Mono Lake, Ca.

These photos are from Mono Lake California. No filter, just wait until the Sun set below the horizon.

Hey Paul, in few days, I'm heading to Oklahoma for a camping trip by Ron resident. I wish you could be there to join us for a dinner. Parker going to try to join us also, I'm looking forward to see them, and hopefully they are not shock when they see me in real life. LOL.

A little free time

Finally got some time for myself, so I decided to go hunting and take along my camera. Although I didn't see a buck that i want to shoot with my bow there were plenty of oppurtunities to shoot with my camera. This is one of the bucks that came into my decoy. At one point he was only 10 yards away from me but, that was to close for me to get my camera out of my bag. I took alot more pictures but, I was shivering alot so some of them didnt turn out very well. There were also alot of tree branches between the buck and I that were making it hard to focus just on the buck.

In betweeen deer, I tried to take some pictures of birds. There were quite alot of red headed woodpeckers flying around. This one took some time to hold still so I could take his picture. Not many of the bird would cooperate and hold still long enough for me to get focused on them.

NEXT SPRING

If all goes well from this seasons pairing of the Bucks and Does, this sight will greet us in the Spring!

Finally!!!!

I've been trying to post photos to the blog for the last three days and for some reason my system has been incompatible with the blog. I don't know why and my head hurts from trying to figure it out!

Anyway, here are a couple of more buck shots. This first one is getting a little relief from an itch.

I think this one is trying to figure out why the big tree colored thing keeps moving in front of him.

Airborne!

Taking off in the morning sun. Yes sun! First we've seen in a number of days.

Coal Harbour is a busy seaplane base with numerous float planes coming and going on a daily basis. I took this picture from the boat just as I was on my way out the bay.

Other than being slightly croped the picture is as shot. Interesting it almost has that sepia look to it.

SILENCE

Sitting on the rocks waiting on the first rays of the sun I became aware of the loudness of silence. No wind, no birds, no man made noise!

I finally heard the Crack of Dawn as the first rays of the sun hit the granite rocks on opposite shore.

Mother Nature was so proud of her handiwork that she gave me a double view as a reward for participating in her first showing of the day.

A Longhorn Cow broke the silence bawling for her calf, but not before one last view was captured.

Corn Field.

I took this picture after a job interview from other day. After 3 hours intense interview, I just want get out to open field and scream. However, I found this corn field it has a unique trenches to it, and decided to take some photos. Not sure what the farmer ready to do on this field! But, I found some corns near by, and placed next to the trench to add an object to the picture. I hope you like it.

Owl.

If you wonder how to get this shot with the bird looking at the camera. It's very easy to do, this particular bird, the nest is on the ground. Therefore, all you have to do is stand next to the nest, and shoot.

Another sunset

This was taken on the same night that the last sunset photo was taken on but I had the camera turned in a different direction. It was easy to turn since I was actually using a tripod.

Double take

So there I was driving through Coal Harbour the other day when right there beside the road is this little bird just hanging out semingly unafraid of my big noisy diesel pickup truck as I drove by...

Wait just a minute I said to myself as I came to a stop in the middle of the road (You can do that in Coal Harbour). That looks like one of those tame little birds you see everywhere in Hawaii! So I backed up, put the Sigma 120-400 on the camera, got out and took a few shots.

I'm thinking to myself this has got to be global warming finding one of these little fellows up here in Canada all by it's self.

Later on when I got home I dug out the bird book and with disapointment came to find that my little bird was a Mourning Dove and not a Zebra Dove as is found in Hawaii. Though I'm sure you can apreciate my confusion!

Mourning Dove

Zebra Dove

Silhouettes and Sunsets

I am a grandpa again. Aaron called me last Sunday (at 2:30 a.m. I might add) to let me know they were on their way to the hospital for the birth of my new granddaughter. He was calling to remind me that his wife, my daughter, wanted me to take a sunrise/sunset photo on the day she was born.

As luck would have it, there were no clouds in the sky that morning so the sunrise was less than dramatic so I picked a spot at sunset to take a few shots and this is one of the ones I came up with.

Rainforest Retreat

Found this float house at the eastern end of Great Centeral Lake near Port Alberni. What an interesting place for a home! Talk about living close to nature...

It was raining heavily at the time I took the picture so it was quite hazy and washed out looking. I cleaned the picture up best as I could in Photoshop then added a nice border to distract everyone from the poor quality photograph. This is another place I fully intend to return to on a nicer day and take some proper pictures, I might even use a tripod next time!

Just chillin'

I've been practicing my "ninja stealth" moves this week trying to get closer and closer to the bucks.

These two photos are of the same buck but from different angles.

These were both shot with the Tamron 18-250mm at 250mm.

Cobblestone Haven

It's so much fun to explore the Wichita Mountains especially when I'm with my husband and my best friend Ron. :)

I Love unique structures and this abandoned building on the Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma called to me. The cobblestones are very warm and inviting so of course I had to explore every inch of this little hide away.

Cheryl

Amazing Grace

My husband, Ron put this wonderful camera in my hands and opened the door into a whole new world. Everthing I see seems more AMAZING somehow. Thank You for this incredible gift Sweetie.

This is my first post and I'm a little nervous but I would like to share my photos that I've taken while exploring my new home at the Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. I've fallen in LOVE with the area and with the people here.

This photo means more to me than I can possible express to you. I knew I was home when I saw this beautiful cobble stone cross standing tall against the bright blue Oklahoma sky. It's located at Holy City on the Refuge and called out to me and still when I look at the photo I get the feeling of comfort.

Cheryl

Thank You Q!

OK here it is in Sepia... Quynh your instructions to get from B&W to Sepia in Photoshop worked perfectly! I hope all of this dosn't give Ron a headache... LOL

Railroad

After I saw those wonderful railroad photos from Paul, I want to take this apportunity to show my Christopher how to use my old D2x after school today. As I explaining the buttons on the camera, here comes my other son decided to do the balance act infront my camera. By the way, I have applied the Indian Summer filter from NIK color efex pro software to change the trees into one solid color.

Wrong side of the tracks

As I was going through the last of my pictures from our recent trip to Port Alberni I came to this picture... Just so happened my Wife was in the room at the time, after one quick look she suggested I turn it to sepia because it had all the "right ingredients". Try as I might I was unable to figure out how to do that with my antiquated version of Photoshop so I had to settle for B&W.

Tis the season

I guess the hunters that were here last week weren't very good at what they do!

It seems the bucks are everywhere you look and they were kind enough to pose in front of the colorful leaves for me.

These were all shot with the Tamron 18-250mm, most at 250mm

Playing with borders

Took this picture a couple of days ago of one of the local fishing boats coming into Harbour to unload. Usually you don't see this many seaguls chasing the boats and this is what caught my eye in the first place.

After seeing the improvements Q made to my Loon Lake post by adding a border I got to playing around with my old Photoshop Elements 5 and was able to create these two variations. I was able to add these borders in less than 1 minute once I figured out how to do it.