A friend invited me to his house to shoot pictures of the many birds that frequent his front yard. I always wondered how he gets the super close up shots of these birds and the answer is that he hides. By that I mean that he has something called a Hunting Blind, which essentially is a small tent in his yard with a net in the front which is cut out to allow your long camera lens through. You must be extra quiet and not move too much. Basically just sit still and wait and wait and wait. To entice the birds to perch, he stocks a spot with lots of bird food. Eventually your patience pays off when these gorgeous winged creatures perch to eat and, with your long lens, you get remarkably close up shots. I borrowed his long lens for this to test it out to see if I want to buy one for myself.
Peach Blossoms
The peach blossoms are now blooming and soon those delectable sweet fruits will be available. So, one of the member of the Chicks that Click photo group invited us to her orchard to take photos of the gorgeous blossoms that are so very beautiful. What a treat it was to get shots of those lovely blooms that will be gone shortly.
Brick Pond in Winter
Brick Pond park is so beautiful in the fall and I’ve gotten so many pictures of that time of the year. But, much to my surprise, it also has its own charm in the Winter. Here are several photos of Brick Pond in the Winter. It was a bit cloudy on the day I took these photos, which is better because you get the white fluffy clouds in the sky. It is prettier then if the sky were all blue.
Parrots
Parrots are such beautiful birds. I happen to have two of them who literally own me. So, I decided to take some pictures upstairs in my studio of my beautiful parrots. They were very cooperative. I used a speed light, LED flashlight, shot into an umbrella. Cord attached to the stand with the speed light and to my camera hot shoe. I used a second umbrella on the other side with a reflector. No tripod was needed. I was pretty pleased with the results.
Columbia Zoo
I took a trip to the Columbia Zoo to get photos of all these wonderful animals. I especially loved the super cute Koalas and Meerkats. The lions we gracious enough to pose for me. All in all it was a great day.[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”10″ gal_title=”Columbia Zoo”]
Fall Foliage at Brick Pond Park
The Fall foliage has not been too brilliant this year. But it finally arrived, although not as good as last year, it was still nice nevertheless. Here are a few foliage pics taken at Brick Pond Park.
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Sunrise at Phinizy Swamp
On Saturday, October 24th, we ventured out to Phinizy Swamp to take some sunrise photos. We assembled our equipment–camera, tripods, shutter releases, on the boardwalk over the water that faced where the sun would rise. We waited a bit and around 7 am the sky began to get orange, and glow with the impending sunrise. We started to snap away, moving the camera in different directions to capture the beauty from different angles. The instructor, Ed B. told us to set our ISO to about 400 and the Exposure Compensation down about 2 stops. I set my EV to negative 1.7. Here are some of the amazing images I shot on that gorgeous, glorious morning.
Brick Pond Park
I recently went out to Brick Pond Park in North Augusta. The day was glorious, with blue skies, blue water, bright green trees, and wildlife. I got a few shots of some adorable turtles sunning themselves on the logs. They seemed to be oblivious to me and my camera.
Breast Cancer Benefit for Rosanne Grubbs
On Saturday, October 10, I attended a breast cancer fundraiser for Rosanne. She has been battling this disease since 2009. Since that time she has incurred many medical bills, which is why this fundraiser was arranged. It was a beautiful evening, with good food and good music. I volunteered to be the photographer of this event and I tried to capture the love people have for her and their joy as they honored her. The ultimate goal is to increase breast cancer awareness and to create a permanent vehicle for people to contribute for breast cancer research. $17,000 was raised at this event alone and we hope this is just the start in fighting this deadly disease.
Phinizy Swamp 2015
I recently went over to Phinizy Swamp to shoot some photos and could not find any ducks or wildlife in the water. As you can see from these images, there is not much water this time of the year. The abundant swamps are usually teaming with fowl but apparently the fauna has taken over. Even still, I got these lovely shots, but I would’ve liked to have seen some of the animals too.
