The Beginning and The End

Finally!  The baby geese are starting to show their faces!  Here’s my first beauty - caught her on a short trip out to Englewood Lake today.  Life…it just keeps rolling on.

 

Better Than Prozac

There’s just something about watching the sun go down over a lake full of water that fills my heart to overflowing. 

I am so blessed…

Dinner Out

Will that be a table for one?

Peggy

Mother nature…she can be a bit of a hard ass.

Meet “Peggy.”

She lost her entire right foot somehow. 

A fight?  Disease?  A trap? 

I have no idea…

But tonight, as the other geese all squirmed in my presence, Peggy and I got better acquainted.  By the end of the afternoon we were BFF.  Tomorrow, I’m going back to this same lake to take her some bread crumbs and dried cereal.

Mother nature might be a hard ass but, lucky for Peggy, I’m not.   

Two By Two

I took my new Canon 70-200mm f/4 L lens for a spin today, trying to see what all it could do. I think I’m going to need a 300mm or 400mm telephoto if I’m going to get really serious about taking bird images in the wild but, considering this lens is lightweight enough that I can handhold it in good light, I’m really not complaining. Besides, look at the pattern of the tree reflection on the water that this baby created.

Be still my beating heart…

Going Squirrely

Being locked up in the house is anything but fun for me.  It got so bad today I started to envy the squirrels…

Scoutin’ for Peanuts

This photo was taken during our last snowfall just a few days after Christmas.  This little guy came down the tree near my deck to see if there were any peanuts left before he scurried up the tree and tucked himself in for the night. 

I thought it would be fun to freeze the squirrel and “move” the tree, creating a visual effect that is exactly opposite of what you’d normally find in nature.  I think it gives the appearance that my camera “froze” the action of the squirrel when, in reality, he had “frozen” himself (no pun intended!)

My big news the other day?  I was referring to the fact that I had just purchased my very first DSLR (a Canon 40D) and my first set of lenses.  I am currently awaiting their arrival… 

Best of 2007

It seems that many of the photobloggers I read are putting out their “Top Ten” this morning so I thought I’d give it a shot.  I bought my Canon Powershot S3 IS back in January, getting me as close to a DSLR as I could afford at the time and it has definitely done its job at helping me take my images to the next level.  Then, in late summer, I bought a copy of Photoshop Elements 5, took an online course and bought the indespensible book, “Photoshop Elements: The Missing Manual” and that also helped me take another step forward by changing how I post-process my images.  By the end of the year I was adding actions and presets into the mix and now I’m just beginning to see all the different ways I can creatively take an image I see in my head and make it come out looking uniquely my own. 

This next year I am going to do everything I can to get my hands on the Canon 40D and a few prime lenses and continue to delve into learning Photoshop layers. 

Here, then, are my pick of my top ten images of 2007.  (To see my top 100 shots for 2007, head over to my Flickr page and view the slideshow!)  *Click on images to see the full size photographs.*

My favorite macro shot of all my flower images, this one just filled the frame with upclose detail.

My favorite butterfly image from the 200+ I shot at the Butterfly festival in Powell Gardens on an August afternoon.  I cannot wait to go again next year! 

This has to be my best cloud photo of the year.  It was used by Stanford University for their brochure announcing a new weather major at their school.

Gotta be my best sunrise image for 2007.  The golden tones just blew me away that morning and it’s luminosity shined through in this photograph.

My favorite plant photo of the year.  Love the bokeh on this one and the contrast between the soft leaf and the hard-as-nails thorns.

This has to be one of my best insect macros of the year.  I love the bokeh on this one as well as the detail of the tiny hairs along his legs. 

I hate snakes…but this one got me over my fear as he posed for my camera in the driveway of my home.  This is the first snake photo I’ve ever taken where I didn’t cringe when I first saw it. 

I’m a leaf girl…no doubt about it.  It was a three-way tie for my favorite leaf image this year but this one won, hands down.  The texture of the mud against the texture of the leaf sealed the deal as I found it lying in the parking lot of one of my nearby state parks.

This one is probably more sentimental than anything else.  I have access to squirrels 24/7 what with the 16 trees in my immediate backyard and this image really did it for me this fall.  I was so happy with his expression, the angle of the shot and the great bokeh in the background. 

My favorite black and white of the year, this was my second favorite leaf image of the year.  It was my first attempt at taking a color image and converting it to black and white using PSE and I was very happy how it turned out. 

And there they are…the ten best of 2007.  

You’s Not Fat…You’s Fluffy

Sorry about all the bird photos lately. We’ve had four weekends of snowstorms so my time gathering any images beyond my back door has been pretty limited. I did shoot some stuff indoors today so there’s hopefully going to be a break in all these bird photos.

But, hey, what’s not to love about this one? I’m pretty sure this is an adolescent Dark Eyed Junko but its hard to tell at this stage. They usually aren’t quite so “fluffy” but it’s possible this is a late comer who’s just now getting his wings.

In Mourning

I had seventeen mourning doves sitting on one of my backyard trees yesterday as the latest winter storm broke out.  Some of the first to arrive at the feeders in the morning and almost always the last to leave, these doves make the most ethereal sound…cooing for the others wherever they go.  Just hearing them reminds one of all the past loves that got away. 

Despite their close family ties to the common pigeon, they are still one of my favorite birds, with their soft brown bodies and their hot pink “shoes” they are a fashion statement wherever they go.