Ten Little Indians

Dorothea Lange, one of my favorite photographers, once famously said, "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." How true! Photographers are trained to notice details that others might overlook. In the same way a musician's ear hears sound differently than most of us, so too, a photographer looks at the world consciously in terms of light, contrast, composition, tone, rhythm and detail in a way that most of us look at automatically and sometimes unconsciously. Here's a case in point: in the image below, which was taken at the Tres Rios Wetlands (the confluence of Salt, Agua Fria, and Gila Rivers in Maricopa County Arizona) the casual observer might see six or seven great blue herons standing in their nests. A trained photographer would see all ten! Can YOU pick them all out? Good luck!

Great blue herons nesting in a cottonwood tree at the Tres Rios Wetland in Maricopa County, Arizona.