Parks and Beach

A few weekends ago, it was a nice day and we decided to go to the park. I took my camera and came up with some nice photos. I started the day at the park with my T2i and the Sigma 50-200.

These things were all over the railings on the path to the trail.

There were a lot of cool plants.

When we got to the look out deck, this bee was buzzing around. It was fun trying to get this guy in focus.

We met a guy at the park that was watching birds and pointed us towards these baby owls.

Holly spotted a cardinal in the trees. By the time I spotted it, focused and shot, this is all I got. I thought it was a missed shot but Holly convinced me to keep it which I'm glad because I really like this one.

I liked the color of this shelf fungus.

Tacked this woodpecker for a while.

Found the elusive cardinal again. Might not be the same one.. but I like to think I got the upper hand. Specially considering they don't have hands.

After walking the trails, we went to another park up the road a bit. It was more open, not as woodsy but fun. I had never seen handicap swings. I really enjoyed seeing this.

We had lunch/dinner after the second park and decided we hadn't had enough of the beautiful day so we walked to the beach about a mile away from the house. I only took my nifty fifty 50 f1.8 to change it up and because I hadn't shot with it in a long while. I realized how much I enjoy shooting that cheap, plastic lens. Anway, as we were walking, I turned and saw this awesome scene.

Arriving at the beach, I realized I made a good choice of lens to take because the sun wasn't out much longer. I like this dry sand patch.

The sand had a bunch of cool patterns and breaks in it. These probably have a name but I just liked the lines.

More sand lines

Like a little river in the sand.

This is the county line on the beach. I think the posts were all one size at some point.

This is the top view of one of the short posts.

Holly was in her element checking out the stuff growing and living on the posts and around them. The sunset light was shining just enough to light her perfectly.

Another angle of the posts. Trying to compose some leading lines.

And finally, the last shot was a final glimpse of the sunset. This photo is very noisy because I heavily edited it. It was pretty darn dark out there at this point.

This was a great day out in great Jacksonville weather with a wonderful lady. She had her dog and I had my camera. :)


The full Parks and Beach set on Flickr

Stocks Garden Sunday

Sunday is the laziest day, isn't it? For me it usually is. It's the last day of the weekend and it reminds me that another full work week is ahead. I usually just want to sit and chill. This past Sunday I went to Holly's house. While waiting for the delicious dinner her dad was making, she took me out front to see the garden in progress. One quick walk around the garden and I decided I wanted my camera. Luckily, I usually keep it with me.

This is a cucumber plant if I'm not mistaken. They look pretty cool all curled up.

Here's another view. This one was being used by a spider to attach its web to it.

Some of the plants are pretty chewed up so Holly was showing me how you can see where the larvae travel and consume more leaf as they grow. It's pretty cool. I didn't have a macro lens or macro tubes so I had to crop the image a bit but luckily these large megapixel cameras can handle a good crop.

A tomato growing on the vine. It's hard to see but I like this image. Obviously it would be better when the tomato gets red.

I saw these little flowers in another section of the yard. I don't know what they are but I hadn't seen them in this color.

While looking at the flowers, I spotted a colorful spider. I've noticed that spiders and their webs are hard to auto focus so I tried my best at manual focusing.

In the back yard, I spotted a dragonfly sitting on a leaf with the golden sun glistening through its translucent wings. I got a few shots off and as I kept turning to get a head on shot, it flew away. This is a very tight crop of the original.

The dragonfly landed on another plant and Holly wanted a go at capturing it so I lent her my camera. I cropped this again quite tightly but I think the detail still holds up for the web.

Holly still having my camera spotted Arwin, her cat, sleeping in a strange position.

Once I got my camera back, I went in for more Arwin pictures.

I kept getting closer until I finally bugged her enough to get up. I shot quite a few but she doesn't like to be photographed, by me at least, and this was the best I got.

Just before heading inside, Holly pointed out these flowers with the blue thingy inside. Thingy? I really need to learn about flowers.

There were white and purple flowers and this one was both!

This one apparently had a visitor. Luckily it was the only one I saw in this condition.

As I was leaving, I decided to take a photo of Holly. She had the sun to her back and it was really strong so I popped the flash on and dropped the exposure comp to -2 and brightened up the shadows a little in Lightroom. I didn't want to blast too much harsh light in her face.

These are most of the images shot from Sunday but if you prefer to see them on Flickr, you know where to clickr.

Golden Hour Ducks

AdoramaPix.com has a deal running through Sunday, May 5th for 25% off their aluminyzed metal prints. I ordered one of these for a gift and they are spectacular. While looking through my photos to choose another one to print, I found a set from November which I'd like to share.

I went the the park near my house just as the sun was starting to set. I found some ducks swimming in the lake/pond and followed them for about 30 mins just shooting and watching them.

Cropped panorama

I'm not sure if this is my favorite of the next one.

Duck silhouettes or Ducklhouettes

Ducks at the park pond

I also shot a few photos of what I intended to shoot that day, the sunset over the water. I see why it's called golden hour.

Check out the full set on Flickr Golden Hour at the park with friendly ducks