A few weeks ago I got offered a one photographer show at a local gallery a few miles from here. I really didn’t have anything prepped so have been spending most of the last month printing and framing a bunch of images. I am almost set and should have everything ready for the first of June. Once there is an official post by the gallery owner I’ll share it here. It’s the same gallery where I hung 8 shots for a local land trust anniversary last year.
I haven’t done much shooting during this time but did get out over the last few days which just happen to be my third week of May annual vacation week which coincides with the hatching of Painted Trilliums and Lady’s Slippers. Yesterday I went out hoping to catch the flowers (which I did) and then visited Poor Farm Swamp in hopes of shooting frogs (I recently said I don’t see them this early but obviously was having a senior moment) and maybe a heron. Success but not necessarily what I was hoping for.
Click for a much larger shot where you can get a good look at those webbed feet.
Yeah, it is nice to get a shot of a heron having breakfast but it’s a bullfrog and that’s a bit bittersweet.
It’ll probably be awhile before I’m a regular again. I’m thinking of reorganizing my Lightroom Catalog to make it more efficient and that’s about 20 years of files.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
Poor frog! Ah, well, nature is as nature does. 😉
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Rather than “or” it is eat “and” be eaten. 🙂
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Ah, so that’s what you’ve been up to. I thought maybe the up was Maine. Happy show.
What was good for the heron (and for the photographer) in your picture was fatal for the frog.
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Maine is later this summer. I’ve wanted to show in this gallery for awhile. Last fall and now June will hopefully add a little cash to my flow.
There must have been well over a hundred frogs in the pond based on what I heard. I was about a quarter of a mile from this spot when I saw the heron take off and headed back thinking he might be supping on frog.
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All the best for your show. Yes, poor frog. Very good photo.
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Thank you, Lakshmi!
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Congratulations on the show! Poor frog, but a fantastic capture!
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Thanks, Lynette! It’s a heron eat frog world out there. 🙂
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That is a great capture!
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Thank you. Herons give a photographer several opportunities because they “play” with their food before gulping it down.
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Pingback: 05.22.2023 An Unhappy Frog, a Happy Heron, and Where have I been? | In the Net! – Pictures and Stories of Life
Glad to hear your preparations for the show are going well even if they’ve taken a lot of your time. What a moment in the photo, bullfrog though it be. How are you thinking of reorganizing your catalog? Always curious how others do it as I’m always second guessing my organizational decisions. I started out putting everything in dated folders organized by year then month then day. Then I reorganized it all to use location as the main folder scheme with state and then location and then date, but ever since then I’ve been wondering if I’d have been better off sticking with just dates.
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This video might give you some ideas. I’ve been convinced that Collections is the way to go now. I’ve been saving my raw files by date and his point about finding a specific image is pretty difficult using dates. Keyword searches don’t always turn up what I am looking for. A flower collection, for instance, that houses all your flowers with secondary collections within the titled collection by species would make it much easier to sort through all your lady’s slipper or other species images.
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What a shot! Congratulations on your show.
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Thank you!!!
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Great shot!! Congrats with your show–well deserved!
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Thanks, Tina. I’ve been working toward this for awhile so fingers crossed that it’ll be well received.
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Wow, that’s a mouthful. Hard to believe that will go down that skinny neck. The heron will have a raspy voice afterwards, “Sorry, my voice is a little bull-froggy today, ”
And congrats on the one-man gallery show!
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Thanks, Robert. Last autumn I witnessed a heron gobble down a much larger mouthful, a large bullhead. They appear to smash their intended meal against the ground or some hard object to break the bones making a big gulp easier to swallow. Being a heron’s meal is even less fun than it sounds.
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First, it’s good to know you are alive and well!
Second, kudos on your upcoming show! I have no doubts about it being well received.
Third, if herons don’t eat bullfrogs, bullfrogs would become so common we would not want to spend the time taking their photograph.
Fourth, outstanding picture!
Fifth, early on with Lightroom I discovered a method used by a photographer in Colorado which has worked well for me. I file by year. Within the current year’s folder, I create a new file for each location I visit. Then, I create a new file for that location by month. Within the monthly folder I assign a one-up number for each image taken in that month. I begin anew each year.
This method allows me to look at the main “year” photo for any year and at a glance I can see which locations I visited during that year and in what month. This, combined with trying to use smart keywords helps locate images fairly quickly.
An example: 20230515Colt Creek State Park001.DNG.
This image is filed in the folder marked 2023. In that folder, I add a “Colt Creek” folder. Within that folder, it is filed in a folder labeled “May”. I can see it was taken on 5/15/23.
As you likely know, once you tell Lightroom what format to label images, they’ll all default to that format.
Now, I have run out of fingers.
(Sorry for the long post. Let me know if want further info on L/R organization and I’ll find a link to better describe how I’ve set it up. Sounds complex, but by far the simplest and most efficient system I’ve found.)
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Yes, poor frog, but lucky heron and lucky you. Amazing that you caught that. Congratulations on having a show. Hope you get good coverage. May you sell out. I’m looking forward to your more permanent return.
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Congratulations on the show, Steve! I hope it goes really well. Great photograph of breakfast-time for the heron, but not so great for the poor bullfrog!
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What a shot! (sorry about your buddy bullfrog!) Congrats on it and your upcoming show, Steve!
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Nice to see you back, Steve. Congratulations on the show! Excellent image (unfortunate for the frog though 😏).
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Clearly that heron has a taste for more than just frog legs. Congratulations on getting another show!
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Congratulations on your upcoming show, Steve. And I’m glad you have been able to get outside again for some photography, even if you got more than you bargained for. Lucky heron, poor frog. The “order of things” isn’t easy to digest.
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Good news all around — except for the frog, of course. It’s good to get an update on your doings, and congrats on the gallery show. I think I remember you muttering about it in the past; I’m glad you’re fully engaged in prep now, even though it’s taken you off these pages for a while. As one of my cherished bits of wisdom puts it, we can do everything — we just can’t do everything at the same time.
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Excellent capture of the happy/unhappy! Those webbed feet are pretty amazing. Congrats on your show, Steve!
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