Getting Ready for Recon
“Honey, we don’t have anything going on this weekend, do we?” Ben asked, in hopeful anticipation that their empty calendar was correct.
“I have nothing planned. I don’t think there is anything on our calendar? Why?” questioned Amy.
“The weather is supposed to be great. I was thinking of doing a little ‘recon’ and check out the place I wanted to take the train pictures at,” commented Ben, praying in his head that Amy wasn’t going to remember something they had forgotten to put on the calendar.
“No, we don’t have anything. It does look like it will be a good weekend for it,” replied Amy.
Ben breathed a slight sigh of relief.
The following day Ben woke up with eager anticipation of finding the perfect spot to get his pictures.
It was a cool morning which meant Ben could comfortably wear long pants instead of shorts.. This worked to his advantage as he wasn’t sure what kind of terrain and weeds he might have to go through. He remembered hearing a story about a bunch of kids getting poison ivy, then remembering what his dad told him, “Always stay on the path because you might get poison ivy. Remember, leaves of three, let it be.”
The problem for Ben was that many times when he was hiking, he would be on a path, and it seemed like every plant along the ground had leaves of three. He would think, “There has to be some kind of other way to identify poison ivy.”
At breakfast, Ben made a three-egg omelette with toast and avocado. He also warmed up a scone.
“You’re having three eggs?” asked Amy.
“Yup, I’m going on a hike this morning, remember. I need my sustenance! I’m hauling 20 pounds of camera gear!” proudly proclaimed Ben.
Amy shook her head a little bit, “Of course you do. And the scone?”
“Carbo-loading,” said Ben, with a grin, knowing Amy wasn’t buying any of it, but that she did enjoy Ben’s reasoning.
With his belly full, Ben worked on getting ready for his morning excursion. He got his camera backpack out of the closet, immediately thinking, “I really should get out more often and take pictures.” Taking the gear to his home office, Ben unpacked everything. He was a little worried that he made a mistake by not prepping everything the night before.
Taking the camera out of the bag, he turned it on only to notice that the battery meter read almost empty.
“Crap,” Ben thought, as he opened the zipper in the side of the camera backpack to reveal his spare battery.
As he popped the nearly empty battery out of his camera, swapping it with the spare, he breathed a sigh of relief when the battery meter jumped to “Full.”
“I need to make sure I have these both charged next time,” Ben thought, knowing full well there was a decent chance he might forget.
Doing some other tests, Ben felt he was ready to go. He went to the kitchen to fill a water bottle.
He thought back to when he took pictures years ago using what would be considered a fairly standard camera bag, the kind that hangs on the shoulder. He remembered how hesitant he was when he got the backpack version to carry his camera gear.
“Gosh, this thing is so great. I’m so glad I got it,” not remembering that Amy bought it for him for his birthday a few years ago.
He checked to make sure his zoom lens was clean, that his tripod was secure, and slid the water bottle into the side pocket of the camera backpack.
Slinging on the backpack, he kept his camera out and hung the strap off his shoulder, grasping the camera grip with his right hand.
Ben said to himself, “Think I’ll keep this out of the backpack. Never know, maybe there will be some pictures to take along the way.”
Making his way to the front door, Ben hollered slightly in a voice of joy as he was just about to leave, “Goodbye, Honey! Wish me luck!”
Amy came up to the door to see him off.
“You look ready! I’m glad you are taking a water bottle,” she noted.
“You always watch out for me,” said Ben, and he gave her a quick kiss as he walked out the door.