Day 91 - Little kitty

Saw this guy from my bedroom window.  I didn't have a lot of room to play with, since I had to almost wedge myself into a corner to be able to get a proper view.  The dappled lighting went in favour of these shots, I think.  Since my windows were cleaned not too long ago, I managed to get a decent enough shot from the second floor.

Day 90 - Sweet cherries

Day 89 - Crab apple tree after the rains

Day 88 - She sells sea shells.. no.. she just sees shells!

The shots didn't quite turn out the way I wanted them, but I kinda like the second and last shots the best.  I used a lamp with a "soft box" to illuminate the shell from below in the last one.  The other two shots are taken in ambient light.   The background turned out the best in the last one, I think - I love the soft diffused background and the 2 levels of reflections.  

Av, spot metering, f/6.3, exposure compensation of -1, ISO 200

Av, spot metering, f/6.3, exposure compensation of -1, ISO 200

Av, spot metering, f/10, exposure compensation - 2 stops, ISO 200

Day 87 - More birds

Two men and their dog gone fishing on the St. Lawrence River.

I spotted two more birds this evening - the common grackle and a couple of cedar waxwings.  I saw a couple of yellow warblers, but it was already too dark and they were too high up for me to snap them.  Oh, well!

This is most likely a lincoln's sparrow, but I'm not completely certain.  

The beautiful colours of the common grackle, captured in the glow of the setting sun.

The cedar waxwing - it very difficult to snap this one as he was hiding behind leaves.  Took a while to get shots clear of branches.  This is the best one I could get.  

Day 86 - Added another bug to my collection

Day 85 - Sunrise without the sun

I went out at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday seeing that there were some pretty thick and patchy clouds.  Clouds usually make for interesting sunrises and sunsets, so why not?  It was chilly and pretty windy, but I heeded that not and went up to the new patch of riverside I was exploring the day before.

I was greeted by a great blue heron sitting knee-deep in the shallows.  After waiting for over 45 minutes, I realized that the sunrise wasn't going to happen because a thick cloud cover had rolled in.  So, the sun didn't rise at all.  Instead, the wind was bone-chilling and then there was rain!

I'm lucky this guy was so motionless - this was taken at 1.6s, f/5.6, ISO 100, to give the effect of the heron standing knee-deep in silky waters.

This was taken seconds later and the guy was doing something totally different.  It was no small luck that I got both the shots the way I wanted them!

But the highlights were that I spotted two new birds - the yellow warbler and the song sparrow although I have no good photographs of them.  Low light, small birds, and a 250 mm lens don't go a long way to getting good shots.  I also saw a juvenile red-winged blackbird that the parents were guarding fiercely.   It's a great time of year to see the young 'uns.

A not so good shot of the yellow warbler.  I have to find ways to improve these shots.  I'm losing too many good photo ops.  Usually these small birds are very active and hide in the foliage very high up on tall trees.  Go figure!  

This is the baby red-winged blackbird that was sitting not too far away from where I positioned myself.  I had almost passed it by, but the slight movement in the foliage alerted me to this little guy's presence. :-)