The year is half over and things are getting crazier by the day. So much occurred this month around the United States, not sure there is enough space to talk about everything without making a novel. We will leave politics out of this newsletter but I just want to say that 'ALL Lives Matter', I could go on further but I think that sums up my opinion. Hopefully you would able to see Comet Neowise last month, it was visible in the morning and evening - a little rare but it was a nice surpise for this year. Those who follow my social media channels were treated with some images mid-month, hope you enjoyed them. The remainder of the year is going to be interesting with new guidelines and regulations around COVID-19 that just might make traveling near impossible for those of us who go state to state for clients. Unfortunately lots of research is required before traveling to a location and making sure to find the proper latest guidelines. At this time the first check I perform is how safe the location appears to be, then working with clients to determine if work can be done while keeping everyone safe and healthy - that includes myself and my family. The images this month were both taken in the past 7 days, so you could say these are fresh!

The events of 9/11/2001 had a major impact in United States and I plan on documenting the various memorials the best I can. While I have been near most of the memorials I don't always make the time to actually visit, so last weekend I changed that by visiting the Flight 93 National Memorial. While I planned on getting to the site much earlier in the day, we arrived after sundown which limited photography options. Luck was on my side and the sky was partly cloudy, so the stars along with Comet Neowise where shining bright between clouds. For those who have not been to the memorial, I present to you the Tower of Voices. This is the final major phase of the memorial, it's a 93 foot tall musical instrument with 40 wind chimes - one for each passenger and crewmember on that flight. Each wind chime will be different, so each 'voice' will be unique. There is a red beacon on top of the structure which creates an interesting glow on the formed concrete, along with the sky glow from the city of Shanksville in the distance. For those wondering, this is the result of one 13 second image capture and for those curious about the comet, look left of day 21 and the head and tail are between a couple of clouds.

The second image is a sight near coastlines in the Northeast, not really common here in the Midwest. Slightly shocked by this pair of Osprey on their nest on Cape Cod along the edge of a road; they are close to getting dangerously close to the power lines - hopefully they will not extend the nest any further. Did you know these birds return to the same nest year after year and spend March to September on Cape Cod but will spend our winter in Central or South America? If you look at the image closely, you can see the uninsulated power lines that create the danger for the birds. The electric companies build platforms for the birds, in hopes they will nest on them and not their power poles like this pair, obviously power companies and local residents don't want damage done to the lines. While I have not been able to locate actual numbers of nesting pairs on Cape Cod, The Osprey Watch organization list's this nest as number 7144 out of the 7348 currently reported, this particular nest was first reported in 2018.

Here's a link to download the appropriate version of this month's image for your desktop, one for standard screens and one for wide-screens. Right click on the text for the format you need and select Save As, save to a location on your computer that you can remember and change the background as needed for your OS.

http://www.timlesterimages.com/calendar/august.html

Enjoy the images this month and stay safe!

Tim Lester

TIM LESTER IMAGES
Email: tim@PROTECTED
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