Not A Walk In The Park

The Friday before Christmas, my Daughter and her family met up with me at a neighborhood park to take some photos.  Seems her busy schedule had left her with no time to have Christmas photos done and she needed something quick.  Talk about last minute, not to mention pressure.  I was game to try.

Have you ever taken kids to a park, on a gorgeous, sunny, cool day and asked them to be still?  Not an easy task for them, or an inexperienced person trying to take photos, either.

My youngest Son is very supportive of my photography and gave me two books for Christmas, specifically for my camera.  I'm in the process of reading the first one... and it makes more sense than anything else I've seen so far.  I wish I'd had it before I tried the Christmas photos.  Perhaps I could have figured out how to get sharper focus, as well as dealing with the bright sunlight and everyone looking so washed out, although I don't think it would have helped with getting the youngest one to cooperate.  Maybe next time will be better on both counts!

My Daughter was quite forgiving of them not being perfect!

 

Birds!

Anyone that's known me for more than 5 minutes, knows I'm not a fan of Christmas, or shopping and all the stress it causes.  Unfortunately, I can't escape either and was forced to venture out to try to get a few things.  Yes, it's late to be getting started.  Whatever.

Coming out of the store, we were greeted with birds.  Lots of birds.  We have several locations around town where birds seem to congregate, but this was the most I've ever seen, personally, in one place.  They were everywhere.

Excuse the video, it's a little dizzying.  I grabbed my little camera out of my purse and just turned it on and hit record as I was walking.

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If you don't have time to watch, you may be excused now.

Oh... yes, there was bird splat everywhere, too, even on my car!  Grrrr!

A Blogger Day Of Silence

Still Leaving

Remember the colorful tree in the previous post?  It sure has changed in a week.  There aren't many leaves left on that tree, but there are plenty on the other trees... still falling in the yard and pool.  They aren't even our trees, they're in the neighbor's yard.  After the storm we had tonight, I can't imagine what the yard is going to look like when the sun comes up!

Wordless Wednesday - Leaving

Wordless Wednesday - Babies

Gulls Just Wanna Have...

Food!

They weren't fooling around about it, either.  They had really good beak-eye coordination.  On the rare occasion the bread would hit the water, they would nearly sink the ducks, trying to get to it first.

I was already out of the car with my longer lens and was almost too close to be able to shoot these... hubby was so close he got shat on.  Big yuk and a small giggle!  Shhhh, don't tell him I said that.

When we first got there, I started looking for the little platform out in the water, where I had taken some shots before.  It wasn't there.  Then I noticed one, in what seemed to be a different location.  On first glance, it looked like someone had loaded it with white trash bags.  On second glance, one of the bags looked odd.  On closer inspection, it was a platform full of white pelicans, with one standing guard.  Don't think I've ever seen that many in one spot.

There were several people fishing and one was kind enough to let me take a few shots.  He was doing quite well, but the fish were small and he was throwing most of them back.  He did have a keeper, WITH TEETH.  I don't know what it was, but if it has teeth, it might as well be a piranha as far as I'm concerned.  No thanks!  I would not be taking that one off the hook. 

I had to add a couple of cypress roots, just because I like them.

Have a great week!

  

Wordless Wednesday - New