Stream - Easton Waterfowl Festival - Easton Maryland
I had just arrived in Easton, to attend the festivities of the annual
Easton Waterfowl Festival. I had parked on the other side of the
street feeling happy that I found the pond area where some outdoor
demonstrations were scheduled to take place. As I entered the park I saw
that the large crowd was on the right and only a few people (I took as
photographers) on the left side of the pond. I couldn't make out much from
that distance but I thought those are the smart guys and
that might be a good area to get some pictures. I headed towards a
wooden bridge that lead to the far side of the pond.
Just behind this view of the stream I took from the bridge were the two
ponds where a hunting retriever demonstration, fly rod casting demonstration,
and fishing contest for kids were to take place. The ponds fed the stream
for this picture. This image was one of the few having enough
depth for posting, as the W1 of course only has about a 3 inch stereo
base. I carried my Pentax DSLR with a zoom lens for taking cha
chas, and 2D pics.
After taking my first few pictures at the bridge and continued my my
walk, I slowly began to discover that I had unintentionally
intruded into the area where the retriever demonstrator individuals (a man
and teenager), were about to command a dog from the other side of the pond
to swim across and fetch an object.
The man was wearing ear protection and had a shotgun mounted in a metal
stand pointed up at about a 45 degree angle. The boy had a whistle in his
mouth and an object in his hand. They had a puzzled look on their faces as
they viewed me walking toward them.
It only started to dawn on me that I wasn't supposed to be there when I
heard an amplified voice talking to the crowd on the other side of the pond
saying, "What's he doing there?; Oh, he's a photographer, that's
ok". I was somewhat relieved to hear that second part although I
wasn't entirely sure I was the object of attention. Immediately after that
was announced, the boy tossed the object in his hand which landed about 5
feet to my right. I actually took a picture (2D) of him as he was
beginning the toss. The zoom lens attached to my Pentax apparently made it
easily seen from the crowd. I thought it best to confirm the "photographer
explanation" heard over the loudspeaker. Suddenly there was a very loud
BOOM, as the guy with the earphones pulled the trigger of the shotgun and the
kid blew the whistle.
I knew then that the dog from the other side of pond was starting
across the water to retrieve the object close by me. The sound of the
shotgun and the thought of the dog soon arriving informed what little
sense I have to get away quickly, so I jogged around the bushes to the
other side of the guys taking an occasional photograph of the dog and them
finishing their demonstration.
"Want to get away?"
W1, SPM, PS, IrfanView
(For some reason I noticed the left inch or so of the stream image is
softly focused while the right is pretty sharp. I cropped some of the left
side to lessen the problem).
Cheers,
Brian
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