We spent the morning at Lion Habitat Ranch, in Henderson Nevada, hanging out and photographing the lions. I hadn't been there in a while, and it was a nice time.

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Having spent so much time away this year it is a pleasure to get back to our garden and see what surprises it has in store for us. Just inside the gate is an ornamental cherry tree which is bursting into bloom, and I thought I would catch the last colourful buds before they all open up.

We spent yesterday visiting Yellowstone in Wyoming, and of course, there were many many new photo opportunities to be found. After taking advantage and shooting dozens of photos, one will often walk away with a small handful of personal favorites, and this was one of mine from yesterday. We will be returning home on this coming Thursday after spending the better part of 15 days with old friends and seeing some beautiful vistas in the northwest. I'm sure I will leave here with one thousand plus photos, and I hope you will not tire of me sharing them with you.

I spent an hour on Sunday looking for things that might make an interesting texture shot for this week's Macro Mondays theme. Dead flower heads, a snail shell, a leaf... nothing really worked. I then had a look in my garage which is stacked full of stuff and came up with this filthy old oil can and I thought - why not? It's certainly got some texture to it.

An interesting story regarding the lens I used here - a manual focus 90mm f2.8 Sigma Macro - which I got as part of a job lot of old camera gear which I purchased because I saw two other old lenses in the lot that I thought might be interesting. This is actually the first time I've actually used this Sigma and I was more than pleasantly surprised by the results. I put a short extension tube on it in order to get in closer than the 1:2 capability of the lens. I stopped down to something like f5.6 so I would expect reasonable depth of field, which it produced, but I wasn't expecting how fantastically sharp it is.

This was shot hand held on my Sony A7ii at 1/60th of a second and ISO 500.

I spent a great deal of my time here in the winters with my sleigh and toboggan, using the so-called 'hills'. When I was a teenager, I was hired to maintain their plastic plants (!) for the summers.

See this link for a brief history of time on the Canadian prairies: www.regina.ca/business/heritage-programs/city-archives/ar...

See here for the history of the airport:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_International_Airport

Regina Airport, Saskatchewan, on my last visit there.

~ textures=mine+topaz ~

Spent a couple of hours at a local wing walking airfield this week, changing weather but got a few photos worth sharing.

Spent a mesmerizing hour or so with a family of Brolgas at the Western Treatment Plant yesterday (otherwise known as the Poo Farm-a birders paradise). These birds are listed as Vulnerable in Victoria and are often spotted at the treatment plant. Despite having seen them a number of times, it always feels so special, like the birds are sharing a secret, just for you.

The treatment plant has a series of ponds, with tracks around them that you can drive along. The grass was long and mostly all I could see was their striking red and grey heads pop up from the grasses. I got out of the car and walked along the road a way in front, hoping they would walk in my direction to this little pond.

That way it was their choice as to whether they were OK with me being there.

Turns out it was my lucky day!

Spent an absolutely brilliant full day touring the lighthouses on Anglesey with great friend Mark Twiglet yesterday, starting at Penmon point for sunrise, which didnt deliver, but the high tide and stormy sky more than made up for it. A truly fab way to finish the year.

Prints available to view and order from my website:

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We spent a few days on Benewah Lake, Idaho over our holiday. I was intrigued by this trestle, and the railroad tracks which run through a tunnel on the other side of the lake.

They say the train runs once a week at unpredictable times. A few locals fish from the trestle and I've heard if the train comes, you simply 'hang' off the side until it has passed. Umm sure... sign me up.

Have a nice rest of the week. I hope to catch up with all of you in the next few days.

Spent a very nice evening at Ninepipe, in Charlo, Montana, watching the sun go down as it played off the tall grass and the Mission Mountains in the background.

I spent a happy hour or so photographing small waders on the shores of Thornham Point, Norfolk, over the weekend. The best technique seemed to be to find a likely spot just above the line of the outgoing tide, lie on the wet sand and wait for them to come to me.

I spent about 3 hours standing in the rain yesterday waiting for the thunderstorms to pass over. The first one came and went without any joy but as the second came though I heard a few rumbles then the rain came in pouring down over Loch Lomond. I would like to say this is one image but sadly trying to catch lightning during the day from previous experience is tricky so instead I filmed it on high res video until I had a strike. Then took some stills and blended the lightning into the shot from the video so I had a higher quality image.

I spent an enjoyable evening in Leeds with a great group of people from a facebook photography group I'm a member of. We stayed around the area next to the canal side behind Bridgwater Place and took some photos. Here are some of mine.

I wish I'd known you could go up to the Skylounge in the Hilton building next to us; one of the things I really want to do is take a shot of Leeds (or any city) from a high vantage point, especially after dark!

Spent a few days on the Oregon coast with the little lady this weekend. Cannon Beach, Oregon.

I spent almost the whole November in Antarctica on a mission to shoot the polar landscapes and give presentations to a group of photo hobbyists. This is not a ship dedicated to do photography, so I squeezed my time everywhere, on the deck, on zodiacs, and on kayaks, with my Pentax 645Z, my Nikon D800 and even with my ZTE cellphone. This picture was shot from a kayak trip with my ZTE cellphone, it may be not high-res, but it renders every details of the iceberg very well, another example of low end equipment with excellent result.

spent an hour on dirt roads trying to find a nice Platte River overlook… never found it.

Spent some SL time with my RL bestie Miss Blazin Aubret. Love her to the moon and back!

Listen With Me

Credits: Gridspirations

Spent some time in DC for work this week and had just a few free moments in the early morning and explored along the river for some not so normal DC monument captures.

I spent a couple of days just going around to little lakes in Northern Vilas County Wisconsin with their shorelines ablaze with the colors of the tamaracks. Being in a canoe the view was breathtaking to say the least. My wife Marshia took these pictures to show the beauty of this lake as I saw it from the canoe. It was like canoeing in Paradise.

To see more Autumn photos of Northern Wisconsin visit our website: www.lifeinthenorthwoods.com/

I spent Thanksgiving in Driggs Idaho. It is the Idaho side of the Grand Tetons. If you look closely, you'll see a little glimpse of the mountain peaks. Hopefully our next outing will have a few less clouds.

I spent my afternoon relaxing in the garden today after being signed off from physio ( Whoop! Whoop!😀 ) most of the shots I took were of bees but then I decided to do something different with an Allium Seed Head.

Spent the evening at an ACEC even held at the Baltimore Museum of Industry ...

Was not going to bring along the camera and tripod as rain was forecast all day. But watching the weather it looked like the rain would pause some around sunset time. So I brought along.

At 4:30 it was still pouring down rain, but around 5:00 it stopped. So I headed downtown to the location about 30 minutes before the event was to be held.

Some nice calm weather and rain had everything wet, but a nice mirror over all with slight ripples in the water. The city lights on the storm clouds was quite pretty too.

I took these shots in a three piece suit and dress shoes ... so I had to be careful where I was trekking along the waterfront there at the museum area.

So very glad that I brought the camera along ... and the rain paused long enough to play around for 30 minutes taking photos.

This capture is 99% SOOC. Ms. Krach liked this the best ... so it posted first ;)

Have a great evening Flickr Friends ... heading to bed after a long day at work, taking photos, and then spending time at the ACEC event. Hope I sleep like a log ....

We spent a day launching rockets in a big farm field near Helm in the Central Valley of California. Hundreds of high power rockets were launched in daytime. I did a single launch, a rocket made out of corks, which is always a crowd-pleaser. There were night launches too. This is the launch control at a quiet time at sunset.

I processed a realistic, a paintery, and a balanced HDR photo from three RAW exposures, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.

-- ƒ/7.1, 89 mm, 1/400, 1/1600, 1/4000 sec, ISO 400, Sony A6000, SEL-55210, HDR, 3 RAW exposures, _DSC1171_2_3_hdr3rea1pai5bal1c.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © 2023 Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

I’d like to dedicate this shot to a good friend of mine William McIntosh. I have spent the last 4 months shooting as much as I can with Bill and trying to gleen info from him about his weather prediction skills and gain some insight about his frame of mind about photography. He is a master of weather prediction IMHO and I have always admired his tenacity which has netted him some absolutely fantastic captures from Yosemite National Park and the Pacific Northwest. Bill contacted me during the week to see if I was up for a Banzai run to Yosemite Valley as he was predicting a passage in the storm which would provide a high probability of misty/snowy conditions like seen in many of his postings from there. Of course Bill was right on the money as was shown from some of the webcams provided there. But unfortunately I had to decline as I was starting to get sick with the Flu and didn’t want to drag him down with me. Today he contacted me again to see if I was up for some shooting at Corona Del Mar but I was still trying to fight off the Flu and as painful as it was had to opt out again. Later, today, as I was digging through my folder of processed photos I found this shot and the pain of declination returned. Sorry Bill, I was more worried about getting you sick then worsening my own condition. LOL. Thanks for the invite my friend and hope you had a great day at CDM. If you would like to see William’s amazing photography, you can visit his stream here.

www.flickr.com/photos/mtsacprof

Tale of the Take…

This is a side view of the arch found at Corona Del Mar, If you wanted to get a full view through the arch you would need to scramble along the cliffsides base there at a specific tide level, I say specific because if you time it incorrectly you wouldn’t drown but you would have to spend a long, cold night on the rocks or call the Coast Guard to come “fish” you out which carries along an $800 dollar or better rescue charge. I’m still hoping that Bill will show me the specifics of entering here at a time that would be safe to enter and exit during the sunset. See what I mean about his tenacity. :)

Please come over and check out my other photos, you might find something else you like. :)

Thanks for taking the time to take a look at my photos, and as always, your views, comments, faves, and support are greatly appreciated!! Have a great weekend everybody!! :)

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Copyright 2016©Eric Gail

Spent quite a few days just enjoying the dippers. Hopefully now travel has been eased up I can get out to other ares soon.

amongst trees is never wasted time. ~ Katrina Mayer. 🎄🌳💚🌳🎄 Stock Credit: Trees: (Frostbo & ybsilon-stock) from DeviantArt. Everything else is mine.

Processed with VSCO with a5 preset

Spent today with Aaliyah at Westhay. Lots of birds to see, I think we counted 38 different species though the course of the day including the drive in and out. Good views of a couple of bitterns, kingfishers and marsh harriers at North hide and a Bearded reedling on Daggs lane drove.

I spent a few days recently traveling to and hanging out with the Ospreys.

Now, these Ospreys are big, powerful, and graceful. Many of them have gotten used to people…but not too much. They prefer to coexist, from some distance; often giving real dirty looks if you break into their personal space.

View UPLIFT Large On Black

I spent a couple hours at a local woods not too far from home. During the couple hours I tracked and spotted these four woodpeckers and the Thrush posted the other day.

I walked looping tails about 5 miles - it took patience with the Pileated woodpecker the hardest to capture with its unpredictable flight.

2001 Tb Time Spent ( Kenny ) Winner 5 Races

Last Tycoon IRE / Zeditave AUS /Sir Tristam NZ

Spent an hour and half with this amazing owl yesterday. It only flew once between posts. The rest of the time it appeared mesmerised by the insect life around it. It certainly wasn't bothered with a mere human.

I spent three days with the Ptarmigan in the north. The morning temperature was -34C/-29F (-41C to -47C / -42F to -53F windchill).

Je me suis offert en cadeau un petit voyage plus au nord pour photographier ces magnifiques oiseaux. J'ai été surpris par leur grand nombre. Mis à part des températures extrêmement froides, mes attentes ont été comblées.

Quebec, Canada

I spent an hour with this Northern Hawk Owl last week and then left it to do its thing...in the time that I was with it it changed position twice and ended up moving to this perch, nestled amongst these Spruce Cones near the top of the tree...I suspect it was getting a free back scratch while it was there....we don't see these very often, one or two of this Boreal species of owls will usually make a brief appearance this far south in the Ottawa area. Fortunately I have been able to see one or two of them every winter for the last few years.

Spent a good hour looking for a ladies keys to no avail but we were treated to a lovely sky and she had the most gorgeous Weimaraner.

Spent another great day on a photographic day inside the enclosures at British Wildlife Centre near Lingfield... another really great day with Meg hosting us as the keeper for the day, and what a great time we had

so Ed Sherrin the red Squirrel for you

Twilight hours in the desert of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India

Spent time at NYBG yesterday. And this Indian lotus swayed and fluttered with the breeze. It was so calming to watch.

Spent way, way, way too much time playing with splashes this morning. I really want to revisit this again soon, this was taken for the CreativeLive photography challenge that is going on right now. If you want to participate, go to CreativeLive.com, blog.creativelive.com/creative-photography-ideas-challeng.... I thought it might be fun to try some of these techniques, probably not all of them but a few to mix it up and learn something new.

Also, I probably overprocessed it but I really liked the dramatic look so I went with it.

Spent the past week on vacation at a cottage on Crystal Lake, north on Bobcaygeon Ontario. We were fortunate to have some great weather and were treated to a couple of spectacular sunsets during our time there.

Thanks for viewing and have a great day :)

Spent a cracking time in Berlin.

It was flipping cold but ultra cool... ;-))

spent the afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC today...I found myself in tears as I walked among Monets and Picassos.

Filou spent the morning with Tofu at our home while I was out and about. When I returned he was ready to go home again but I managed a quick photo of his blue eye behind the golden tinsel before he left. I know that my photostream is dominated by Tofu at the moment and occasionally try to squeeze in photos of the other cats. :)

I spent the last day of my yearly vacation on the Montzen route. Starting the day in Sint-Martens-Voeren, I ended in Hoeselt.

At the very end of this last day of my yearly vacation, I could squeeze out shots of 2 more freights heading west. One of them being a train loaded with Move and Ewals containers, headed for Genk. The train is seen just south of Hoeselt.

Shoutout to Trainbelge, who I met in Hoeselt again, after meeting each other for the first time 1 week earlier in France.

BRLL 266 016 (RTX), Hoeselt 11.8.2022

This fawn spent at least fourteen hours in the backyard garden on this day. I'm reasonably sure it is less than a month old here and was dropped off by its mother while she foraged for food. I stepped onto the back porch about 7 a.m. that morning, and startled, the fawn raised up out of the ground cover so that I saw it there. It had already visited several days before, and knowing how skittish it was, I retreated and tried to photograph it through the downstairs window. When I couldn't get the image in focus, I retreated to the upstairs where I opened a window and removed the screen. Mom did not return until close to 9 p.m., and I haven't seen the fawn since. I'll suppose it is now old enough to keep up with its mother and so can stay at her side.

We spent last weekend in Liverpool and came across this statue quite by accident, instantly recognised as we had seen photos of it.

It was nice to see groups of tourists patiently waiting their turn to have a shot taken with the boys. The one Rod took of me is in the first comment.

HSS and Thursday Monochrome 😀

We recently spent an hour at an Alpaca farm with our family whom we haven’t seen in a year. It was a small farm that reserved the hour time slot just for our little group. We had the pleasure of watching our one year old grandson visit with several animals on the farm. We were all able to touch the Alpaca and feel their amazing fur. What a joy to see the world through the eyes of a child. In this image, you can see my daughter and I standing in the doorway and being reflected in the eye of this animal. We experienced great joy connecting with family finally!