eggs, and raise a young family somewhere around our house. But this year, this annual rite has captivated my attention like never before. The door from the sunroom onto the deck has a large window, so the room functions as a blind. I can set my camera and zoom lens right next to the door on a tripod. If I’m home for lunch or just have time to kill, I wait for either Mama or Daddy robin to come swooping in with food for their babies. At the instant this happens, I focus and shoot.

So I have lots of pictures.

Pictures of both Mama and Daddy robins with worms in their beaks; pictures of Mama extending her food-carrying bill directly into the wide-open mouth of one of her youngsters; pictures of the four hatchlings poking up their heads from their tiny crib.

All the while, I’m becoming more familiar with my camera. By trial and error I have gradually found the best combination of speed, aperture, ISO, and available focusing options to capture clear, sharp images of this mesmerizing activity.

So I have lots MORE pictures of all the same things in better quality.

But one of these shots stands out for me – the one I have posted below. It reveals