For the Birds

Watering the dogs I noticed the birds are loving the cherries just as much as we are. So, a couple of the little thieves. :-) May as well I guess. We didn't pick hardly any this year, left them for the birds.

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Swallow at Home

I got this little guy peeking out of her home. I'm sure she didn't like me poking around with my camera.

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Royal Terrace Falls Bridge

A lovely little footbridge in the McDowell Creek park in front of the Royal Terrace Falls. The trees are just sprouting leaves and gives just a slight hide for both the falls and the bridge. I really like how it came out.

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Heron on the Surf

I forgot about this image and found it while looking for something else. This Blue Heron was searching for lunch during low tide at Seal Rocks on the Oregon coast. I was really surprised how long he stayed around and posed and the first time I had seen a heron searching for food in salt water. Guess I should not have been surprised as it all eats! :-)

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Ankeny Refuge Geese

Thousands of geese, hundreds of ducks, 6 swans. 5 egrets, 3 hawks 1 blue heron and an eagle. I didn't get photos of them all and of the ones that I did get many are not usable. I need a LOT more practice with my new lens and tripod lens mount. It is a great setup but we cannot expect miracles on the first real outing! :-)

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Looking Up

This was a lovely canopy and tree with spring showers......

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Help Me!

This was an easy one to capture because he couldn't get out! I heard the buzzing of wings and had a look, took a photo. I'm sure he made it out okay though......

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A Crow's Sunset

I waited patiently for the sun to get just right while not spooking the bird. It worked! Slightly cropped, nothing more.

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All Smiles

The Scio, Oregon Lamb and Wool Fair opened yesterday with a car rally. There were too many cars for our little town to handle. That was pretty cool. I think the most impressive thing though was the quality of restoration. There were awesome pampered autos from yesteryear. Here is a sampling of a few "smiles" the cars gave up all taken with my fisheye lens. (I'll have another tomorrow.) I have quite a few more images and perhaps in the coming weeks I'll sprinkle them in to some postings. It was very cool!

As always, click on an image to display it larger on your screen. Click on the left or right of the image for previous or next. :-)

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For the Birds

Let's see, ISO3400, hand held, 400mm and cropped. Rough? Yes indeed they are! But I have been trying to get these yellow finches in my yard for a couple years and found out this past winter I have been feeding the wrong thing. Here it is the first nice day of the spring and the finches are here already! (Sunflower and thistle seed.) Yes, I'm excited and you should expect me to get closer and mych better at captcuring these guys on my sensor.

Oh, the swallow? I thought it was cool.....until I realize the new construction across the highway has ruined *my* favorite perch of getting shots of this bird house.

As always, click on an image to make it larger. Thanks!!

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Blooming Flowers!

A couple recent flower images. Using the fisheye, the tulip is great against the blue sky. (It was a miracle that there was a blue sky!) William in the daffodils was just for fun. :-)

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Seal Rock, Oregon

And here are the seals to prove it! I have never been down to this beach before, it is quite a little climb down some jagged rocks. But William and I did it and it was well worth it. These 3 guys were sunning themselves fairly close for all to see. (And there were 30 or so of us watching. Silly humans!) The gull is sharpened, levels adjusted and therefore not SOOC but I love this shot!

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Looking

Fluttering about looking for food.....in the feeder I have for them.

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No Entry!

Along a lonely highway is this old seemingly abandoned building. I think it may have had something to do with the railroad nearby or some sort of communications station. But that was years ago. Now it is just an old brick building, wasting away.

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Aircraft: C-130

I thought this airplane would make an interesting composition of the Portland Airport today because of the propellers. Little did I know I was going to get a bonus! These propellers spin at about 1050RPM and you can see the vapor trails from the spinning tips, about 2-1/2 to 3 revolutions worth. Seems the prop trails only stay visible for about 1/8th of a second so hard to see from the ground. These were shot at 1/3000th and 1/6000th of a second so we got to see a good look at them. The prop trails really show up in the last image.

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Foggy Sunrise

I really liked this tree, shadowed by fog, sheltering the sun.

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Mc Dowell Creek Revisited

Went to my favorite creek again. Leaves have just begun to fall from the trees, so only a little pretty color around. Not much water yet either. Time for some rain to keep things green around here.

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Only a Test

I was playing the other day, with Teddy here, by a window. I grabbed my flash and wanted to duplicate window light. So the question to you is this: Which is natural window light and which is flash? 1000 points to who ever gets it correct with solid reasoning behind their guess. (1000 points? You bet! Not good for anything, but hey, you got 'em!) :-) Click for a larger version, as usual and next/prev to compare.

Did you guess? The answer is on the next page, after the break........
(Having problems with the "Page Break" feature. Sometimes works, sometimes not. Dunno.)

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Caterpillar on my Flower

I wanted to photograph this flower with a little grass in the background to had it sitting ready to go. We found a caterpillar outside and I decided I need his photo too! So, I combined them! He was very photogenic and patient with me before I set him free. I added one more photo: The set up. I like to see other people's setup and I thought I would throw mine in, mess and all. There is no magic: macro lens on DSLR, tripod, remote release & 2 flash units with triggers. I'm constantly amazed how images look when I know what it looked like behind the scenes, like this one. :-) The maroon background is from a jewelry box ready to go on craigslist and the black/gray background is the back of an etch-a-sketch.

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The Cone of Shame

If you don't know what the "cone of shame" is, you are not UP on your Disney/Pixar movie trivia!

Poor Roc a 11 days after his ear surgery to get out a bad infection. He is better and you can see the bandage glue on his head but the stitches that are supposed to fall out in 10 days are still there and his skin was WAY irritated by the bandages. He has lost a lot of hair where his skin was raw from the over tight bandages the vet put on. She is generally a good vet but I am displeased with her work this time. Any way, well on the way to recovery!

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