Dave Wrote: Hi Jim, here are some pictures for the blog. We have a Bald Eagle’s nest 3 or 4 miles from where we live. Here are some pictures of both the male and female at the nest. The female seems to be sitting on eggs. The male is usually somewhere near by. The last picture is by our grand daughter who we just set up with a camera and lens. She is so excited she can hardly stand it. That is the fun of being a grand parent. Dave
I Wrote: I lost these photos and Dave had to remind me – I am sure glad I found them – No one can make me enjoy a snowy day in up-state New York the way Dave and his photos do. Hope you enjoy them that much too:
Dave wrote: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. Yesterday was a snowy, stormy day here in upstate NY. Our feeders were very active all day. I had to trudge out in the snow to refill them several times. Dave
“Where did I put those keys?” … “What was it I wanted when I opened the frig door?” … What was that phone number I just looked up?” I just was not focusing.
As I get older this happens to me more often. So, to help me practice focusing, I use street photography as one of my hobbies. When out on the street looking to photo people doing interesting things, I need to focus.
In the next three photos I was focusing on people that were focusing. Of course they were in their own world, so I did not know what they were focusing on.
I added Dave’s Cardinal, so that when you viewed my photos you would have something that you thought they were focusing on. Ha Ha!
Now you know how I practiced focusing by focusing on those that were focusing!
I Wrote: I lost these photos and Dave had to remind me – I am sure glad I found them – No one can make me enjoy a snowy day in up-state New York the way Dave and his photos do. Hope you enjoy them that much too:
Dave wrote: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. Yesterday was a snowy, stormy day here in upstate NY. Our feeders were very active all day. I had to trudge out in the snow to refill them several times. Dave
DAVE WROTE: Hi Jim, We are well covered with snow now. Here are some pictures for the log. Horned Larks and a Snow Bunting. The larks breed all across the USA. The Bunting breeds in the high arctic on the tundra. In the winter they both gather around farms and in the fields where farmers spread manure. This was a little odd a there were only 3 buntings with 2 or 3oo Larks. Dave
In the video below, why did that one crane lay down and the rest kept moving? I do not know how it is different – but it is. Anyway, I think I can assign the feature of grace to all the cranes – they really move with grace. Just like a movie star of the 50’s gliding across the floor.
In this case, it worked. – Click on the link below –
Each day I see three different armadillos – I have been trying to train them – this one shows promise and the others do not – they are each different – I tap the soil and this one will come to the tapping stick – he comes to investigate – he finds no worm or beetle and goes away. Maybe I can get him to roll over if I bring a pocket full of beetles to reward him – not there yet – he just turns and moves away! Click on the following
DAVE WROTE: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. Well we finally got some winter weather here in upstate NY. Snow and freezing rain. Everything is ice covered. My feeders are very active with the change in weather. Here are a few pictures. Dave
WHERE I CAME FROM THEY STILL KNOW MY NAME:
Street photography is like a game: it is fun, unpredictable, and challenging.
Street photography is, also, a like spice: it help us enjoy the flavor of life.
In street photography, it is the quality of the story that is fun and spicy. I apologize for the image quality. It is difficult to get quality photos when shooting with a cell phone camera through a tinted windshield traveling 50 MPH.
Last week I had to return to the place of my up-bringing to visit a family member. While on that trip, I spent 24 hours, (pronounced 24 R’s) in the passenger seat of my son’s pick-up – traveling through the Pennsylvania Appalachian Mountains where the people I know have lived their whole life.
The spice of life I pondered as we traveled are things that have meaning to us. What is a tasty spice to me is not that spicy to you or to Jim Jr..
Of course, all of that was an introduction for me to show you some street photographs I took during the 24 r’s I was riding with Jim Jr. I was looking to record some of my history in photographs – my own spice to add flavor to my memory of life:
Dave wrote: Hi Jim, A dark rainy morning here in Rome, NY. 32 degrees F. right now. It looks like spring but we know it is still a way off. Here are a few shots of a Barred Owl I took this morning. For a dark day they are not to bad. Dave
I love to relate to my family in all that I do. For example, My Granddaughter is in college studying in the performing arts. I heard that a summer job doing stand-up comic may be in her future.
That potential job caught my attention. You see, I think stand-up comic is just like the sit-down comic I do with PhotoShop. So, I started researching stand-up comedy.
Jerry Seinfeld says stand-up comics explore their life for material. He says, funny “comic material” is in everything and everybody they meet. That is me – it is the way I think – every photograph I take with my camera contains material for a funny PhotoShop photograph.
So you see, Maya and I have the joy of laughing at everyday happenings in common – I love it! Looking forward to one of Maya’s Stand-Up comedy sets if she gets the opportunity.
Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. A large adult female Cooper’s Hawk. She has been hanging around our property for the past week. This is the first chance I had to get some decent pictures. Cooper’s Hawks are members of the accipiter family. They are primarily bird hunters. As I said before I love to see and photograph any and all hawks. Dave
I have been, pretty much, kept in these last 2 days because I had a “Blue Light” procedure done on my face to kill (hopefully) all those pre-cancers there. Tomorrow I should be OK to go out.
Out is where I always want to live – where I can be in nature as close to my front door as possible – Block Island in Rhode Island, Texas Hill Country, Pennsylvania Appalachia mountains, and Drummond Island, Michigan have all been that way. Of course TGO is on the fringe of nature (That is why it is called THE GREAT OUTDOORS).
So, when I read of Dave’s Cooper Hawk it made me think of the birds we arrange for gatherings – places where we can go to see them gather to eat or nest. I put on a cowboy hat to shield my face from the sun and rode my bike to Lake Judy to see the Purple Martins. I did not have my camera with me but here is what I saw: “Pure nature”
While there, I photographed what I saw in the lake, Lilly Pads moving in the breeze. Researchers call my condition pareidolia, which is the false perception of seeing a non-existent face or pattern in everyday objects:
DAVE WROTE: Hi Jim, Here are some pictures for the blog. A Red-tailed Hawk that we found on the back fence behind the runway of the old air base here in Rome NY. Bird was quite cooperative and did not fly as we stopped the car opposite it. I believe this was a northern Canadian bird as they have migrated down to the upper US. Most local birds are so spooky that you can not even slow down before they fly off. As I have said before I especially love the raptors and love to photograph them. I was shooting with my big 500 mm so as the bird flew toward me I was not able to get it completely in the frame. A strange winter up here very mild. No snow at all here bare ground with green grass. Dave
Bear with me – I am just starting to learn video. This morning I was watching a dozen birds perched on the ridge-line of my neighbors house. What I enjoyed was the contest between two for the peak position.
I am learning to crop videos – this bird battle was pretty far away for my iphone to capture. But with the cropping you can see that the bird on the peak is telling the other bird to “Get out of here, I own the peak.”:
TESTING LOW RESOLUTION=SMALLER VIDEO SIZE= FASTER LOADING???
DAVE WROTE: Hi Jim, We took a ride up to Lake Ontario one day last week. Lake Ontario is about an hour and a half from Rome, NY. It is a great place to bird and photograph in the winter. It is a good place for wintering waterfowl and raptors. Here are a few pictures for the blog. A flying Red-tailed Hawk, Mute Swans, a Bufflehead and 2 Ruddy Duck. Mute Swans are not native to the US. They are established several places around theGreat Lakes and the Atlantic coat. Dave
I loved seeing winter ducks when we lived up north – Places like Block Island, RI. When I was watching Jeopardy last week, I knew they were Mute Swans and not Deaf Swans as I think one of the contestants said!
Since I love “street photography” (photographing what people or animals are doing in in their normal day-to-day activities), I see, in Dave’s photo of the swans, that one of the swans is listening to what the other one has to say about that duck swimming in front of them!
Like these two dogs in a Winter Park street, “What are they looking at?”:
