First Day Hike of 2025

The tradition of group hikes on New Year's Day is a fairly recent one. It was first nationally publicized in 2012, although some organizations held the event before that. 

I’m not able to hike because I have an injured knee plus foot problems, but I decided to drop in on the event at Seven Bends State Park. I know some of the park rangers and volunteers, and I wanted to get outside and see some friendly faces.

North Fork of the Shenandoah 

New Gadgets and a Tufted Titmouse

My new birdfeeder camera takes photos with a very wide angle, giving them a fisheye effect. Add to that the distractions of the background, and I decided to crop the pictures rather drastically. (The background will improve when Lynn and her friend come and remount the camera.)

Advantages of this little camera include it being motion-activated and mounted on a birdfeeder. It captured some cute close-ups of this tufted titmouse.

In case you are wondering, the brand name of this item is Birdfy. I am still learning to use the app. 

After I cropped and then tried to edit down the distortion of the wide-angle lens, the images lost some of their sharpness. I find them amusing though. 

The third image is a photo taken the regular way. Fortunately, the tufted titmouse is not as shy as some birds, and does not fly off every time I move. I used my old Nikon for this one and it has a telephoto lens.

I took advantage of another newly-acquired item to get this image onto my iPad. It’s a camera card reader that has a connector that works with iPads and iPhones. Normally, I transfer SD cards to my laptop, but I have found it hard to use since having problems with my eyes. An advantage of the iPad is that I can easily move it closer so I don’t have to strain my eyes as much. Even with that they get tired quickly. I should probably rest my eyes a lot more. It’s hard to change old habits.

Sometimes You Have to Make Up Your Mind

🎵 “Did you ever have to finally decide?
And say yes to one and let the other one ride
There's so many changes and tears you must hide
Did you ever have to finally decide?”

~ The Lovin’ Spoonful, 1965

This first image is not a photo. It’s a computer-made picture representing what it’s like to pick one photograph out of the thousands that I took in 2024.

Photo of the Year

Charlie’s expression is basically how I feel about some things that happened this year. And his pictures always get a good response because he’s cute. His occasional posts are more popular than mine!

Charlie‘s presence has changed my life, not always for the better. His anxiety has been a huge problem for both of us. Medication did not help him so I’ve been trying to condition him without traumatizing him. He still has separation anxiety, although he doesn’t have the meltdown that he used to have. He still gets upset riding in the car. Right now, my car is at the dealership getting the seatbelts and armrests repaired where he chewed them in his nervousness. 

He came from an awful situation, a huge breeding facility that got shut down by the government because they did not treat the beagles well. I’m fairly certain that he was taken from his mother too early. Many of the Envigo beagles have anxiety.

He’s been with me for over two years and he’s done well in many ways. In other ways, it’s been baby steps all the way. 

For other photographers’ picks, see City Daily Photo.