What I put myself through to get photo references

      Almost daily I go on nature hikes with my husband Paul and dog Asti. I always bring my camera so I can take photos of nature to paint. My husband and I have very different ideals on what "staying on the path" means. I often tell him "this is a deer path not a people path".
    On our walk today my husband once more decided to wander off with the dog. As I was following butterflies, taking photos of flowers, and collecting bird feathers I realized we were getting deeper and deeper in a ginormous brier patch." Where are we? Where is the path?" I asked. At first he acted as if he knew but soon I realized of course  he was full of it. More and more briers and thorns. They were endless. We saw a corn field ahead and decided to walk along it to get out of the thorns. Now quite desperate and lost, Paul said "lets ask the farmer for directions ". First good suggestion I thought. Unfortunately the farmer 's direction on how to get back to our car included lifting our 65lb dog over not one but two 5ft fences that were topped with barbed wire. And that is exactly what we did ,very carefully. After more briers, a bog and a field we finally found the parking lot. Thank God literally.

scratches poison, ivy and feathers I collected on hike



photo standing in same spot as photo lower right  but I was looking to the left

photo standing in same spot as above left photo but looking to the right good example of perspective

         Some hikes I come home with tons of wonderful images. Like I have said "there is beauty all around ". Sometimes it is harder to find like today's that produced photos of trash by the pond, bruises, poison ivy and
scratched legs. Oh well you can not win them all but I will certainly keep hunting for reference images for my art.