The right place at the right time

Today I was not in the best mood. It has been so hot here for so long that I have not been able to wander with my camera the way I love to do. I decided to go ahead and take a walk by the lake and almost didn't take my camera as I was walking the same ground I do every day but felt the need to take some shots of something even if I didn't end up keeping them. I sat on the side of a little footbridge watching the egrets and ducks by the edge of the lake in the shade. As I walked there I noticed a small butterfly near a flowering hedge and as I often had felt frustrated that I could never seem to capture a good image of one because they never sit still long enough.
All of a sudden I looked up and noticed a large butterfuly flitting about I wanted to aim my camera at it but figured it would be gone by the time I focused. Then I saw it suddenly stop, suspended in midair. It had become caught up in a spider web. Well not really a whole web, just a strand of one. I was able to take several shots of this beautiful creature before setting it free. As I watched it fly high up into the trees I felt so amazed at the timing of it all. And reminded that we never know when we will have the opportunity to make a real difference.

Another trip to the zoo

A few Sundays a year Lowry Park zoo here in Tampa has a $5 day. Today was one of those days and though it has been a rainy weekend the morning was clear enough for me to go. I was excited to learn there is now a Koala bear there now and wanted to get some pictures of it. Well they do indeed have one but it is hidden behind glass for some reason unlike most of the rest of the animals making it impossible to get any kind of decent shots :( Instead I had to settle for some fun monkey shots.

I have photographed these guys several times but they were almost always hiding someplace where it was difficult to get a good shot. Today however the momma was laying on a support that was close enough for me to get the above close up with my 70-300mm lens. The baby meanwhile played on the net below and I was able to get several really fun shots.

This next little guy is a freaky little dude. I do not remember what he is called but he always looks paranoid. Today he posed for me on top of a wooden pole with a nice background. You really begin to wonder what these animals think of all the crazy people staring at them all day.
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Then there are the mere cats, so much fun to watch. This one appeared to be posing for me. They do not give them a very big area here, the only other place I have seen them is at Disney's Animal Kingdom and of course they have some sweet digs there.


Finally there is this pic of a Chimp who was also posing nicely for me. Lowry Park is a really nice zoo. When the weather cools down a bit I will have to venture to the one that is a part of Busch Gardens, one of the few big attractions around here I have yet to visit.

Wedding: Tom and Amy

On September 5th, 2009 I was lucky enough to be chosen as the photographer of my dear friend Tom and his Bride Amy's Wedding. I have known Tom for 16 years, we met when we worked together at a Sam Goody music store in Annapolis, Maryland. The weather was perfect and it was a beautiful wedding.

I have been working on the photos all week, a lot of work, but fun work and I have learned a great deal which will help me with wedding in the future. These collages were created with an awesome piece of software called Lumapix Fotofusion Extreme. You can design albums, collages like this, and single sheet with a wide variety of background 'papers' and frames/matts.

To view more images from the wedding please view slideshow below.

More Dragonflies

Yes a few more dragonfly pics, these taken right out by the lake where I live. I am fascinated by them. This particular kind comes in bright pink, green and blue. The funny thing is they have all the room in the world to fly about yet they keep landing on this one tiny stick that is poking out of the water. I found if I just planted myself there I would have many different opportunities to catch different ones landing on it. The first pic isn't too exciting but you can see what a cool color of blue it is.

Then we have this green one perched upon the oh so popular stick. I really think dragonflies must be the creatures that inspired the creation of fairies in the storybooks. They even have funky looking little faces.

Here we have the photo of a pink one, had a hard time getting one of them to sit still, which I have turned into a painting-I love this one! I wonder how long I would have to sit out there to get one of each color sitting together on the stick, ummm probably not going to happen.

And finally a more artistic shot of a blue one on that stick. Captured all of these with my 70-300mm lens all the way out to 300mm, someday I will have a longer lens but these are still pretty good. Also took them all hand held so pretty pleased with the sharpness though perhaps I will take the tripod out tomorrow aim the camera at that stick and see how much sharper I can get them!
Steph

More Marvin

Today I got some great shots of my favorite duck, the one I call Marvin. He is the mascot of my community. I am told he has lived here for 5 years and is a one of a kind. Usually he is surrounded by a bunch of mallard ducks who also live here. Recently there was about a week though where all of the other ducks vanished and it was just him :(. I have been here almost a year and there have always been about 20 ducks living at the lake here so this was very odd. He was forced to hang around the egrets that stop by from time to time. Then I noticed 2 other ducks appeared and today there were once again a bunch of them out there. I guess they must have gone on vacation. I am not sure if Marvin can fly very well. Today all of the other ducks took flight to fly across the lake and he just swam really fast. Hope you enjoy these photos of my awsome duck friend Marvin!

Old photos

Hi
Wow I went a lot longer than I meant to without a post again. I will be sure to get on a better schedule again. Actually may post a few things back to back. I am working on various things including getting ready to shoot my first wedding! Also I have been working on scanning some old photos. These are all old photos of my grandmother. The first one is my favorite, I put some painting/sketch effects on these to help eliminate some of the noise or fuzziness that comes along with these sorts of photos.

I am only now realising that these first two were obviously taken on the same day. I have a pile of photos and happened to pick both of them, they just seem so classic!

Isn't this last one a beautiful portrait? The photo was very dark and I was able to improve it quite a bit. Love the polka dot blouse. I wish people still dressed classy like this!
Steph

Miley's first birthday

Today, as promised I present photos from the party of Miley the one year old Jack Russel. She and her 'brother' Max belong to my friends Natalia and Matthew. The party was held at the local dog park and a good time was had by all.


The first two pictures are of Miley, the second two of Max, I was amazed how many of the dogs there had no problems wearing party hats even if they did tend to slip to the side. Several weeks ago I posted some photos from the 'Yappy Hour' at Gaspers Grotto in Ybor City. Featured among them were two long haired dachshunds who won the costume contest-I was delighted to find these same two dogs and their owner at the party! She says they are happy to wear anything she puts on them.


Here are some of the other guest having fun, I love dogs they are so sweet and always make me smile!