I hadn't gone walking about my neighborhood for a long time - either because I had been traveling, riding my bike, or because I was so busy doing other things or maybe I was just being lazy.
Yesterday, I decided it was time to start walking again - to see what I could see - to be a street photographer in Wasilla, Alaska.
I hadn't been walking long before I spotted this dog. It was a wary dog.
It did not know that I am every dog's best friend - even if I am cat person.
This dog had nothing to fear from me.
Yet, it feared me.
I spotted a raven up ahead. It spotted me, then flew over to check me out.
"Hey!" it exclaimed as it swept by, "I recognize you from last winter."
"Yes," I agreed. "I recognize you, too. How you been? I've been meaning to ask your name?"
I never got an answer.
The raven had already flown on.
A jet passed overhead.
I wondered if there were people inside eating pretzels, consuming soft drinks and beer, looking down upon Alaska, marveling at the snow mountains.
I came to the corner of Tamar and Seldon.
I looked both ways, to see if bears might be coming.
I saw no bears.
Not grizzly, not polar, not black.
No bears of any kind
Just a truck.
I decided that it was safe to cross the road and I did.
Then I was in the marsh, which is pretty dry these days and doesn't even seem like a marsh anymore.
I walked down "Moose Alley," peering into the bushes for moose. I did not want to find myself with a mama cow on one side of me and a calf or two on the other.
I did not see any moose all.
But, late at night, I took a walk in the dark - too dark to take a picture. Suddenly, there was a moose - a cow, about ten feet to my right. I quickly looked to my left.
I saw no calves to my left.
I couldn't be sure. It was pretty dark. The cow was placid, though, so it was okay.
This morning, during the early part of dusk, I cooked myself some oatmeal and then sat down on the couch to eat it. It was then that I looked out through the back door window and saw this moose and two others in the yard.
There wasn't much light, and I did not want my oatmeal to get cold, plus I was wearing slippers and did not want to get snow in my socks, but I picked up my camera, stepped outside and shot a few underexposed frames. They looked like nothing but black in my camera, but I was able to scrape much of the blackness away in Lightroom and Photoshop and so was left with this noisy image.
I don't care if its noisy. That was the situation. Better a noisy photo than no photo.
I then came back in and ate my oatmeal.
It was still hot.
The coffee was still hot.
My day had begun.