Head and Feet
Head and Feet, We are all Unique and Beautiful, including our wonderful birds.
Head and Feet
New Pet Portraits
New Pet Portraits, I have been busy creating some fun custom pet portraits the last couple of weeks and I always have to do a couple of my own cat and dogs as well.
My cat and her crazy eyes I like to call them. She is a tuff one to photograph because she usually doesn’t want to sit still.
This ones name is Kit Kit
This is Chloee
This one is my little dog Deohgee or DOG for short, remember her name is not the word dog, you say each letter and that is her name. 🙂 She is 15 years old this year.
This one is a dog called Good Boy Chevy from a You Tube channel that I know
This is a cute little dog named Max, with some bottom teeth that stick out like that all the time. But he is still cute.
This is a stray cat at the campground.
Well, these are not pets of course. But I made them for my web site under the wildlife category.
New Pet Portraits
Make Flower Photos Bloom
Make Flower Photos Bloom with the right camera settings. The wild flowers are in full bloom after the last couple of rains we have had. I do love photographing flowers. Creating a beautiful depth of field makes the photos more interesting, meaning a nice blurred background with the right camera settings.
Flower photography is all about sharp details, bright colors, and finding the right depth of field. Here’s how to get it right:
- ISO — Use a low ISO between 100 and 200 to maintain a sharp picture. If your ISO gets too high, it could make the picture grainy.
- Shutter speed — Use a fast shutter speed of around 1/125 or higher to reduce blur from camera shake, if you’re either shooting with a handheld camera or outside on a windy day. If you’re using a tripod with a still subject, shutter speed isn’t an important consideration.
- Aperture — The right aperture setting depends on your subject and preferences. For small subjects, a wide aperture between f/1.8 and f/7 will give you a shallow depth of field with lots of background blur. Narrow apertures of around f/11 or higher are best for large subjects like bouquets and big flowers, when you want the entire subject in focus.
Since aperture is the most important camera setting for flower photography, I always shoot in aperture priority. This way, I can quickly adjust the aperture to find the perfect depth of field without worrying about ISO or shutter speed.
Make Flower Photos Bloom
William Bartram Trail
William Bartram Trail, another park we stopped at not far from Savannah GA, a wonderful place to walk and see all the cool trees and some historical areas though out the forest. Old homestead grounds. We like visiting places like this. I enjoy reading all about the history of places now, never cared for it much back in school.
The trees are a piece of art even when they are blown over laying on the ground like this one.
William Bartram Trail
Ocean Vessels
Ocean Vessels
I like this first photo painting, it was pretty far away so I had to crop a lot of the photo out so you could see the ship closer. It looks like I am standing right in front of it. But there is a curve in the river and eventually it goes right by us.
This ship below I could not find much information about it except they call it a general cargo ship. It was coming up behind the container ship.
And this guy was behind all of them. Making head way as it caught up to the other two as we were leaving.
Ocean Vessels
Lots of Containers
Lots of Containers, they make for a cool looking photo up close. That would make a great puzzle to put together.
We did a day trip to Tybee Island and on the way back I saw this container ship traveling back the way we came. So I checked the map and found a place we could drive right up to the waters edge and made it there just as the ship was about to pass by.
Lots of Containers
You Find it in the Sand
You Find it in the Sand, Legend of the Sand Dollar
Sand dollars are actually burrowing sea urchins. When they wash up on the beach and are bleached by the sun, they look like a large silver coin, hence the moniker.
A legend about these creatures says they represent the story of Christ:
On the top of the shell is a symbol that looks like a star, a reminder of the Star of Bethlehem that led wise men to the Christ Child. Around the star is an outline of an Easter lily, a reminder of the Lord’s resurrection.
There are five holes in a sand dollar – four around the ends of the star and one in the center. According to the religious legend, the four holes represent the four wounds of Christ when his hands and feet were nailed to the cross. The center hole represents the wound made from a soldier’s spear.
When you turn over the sand dollar, you see the outline of a poinsettia, the Christmas flower. And if you break open a sand dollar, five dove-shaped pieces emerge. Doves are often used in art and literature as a symbol of peace and goodwill.
Now you know the legend of the sand dollar, a story of hope and peace. See if you can find one on your next visit to Alabama beaches.
You Find it in the Sand
Life on the Beach
Life on the Beach, things you will find on a beach. Sunrise on the Beach video below or Here; Sunrise on the Beach
Life on the Beach
Star Trails Over the Atlantic
Star Trails Over the Atlantic, I have always wanted to try and photograph the milky way over the ocean. So while we were here, one night the sky was clear and I could see the stars. So I grabbed my gear and headed out.
It isn’t wide open ocean here but it is still salt water. The problem was finding a spot with as little light pollution as possible. I had checked the star map and knew where the milky way was suppose to be.
I set up my time lapse first and took about 100 photos so I could stack them later. The results is the first photos here. The white line going all the way across the photo is two boats that were going back and forth.
The milky way was very hard to find. I could not see it with the naked eye like I can up home. But I knew where it was so I took a few photos in the general direction.
With the help of photoshop, I was able to edit the the photo just enough so you can make out the milky way. The brighter area on the left side. It just wasn’t dark enough to get a good photo.
I will take some again when I get back home where you can see the milky way every night.
Star Trails Over the Atlantic
Light House Photography
Light House Photography, Well we made it to Georgia and made our way to a place called Tybee Island where I photographed my first Light House. It was in a perfect location not far from the beach.
I definitely would like to find more of these to photograph. There is so much you can do with the photo, they make excellent paintings and look good as black and white as well.
Now I learned how to make the light flash on my photo, as I am writing this we will see if it works when it is posted. Oh, and now we have seen the Atlantic Ocean. 🙂
Light House Photography
Look At the Colors
Look At the Colors, I have a bird feeder outside the RV window at most parks when I can and yesterday I looked out the window as the sun was shinning right on this bird. The colors are amazing, without the sunlight this bird looks like a regular black bird.
It is called the common grackle. They have an iridescent bluish head and bronzy body in good light.
The Blue Jay has its turn at the feeder along with the grackles.
Have a Great Weekend.
Look At the Colors
Hidden in the Forest
Hidden in the Forest of trees is where you will find the secret life of the spiders. Not to be seen in the bright of the day, but in the early morning light with a touch of dew all around. Their cobwebs are shinning like a beautiful tapestry of art work that catches anything that tries to pass by.
Hidden in the Forest
The Horse of Course
The Horse of Course, the Paint Horse. A horse of a breed that combines the conformational characteristics of a western stock horse with a pinto spotting pattern of white and dark coat colors.
My family raised pinto horses when I was young. We had a lot of them. I was given my very own horse at the age of 12. Let me tell you, those days with my very own horse were the best days of my young life.
I did not have time for shopping, boys or anything else really. It was just me and my horse riding the trails for hours on end. I guess that is where I get my love for the outdoors and animals as well.
Back in the day when the weekends would roll around, our mother gave me two choices. I either help clean the house or go shovel manure in the barn. I spent all day out in that barn. 🙂
The Horse of Course
The Day We Left Nature Behind
The Day We Left Nature Behind, I came across an interesting discussion the other day that speaks of the indoor generation. How times have changed.
The indoor generation; a generations that spends 90% of its life indoors. It started the day nature was left behind.
We filled our homes with all the stuff we wanted, they become places we don’t want to leave.
Artificial light replaced daylight. Homes are built so tight nothing can escape.
We closed ourselves in to the point nothing can get out.
The air turned bad and we use chemicals to try and stop the bad stuff.
We do all this to make the darkness bearable.
Let there be Light
The Day We Left Nature Behind
Pet Portraits
Pet Portraits, I have been busy making pet portraits for the folks that are camping near us and thought I would share a couple of them.
These are photos that folks have taken with their phones and text them to me. I then edit the photos and use several techniques to turn them into paintings. Now there was a few photos people sent to me that I just could not fix. Those photos that are way out of focus don’t work to well. But for the most part I can work with a lot of them.
This cat below is our cat. What a difference it makes in a photo depending on if the cats eyes are dilated or not.
Check out the link below if you would like me to make a portrait of your pet. It is simple as sending me a photo from your phone and I will do my best to make a painting for you. 🙂
Pet Portraits
Kootenai Falls Swinging Bridge
Kootenai Falls Swinging Bridge, now this is the one place I took a few photos as we visited this beautiful river. I have walked across a few swinging bridges, but nothing like this one.
I have to admit , I could not do it. I could not walk across this one. With the rushing water below and the movement of the bridge under my feet. My heart started racing right away. My head was spinning.
I have had vertigo in the past and I had a tumor taken out of my head that was pressing on the nerves that control ones balance. So nope, I could not walk more than a couple of feet and I went back.
It is quite the bridge, but I will have to stay on this side of the river on this one.
The bridge was originally created to help the forest service get across to fight fires. But now it is a tourist attraction and a good challenge for anyone like my self.
Well, this is all from our trip out west. When we left here we pretty much traveled straight home without a lot of sight seeing. It did take us 5 days to get home, but it sure was a trip to remember.
We drove over 8000 miles in 8 months, give or take. We were home for 4 months and are now on the road again. I just don’t want to shovel snow again. 🙂
Kootenai Falls Swinging Bridge
Vehicle Chain Up Area
Vehicle Chain Up Area, never a shortage of these signs out in the NW. Snow and ice on the mountain roads.
Which reminds me of a story when I was driving semi back in the day. I was actually driving in southern Montana and of course I ran into some bad weather as I was starting to go down a steep grade. I was already in a low gear and started to descend at a slow pace.
But a semi farther ahead of me was going slower and slower, his break lights finally came on. Luckily I was going slow enough as I was getting closer to him and the road was all ice.
He got on the CB, ( do they even have CB’s anymore?:), he called out he lost his gear and was having to down shift and start over. That is never a good thing on a steep grade with ice.
I was able to go around him and never did see in my mirror if he started moving again. I can only imagine he did.
I truly appreciate all the truck drivers out there. It is a hard job but it was fun as well. I am glad I did it for a couple of years. The strange thing about this entire experience for me is that my father was a truck driver. I had only met my dad once when I was about 5 years old and never saw him again. He had pulled up in front of our house in a semi. Funny that I always wanted to drive one and I got the chance to do it for awhile. 🙂
Here is the video for a previous post I did on that Historic Brookport bridge that goes across the Ohio River, It is over 5000 feet long and only 19 feet wide. I made a video of us crossing it. Link to Brookport Bridge Here;
Vehicle Chain Up Area
Kootenai Campground Montana
Kootenai Campground Montana, we were in Montana last June. This is basically the end of our trip from last winter. My brother and his wife live here and we stayed at this campground while we were visiting.
I actually did not take a lot of photos while visiting because we spent a lot of time just hanging out together and catching up on old times. We did go sight seeing, but sometimes spending time with family is more important then taking photos for me.
Yesterday a reader commented on the eagle photo. Mentioning that the bird in this photo below looks like an osprey instead of an eagle. So I thought I would share today a photo of each bird to show the differences between these magnificent birds.
I cropped the photo so we could have a closer look. From a distance the two birds can look similar and hard to identify for sure. But, the 3 things I look for are the color of the feet, the size of the beak and then the body size.
The osprey beak is much smaller and thinner, plus the osprey has a definite color difference with the one stipe that leads away from the eyes.
With body size, even a young eagle is quite a bit larger than an adult osprey.
Both birds are beautiful and majestic in their own ways. A sight to see in nature for sure.
I did find a few small flowers blooming here and there. I tell you, I am ready to see more flowers now. Spring time is always so uplifting as the grass starts to grow and the colorful flowers replace all the brown of the long winter months.
Kootenai Campground Montana
For the Love of Shore Birds
For the Love of Shore Birds, now when it comes to shore birds. Pelicans are my favorite. They are so unique looking and have this cute little waddle as they walk.
Gulls are a dime a dozen, there are lots of them but each one seems to be so unique as well with their color patterns and markings.
Herons are my next favorite, they just have such an elegant look to them with their flowing feathers and beautiful markings.
For the Love of Shore Birds
The King of the Hunting Birds
The King of the Hunting Birds, Time spent in nature makes me realize how little I know about the world around us. The eagle is by far my most favorite bird. They have this majestic look about them.
Their wing spans are beautiful as well as their hunting skills when out catching fish. I don’t see eagles as often as I used to. I lived along the Mississippi river for awhile which was a wonderful place to see these mighty birds.
But I am always looking for them during our travels. This young eagle here we saw when we were in Montana. It was snowing out that day, but I was able to get a couple of photos.
The King of the Hunting Birds
Another New Bird
Another New Bird, yep this is the Brown headed nuthatch. I never even think to look up how many species of one kind of bird there are until I see something new like this one. There are 4 kind of nut hatches in North America.
The Brown headed, Red Breasted, White breasted and the Pygmy nuthatch.
Red breasted nuthatch below. Looks more golden then red in my photo.
These two photos below I just grabbed off of the internet. I don’t have a photo of these yet. The one on the right is the Pygmy nuthatch which is found out west.
I may have a photo of the one on the left, the white breasted nuthatch. But I have not found it yet.
Have a wonderful weekend. Bird count – 158
Another New Bird
Amongst the Silence
Amongst the Silence, there is light. The waves are silent as the clouds slowly drift by. In the early morning light is when I can see clearly, what my heart already knows.
Amongst the Silence
Have a Wonderful Day
Have a Wonderful Day, 5 am yesterday morning I went for my walk and turned back to see the sun rising over the horizon. A reminder of how small we really are with the vastness before me.
Have a Wonderful Day
Nictitating Membrane
Nictitating Membrane, Have you ever seen one? Well if you take enough photos of birds, eventually you will see it in your photo like this one below.
One of the great things about photographing wildlife is the opportunity to see aspects of the animals you might not normally see.
An example of this is the nictitating membrane on birds. The nictitating membrane is a third eyelid under the typical two eye lids we all have. It’s a translucent eyelid that can be closed while the other eyelids are open to clean and protect the eye.
How incredible is this, especially since some of these birds hang out at the beaches. This really comes in handy to keep the sand out of its eye.
Nictitating Membrane
New Bird to the Count
New Bird to the Count, 155 birds photographed. This is not the best picture, they were pretty far away and it was early morning light. But the bird in the back with the wings out is the new bird. I am not positive, it is either a Bonaparte Gull, or perhaps a laughing gull.
But I did not even notice it until I saw this photo. But I bet Brian from Wildlife Intrigued will know. He is my go to person for bird names. Plus he writes some excellent post with humor and lots of great photos.
One can never take enough photos of these little plovers. They are just so darn cute.
New Bird to the Count
Its Almost the Weekend
Its Almost the Weekend, hope you have a great one full of good food, laughter and good weather. These pelicans are enjoying the morning, everyday is a Friday for them. 🙂
Here is the link to visit my video of the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Washington. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. 🙂
Its Almost the Weekend
Police Horse
Police Horse, another beautiful Belgian horse who’s name is Murphy I found out. There are a lot of pretty horses in this parade, but I take the photos as they are passing by and I choose the best ones to make a painting out of. I don’t usually post photos that have people in them.
But I like this one with the gentlemen on the ground with his hand over his heart as the flag goes by.
I sent this photo to the police department where they are stationed out of. They loved it and said thank you and that is where they told me the horses name is Murphy. Very fitting I think.
Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts
Police Horse
Draft Horse in Harness
Draft Horse in Harness, we were at a small town parade the other day. My favorite part is always the horses. I took a photo of this beautiful team of Belgian horses pulling a wagon and made a couple of paintings. Horses, dogs and cats make for great digital paintings.
I had posted the paintings on one of the social media sites and had a couple of inquiries asking if I do commission work. Well, I looked at my husband and said, ” What a great idea”. So I started a new web page where I can paint other folks photos. I do enjoy it and find it quite fun to make them.
If you are interested, you can visit my web site; Sandra J’s Photography & Fine Arts , I am still working on adding photos to that site. It is always a work in progress creating a web page.
This photo below has a special meaning for me. We were camped next to a home and in their yard they had this beautiful older dog, shown below in this print, who enjoyed laying out in the sunshine. So I took the pups photo one day and made a painting of it. I was able to send the photo to the owners to their phone. Just to share it with them.
The other day, their neighbor contacted me and told me this dog had just passed away. I am happy that I made this print and was able to share it with them when I did.
Draft Horse in Harness
Navy Flying High
Navy Flying High, even the Navy is out training in these super fast planes. These guys go so fast, you can defiantly hear them before you see them.
This pretty plane just coming in for a landing.
I have never been in a plane this small, it looks kind of cramped in there.
I had an interesting job as a child that involved this air plane called an Air Tractor. My uncle flew a plane similar to this and I was the flag person for him. He would give me the coordinates of the field he was going to spray fertilizer on and I would have to hurry up and drive there before he got there.
Then I would have to just stand there as a marker for him, after he flew by I would have to step off the length of his air craft so he could use me as a marker on the next pass. He was quite the pilot.
Now they invented a flag that falls out of the end of the wing, so my job was eliminated. I sure enjoyed it back then.
Navy Flying High
Modern Marvels in Aircraft
Modern Marvels in Aircrafts, I have always been fascinated with aircraft, mostly helicopters. But all aircraft are modern marvels to me. The fact that something that large as an airplane or helicopter, that can fly and fly really fast is truly some engineering genius.
So when ever I see or hear aircraft, I grab my camera and hope I can get to where ever they are flying and take a few shots.
Just happened to be in the right place at the right time for these shots. Black Hawk helicopter doing a few flybys and training runs at a small air field we were near.
I took videos as well and I will share those when I get to them.
Have a great weekend.
Modern Marvels in Aircraft
