I find it hard to believe that I've never been to the Eno River State Park in Durham County. I've lived here all of my functional life, and in all twenty of those, have never checked it out. It was very reminiscent of this time my parents took me to a river out in California. Lots of shallow pools and miniature falls, and lots of places to go out and play in. Snakes play in the water, too. A family of kids started freaking out as a tiny, adorable thing went past them, desparately holding its head over the waters. The father caught it in a butterfly net and moved it a few ponds over so that it could safely escape into the woods.
Its funny, really. I've been visiting this creek since I was a small, small child. And since then, I've always thought it was Reedy Creek. It was only while naming this photo that I realized that Reedy Creek, or what I thought was Reedy, is actually Sycamore Creek. That... Explains a lot, actually. Like why there's no reeds. This was taken near the old mill ruins, but around the bend from the bridge. It was taken handheld with an infrared Canon 20D and a stock 18-55mm lens at 28mm. I find that 28mm lets me focus properly without getting all the weird problems that IR can get shooting through a normal lens.
The running joke between Josh and the rest of us is that the North Carolina zoo needs to fund an expedition to locate their animals. Indeed, many were missing or sleeping somewhere hidden throughout the day. This ostrich, however, was more than happy to pose right up against the barrier for us, looking for all the world like she was smiling. Yeah, I know, her beak can't change shape, but it looked like it. I captured this with my 75-300 lens and a relatively high ISO of 1600. I'm glad the noise on this shot stayed down, as it is a quick way to ruin detail shots.
