New Design

Hello...  Obviously, I've decided to spruce up the blog a bit.  I'm much happier with the way it looks now.

Also, I wanted to address some stuff from the previous post: I'm slowly but surely feeling better.

I had intentions of putting the previously posted pictures into Lightroom and then showing the results, but frankly I've been a bit lazy and haven't felt like editing pictures.  All I wanted to do was increase the clarity and sharpness a bit.

I've also decided to forgo my self-portrait collage project, for the time being at least.  I've taken quite a few pictures for it, but again, I haven't edited them and I just don't see the motivation appearing soon.

I've been working on non-photography projects in the meantime.

Melancholy Walkabout

Took a walk around City Park and the golf course today because I was a bit upset...  Almost didn't bring my camera with me, but I just knew that if I didn't I would see something great.  The other part of me, though, said - if you do bring your camera, you won't see anything and you'll feel uncomfortable carrying the darn thing.
Well, I brought it, and somehow lucked out.  Came across ducklings.  If you are a person who looks at ducklings and can't feel slightly better - you aren't someone I want to know.
I happily snapped several shots, which I haven't really gone through yet because I'm lazy.  I also saw an egret - a skilled hunter, he waited for me to make my way down the pond to him before he started showing off, slowly picking through the water and posing elegantly until he caught a fish.  Yup, got to see him catch a fish.  That was pretty awesome.  Unfortunately, I also got to see him play with his food.  Meh on that part.
I'm sure I'll have a few favorite picture whenever I get the time to really go through them and clean them up a bit - for most of them I had the zoom to the max, which makes the photos a bit grainy.  I didn't want to interfere with "wildlife" though and disturb them, so grainy images were a necessary inconvenience.

After finally leaving the ducks, I noticed that quite some time had passed, much more than I had thought.  And unfortunately the second I left the ducks and the egret I went back to being upset and melancholy.

Something I've been thinking about, since May actually - I may quit this blog.  And I may quit the "photography" thing.  I mean, who cares?  Really?

Here are a few of today's pics.

I think that this is Papa Duck.

There were actually two sets of ducklings.  These two were a bit older than the rest (there were also two mommies).

The other, younger set.

This little guy was brave and stealing the show.  He'd look over and see me, and start to waddle quickly over to me, but about halfway between his mom and me he would realize that he was in a no man's land, freak out, and go back to mom.

He alone kept going to the water, like saying, "ma ma, look at me!  look at me!"

This one is funny to me because it looks like a family portrait.

Another funny one - these are the older ducklings with their mom.

And this is regal Mr. Egret.

Right before he ducked his head under.

And his prize...

I was kinda proud of this shot.  Happened so fast I didn't really have time to think about it, just shoot.  Too bad I couldn't get any clouds in the shot.

And I include this one only because Rupert (I think that's his name) scared the hell out of me as I was walking back to the apartment.  He literally charged me from the bushes and was at my legs.  Thankfully, he wanted pettings and not blood.

Black and White Desert Photography

LightStalking has another great article here providing examples of black and white desert photography - definitely something on my bucket list.