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Picture-A-Week 2018 - Week 34


pierces
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Shortly after I posted this to Facebook as part of our August Birthday Extravaganza celebration, I knew I had the picture of the week. Little Miss Jackie's birthday is in June but that flaming mass of whipped cream, Angel Food and strawberries in front of her is her Mother's cake of choice, so there is a sort of a genetic ownership she can claim. For someone who generally avoids “people pictures”, I have certainly taken more the usual number of them this year with several making the P-A-W list. I guess when you have a wildly photogenic gaggle of cute grand-creatures and a new camera insisting that it gets some use, these things are bound to happen. Cute is a photo magnet, after all.

 

Nacho Birthday

 

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Dave

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Some bird life around the local wetlands...plus a few shots from a more relaxing and cool spot - sitting in my swimming pool! All of these birds are wild, free roaming birds out in nature, not in a zoo or aviary. Florida birds are famous for letting people walk right up to them...the two closeups were shot from within 8 feet with a 100-400mm lens.

 

Closeup with a juvenile yellow-crowned night heron - some birds have amazing eye colors:

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And upping the game on the eye-color competition, here's a double-crested cormorant closeup to see his even more stunning ocean of an eye:

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A green heron, stalking through the shallow plant-covered waters to sneak up on fish. The iridescent colors on their backs can get quite stunning, even on this overcast day:

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If you ever want to really challenge yourself - find an opening around a dense stand of trees where the barn swallows swoop in on little gnats and bugs a few hours before sunset. These are extremely difficult birds to shoot in flight because they fly incredibly fast, change directions erratically, and when you're surrounded by trees you can't see them coming until they're within 100 feet and closing. Still, it's fun to try, and very stress-free when you're soaking up to your chest in a swimming pool resting your elbows on a pool float to keep the camera and lens out of the water:

 

Oh, and they're quite small too...did I mention that:

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In both of those closeups, in the full-res versions, you can zoom to 200% and actually see me and my lens in the pupils, along with the fence rail of the boardwalk. The cormorants love to jump up on the handrails and hang out to dry - despite people walking past them. The boardwalk is about 4 feet wide, so you have to squeeze past the birds on the rail, keeping an eye on their tails. If the tail starts to go up as you're about to pass...STOP! There will be a white creamy stream coming across the boardwalk very very soon. :)

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