I took a walk out to Stone Cuts today. Unfortunately, it stayed cloudy the whole time I was out there. (Of course the Sun came out when I was halfway back home.) But it gave me an opportunity to use my Christmas present (a Nanlight) to light up one of the darker passages through the rocks. It’s a cool little light. It does more than I’ll ever use but it’s rechargeable and fits in a water-bottle pocket on my pack.

From Stone Cuts Trail in Monte Sano State Park, Huntsville, Alabama.

Nikon D7200 — Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 ED VR
18mm
F8@0.4 seconds
ISO 2,000
White Balance on Flash

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©Don Brown 2025

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Earlier this month, I was hiking around downtown Huntsville at sunset. This was shot from Big Spring Park, right after sunset, with a dark, cloudy sky as a backdrop.

I really thought I had plenty of pictures saved in my archives but if I’ve had too many bad mornings on Monte Sano lately. I think it’s time to hit the road.

Nikon D7200 — Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 ED VR
32mm
F8@1/4th
ISO 400

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©Don Brown 2024

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That’s what I put on my morning weather report to the late sleepers: “I’m not expecting much”. Predicting good sunrises is impossible. But we keep trying. Sometimes, it’s easier being wrong than others.

From the east overlook at Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville, Alabama.


Nikon D7200 — Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 ED VR
32mm
F8@1/15th
ISO 400

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©Don Brown 2024

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Yep. I still miss the rodeo.

It was a dark and stormy morning…on Monte Sano. So I didn’t get anything worth showing. Then one of my archived hard drives fell off the shelf and I considered it a sign. There are tons of good pictures on it to show, but I always wind up back at the rodeo.

The Georgia High School Rodeo Association event in Madison, Georgia. October 17, 2020.

Nikon D7200 — Nikon 200-500 F5.6 ED VR
(Looks like the exposure data is corrupted.)
(Isn't that interesting? Flickr's program sees the exposure data.)
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©Don Brown 2020

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I took at least a dozen of these before I noticed a homeless guy had stashed his stuff inside the light tunnel. I wasn’t expecting it. Huntsville, like all cities, has its share of homeless but they don’t normally hang out at the park. But I’ll let it serve as a metaphor.

I could retouch it out (okay, I couldn’t but it’s possible) and pretend it’s not the truth. Or I could show you the truth. It is so easy for us to love the lies in life.

It’s really no different than how we approach real life. We’ll spend money to make the homeless “disappear” a lot faster than we’ll spend money to cure homelessness. Ignoring the problems we face — making them disappear — does not solve them. The world would be a lot more beautiful if we’d quit making it ugly.

Nikon D7200 — Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 ED VR
110mm
F8@1/13th
ISO 2,000
Cropped

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©Don Brown 2024

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