~Upstream and Down~

I recently took a road trip to Conowingo Dam in Maryland to photograph the eagles that soar in to scoop up the fish that pass through the gates when the water is released. The experience was wonderful--although it made me realize what a novice I am at bird photography. I definitely would love to go back and try again with the experience gained from the mistakes I made, including (inadvertently) setting my camera to a “back button” focus setting that I don’t use...and thus not being able to focus well... Grrr. (Thanks, Hunt’s Camera in Hanover, for figuring out my mistake within five minutes...once I was home.)   Such is life, right? Taking pix is like fishing: you don’t always make the catch. EAGLES don’t always make the catch!  The One That Got Away~   But here’s the thing...this trip was awesome! And not just because of the photo opportunitie

Those of us who lived through the 9/11 attacks... the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the plane crash in a Pennsylvania field, a sacrificial effort by citizens aboard to avoid the White House ...each have our own story to tell. I was teaching a captive audience of fifth graders at Hanover Middle School when my classroom door cracked open and a colleague beckoned me to the hall.   In a whisper, she told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center Tower, then cautioned me not to tell the kids. I walked back into the classroom, dazed, scared, confused, making an attempt to cover the churning emotions, the fear. Knowing so little... the first tower had not yet collapsed, the second plane had not struck, ...it was easy to imagine that this was an all out attack on the country, the beginning of a war on our continent. In hindsight, it was. I was with a group of teachers huddled in the library office, staring the dusty TV on its rolling c