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    Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge: Not Another Travel Guide
    Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge: Not Another Travel Guide
    Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge: Not Another Travel Guide
    Ebook182 pages42 minutes

    Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge: Not Another Travel Guide

    By Bob Campbell

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    About this ebook

    Over twenty years of observing around the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge River 'S' Unit has yielded a jam-packed visual feast for those preparing to visit the area - or just wanting the experience without the Pacific Northwest drizzle.
    This refuge is home and temporary way-spot to a large number of migratory fowl including Canada Geese, Sandhill Cranes, Tundra Swans, and hoards of ducks. Resident species from the American Bald Eagle to raccoons, hawks, tree frogs, and Great Blue Herons. Find them all through various seasons - and don't miss the "Nutria On Ice" special.
    Having so many years to accumulate images yields opportunity to share once-in-a-lifetime events and those which would require multiple trips throughout the year to obtain if you want to see them all in person, including cuddly fawns and Coot chicks. Plus action sequences during the hunt, both successful and the-one-that-got away.
    Of course, don't think the refuge is just critters, the natural beauty is captured as well from misty autumn mornings to brilliant, sun-drenched flowers to frozen waterways. A collection bursting with ideas to wet-your-whistle in planning your own excursion - or merely enjoy a moment of escape when you're trapped on the bus or subway needing to remember there really is a life out there.
    Nature still exists and it's waiting on you to discover it - and at less than a buck, can you really go wrong? (Note: while this collection does have both white-tailed deer does and fawns, there are no bucks. Sorry.)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBob Campbell
    Release dateApr 1, 2016
    ISBN9781310259241
    Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge: Not Another Travel Guide
    Author

    Bob Campbell

    The short of it: over-educated, unemployed, and annoying with a camera. Quite possibly a dangerous combination.The long of it:I've been snapping pictures for over a quarter-of-a-century on equipment ranging from a Pentax k1000 to Canon SX700hs - but nothing fancier. In fact, after they retired my Kodachrome 64 film, I hung up the 'real cameras' and settled for "digital pocket snappers." It seems ninety percent of the challenge to taking pictures is to remember your camera (would seem obvious, wouldn't it? But look around at the folks with large, fancy cameras - no wonder they claim the phone-based lens will be the death of real photography). So I do my part and pack it almost everywhere.I was a latecomer to photography, though, so I had time to grow up in many different parts of the country with my formative stage in the South, but junior high and onward in the Pacific Northwest. The last set of initials after my name tacked on by the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine - making the 'highest degree attained' line of the survey read Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.I still live in the state of Washington with my lovely wife of over two decades who continues to be an invaluable accomplice. For any hazard I manage to avoid, our son does his best to ensure we'll see an early grave.Having spent a little time teaching, I've grown to miss a captive audience to inflict my photography upon, so thank you Smashwords for providing me a forum for dispersing my imagery pain to be loosed upon the world.

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      Book preview

      Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge - Bob Campbell

      Introduction

      Ever get tired of seeing those amazing photographs in promotional pieces and National Geographic? Me neither - but like most folks, I do get tired of comparing my work at the same general vicinity to it and coming up short. Far short. Not even tall enough to proudly sing Short People.(Red Wing Black Bird mid-call Singing, February 27, 2016)

      In fact, sometimes it seems like I can't even fathom where they were able to shoot their amazing renditions of 'truth' that's supposedly out there. (Sandhill Crane in fallow corn field - no longer practiced on refuge land, December 8, 2012)

      Luckily, I finally read that extra small print one time at the bottom of a super neat image from the Grand Canyon... and kept reading, including the details about the shot. A rough paraphrase: After hiking into the location knowing the weather forecast, I only had to wait three hours before in a brief instant, the clouds parted just enough - and there was my shot. So, he not only had to hike into a potentially remote location, possibly not even open to the general public, knowing the exact weather conditions needed and time of day, but here's the kicker that was in parenthesis after the equipment notes: Shot during my year in residence at... Yup - living at the monument, in the artist retreat, at the rim of the canyon 24/7 for months at a time. Who knows how many times he did the hike and the many-hour wait never to have the clouds break long enough for a single click or three. And you and I, Joe Blow Average, drive up to the general public entrance and snap a picture or fifty - and it's nothing like his. Well, let me say it, Duh. (River Otter family caught in shadows on far side of mostly obscured water control channel between refuge and migratory bird hunting parcel, February 16, 2014)

      We should all have the opportunity to consistently and repeatedly visit the same location. While maybe not as grand as the Grand Canyon, many of us have a special location in our local area. Which means given the law of averages, if you go enough times, snap the shutter often enough, you can eventually get the same result a million monkeys given a million typewriters over a million years would get: a million typewriters packed with monkey dung. But one of those dung-filled typewriters will have the image of Elvis smeared on the side. (Great Blue Heron, flood plain split nearing 'Sandhill Crane Corner," September 29, 2004)

      That means you're bound to end up with some pretty neat shots that even the professional photographer visiting your location for a day wouldn't be able to achieve. Ha! Because no matter how hard he tries, if his visit is in August, he's not going to see migrating geese over a light snow fall field in the waning sunlight of early evening (four in the afternoon around these parts). (Canada Goose, Rest Lake in central parts of refuge, April 20, 2003)

      The Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge Auto Tour is my opportunity to pull the law of averages, because it's readily accessible to visitors in the Southwest corner of Washington state - at all times of the year in all weather conditions, even our ever-present mist and drizzle.(Dragonfly grounded due to wet summer morning air, July 21, 2008)

      If you opt to visit, but manage to miss some things, this book is your cheat sheet to say, If I only had two decades to visit this place, I could've got better pictures than this! So take a couple hours, pile into your car or truck, and take a leisurely drive around the Ridgefield

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