Cape and a Cat

Here are a few photos from our summer visit to the Cape. We stayed with our friends who have two cats, one of which is featured below. We went sailing with them and also walked along the shoreline.

Multicolored Beach Umbrella

Cat Eyes

Boats in the Water 1

Boats in the Water 2

Boats in the Water 3

Boats in the Water 4

 All photos © 2021, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Very Friendly Animals

We have friends that invited us for a walk and lunch. We knew they had chickens and ducks, and had recently installed a new duck pond, so we were anxious to visit and see the animals doing animal things.

During our walk, we encountered these additional friendly animals in a neighbor's yard.

Yummy Grass

After returning, we spent time at the duck pond along with its local inhabitants.

Ribbit!

The chickens were an unexpected attraction. I'd no idea how photogenic chickens could be.

Why the Face?

Here are the three ducks frolicking happily in their new pond.

Paddle Powered

Headstrong

I had to sneak in a flower photo among all these friendly animals.

Top Petals Show Off

Livin' the Life

 All photos © 2021, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Ornamental Grass

We have several varieties of ornamental grass in our garden. The particular "clump" I am highlighting in this post was itself highlighted rather strongly by the late afternoon sun on a crisp fall day. I found this display lively and colorful. This variety is called Ruby Ribbons switchgrass.

We like our ornamental grasses very much!

Grass That Isn't Greener

Lit Tops

All photos © 2019, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Macro Mardi

Macro Tuesday is not so alliterative, so I thought I'd throw in a little French to keep the theme going from yesterday's blog post. The Spanish "Martes" would have worked nicely as well. Thanks to Deb for the idea. Yes, though not a common event, we discussed the title of this blog post during breakfast this morning.

Bottom line is I have many more macro photos of spring buds and blossoms to share.


How about a lime green background! This is the way the "bokeh-ized" grass in the background came out of the camera. I understand lime green is this year's favorite designer color!

Purple Leaf Sand Cherry

Sand Cherry Blossoms

It has been fascinating to watch the progression of the Redbud buds: from red, to red and magenta, to red and magenta with white blossoms. Also, they are sparse no more.

Redbud Minnie Mouse Ears

Since deer love to eat tulips, Deb cut a few from outside and brought them in. This way we can enjoy them before they're suddenly gone. Turns out they grow and last just about as long inside as outside!
This next shot is indoors with regular room lighting at ISO 1600.

Tulip Colors

Back outside again...

Tulip Sex

Normally, I prefer a nice blue sky, but this day was completely cloud covered. These are cherry blossoms from a different cherry tree than the one appearing in my recent "Cherry Blossoms" post. I used an exposure compensation of plus 3 f-stops! This forces the sky to be solid white and brings in the shadow detail of the cherry blossoms.

Cherry Blossoms Against a Cloudy Sky

White on White

Crab Apple Blossom

Open Crab Apple Blossom

For these next two shots, I had the camera essentially on the ground in the grass.

Splendor in the Grass

Violet Attention

The Tickler

Upper Hand

Blossom Radar Dish

All photos © 2017, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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A Day at the Beach

Salisbury Beach State Reservation is part of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) system. Deb and I made a recent visit on what turned out to be a perfect weather day. While I'd been to Salisbury Beach before, I'd been to the section outside of the State Reservation. This visit was to the maintained State Park portion and we were greeted with well maintained grounds, and an overall terrific beach experience. The water was remarkably clear, and the sand was smooth with no sharp objects, making barefoot beach strolling a joyful pebble and shell free experience. I had my Olympus camera along with my 75-300 telephoto and took some shots. Kids, waves, and seagulls were my prime targets.

Red Rimmed Seagull Eye

Bird's Eye View

Gray-Brown Speckled Feathers

Wowza! Check out this woman. The Black Lives Matter pin is an important part of the ensemble.

Gorgeous Woman Spotted on Beach 

Closed Eyes Water Ballet

Stop Action Walking

Water Coating

Best Friends Embark

Boys Being Boys

Splash Landing

Pure Joy

Lines

Beach Grass

Keeping Us Safe

Copycat Seagulls

Seagull Legs and Toenails

Landing Zone

Formation Takeoff

I've collected many poor shots of birds in flight during my time as an amateur photographer. These shots are a source of great humor as they are invariably blurry and/or partially out of frame. Taking a sharp picture of a bird in flight is one of the most challenging photographic subjects in existence, especially if the bird is mid-sky, with no nearby objects, and isn't just taking off or landing. However, once in a while the camera gods shine down on me, and I get a shot off with the subject completely in frame with the focus point close to perfect. Witness the rendition below of a seagull in flight. This is a 600mm eq. shot, while panning the sky to attempt to follow the bird's flight pattern. It is still slightly blurred, likely due to the 1/800 second exposure being not quite fast enough. Image data says this subject was 90 feet away.

Seagull in Flight

All photos © 2016, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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