Marley and I took the truck out to Washoe Lake on the morning of October 21. No bike today: just the ball, the truck and the cameras. I just wanted to fly the drone around a little. It was cloudier than usual and a bit cold, but not too cold, and it was a beautiful morning. The lake was so still it held the whole sky.
It turned out to be a bird day, too. Right as we arrived, around half past seven, a hawk landed in front of us and grabbed something. I'm not sure what. I got a couple of frames of it lifting off low over the dry grass, wings up, with the lake and the hills behind it.
Over the Lake
Real photographs
Tracks in the mud
The water was low. From above, a wide band of grey mud ran between the dry grass and the waterline. It was covered in tracks: tire marks in long curves, and lines of hoofprints running right along the edge of the water.
The Wild Mustangs
Real photographs
Horses on the grass
The hoofprints made sense soon enough. Not long before ten, the drone found two mustangs on their own, out on the dry grass above the lake with the hills behind them. A few hundred feet from those two was another group, a bigger one, grazing under cottonwoods that had already gone yellow. A brown-and-white pinto stood out in front of the rest. I think they're amazing, beautiful animals.
I was far away from all of them, and I didn't stay long enough to count them. I never like disturbing the horses, and I never want to risk spooking them. I always try to ease in, ease away slowly, and stay as far away as I can.
After that I made two more short flights: a slower trip through the trees, and a quick run down the beach.
It's the kind of morning where the pictures mostly take themselves, and the job is just to keep your distance and not spoil it.
The Bird of Prey
Real photographs
The same soft light
The browns and golds of the grass, the yellow trees and the blue-grey hills all sat in the same soft light under the cloud. When the flying was done I threw the ball for Marley, and I just enjoyed that. That was basically it.
What I learned: you don't need a plan to make a good morning. Just flying around, I ended up with a hawk, two groups of mustangs and a lake like a mirror.