Photography Outing

I haven't played with my Nikon D200 in a long time. Which bothers me because it means I'm not getting any practice or any better. There are so many buttons! There's still so much to learn! I want to be inspired, to take great pictures. I'm determined to lug the camera out more often, so Staci and I went to The Huntington Library on our day off this past Friday. It was hotter than heck, but we endured the oven-like heat and took photos for a couple of hours.

Mostly been shooting in aperture mode, still trying to get a feel for it. I hope that one day it will just click (no pun intended) and that this will all come naturally to me! It will take many more outings and thousands more photos, I'm sure...

Here are some photos from the day, you can see all of them in this flickr set.

In the blink of an eye

Yesterday was February. I blinked. And today, today we are partway through June. Summer is approaching and I’m not quite sure how four months passed by so quickly. I have been swamped doing things, but besides a few events, I can’t really account for my time. That’s how life is, though—you get caught up in so many things and before you know it, time just slips through your fingers. So, since I can’t recall the details of what has been keeping me so busy the past few months, let me at least share pics of a few of the events that I do remember...

Old roommate, Ann, was in town during her spring break. It was fun to see her and hang out, we went hiking and biking. We also went on a sail and had an American Pride crew reunion--it was so much fun to see those guys again and made me miss all of our good times on the boat!





Went on our "1st Annual Pt. Mugu Camping Trip", or AKA "5th Annual Malibu Camping Trip" with a group of friends...




Worked. Worked some more. Worked really hard. No, we were really hard at work, I swear...




Alicia and I went to a Rise Above Plastics/Surfrider event that Kat was working. What we learned was to "Recycle, YO!"



Went camping at Mount Laguna...




FINALLY went on a photography outing with my friend Kera. We had been trying to get out with our cameras for months, our last attempt resulted in her breaking her foot. But this time, we successfully made it out and actually took pictures! Here's my shot of a night heron...



Went camping at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We did some hiking, some of it through snow, saw amazing views, relaxed, hung out. It was beautiful and a lot of fun...

Birds, Words, Nerds, Cheese Curds...

Okay, so I've been reading The Princess Bride and Fezzik is getting into my head. It's silliness and fun, run, done, and I just can't help myself. So this post doesn't really have anything to do with words, nerds, or cheese curds (although I do like those things), but I will be talking about birds (which, for the record, I don't usually like.)

Want to talk about fish, invertebrates, plankton, or even algae? Sure, I'm down! But point out a bird to me, and you will most likely lose my interest. Yeah, it's no secret that I'm not a big fan of them (especially those darn pigeons that attack us during lunch.) There's a reason why I skipped ornithology class in college, but birds may be growing on me just an eensie, teensie, weensie bit. First, there are the birds featured in the "Jungles" episode of Planet Earth-- I admit it, those are beautiful and pretty awesome. And then we have a very entertaining Sulphur-crested Cockatoo at work. He talks a lot and is quite a character and makes me laugh every day. Birds have been growing on me enough that I actually enjoyed bird watching at the Bolsa Chica wetlands last week. I even learned how to identify two new birds (which is quite an accomplishment, since I once mistook a heron for a goose. Funny yet sad, I know.) Along with the bird watching, we took a nice little walk on the wetlands path and I also had a chance to play around with the D200 a bit.

Here's one of the birds I learned, the Snowy Egret:


And the other bird I learned, the Great Egret:


And although I don't really care for gulls, I thought this shot was cool--caught it right before he took flight: