I stumbled on this guy just before Christmas. In fact, Dickie saw him first. He was more interested in locating his lunch than bothering with us. He flew from pole to pole around us and back again which gave me numerous opportunities to photograph him. A neighbor came by and told us that he and his mate were often perched on those poles and, in fact, even on the fence posts where he had been able to approach him within ten feet or less. Suffice it to say, we'll be back there!☼ zampi ☼
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
CHRISTMAS 2009
I caught Santa coming out of the local grade school parking lot this morning. I guess he had been visiting with the kindergarten and first graders. I hope he still has time to get his work done. He looked pretty happy, so he must still be on schedule.
Dickie and I decided not to put up a Christmas tree this year. We’ll just go with this wreath in front of the house and a few decorations inside. I guess I’m getting lazier in my old age (if that’s possible). We do wish everyone a happy holiday season!
We enjoyed a great Christmas concert presented by the Chanticleer chorus from the San Francisco area the other night at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Petaluma. Chanticleer is an amazing all-male group that sings a capella. They’re a definite delight to the ear and the acoustics in St. Vincent's are divine (Isn’t that appropriate?). You can find out more about them if you follow this URL: http://chanticleer.org/sing/ . Some years ago we heard them when they visited Freehold, NJ, and we were vacationing in South Jersey. We also heard them this past summer when they gave a benefit concert in Armstrong (redwood) State Park . You might draw the conclusion that we like them a lot – and we do. I think you will, too, if you ever get the chance to hear them.
The weather hasn’t been all that great for my photography efforts lately, although today wasn’t bad. I managed to get this shot of a mockingbird perched on a chain-link fence.
Dickie collected some pear tree leaves and held them on the top of a fence post for me to take this shot earlier today. I photo-shopped her hand out of the picture which turned out decently, I think. Most trees have lost their leaves at this point, so the pear trees are the prettiest trees around just now, their leaves having turned beautiful shades of red and yellow:
We still have roses blooming in the neighborhood. Here are a couple of our own yellow roses blooming on a Julia Child rose bush at our front door:
We’re still stalking hawks whenever possible. Here’s a recent shot I got of a red-tail that was quite high and far away, but the auto-focus was right on:
The starlings had their usual convention this fall, I guess. We caught some of them resting temporarily in this tree as they made their way south. They’re quite a sight when they fly by, wheeling and whirling in great clouds at this time of year:
That’s about it for the first decade of the 21st century, not the best decade we’ve ever been through as a nation. Let’s hope the new decade is a better one!
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Saturday, October 03, 2009
OCTOBER 2009
October 2009
Encouraged by my daughter, Heidi, I’m back again with an addition to my blog this month. Heidi maintains that she enjoys looking at my pics. Hopefully, if you’re looking at this, so do you.
In any case, we’re coming up on Halloween again so I think it appropriate to begin this time with a shot of one of our neighbor, Ross’s, pumpkins. He has a whole patch of them coming right along. They should be ready for the big day (or night, however you see it). This one looks pretty good to me. Dickie and I have watched it grow as we pass it on our morning walks:
WINDSOR AIR SHOW
It was a couple months back now, but I have to post a shot or two that I took at this year’s air show. It wasn’t quite as large as in recent years, but there were some good things to see. One of them was a woman dare-devil who stood out on the wing of the plane below as it dipped and dived and performed a variety of maneuvers in the sky above us. Dickie and I didn’t actually notice her at first. In fact, I don’t think Dickie ever did notice that she was there until the performance was over, but, as you can see, the telephoto lens I was using tells the story:
One of the biggest attractions was a monstrous Air Force cargo plane that lumbered slowly through the sky. It flew so low and so slow that one wondered how it could stay aloft, but it did. When it made a turn as it flew by where we were standing, I got this shot that almost makes it look as if it were taken from a plane flying above the cargo plane. I assure you, however, that I was standing on the ground:
KITES AND OTHER BIRDS
This next pic is a photo shop production. Several years ago I took some photos of a kite that was being flown near the beach at San Francisco Bay. A few weeks ago a kite (bird) flew by us as we walked along the vineyard north of our subdivision. Just for the fun of it, I put those two shots together, since they’re both a kind of kite. This was the result:
We’ve had plenty of other birds flying over us lately. The Canadian geese are on the move. You can hear them as they call to each other and gather into larger flocks. I suppose they’re heading south now, although this bunch was flying in a northerly direction when they flew past us:
There are still plenty of birds on the ground for me to practice my hobby. A bird I haven’t seen that often lately is the flicker. This one was sitting on the very top of a power pole, so he’s only partially visible, but I thought I’d preserve the occasion:
The bird we see most frequently right now is the lesser goldfinch. I’ve managed to get some fairly decent shots of them on occasion. This one is from a couple weeks ago:
Just now the finches are feeding on the weed seeds that are plentiful along the ditches by the vineyard. Here’s another shot of a finch lunch-time:
DOGS WE HAVE KNOWN
I have thousands of photos of all kinds of birds now, since I’ve been enjoying this hobby for seven or eight years, but it dawned on me the other day that I also have accumulated quite a few photos of various dogs we have met in our morning walks and our trips around the area. Let me show you a few.
Since the newest dog in our life is the puppy our daughter, Gretchen, and her husband, Jonathan, have adopted. let me begin with Lulu. She’s a mixed breed, part labrador retriever, and looks to be a real sweetheart. I took this picture the other night at a concert in Armstrong Woods while Jonathan was holding her. The flash made her blink, but she’s a beauty, isn’t she?:
Dickie and I often joke that we know more dogs than people here in Windsor. That may be a slight exaggeration, but we do know a few canines. Two of our favorites are a pair of German shepherds. The older one is named “Bandit”. He’s a male and marvelously trained. He is remarkably obedient. We meet him and his owners regularly on our morning walks:
His mate is a younger female named “Tasha”. Tasha is one-quarter red wolf, playful, but equally well-trained and obedient. She’s also very beautiful:
Another pair of canines we’ve come to know are a couple of tiny poodles. Oscar is the older and larger of the two. He’s as friendly and gentle as they come:
Lucy is younger and much smaller than Oscar, but equally friendly and you can’t help but want to cuddle her:
Another dog we’ve come to know and enjoy meeting on our morning walks is Jenna, a terrier with a very decent disposition:
Honey is a golden retriever we also meet now and then on our morning walks. She’s beginning to age, according to her owner, but still makes the trip. We’ve known her for many years now:
Still another dog we see most every day is Lucas. I call him “Budweiser” because he reminds me of the dog in the Budweiser commercials. Lucas sometimes barks at us from within the horse corral which he patrols, but he’s obviously a pussycat, just doing his job:
Still another barker is a dog I call “Chudleigh”. We don’t know his real name, but, when we pass by, he regularly calls to us from behind the iron gate in the driveway he calls “home”. That’s what the white bars are in this photo, the iron gate:
OK, so now you know more about the dogs in my life than you ever cared to know. But, wait! I’m not finished yet. Dickie and I regularly travel to the ocean and we’ve met some great dogs out there, too. Here’s three that crossed our path. Boomer was owned by a couple from Oklahoma. His photo was good enough to win me a “Picture of the Day” sometime ago. The other two were simply striking in my opinion, so here they are:
There’s more. We visit parks now and then and the dogs below are some we found there. April and Gracie were pals who scampered around with each other in a dog run at our Pleasant Oak Park here in the neighborhood. The Bouvier des Flandres is a dog I met one day at Shollenberger in Petaluma. I’d never seen a dog like him. I had to include “Carl, the Labrador” for obvious reasons. I’m happy to say he was a great dog. Chloe patrols the same horse corral that Lucas above runs. Being as small as she is she can easily slip under the fence and does. That’s how we know she’s really very gentle, too. The golden retriever is a spectacular Frisbee catcher. I’ve seen his master throw a Frisbee a hundred feet or more and the dog always catches it before it hits the ground.
I’ve discovered over the years that a guy with a camera is almost like a guy with a dog. Most everyone is willing to be friendly, if asked. That’s how I got the owners of the dogs in the photos below to let me take their dogs’ photos. I think there are some beautiful dogs here:
Dickie and I have lived here in Windsor as long as we’ve lived in any one place. We’ve lived here long enough to outlive some dogs, too. Here are several that meet that criterion. Chandler and Vanna were Dalmatians. Snickers belonged to our daughter, Mary, and her husband, Christopher. Bandit belonged to a neighbor we have come to know. They were all fine dogs in their day:
If you’ve stayed with me this long, I guess I can push the envelope a little farther. I just have to get in this guy below. He’s a friendly bulldog that has greeted me occasionally when I stop in at the veterinary clinic. Isn’t he something?:
Last, but not least, there’s our neighbor’s sweet little cairn terrier, Zoe, the cream of the crop:
That’s it for October. Arf!!!!
Encouraged by my daughter, Heidi, I’m back again with an addition to my blog this month. Heidi maintains that she enjoys looking at my pics. Hopefully, if you’re looking at this, so do you.
In any case, we’re coming up on Halloween again so I think it appropriate to begin this time with a shot of one of our neighbor, Ross’s, pumpkins. He has a whole patch of them coming right along. They should be ready for the big day (or night, however you see it). This one looks pretty good to me. Dickie and I have watched it grow as we pass it on our morning walks:
WINDSOR AIR SHOW
It was a couple months back now, but I have to post a shot or two that I took at this year’s air show. It wasn’t quite as large as in recent years, but there were some good things to see. One of them was a woman dare-devil who stood out on the wing of the plane below as it dipped and dived and performed a variety of maneuvers in the sky above us. Dickie and I didn’t actually notice her at first. In fact, I don’t think Dickie ever did notice that she was there until the performance was over, but, as you can see, the telephoto lens I was using tells the story:
One of the biggest attractions was a monstrous Air Force cargo plane that lumbered slowly through the sky. It flew so low and so slow that one wondered how it could stay aloft, but it did. When it made a turn as it flew by where we were standing, I got this shot that almost makes it look as if it were taken from a plane flying above the cargo plane. I assure you, however, that I was standing on the ground:
KITES AND OTHER BIRDS
This next pic is a photo shop production. Several years ago I took some photos of a kite that was being flown near the beach at San Francisco Bay. A few weeks ago a kite (bird) flew by us as we walked along the vineyard north of our subdivision. Just for the fun of it, I put those two shots together, since they’re both a kind of kite. This was the result:
We’ve had plenty of other birds flying over us lately. The Canadian geese are on the move. You can hear them as they call to each other and gather into larger flocks. I suppose they’re heading south now, although this bunch was flying in a northerly direction when they flew past us:
There are still plenty of birds on the ground for me to practice my hobby. A bird I haven’t seen that often lately is the flicker. This one was sitting on the very top of a power pole, so he’s only partially visible, but I thought I’d preserve the occasion:
The bird we see most frequently right now is the lesser goldfinch. I’ve managed to get some fairly decent shots of them on occasion. This one is from a couple weeks ago:
Just now the finches are feeding on the weed seeds that are plentiful along the ditches by the vineyard. Here’s another shot of a finch lunch-time:
DOGS WE HAVE KNOWN
I have thousands of photos of all kinds of birds now, since I’ve been enjoying this hobby for seven or eight years, but it dawned on me the other day that I also have accumulated quite a few photos of various dogs we have met in our morning walks and our trips around the area. Let me show you a few.
Since the newest dog in our life is the puppy our daughter, Gretchen, and her husband, Jonathan, have adopted. let me begin with Lulu. She’s a mixed breed, part labrador retriever, and looks to be a real sweetheart. I took this picture the other night at a concert in Armstrong Woods while Jonathan was holding her. The flash made her blink, but she’s a beauty, isn’t she?:
Dickie and I often joke that we know more dogs than people here in Windsor. That may be a slight exaggeration, but we do know a few canines. Two of our favorites are a pair of German shepherds. The older one is named “Bandit”. He’s a male and marvelously trained. He is remarkably obedient. We meet him and his owners regularly on our morning walks:
His mate is a younger female named “Tasha”. Tasha is one-quarter red wolf, playful, but equally well-trained and obedient. She’s also very beautiful:
Another pair of canines we’ve come to know are a couple of tiny poodles. Oscar is the older and larger of the two. He’s as friendly and gentle as they come:
Lucy is younger and much smaller than Oscar, but equally friendly and you can’t help but want to cuddle her:
Another dog we’ve come to know and enjoy meeting on our morning walks is Jenna, a terrier with a very decent disposition:
Honey is a golden retriever we also meet now and then on our morning walks. She’s beginning to age, according to her owner, but still makes the trip. We’ve known her for many years now:
Still another dog we see most every day is Lucas. I call him “Budweiser” because he reminds me of the dog in the Budweiser commercials. Lucas sometimes barks at us from within the horse corral which he patrols, but he’s obviously a pussycat, just doing his job:
Still another barker is a dog I call “Chudleigh”. We don’t know his real name, but, when we pass by, he regularly calls to us from behind the iron gate in the driveway he calls “home”. That’s what the white bars are in this photo, the iron gate:
OK, so now you know more about the dogs in my life than you ever cared to know. But, wait! I’m not finished yet. Dickie and I regularly travel to the ocean and we’ve met some great dogs out there, too. Here’s three that crossed our path. Boomer was owned by a couple from Oklahoma. His photo was good enough to win me a “Picture of the Day” sometime ago. The other two were simply striking in my opinion, so here they are:
There’s more. We visit parks now and then and the dogs below are some we found there. April and Gracie were pals who scampered around with each other in a dog run at our Pleasant Oak Park here in the neighborhood. The Bouvier des Flandres is a dog I met one day at Shollenberger in Petaluma. I’d never seen a dog like him. I had to include “Carl, the Labrador” for obvious reasons. I’m happy to say he was a great dog. Chloe patrols the same horse corral that Lucas above runs. Being as small as she is she can easily slip under the fence and does. That’s how we know she’s really very gentle, too. The golden retriever is a spectacular Frisbee catcher. I’ve seen his master throw a Frisbee a hundred feet or more and the dog always catches it before it hits the ground.
I’ve discovered over the years that a guy with a camera is almost like a guy with a dog. Most everyone is willing to be friendly, if asked. That’s how I got the owners of the dogs in the photos below to let me take their dogs’ photos. I think there are some beautiful dogs here:
Dickie and I have lived here in Windsor as long as we’ve lived in any one place. We’ve lived here long enough to outlive some dogs, too. Here are several that meet that criterion. Chandler and Vanna were Dalmatians. Snickers belonged to our daughter, Mary, and her husband, Christopher. Bandit belonged to a neighbor we have come to know. They were all fine dogs in their day:
If you’ve stayed with me this long, I guess I can push the envelope a little farther. I just have to get in this guy below. He’s a friendly bulldog that has greeted me occasionally when I stop in at the veterinary clinic. Isn’t he something?:
Last, but not least, there’s our neighbor’s sweet little cairn terrier, Zoe, the cream of the crop:
That’s it for October. Arf!!!!
Saturday, August 08, 2009
AUGUST 2009
SOME MORE BIRD SHOTS
As anyone knows who’s familiar with my blog, I spend most of my time with the camera looking for birds. Lately, the bird that has gotten most of my attention is the lesser goldfinch which is in plentiful supply around here just now. The lesser goldfinch is not as colorful as the American goldfinch, but it can be very pretty. Here’s a shot I got last week:
I haven’t seen any American goldfinches around here lately. They used to frequent a yard Dickie and I pass every day on our morning walk, but the people who were feeding them there had to quit doing that because the birds were always flying into the windows of their home and killing themselves.
This morning I got another shot of a lesser goldfinch having his breakfast. Take a close look at the photo below and you will see that the bird is holding two weed stalks with his left foot. He needs both those stalks to bear his weight. One of the stalks by itself would bend down to the ground, but two enable him to sit where he is and nibble on the seeds in front of him.
(Now go back to the first photo and you’ll notice that the stalk the bird is sitting on is resting against a second stalk. Yes, it takes two of these stalks to bear their weight or they’ll bend them nearly all the way down to the ground.)
OTHER ANIMALS
Occasionally, some other animal crosses my path while I’m holding my camera. Here’s a squirrel I got the other day across the street from the local Catholic church. He was climbing a power pole (not the best place for a squirrel to climb):
The cat below was merely sitting on the fence as I walked by. She stayed there as I walked right up to her and petted her. In fact, she liked that petting so much she didn’t want me to go away. Many of the neighborhood cats aren’t quite that friendly. Most of them run when I get too close:
SUNFLOWERS
Of course, some of the best pictures are flower shots and one of the prettiest flowers this time of year is the sunflower. They’re beginning to fade now, but I got this shot about a month ago as we took our morning walk. Isn’t she a beauty?:
Hope you’re having a good summer. Thanks for looking in on my blog!
As anyone knows who’s familiar with my blog, I spend most of my time with the camera looking for birds. Lately, the bird that has gotten most of my attention is the lesser goldfinch which is in plentiful supply around here just now. The lesser goldfinch is not as colorful as the American goldfinch, but it can be very pretty. Here’s a shot I got last week:
I haven’t seen any American goldfinches around here lately. They used to frequent a yard Dickie and I pass every day on our morning walk, but the people who were feeding them there had to quit doing that because the birds were always flying into the windows of their home and killing themselves.
This morning I got another shot of a lesser goldfinch having his breakfast. Take a close look at the photo below and you will see that the bird is holding two weed stalks with his left foot. He needs both those stalks to bear his weight. One of the stalks by itself would bend down to the ground, but two enable him to sit where he is and nibble on the seeds in front of him.
(Now go back to the first photo and you’ll notice that the stalk the bird is sitting on is resting against a second stalk. Yes, it takes two of these stalks to bear their weight or they’ll bend them nearly all the way down to the ground.)
OTHER ANIMALS
Occasionally, some other animal crosses my path while I’m holding my camera. Here’s a squirrel I got the other day across the street from the local Catholic church. He was climbing a power pole (not the best place for a squirrel to climb):
The cat below was merely sitting on the fence as I walked by. She stayed there as I walked right up to her and petted her. In fact, she liked that petting so much she didn’t want me to go away. Many of the neighborhood cats aren’t quite that friendly. Most of them run when I get too close:
SUNFLOWERS
Of course, some of the best pictures are flower shots and one of the prettiest flowers this time of year is the sunflower. They’re beginning to fade now, but I got this shot about a month ago as we took our morning walk. Isn’t she a beauty?:
Hope you’re having a good summer. Thanks for looking in on my blog!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
MAY 2009
BIRTHDAY MONTH
May is birthday month for the boys in our nuclear family. Our son, Carl, was born on May 8, our son, Peter, was born on May 21, and I was born on May 19. This year I finally reached the ripe old age of 80 and my wonderful wife arranged for a celebration of this birthday with all the family out in Riverfront Park west of town. My brothers and their wives came out from Chicago and our son, Carl, made the trip from New Jersey. It was a real blast! Riverfront Park has a lovely picnic grove studded with huge redwoods that keep the area cool and pleasant, so we spent the afternoon there on Sunday May 17. Here’s the group picture we made:
And here for the sake of identification and posterity is a key to the people in the photo above:
1. Joel Schmidt (My brother) 2. Nikolas Szecsey (Mary & Christopher’s son) 3. Jonathan Seutter (Gretchen’s fiancé) 4. Gretchen 5. Peter 6. Kate Loveall (Peter’s fiancée) 7. Kyle Crosson (Gretchen’s son) 8. Dickie 9. Carli Morgenstern (Kyle’s friend) 10. Our son, Carl 11. Christopher Szecsey 12. Ilse Schmidt (Ralph’s wife) 13. Mary 14. Evan Schmidt (Peter’s son) 15. Heidi 16. Daniel Zweig (Heidi & Peter’s son) 17. Mary Schmidt (Joel’s wife) 18. Jonathan Zweig (Heidi & Peter’s son) 19. Peter Zweig 20. Matthew Zweig (Heidi & Peter’s son) 21. Aron Szecsey (Mary & Christopher’s son) 22. Jesse Schmidt (Peter’s son) 23. Me 24. Ralph Schmidt (My brother) 25. Dustin Gerson (Becky’s fiancé) 26. Becky Crosson (Gretchen’s daughter)
THE CHARLES M. SCHULZ MUSEUM
One day while my brothers from Chicago were visiting, we went to see the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Schulz’s comic strip still holds great interest for young and hold and the museum offers all kinds of special attractions. Any number of artists have contributed to the works seen there. One especially intriguing exhibit is the mural covering one whole wall in a large room of the building. The mural is made up of hundreds of Peanuts comic strips fitted together in such a way that when one looks at the mural from a distance what you see is the picture below:
Of course, up close this is what you find (the large mural is made up of hundreds of these individual comic strips):
One is only permitted to take photos in selected areas within the building, but there are also some works of art outside the building. One funny sight is a statue of Charlie Brown holding the string to a kite lodged in a real tree above. Look carefully here and you’ll see the kite in the upper middle portion of the photo:
There are a number of Peanuts character statues in and around the building. This one stands on the edge of the parking lot:
FLORA AND FAUNA
In case you’re wondering, I’m still taking my share of bird shots. Recently, I thought I saw a kestrel sitting on a power or cable line while Dickie and I were on our morning walk. I couldn’t be certain of its identity, since I’d never seen one in that area before and it was quite a distance away, but I took a quick shot with my 400mm lens and found this when I got home. I love the coloring of kestrels. This one was small compared to others that I’ve seen elsewhere, but it’s just as pretty:
I’ll shoot anything that moves. This lizard made a nice target recently. I think it’s not hard to see a resemblance here to an alligator or even a dinosaur:
The prettiest photos usually have flowers in them. We have some great-looking flowers at the moment. Our roses have been gorgeous:
And these cosmos aren’t bad either:
Thanks for looking. See you later!
May is birthday month for the boys in our nuclear family. Our son, Carl, was born on May 8, our son, Peter, was born on May 21, and I was born on May 19. This year I finally reached the ripe old age of 80 and my wonderful wife arranged for a celebration of this birthday with all the family out in Riverfront Park west of town. My brothers and their wives came out from Chicago and our son, Carl, made the trip from New Jersey. It was a real blast! Riverfront Park has a lovely picnic grove studded with huge redwoods that keep the area cool and pleasant, so we spent the afternoon there on Sunday May 17. Here’s the group picture we made:
And here for the sake of identification and posterity is a key to the people in the photo above:
1. Joel Schmidt (My brother) 2. Nikolas Szecsey (Mary & Christopher’s son) 3. Jonathan Seutter (Gretchen’s fiancé) 4. Gretchen 5. Peter 6. Kate Loveall (Peter’s fiancée) 7. Kyle Crosson (Gretchen’s son) 8. Dickie 9. Carli Morgenstern (Kyle’s friend) 10. Our son, Carl 11. Christopher Szecsey 12. Ilse Schmidt (Ralph’s wife) 13. Mary 14. Evan Schmidt (Peter’s son) 15. Heidi 16. Daniel Zweig (Heidi & Peter’s son) 17. Mary Schmidt (Joel’s wife) 18. Jonathan Zweig (Heidi & Peter’s son) 19. Peter Zweig 20. Matthew Zweig (Heidi & Peter’s son) 21. Aron Szecsey (Mary & Christopher’s son) 22. Jesse Schmidt (Peter’s son) 23. Me 24. Ralph Schmidt (My brother) 25. Dustin Gerson (Becky’s fiancé) 26. Becky Crosson (Gretchen’s daughter)
THE CHARLES M. SCHULZ MUSEUM
One day while my brothers from Chicago were visiting, we went to see the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Schulz’s comic strip still holds great interest for young and hold and the museum offers all kinds of special attractions. Any number of artists have contributed to the works seen there. One especially intriguing exhibit is the mural covering one whole wall in a large room of the building. The mural is made up of hundreds of Peanuts comic strips fitted together in such a way that when one looks at the mural from a distance what you see is the picture below:
Of course, up close this is what you find (the large mural is made up of hundreds of these individual comic strips):
One is only permitted to take photos in selected areas within the building, but there are also some works of art outside the building. One funny sight is a statue of Charlie Brown holding the string to a kite lodged in a real tree above. Look carefully here and you’ll see the kite in the upper middle portion of the photo:
There are a number of Peanuts character statues in and around the building. This one stands on the edge of the parking lot:
FLORA AND FAUNA
In case you’re wondering, I’m still taking my share of bird shots. Recently, I thought I saw a kestrel sitting on a power or cable line while Dickie and I were on our morning walk. I couldn’t be certain of its identity, since I’d never seen one in that area before and it was quite a distance away, but I took a quick shot with my 400mm lens and found this when I got home. I love the coloring of kestrels. This one was small compared to others that I’ve seen elsewhere, but it’s just as pretty:
I’ll shoot anything that moves. This lizard made a nice target recently. I think it’s not hard to see a resemblance here to an alligator or even a dinosaur:
The prettiest photos usually have flowers in them. We have some great-looking flowers at the moment. Our roses have been gorgeous:
And these cosmos aren’t bad either:
Thanks for looking. See you later!
Monday, February 16, 2009
February 2009
Finally, we’re getting some rain here in our part of the world. Wouldn’t you know, it would come when you’d rather it didn’t. I’m talking about the Amgen Tour of California Bicycle Race, the first leg of which was run yesterday from Sacramento to Santa Rosa. Dickie and I and our daughter, Mary, were waiting on the finishing stretch in downtown Santa Rosa. We stood in a mild drizzle for about two hours. Of course, the drizzle turned into a full shower just when the riders arrived. In any case, I still managed to get a few half-decent shots. Here’s one of the winner, Francisco Mancebo of Spain, as he was making one of the last laps:
I had a fairly good week with the camera last week. Dickie and I went out to the ocean one sunny day when the surf was up. Bodega Head is always beautiful when that happens. Here’s a shot of the shore line looking north from the parking lot area:
Actually, I got one of my best shots lately on the way out to the ocean. Dickie spotted a hawk on the side of the road, so I stopped about a hundred yards away and walked back to find two hawks sitting in a tree. One of them flew to a higher perch in another tree, but this one refused to move, even when I walked right up to and under the tree to get a shot from the other side of the tree. This was the closest I have ever been to a hawk and this is a crop, but it indicates just how close I really was:
Here’s the original shot. I was perhaps fifteen or twenty feet away with a 400mm lens:
I had a fairly good week with the camera last week. Dickie and I went out to the ocean one sunny day when the surf was up. Bodega Head is always beautiful when that happens. Here’s a shot of the shore line looking north from the parking lot area:
Actually, I got one of my best shots lately on the way out to the ocean. Dickie spotted a hawk on the side of the road, so I stopped about a hundred yards away and walked back to find two hawks sitting in a tree. One of them flew to a higher perch in another tree, but this one refused to move, even when I walked right up to and under the tree to get a shot from the other side of the tree. This was the closest I have ever been to a hawk and this is a crop, but it indicates just how close I really was:
Here’s the original shot. I was perhaps fifteen or twenty feet away with a 400mm lens:
I love this 400mm lens. It gets the photographer up close and personal. Here’s a Brewer’s blackbird I found bathing in a puddle at the beach:
I didn’t post on Valentine’s Day, but I did make a card for all my Flickr friends. This is a photo of the bouquet I gave to Dickie on the occasion. Here's a belated "Happy Valentine's Day" wish for you, too:
See you next time!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)