Same shot, as taken

taken in the Barossa valley in Australia last year on this day.

Black and white photos of treeless landscapes always remind me of the westerns on tv when I was a child. I expect to see John Wayne or the Cisco Kid entering the scene from the right.

Somewhere in New Mexico:

Jim, your stone roller looks like what we use to roll across the lawn to even it out when there is heave and thaw.

I am only seeing partial pictures here today. I wonder what's up with that? It's not all of them, but most of the double pictures only show half of each picture. Weird.

murraysmom, I don't know about everyone else, but my photos have been cropped make a long narrow rectangle and I think Annie did hers that way too.

Edit to add that after re-reading Annie's post, I see that she shot her photo in panoramic mode.

murraysmom..... My bears feet and butt got cut off....because....I used a big/fixed focal length lens to shoot her.....she didn't fit in the frame, no cropping here.....she was walking towards me......I was keeping distance between us. I snapped a shot....and ran.

My camera has a Sepia and B/W settings.

No special technique - just white

I've never been brave enough to photograph bears - I run the other way when I see them. I certainly would not want to be that close to a mother bear. I saw a couple of cubs once and knew that a mother would be nearby, and so I got away from them as quickly as I could. I feel like I can sense a bear's presence before I see it - at least I've always had premonitions that one was nearby before I saw it. I've never seen one without having the premonition first.

Forest service where I live tells us that if we have a close encounter with a bear not to run because it triggers their chase instinct and a bear can easily outrun a human. Instead, stand your ground, make yourself look as big as you can, make lots of noise and slowly back away. Of course, if the encounter is from a distance, a person should be able to get out of their way easily enough. Making lots of noise when out in the woods to let them know we are around will generally encourage them to move on because they don't want to encounter us any more than we want to encounter them.

I took these photos from my kitchen window. It's easy to be brave and photograph a bear when one is inside the house! ;-)

That bar you see is part of our deck railing.

The only time I got that close was at a picnic table, and the bear chased me around the table (it wanted my sandwich, which I would not give up), and it never caught me. It finally got tired and moved to the next picnic table. It also had a collar. All the others I've seen from a safe distance, and so it was appropriate for me to run away.

I'm sorry, Lars, but the visual I got from your description made me laugh. Well, not really laugh, but it struck me as funny although I'm sure it wasn't funny to you at the time. I had this mental image of Yogi Bear pestering picnickers for their food.

Was the collar it was wearing a tracking collar?

This mama bear was on my driveway, I ran inside my house. :0) Ya know....no bears where I moved to. Not going to miss them.

Sure can't beat that view! Beautiful.

Everyone's pictures are normal now. I have no idea why they were missing half the picture before. Just glad they are all back. Beautiful pics today!!

Nicole - where did you live to have a bear in your driveway?

actually, a number of yrs back there was a bear in a retirement community south of Chandler AZ. I remember hearing about it on the news - and from a close friend who lived in that area.

I probably should quit asking my dog if she sees any grizzlies when I take her out in the wee hours of the night (morning). we do have coyotes and when we're out there if I hear any kits yipping, I immediately head into the house. Mama will be looking for them and if she decides to cross my land to get to them, I don't want to meet up with her!

I've had a mountain lion on my land - fairly close up to the house and dog. I didn't know until a ranger came out to identify the huge paw print I found in my driveway (desert dirt).

mountain lion or bear, I'd probably have a stroke on the spot if I saw either IRL.

desertsteph....Colorado. Manitou Springs. I was up against the mountains, on top, 101mph winds/had to strap down cast metal patio furniture, with open space behind me...and a camp ground below. The people in the camp ground fed the bears bags of raw chicken. The neighbors had "live" chickens...the bears ate. The bears came through in droves! Then they/the bears found my hummingbird feeders. We had great horned owls, golden eagles, bobcat, mountain lion. Just 3 houses down the street, a mother mountain lion killed a deer, left it in the neighbors back yard...and fed her 3 cubs for a week. They put it on national news. Photographers were flying in to get the shot. Herds of deer slept in peoples yards. The city is planning a bow & arrow hunt. Ticks, fleas & a HUGE population of voles & wood rats. Even knats & black flies, the flies & ticks feed on the deer, became over powering.

When they made "pot" legal, the town became over run with drugs & beggars/setting the bridges on fire with warming fires, That's when we decided we had to move.....at any cost. We just moved East, away from the mountains.......and it ALL went away.

Of course we'd remodeled the home, it sold in 3 weeks....happy ending.