For the first time I can remember, I failed to take photos at an important family gathering. This afternoon, we celebrated Nico on completion of his master’s degree program in education from Lesley University. The family was joined by several of his friends and his Aunt Susan who came down from Burlington, Vermont for the occasion. Nico smoked several chickens, Jeanine prepared an amazing salad and one of his friends arrived with a rhubarb drop cake for dessert. It was a wonderful party but sadly I did not take any photographs because I was too busy helping out as a host and also because I was pretty banged up from my soccer match earlier in the day. We played against Everett, one of our strongest and most physical opponents, beating them by a score of 2-0. I had an assist on our first goal when I beat an offside trap to make a run on goal. I took the ball well into the box and waited for the keeper to commit before passing to a teammate for the easy tap-in. On the very next play, I had a breakaway and got a strong shot off before their sweeper took me down with a bone-crushing tackle that left me pretty bruised on the entire right side of my body. Lacking a photo for the day and the desire to do little more than nursing my wounds, I am posting a few images from earlier in the week.

Capturing birds in flight (BIF) is one of the most challenging aspects of wildlife photography. It requires the right equipment, skill, and a bit of luck. In my opinion, red-winged blackbirds are much more photogenic when flying than they are when perched because you can fully appreciate the coloring of their wings.