Skyfire and occasional gunfire

Last Saturday a friend of mine and I went hunting in the evening with the view to staying out quite late. It was a successful hunt with a few things going down...but that's not what this post is about. One of the best things about being an outdoorsman and having access to some of the most amazing properties, the value I find there, is what this post is about...and, it's also my very first in this community.

I'm not a photographer. I say that a lot. I have a camera though [Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III mirrorless] and I use it now and then. I also have a mobile phone camera thing, [Samsung S22 Ultra], and it's on that device which many of my photos for Hive are taken. There's something pleasing about pressing a button and getting a result rather than having to use settings, most of which I don't understand, and I also don't edit my photos on Photoshop or other such things because I don't know how to use them; I use Google Images now and then but it's limited and that's fine by me.

The above image was taken on my S22 Ultra on Saturday night. We were at the crest of a hill stalking some game and...well, you can see what caught my focus.

It was a really cool moment as the air was laden with moisture with a storm coming in (just left of shot) and it was almost totally still...the calm before the storm. The sky looked on fire though and the atmosphere felt primordial - There we were, two caveman-hunters out doing what cavemen do. We didn't have spears and clubs though, we had firearms of course.

We're both similar types: Serious about the outdoors, in love with wilderness places and knowing what to do there, how to hunt and gather, stay alive and generally just be at peace with nature. We took some moments to watch the escaping sun take the last colour from the sky and the warmth along with it, and revelled in the moment as the day died, its glowing embers finally extinguishing completely. Then...it was time to hunt.

I've spent a lot of time in this area and know it like the back of my hand. When I'm there I'm hunting, stalking, shooting and field-dressing game but that's not the only reason I'm there...I go for the solitude, peace and quiet away from societies' clamour, and to feel closer to the planet which sustains my life; Mother Earth. It's a beautiful place and the feelings I experience are also; they seep within me and settle upon my soul, mind and body becoming part of me. Much of the time I don't shoot anything content just to be there.

I sit and think, listen to the breeze move through the branches and grasses marvelling at how different the rasping of summer grasses sound to the green winter, spring and autumn grasses as the breeze makes them dance. I listen to the animals, birds calling, hares and rabbits scurrying, the loud thump thump thump of kangaroos bounding, tails thumping the ground as they go. I listen to foxes on the prowl, kookaburras laughing away the last moments of light and the buzzing of insects as they move to settle for the night. I open up and listen to it all, and open up emotionally and allow it all within me.

I listen to myself too; thoughts, feelings and emotions and find answers there, pathways forward, find those I determine not to walk any longer, and those I resolutely determine that I will follow. I think about everything and nothing and there, in this place, I find clarity.

The above image was taken on my Samsung S22 Ultra during one of those contemplative moments in which all thoughts of banging away on my rifle were out of mind and in which I simply enjoyed being at one with my surroundings. This image was taken in October, right before the green grass starts to turn to the golden colour the heat of summer turns it. From this spot I watched the sun move away to light someone else's day and wondered if that person would think of me as I do them.

I love that I can come here any time I choose and that it's only a twenty minute drive from my house. I have sole access and, whilst I'm there to hunt and cull, it provides so much more than just the ability to do that.

There's something special in those minutes the sun takes to slip away below the horizon and I usually take the time to enjoy them.

It's like the passing of something, I guess not unlike the passing over of the game I shoot, there one moment and gone the next...only, the sun comes back around the next day. Just like that moment, the moment of ending something's life in which a lot of care and respect is shown, I do the same for the sunset; it's one of nature's greatest and most beautiful moments, and one which I feel connected to in some way. Taking the time to watch it makes me feel a part of something so much greater than I myself am.

That's about it for my initial post in this community, a small photo-contribution that sits amongst so many amazing photo-posts, and a few of my thoughts behind the photographs. I know they're not the best photos one will ever see, not that special, and that they're not technically correct or probably framed very well...but they're mine as were the minutes in which they were taken. Looking at them takes me back to the splendour and feelings I felt in those moments...and I think that's special enough.