Tag Archives: bird images

Compose Yourself Photo Challenge Week 10

Using 2/3 of your screen

IMG_0948 (1)IMG_8516 (1)IMG_8504Version 2

 

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/12/09/cees-compose-yourself-photo-challenge-week-10-using-23-of-your-photo-frame/

Soft Focus: A Photo a Week Challenge

 

Soft FocusIMG_8259IMG_8224

IMG_7966 (1)

 

Version 2

IMG_7965

The intent of this challenge was to encourage us to soften focus.  I enjoyed playing around with the in-the-dark image of these two white burros, but the results are perhaps too bizarre.

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/a-photo-a-week-challenge-soft/

Tulip Tree with Kiskadee : Cee’s Flower of the Day, August 5, 2015

Tulip Tree with Kiskadee


IMG_3216
This fellow was at the opposite end of the lot at the top of a giant African Tulip Tree.  Thanks to the wonderful zoom on my new Canon camera, I captured him!  Thanks, Canon.

IMG_3222He was catching bugs as they went by.  You can see one in his beak in this photo.

IMG_3223Here you can see him going after yet another fly.  It was an almost constant repetition of a theme.  A great hunting ground!  My shutter speed wasn’t fast enough to freeze his movement, but at least the flowers were in focus!

IMG_3230And then he flew away! He always returned, but my mind turned to other things, and two days later I had this nice surprise on my camera when I finally got around to downloading the pictures from my camera.  Another day’s challenge met!!!

(In Mexico, the name for the African Tulip Tree is Tulipan.  It is also sometimes called a Fountain Tree.)

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/08/05/flower-of-the-day-august-5-2015-delphinium/

Islas Ballestras of Peru: Cee’s Travel Theme Land Meets Water

                                            Islas Ballestras: Peru’s Galapagos

Sometimes where land comes together with water, that land is an island; and in Peru’s Ballestras Islands, it furnishes a wonderful preserve where millions of penguins, boobies, gulls, seals and other animals are able to live in a protected environment.

DSCF1189DSCF1088 DSCF1099 DSCF1108 DSCF1166 Version 3 DSCF1115 DSCF1113

DSCF1101

To see Cee’s incredible panoramic coastline view and other photographers’ work, go HERE.

Love Song: Sunday Stills, The Letter “L”

I was as drawn in by their love songs as they were!  They brought me out of the house and into the street to try to find where the beautiful calls were coming from. (More)
Version 2

Version 3  DSC01233

https://sundaystills.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-the-letter-l-3/

The Day After

Today the gifts have all be opened, the pizza is gone, the cake is half-eaten,  but the decorations are still hanging, something I noticed when returning from a swift walk to the beach to watch a wonderful sight.
DSC00609
I gave up first, Peggy followed soon after, but Sabina is still trying to catch a last look.  Of what?
You can perhaps guess.

DSC00606
Three whales who frolicked right off coast for ten minutes or so.  There were better photo opportunities, but I missed out on them.

DSC00611 - Version 2
When I returned, I was able to capture this shot of Sharon through the glass of the dining room window.

And we returned to making beads and other elements of fimo and fashioning them into necklaces, bracelets, earrings,

DSC00391 DSC00393 DSC00460 DSC00501
DSC00614 DSC00613DSC00617DSC00616   DSC00668

DSC00660
Sabina worked on her wonderful mirror fashioned of fimo, stamps and paint.
DSC00666
And Peggy worked on her quilt . . .

Until the fog rolled in and suddenly through that fog, I spied it:
DSC00648 - Version 2

Incredible, the Great Blue Heron stayed, standing silent, moving slowly as we stood silent, walking one way and another until we approached too close.  Unprepared, I caught only a ghost shot, like a watercolor, as it flew away:

DSC00657 - Version 2

Which could not help but remind me of one of my favorite poems “The Great Blue Heron,” by Carolyn Kizer, which you may read HERE.

Here is one more view of the heron:
DSC00629 - Version 4This one looks more like a painting but is in fact a photo I took today with more saturated color–the way it would have looked if the fog had not entered our lives for the rest of the afternoon.

Mr. Crow

DSC00301

Mr. Crow

A flash of shadow in morning’s glow–
interrupts the daylight’s flow.
That sleek black coat I seem to know.
Why have you come here, Mr. Crow?

I heard that here the water’s fine.
The garden lush. The fruit divine.
I saw it falling from the vine
and swooped right in to make it mine.

You bow at us as though in jest,
then bend your wing and dip your chest.
You have not come at our behest.
We know you rob the songbird’s nest.

But I just stand here, staunch and tall.
I make no movement, sound no call.
I threaten no one.  None at all.
Your garden holds me in its thrall.

The mourning doves and chickadees
do not bathe here as they please.
Black bird, you splash there, as though to tease,
then dry your feathers in the breeze.

DSC00299 - Version 3

I watch to see what you may do.
Through kitchen window, you’re in full view.
One beaded eye of turquoise hue
watches no songbirds.  It watches you.

Mr. Crow, with feathers fine,
take care where you might choose to dine.
The grapes you eat were meant for wine.
Please stick to seeds.  The grapes are mine!

To those of you behind the drapes,
it is a myth I dine on grapes
In garden grass, I watch for shapes.
No skittering snake or mouse escapes.

Small birds won’t deign to linger near
or take a bath while you are here.
Their fluttering movements display their fear.
They find your visit very queer.

I haven’t been here very long.
I’ve robbed no grapes, I’ve stilled no song.
Though your suspicions are grossly wrong,
since I’m not welcome, I’ll move along.

The blackbird lifts from saucer’s edge,
skirts the  treetops, lands on the hedge.
A warbler lifts from stalks of sedge
and takes his place on the birdbath’s ledge.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/new-internet-order/

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Afloat #2

DSC09360 - Version 2DSC09567  DSC09549 - Version 2 DSC09543 DSC00039 DSC00342

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/afloat/