Todd Lake

Read the Signs

Leeches!  Are you reading this, Mom?

Along with all the other posted notifications that appear on the pretty obvious board as you drive into the Todd Lake recreation area in the George Washington National Forest there’s a notification that leeches have been, for a long time, part of the Todd Lake ecosystem.  It makes sense I know.  I realize this now, but kids don’t care.  I never read the signs when I was a kid.  I realize that they’re pretty much harmless, but still, gross.  I didn’t spend a lot of time in the lake, but I know I must have spent some amount of time in it.

Gross.

Always read the notifications on the posted signs.

Always read the notifications on the posted signs.

Look Up

Take a walk through the forest and look up.  That’s it.

This is what happens with a fisheye lens when all lines in the image point toward the middle of the frame. | Order a print of this image.

If all lines run across the frame toward the center of a fisheye lens the lines end up straight. | Order a print of this image.

TBT

The photo isn’t really a throwback, but the place is.  Todd Lake (the lake is directly below the camera) in the George Washington National Forest – it’s where I spent a lot of my childhood.  I picked wild blueberries and ate them off the plant.  I’d walk through the forest and get drinking water from the creek.  My brothers and I would sit on top of my grandmother’s bronco and pick/eat persimmons from the tree.  And I learned to drive said bronco in the field.  I remember going up there every couple weeks to mow the huge field – I also learned to use a riding mower there, too.  I spent the day up there shooting yesterday with my dad and my dog Waldo.  Good times.

"The Cabin"

The cabin, where I spent a lot of my youth, sits at the bottom of the clearing in the middle of the image.