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This owlet wasn't quite ready to leave the nest. Here he is exploring the top of the dead tree which contains the nest, and practicing for his first flight, which would occur two days after this image was taken. Eagle Creek Park. You can see his first flight with mom supervising here: flic.kr/p/HkHhng and this is what he looked like after crash landing: flic.kr/p/HiiJL9
I'm not sure if you all are aware of Zoe's magical skills - she almost never allows me to take pictures of her in action, because I supposedly distract her. This time she made an exception, because the practice was easy enough that my presence didn't bother her. Zoe also told me that she's curently training for something really complex that she's never tried before... I'm really curious what it is, because her skills are quite advanced and I thought she could do all the tricks already!
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I'm not 100% satisfied with how this photo came out but I'm not sure what's wrong, either, so I just left it this way. Any constructive criticism is welcome lol, I still have a lot to improve!
Today Little Hope and young Seele are working on the prefect wedding kiss for every one knows its the best part of the show!
"I love you," whispered Hope before giving Seele a small little kiss.
"I love you more," whispered Seele before Kissing Hope 2 more times.
"No... you might love me the same if you kiss me 5 more times," stated Hope Before Kissing Seele 3 more times.
Well as bad timing would have it a ring on little Hopes Sell phone came throw...
"Its Henrietta I really need to go spend time with her she dose not even know we are getting married yet," Explained Hope reading the texted on her little Fox Phone.
"Okay... but just one more kiss before you go?" asked Seele using his puppy dog eyes on her.
"I will see you later tonight we need to practice more kissing than," said Hope with a big smile on her face and Kissing Seele at least 4 more times.
Seele Watched as little Hope jumped off his Lap and darted throw the woods it always amazed him how she could disrepair in to the wood lands with such ease.
Will Henrietta be happy for Hope or Will she even know what it means to be Married?
Will Jose find out what the two little love birds have planned?
Or will they run away to Massachusetts were they let 14 year old boys and 12 year old girls get Married... With Judicial Consent.
(Working on projects. I like to keep about a thousand active projects going at once. Have to be careful to start a bunch more right when I’m about to finish one.)
That embroidered felt cloche I’m copying for Navia made me realize I needed to practice embroidery more. So how about some little headbands to match another project, and of course some matching embroidered boot spats??
It snowed, so that means I really want to get out the doll horses. The weather has been just too cold to do it, but that’s given me time to put together some country riding outfits?
I'm not much for the crowds around an air show anymore, probably never have been. But the coolness of military jets is too strong to miss so I go to practice on the afternoon before. This year the Cleveland Air Show has the USAF Thundbirds. They flew directly in from Nellis and practiced a few maneuvers including several of these opposing passes. That gave me a chance to practice too. They're moving just a little bit faster than the trains that are usually in my viewfinder. I was real impressed with the camera's speed especially focusing; the photographer isn't as quick as he used to be. But got a few with planes in the frame. You see almost as much high end photography gear around planes as a railfan event, with a surprising number of crossover fans.
Yoga. It's not for me. I wish it was - I'd love to be more stretchy and bendy and fitter and more spiritual. I really would. But I'd much rather choose a good run over twisting myself into inconceivable positions.
I do, however, love to watch yoga being practiced, seeing the beautiful bodies slowly lift into handstands, rise up into the downward dog, and so on, and on, and on!
Matt
From Wikipedia:
Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli: योग yóga) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines that originated in India.[1] The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Within Hinduism, it refers to one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal towards which that school directs its practices. In Jainism, yoga is the sum total of all activities — mental, verbal and physical.
Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Rāja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga. According to the authoritative Indian philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, yoga, based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, comprises one of the six main Hindu schools of philosophy (darshanas), together with Kapila's Samkhya, Gautama's Nyaya, Kanada's Vaisheshika, Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa, and Badarayana's Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta. Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and various Tantras.
The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings, and is derived from the Sanskrit root "yuj," meaning "to control," "to yoke" or "to unite." Translations include "joining," "uniting," "union," "conjunction," and "means." It is also possible that the word yoga derives from "yujir samadhau," which means "contemplation" or "absorption." This translation fits better with the dualist Raja Yoga because it is through contemplation that discrimination between prakrti (nature) and purusha (pure consciousness) occurs.
Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy to a high level of attainment is called a yogi or yogini.
The reason we were at Thompson Park was that my wife was there to perform with some of her friends in a bellydance troupe. I shot this shortly before they went on and she and one of the other dancers practiced ahead of time (she's the one in the center of the frame).
Fifty years ago I started learning how to type on one of these. I failed. I hated it. Mistakes couldn't be fixed, and I made many mistakes. Correction tape was invented. I used it liberally. Eventually, a high-tech typewriter was invented-- one that displayed text before it hit the page, giving the typist a chance to backtrack-- if she caught the mistake in time. I bought one of these expensive machines immediately. I persevered. Eventually I learned to type, but never well and never fast, until I bought my first computer in the year 2000. Wow! Such speed! Such corrective actions so easily taken! I got fast at typing and fast at correcting. Now I am actually good at it. Better late than never.
It took me about a week. A couple of hours a day, sometimes twice a day. Watching and studying this Kingfisher. Learning its routine. Where does it perch? How often does it dive for fish? (Sometimes only once an hour.) How far does it dive from its perch? Which direction does it fly? I processed all the behavioral information, now it was time to work on technique. Which focus mode? How do I time the shutter release? What settings, and much, much more. Then it was trial and error and error and error. A couple of "almost got it". Finally, late in the afternoon, on the last day of July, success. Belted Kingfisher coming out of the water with a fish.
Some more snap shots and practice with the 135 f/2.0 before the big shoot on Sunday! Hopefully I'll have some stuff up from that shoot Sunday night. Hope everyone is having a good Friday!
Heather and I are very fortunate to travel as much as we do. We rate most of our trips as very good or excellent. Very rarely do we have trips that are busts or not very good. This one was one of them. It seemed like everything went wrong.
Background: the Blue Angels over winter at the Naval Air Facility El Centro in California, close to the Mexican border. They practice their demonstration flights 2-3 times a day. At the end of the winter season, usually in mid-March, the NAF hosts an air show featuring the Blue Angels and other airplanes. We try to make it down to El Centro for the 2-3 days before the air show to catch the Blues up close and personal. We usually fly into Las Vegas or San Diego, rent a car, head to El Centro and then to Nellis AFB outside of Las Vegas to catch Red Flag - a USAF military exercise with a large number of fighters, bombers, and support aircraft. For two airplane geeks, this is like Heaven.
Well, things changed this year. The first one was these events happened during Spring Break, so car rentals were going at about $800-$1,000 a week. That was insane, so we decided to drive. Star to El Centro is about 1,000 miles but we could do it.
Then shortly before our trip, a certain US President decided to start a useless, stupid war in Iran. On top of the obvious fallout, there were side effects. Gas prices really went up. Yuck. Then security issues kicked in. While we driving down to El Centro, the air show was canceled. We didn't hear about this until we arrived there. The Navy decided to skip El Centro and take part in an air show in Yuma. As part of this, they also practiced in Yuma, only taking off and landing at El Centro. So, instead of seeing the Blues do a full practice 6-7 times during our stay, we caught them one time. That sucked, but it was better than nothing, but driving 1,000 miles to see one practice session wasn't a good deal.
We headed to Las Vegas on Sunday and ran into bad news there too. Red Flag was also canceled. We couldn't win on this trip, but we did have a good drive. Better luck next year.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
The quote above is an except from a wonderful poem by Wendell Berry entitled, "Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front". I highly recommend you read it, in particular out loud. It's a remarkable poem, both content-speaking and in terms of flow: the fast-slow cadence, the words that roll and tumble about in your head, and the all too serious humor contained within.
This was taken last Spring, and was one of the many cherry tree images that I have left to post. It was, of course, taken with the Hasselblad 500 C/M.
Brooklyn, Ny.
Brooklyn, NY.
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