Skipping Rocks

I have been teaching my daughter how to skip rocks at Tryon Creek. The location is not ideal, but there are  lots fabulous flat rocks to skip across the water. I spent hours of my youth perfecting my technique - mostly in the calm bays off of Shaw Island in the San Juans. Practice makes perfect, and these days I can usually skip a single stone seven or eight times.


I spent many hours not long ago trying to photograph a rock just skimming the water's surface. The trick here was to get the rock to land in the camera's narrow zone of focus. And getting to hit the water at just the right angle...



rock splashing



rock splashing



rock skipping

Jump! Leopard frog (Rana pipiens)

Continuing with the frog theme: Another technically challenging image that was accomplished with
the help of my friend Dr John Abbott at the University of Texas. I was in Texas to photograph bats (more on that later) but how can you pass up a cute frog?