A nasty bug has knocked me flat! I’ve been in bed for almost a week and will probably stay there for the rest of this week too. I have lots of meds, am following doctor’s orders, drinking fluids, listening to podcasts, and playing lots of Words with Friends. Could be worse!
I’ll be back!
I’m returning one more time to some shots I took at Sunnylands.
Here are the grounds.
And here are some shots I took of a bench presented to President Obama by the president of China in 2013.
Upper Terraces, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park
We had a delightful time with our two little guys on Thanksgiving! Miles read to us about the first Thanksgiving, and Henry entertained us just by being Henry. The food was fabulous- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, zucchini, peas, green salad, cranberry sauce, rolls, and, of course, pumpkin pie! My daughter and husband certainly have developed into excellent cooks! A new family tradition was started by Caitlin making the leftovers into a shepherd’s pie the next day. Yum!
Here is Henry showing how he made the handprint turkey which tops the pumpkin pie.
And here is Miles whipping the cream.
We miss our Yellowstone family!
I’m changing things up a bit today. The pumpkins have been put aside temporarily, because I shot some seashell macros the other day and am beginning to wonder when I’m ever going to get them posted.
Next week- more pumpkins! Stay tuned!
There were some newcomers to the waterfront- at least new since the last time we visited!
I had seen (and photographed) pelicans flying over the Benicia Bridge before, but never actually saw any down at the water. On this visit, we saw them on the Martinez side and the Benicia side of the bridge. Fun!
And this one is for Miles, my fellow lover of “old, falling apart things”.
One of the recent prompts in the studio is BERRIES, which I have photographed many times and never tire of, so I thought this theme would be a good one for me to do to get back into the swing of still life. As usual, the simpler compositions worked best for me.
We were taking a walk after dinner, when I heard the distinct sound of hooting from the tree in front of us. I looked up, and there was a Great Horned Owl on a high branch! This owl was in a better position for me to photograph than the nest of owls was last year. I don’t have a lens with a long reach (and didn’t have a tripod), but I was still able to get some decent photographs- and, amazingly, there were no other photographers around.
I’m finding importing to the iPad pretty frustrating; even if I select only 5 or 6 photos, they don’t all come in. I’m sure I’ll be posting more Yellowstone photos when we return!
We’re at Yellowstone visiting our daughter, son-in-law, grandsons, dog, and . . . their 3 month old golden-retriever puppy, Penny!
Could there be anything cuter?
As I wrote the other day, I had such fun doing street photography in Flagstaff! The gals I was with were both accomplished, experienced photographers, but what impressed me most about them was how confident and BOLD they were taking photographs out in public. I was carrying my most unobtrusive camera bag (the Lowepro Passport Sling) with the bare minimum of gear (camera, 18-200 lens, and my Lensbaby Composer pro with Edge 80). I- thank goodness- also brought a rainsleeve for the camera, which really came in handy during the downpour around lunchtime. I brought a tripod, which I kept in the car- and only brought out for a couple hours in the afternoon. My companions, however, wore big backpacks filled with gear (no clue what it was) and carried tripods as well as their (very large and expensive!) cameras.
I used to always feel self-conscious out in public with my camera stuff, especially on a tripod. I’ve somewhat gotten over it, but, introvert that I am, my shy self still emerges at times when shooting in public. But last Saturday, I found the spectacle we were creating fun and amusing. All the gear and tripods often caused a lot of attention to be focused our way, especially from young people, who I think were hoping we were doing a magazine shoot- and it made for some fun photographs.
These young guys were eager to pose for us, although you can see how cool they were being about it. I think they liked the idea that it looked like a potential album cover!
Here are a few photos left over from various recent shoots- all in black and white:
I never really thought about it much- not being a bird person- but I have spent most of my life living in or near the California Flyway. During childhood, I was fascinated by the formations of migrating geese and other birds flying overhead. When we lived in the Bay Area, I rediscovered the flyway, when we would drive over to the delta area under skies thick with birds heading south for the winter. I was surprised last year, to see huge flocks of water fowl at the lakes in Prescott in late fall- so I guess we’re on the route for migrating birds as well.
Last week I spotted the three pelicans above on two separate visits to Willow Lake- and was thrilled. I was used to seeing brown pelicans on the California coast- even a couple times in Benicia- but had never seen white ones except on Lewis Lake at Yellowstone. After reading the paper yesterday, I discovered that there is a story here. It seems that a migrating pelican became entangled in fishing line in Tucson a few weeks ago and was rehabilitated by a rescue group. Unfortunately, his friends had moved on to warmer climes by the time he was ready to fly, so the group sought out other flocks for the pelican to join. It turned out that a pair of pelicans had just been spotted at Willow Lake, so the recovering pelican was driven up here and released. Evidently, the Tucson pelican is one of the three in this photo- and the group has now moved on. In the shot below (in which one bird is out of the frame), I think the injured one might be the one on the right.
And in other bird news . . .
This was edited in the new Impression software by Topaz- I think this is one of the Van Gogh presets. I downloaded a free 30 day trial of the software- it is so much fun!!! I’m not sure if I’ll buy it- it is pretty expensive! But I’m really enjoying playing with it.
melinda anderson photography 