JUST A FEW OF MY NEIGHBORS

I went on a little walk-about yesterday to see what I could see, and this is just a sample of the 120 pictures I shot within a 1 hour period in the little town I live in here in Colorado.

I call this picture "Mikhail Baryshnigoose in Goose Lake"  When I arrived at the park, these two geese were right on the tree line but I was able to coax them up to within 5 feet of me.  The female was so comfortable in my presence that she actually lay down and took a short nap.

This is our neighbor 'Shorty'.  All the squirrels in our neighborhood  are named 'Shorty', only because we can't tell them apart.  Shorty stopped by yesterday for a little snack of sunflower seeds.  He wasn't too happy when my husband arrived home and stood on the buffet table.

Whitetail deer are not indigenous to Colorado.  They are considered a nuisance and are rapidly taking over the grazing grounds of the local mule deer and elk.  Oh, but they are beautiful!

PIKES PEAK IN THE MORNING

Pikes Peak at sunrise.  The first picture was taken at around 6am.  The second was about 5 minutes later, as the sunlight washed up and over the mountains.  I used to be able to see this view from my front porch but too many houses block my view now days so I had to take a short drive to get these pictures.  As you can see I still need a lot of work on settings, but even that can't deminish the early morning beauty of the mountains in spring.

FINE FEATHERED FRIENDS: Monday Photo Shoot

One of the many perks in living in Colorado is the abundance of wildlife.  The Canadian Geese and the Robin are more than happy to pose for the camera, but the Blue Heron, the King Fisher and the Mallards prove to be a little shy.  I hope to get better pictures of them now that I have more free time on my hand.

Monday Photo Shoot: On the Wing

Edit (04/01/05):  I have been honored with the expertise of amasterplumber4u who has refined the identification of some of the birds in my pictures.  The geese are actually Canada guess (yes Plittle, I know... you told me that before... I honestly didn't think it mattered... sorry), the ducks are French Ducks (or is that France Ducks?  Oh,never mind... lame joke) and the Kingfisher is more specifically a Belted Kingfisher.  The Blue Heron, well, its still just a blue heron... the Tri-colored herons are more common in southern states like Florida and Texas (I had to look that up).  Thanks again for the information, Masterplumber and Plittle.)

MY FIRST FLOWERS

My floral inspiration has been Sepintx who has some of the most awesome photographs of flowers, anole lizards and bugs (ewwww!).  Here is my first attempt at florals, these flowers were given to me recently by my co-workers as farewell gifts.  I'm as good at raising plants as I am at housekeeping.  Wish those poor flowers luck!

SPRING? WHERE?

This poor little guy is probably wondering why he left the warm South to fly home to this!  Knowing our wacky weather here the snow will melt and the sun will be back out by Monday, all he has to do is keep his toes warm till then.

 

Actually he's probably thinking... "WTF!  I should have stayed in Mexico with Punxsutawney Phil!"

DANCE WARRIORS

One thing I've noticed throughout my years as as a dancer... there are no ugly Native American Dancers in the arena.  The guys all look like they've stepped right off of the cover of a romance novel.  Another thing I've noticed is that there are more and more eagle feathers, and less and less turkey feathers as the dancers are more easily able to get the traditional materials for their outfits.  As for the more modern styles, well, they just get flashier and fancier, but they still manage to retain their traditional ideals.  Rarely do I look at an outfit and wonder 'whats THAT doing out there?'  They all seem to blend into one category... Cultural Pride.

I learned one valuable lesson this weekend... Auto-focus does not make you an Instant Photographer!  I was really disappointed with the quality, or lack of quality of my pictures.  My first mistake was to use the zoom, which just didn't achieve the crisp clear shots I was after.  I changed to my regular lense, but was still relying on the auto focus.  With that much action from the dancers the auto didn't know what to focus on, thus 258 blurry shots of some awesome dancers.  Next time its all manual!

NATIVE BEAUTY

These are just a few of the beautiful dancers at the Pow Wow.  Many dancers spend countless hours putting their outfits together. (Please don't ever make the mistake of calling them 'costumes') Many times family and friends pitch in to help with the intricate beadwork.  Some outfits have thousands of beads sewn on... each bead hand sewn one by one.  As you can imagine some dresses are quite heavy, especially the fully beaded buckskin dresses.  The jingle dresses are also very heavy, most of the jingles are made from snuff can lids.  My friend had 365 cones on her dress, one for each day of the year.

SPRING HAIKU

As spring befalls us
The hearty leaves of winter
Wear a heavy coat.

(okay, originally I composed a sunny, warm haiku, but when I attempted to capture a photograph that would portray the arrival of spring I was greated by a flurry of snowflakes.  I do believe Punxsutawney Phil is still hibernating in Mexico.... Springtime?  I think NOT!  Add 6 more weeks to winter.)

Weekend Assignment #51: Spring Haiku!

Note:  I posted this entry in my other journal, but it seemed to be more suited for my photo-journal so I have posted it here as well.  Please excuse the repetition.

RIDING INTO THE SUNSET

Kit Carson statue, Main Gate, Fort Carson, Colorado.

I wanted to take a color picture of this statue at sunset, but I haven't got a UV lens for my camera yet and I just couldn't get the effect I was looking for so I tried a shot in the shadows.  I'll try again later with a filter.

SYNCRONIZED FLIGHT

 

 

 

These two geese did a fly-by for me while I was waiting for my little buddy, the Kingfisher, to show up.  The kingfisher didn't make his appearance until I was driving away, but the geese made the wait worth it.