The Eyes Have It

Today my friend and I went out to the wildlife preserve ( again ). I played around with the aperature settings and shutter speeds while assisted by my buddy Chuck. He unfortunately dropped his D70 with lense so it is in the shop. He as lent me his tripod also as he will not need it until his camera is back ๐Ÿ™ for Chuck ๐Ÿ™‚ for me. On the serious side the help I have and hope to continue to get from friends internet and personal is so valuable to me. Karoli at odd times signatures and my friend Chuck (scroll down a bit for a pic of Chuck and Jamu in one of their sportscars) have been especially patient with me.

Catfish as taken to turning his head away or showing me the wrong end of the deal everytime I try to take his picture! Annie on the other hand apparently has decided that when a camera comes out if she plays her cards right she will become the center of attention. Not bad for a dog that came to us scared, quiet, withdrawn, and not caring if she got any attention good or bad. She has gone from a 3month old could not care less if your here or gone to a 69 pound lap dog!

The eyes have it tonight:

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Just so the cats do not feel left out Cattails:

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And Mr. Catfish Ddog:

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The Day In Hind Sight

The day started out slow. Drug my myself to the tub, bathed, dressed, a cup of coffe, and a bowl of oatmeal later we are all still watching television. Finally we motivated ourselves and drove out to a different area that I had been given POOR instructions on how to get too and ended up driving around in circles. The area had little access and NO birds – nope not a one in sight. So, we drove to another location. I got my camera out and took a couple of pictures with the wide angle lens Chuck lent me and then a few with mine. A group of grey looking egrets ( I think) with red heads?,ย  anyway I need to find my bird book I suppose, were out in a field. This is when smart and oh so with it person that I am discovered that the little piece that attaches to the camera and then the tripod is at home on the Sony.

The big zoom lens is heavy and makes it impossible for little ole me to hold the camera still enough to get a sharp picture. Oh well. I tried setting it on top with little success. I still had fun playing with the lense and my camera. The birds were all so far away from the areas people are allowed access to that most of the pics are neat but not anything to brag about.

We had a great time looking at all the beautiful scenes. The cows, horses, birds in flight, and birds walking across the roads. I think I will go earlier tommorrow with a camera with the battery in it (nother story), SD cards in the case ( yet another story) and now added to the list – the little piece to attach the camera to the tripod!

Here is the picture I choose to sum up today. It was taken out the window of the truck. The first few frames as the bird gets closer are ok but not super clear. The bird made a turn and came in so fast and it seemed so close and looked so big in the lense I thought it was going to hit me LOL I can be such a dingbat. I did not get the lense adjusted fast enough as it headed toward us.

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We arrived home just in time to watch the evening news. I have been ignoring it the last few days. Just the usual Sacramento fare, kid shot in the street, three dead possible murder suicide, more on the teacher killed by possible street racers, the crack down on violence, Iraq, Iran, the Doomsday clock has hit 11:55, and Ashley Garamendi will not be charged with DUI. The news is so cheerful that I think I will avoid it some more.

WordPress Upgrade Again

As a self proclaimed oblivious person I just now noticed that I have missed the 2.06 upgrade and now the 2.07. So, upgraded again. It seems each time I loose a comment from someone somewhere . … I never notice that until I go looking for something to refer to it!

So, here is the blog running 2.07 and if your comments got lost let me know – as if you know where at what they were LOL!

Let me know if something is wonky because I am too lazy to check it all out myself.

Birds at Sunset

Here we go. Pictures from this evenings venture out. Not the best, not the brightest, not coolest, just the ones I liked because I never could get shots like this with the other camera. None of them have been altered except the size I used automatic settings on the camera. I have noticed the darker areas around the corners emmm will have to see what does this. The first one is almost full zoom I finally can see features from afar. LOL It is a bit blurry cause I turned around and just took the pic when I heard them.
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As the sun went down (and the temp too in a big hurry) I took this by guessing where the sun would line up. Too bright for the eye balls to look at through the view finder. This it what I got.
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Last shot before fingers became to darn frooze.

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Earlier in the eve I walked out on a platform on a pond like area. It was still froozen over for the most part. As I walked on the little dock like platform the vibration would crack the ice. It rippled across the body of water making a hushed tingling noise that expanded as it moved outward. You could look down and watch the trapped air bubbling up to the bottom of the ice layer. In some areas the smooth surface had been cracked and small chunks of ice glistened in the light.

I tried to capture this but the pics did not catch the beauty of it. ๐Ÿ™ I do for no particular reason like this ice chunk:

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Now is the time for all nice photographers to tell me what to do to make em better.

I love my new camera. Just in case I have not mentioned it I love my new camera. Not as much asย  I love my dogs but close!

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