Today’s wildlife comprises primates: Homo sapiens engaging in what they call “sport,” and the photos from Doug Hayes of Richmond, Virginia. Doug, you may recall, has sent photos of dancers, and here he photographs sledders. His captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
A batch of human wildlife photos! The recent snow here in Richmond, Virginia brought out the neighbors of all ages to Forest Hill Park for a day of sledding and snowboarding. It was a sunny Saturday morning with temperatures in the low 40s F. A good time was had by all!
Why just sled when you can levitate?:
Wipeout!:
A snowboarder getting in on the fun:
Some of the sledders built a snow ramp at the end of the run for that extra boost:
Powder:
Traffic jam at the bottom of the hill:
Nothing says cool like sliding downhill at breakneck speed, nonchalantly smoking a pipe and holding a cup of coffee!:
Double wipeout!:
Not scared!:
Flying off the ramp:
Should have kept the glasses on!:
The more, the merrier!:
What fun!
Awesome!
Growing old is inevitable – growing up is optional
Way to be!
Terrific photos Doug. Thanks. Wow, powder in Richmond!
Made me smile 😊
Refreshingly different! I especially like Rabbit Girl (“Not scared”).
That was my first thought too—it’s a Rabbit Girl! Otherwise, lots of great action shots.
These are incredibly good pictures! I love them all, but if I had to choose a favorite it would be the pic of the dad casually barreling down the slope with a mug of coffee (?) in his hand while his offspring is – perhaps for good reason! – so scared she can’t bear to look where they’re going.
Wow! That probably required a fast shutter speed to freeze the action.
Folks here will remember that we would use sleds with steel runners, and they could be steered. They could be a particular kind of death machine, but you could steer to avoid the unwary and trees. In contrast, the flimsy and un-steerable contraptions used today are a different kind of death machine. You ain’t getting me on one of those things!
One of the regular sledders is a gentleman in his mid 70s who uses one of the old school sleds with metal runners. He still does the running start carrying the sled at chest level, then jump and land on the sled while plunging downhill. Even the kids don’t try that! BTW, all the photos were shot at 1/1000th of a second or faster shutter speed.
As I recall it, the technical term was “belly flop.”
Fun Stuff! Thanks.
Nice pictures! I especially like the girl with the bat wings coming out of her head.
How many of you were able to view these picture of humans at play without smiling? Probably none.
Brilliant photos! Thanks for the laughs, Doug.
Reminded me of this. For some reason it never occurred to us to use shovels as sleds when we were young. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4sFskOgNBRA
The movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” has a scene near the beginning showing kids using snow shovels as sleds. I never heard of anyone doing it in real life.
Delightful, thanks!
Wonderful!
Yes. Delightful. Similarly to the girl with her hair in the air, I have a photo of my granddaughter riding on a roller coaster going down so fast that her hair is standing straight up on her head. Thanks!