Heron, Osprey, Yellow Jacket & Ducks - Photos from the Lake Vacation

As I wrote in my last post, I love vacationing at my mom's family's lake property in Eastern Washington. Quiet, peaceful and when we are there in the summer nice and hot. Of course when you are lake side, hot weather is always welcome as the coolness of the lake beckons to cool you down when the need arises.

Nature and Wildlife are my favorite subjects (outside of my kids) to photograph. While on vacation at the lake, I had several opportunities for photography while relaxing on vacation. We saw several Heron's and a few Osprey either looking for fish on the docks, or perched in the evergreen trees along the shore.

The Heron's were fun to watch, slowing walking along portions of the dock looking for fish. My 3 year old son and I got to see one take a stab at one, didn't have my camera with me for that one though. With the Osprey, I stood there watching him for quite a while – just waiting for him to take off to attempt to get a wing spreading take off photo. Well, as luck would have it, when I wasn't aiming up waiting my mom made a whistle or some other noise just to see if the bird would react. And at the sound, took off – missed opportunity!

On the Hunt for Fish

Taking off, the next shot in the series was not in focus

Yellow Jacket

Osprey Preening

Looking for food, waddled all the way up to the cabin

Till next time, hopefully I will get some of the take off shots I really wanted to get this go around!

Blessings,

Jesse

Lake Vacation, one of the best parts: Cell reception stinks!

One of my favorite places in all of God's creation is the lake property belonging to my mom's family on the shores of Lake Spokane in Eastern Washington. This was our yearly vacation spot growing up and I look forward to every moment I am blessed to be able to spend there with my family. The peace and quiet of the lake, looking out at the glass smooth surface of the blue/green water in the cool of an August morning – to me this is a small taste of heaven on earth. A blessing from God to be able to enjoy something so beautiful in His creation, away from all the hustle and bustle of modern life.

Aside from the natural beauty of the lake, the quiet atmosphere and relaxation of being on vacation, the lake has another huge benefit that as an adult I absolutely love: The cellular reception is virtually non-existent! Best thing to do is simply leave it off since its going to drain the battery in a hurry while constantly searching for service and rarely ever connecting. Having the phone off means enjoying the outdoors and family without a stupid phone constantly squawking at you, begging you foor your attention and focus on a barrage of worthless drivel and distractions from the life that is actually happening in front of you at the moment. With the poor reception, people won't be continually checking their Facebook feed or responding to every chirp and beep of the phone while you are trying to have an enjoyable visit with them. Everyone's attention is solely on the people and activities around them, instead of constantly zoning out to stare at a cold and lifeless digital screen. I love it.

In today's “connected” world, we have lost the art of meaningful communication, lost the ability to be intentional and personal about communication. Everything is secondary, incidental as its randomly displayed in a feed of other random information. Its time to learn to live life again and unplug, and rediscover the richness of our surroundings instead of experiencing everything through a digital display.

Next up, photos from my trip to the lake in August.

Blessings,

Jesse