Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photography. Show all posts

Friday, April 08, 2022

A #Tortoise + A Weather Report + #Crafting

 




The photos at the top of this post are just a couple of random ones I took with my phone's camera of Artemis climbing on a pile of throw pillows on the sofa.  Just because you haven't seen an Artemis photo in a while, so I thought I'd take a photo or two to share with you.


***~~~***


The days are just flying by.  It's hard to believe we're already a week in to April.  But, here we are.


~

 

We got a little bit of snow just as we entered April.  We didn't take photos, because none of it settled.  We did get something like half an inch, but the conditions weren't right for it to stick around once it hit the ground.  I got to have fun catching snowflakes though, so there's that.


Lilie and Logan love when it snows too.  Partially because they do play with the snow a bit (though Lilie wasn't so interested in it this time) but I think mostly because I'm never in any hurry to go indoors when there's snow, which means they get to stay outside longer.  LOL!


~


Since then it's been alternating between rain and hail storms, and sunshine.  And the temperatures have been all over the place as well, so that one day we're opening the windows to let a nice breeze in, and the next we're making sure the windows are firmly closed and looking for warm blankets to snuggle in because it's so cold.


***~~~***


I've been doing a lot with the ACB Crafters.  I'm now part of their admin team, so helping to run some of the classes.  So much for my not wanting anything to do with all this when I was first told about the ACB Community calls about a year ago.  LOL!

 

~

 

Anyway, I have some photos of finished projects to show you.


First, here are two different loom knitted shamrocks I made:




Next, here's a crocheted shamrock and a crocheted mini Easter basket:


I'm thinking of putting the shamrocks on some fabric and turning it in to a shamrock themed throw pillow.  The crochet and smaller loom knitted ones are close to the same size, and anyway all three of them are slightly different, so I thought it would look nice with the big loom knitted one in the middle, and the smaller two one on either side of it.


Anyway, I also made a couple of Easter cards... One with a rabbit head on it, and the other with two sheep on it... These were my own designs, and not following the ones the class was doing, because I didn't have the kit.  Anyway, here they are:



And this is the party hat you'll have seen if you read Lilie's post last week:




~


I also sometimes attend classes via Future In Sight, which Kaila (one of the ones in charge of the ACB Crafters) works for.  Those are held via Zoom like the ACB Crafters ones, and are also aimed at visually impaired crafters.


Anyway, I made this rope coaster in one of those workshops recently:



And, while trying to get the rope coaster made, I somehow made this cone shaped thing, which reminds me of the kind of hat you'd see on a garden gnome, so I've been calling it a gnome hat, and am thinking of making a gnome to put it on.  Anyway, here it is:




***~~~***


Going to let this do for today.


Hope you're having a great week.

Friday, October 29, 2021

Random Ramblings - October 29th 2021

This post is mainly petkid-related, but also contains some other random things I wanted to share.  Enjoy!

 

*~*

 

I took some new photos of Artemis when she was playing in her vivarium after I cleaned it last week.  I'd originally only planned on getting a new shot of her just standing in her vivarium to show how big she's gotten, which is what the first photo is.  But right after I closed the glass doors of her vivarium I heard her making scratching noises, so opened the door back up to see what she was up to, and found her trying to climb her hanging vines.  And then, a few minutes later, caught her peering around the edge of her cave as though checking the coast was clear to come out from behind it.  Anyway, here are the photos:




~


I got a couple of new photos of Mollie too, though they're not fantastic, because she kept darting for cover every time she realized I was trying to take her photo.  Here are the two reasonable photos I got though:




~

 

Artemis is way easier to get photos of.  Mollie is not a fan of the flashy thing.  Plus, it's much easier for someone without sight like me to keep track of Artemis' movements than Mollie's, since tortoises move much slower than chinchillas (though tortoises actually do move faster than you might expect).

 

*~*


Both dogs were meant to get groomed last week, but Logan had more knots in his fur than the groomer expected and she hadn't allowed enough time to work on those and still have time to deal with Lilie.  I had mentioned he had knots in his fur, because Logan has fur with a hint of the poodle curl and the silky fineness of a spaniel, which tangles and knots almost as fast as I brush him, and where the dogs had ended up overdue for their grooming due to their August appointment getting cancelled and my having trouble getting them a new appointment quickly, his tangles had gotten incredibly bad.

 

~

 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up deciding to leave Lilie with the groomer and bring Logan home to do what we could for him ourselves, which essentially boiled down to giving him a home haircut, since we couldn't comb out the knots, so ended upp cutting them out instead.  We did it that way because Lilie is too excitable for us to manage to do ourselves, where as Logan is much more laid back.  Plus, Lilie's claws were a big issue and we couldn't do those ourselves.

 

Well, Logan looks kind of  scruffy, and his haircut is uneven, but at least he's got no knots and tangles in his fur anymore, which is what the groomer said was the important thing.  She said to get the tangles out as quickly as we could - even if we had to take him to another groomer, or cut him ourselves - and worry about making him look tidy again when his fur grows back enough for him to have a proper grooming session in a couple of months time.  So, that's what we did.  And here's the result:





~

 

Amusingly, Logan actually slept through most of the process.  He must really trust me to fall asleep when I'm wielding a pair of scissors near him, that's for sure.  I know I wouldn't have been sleeping in his position... I think few people or animals would have been that relaxed when a blind person was using scissors on them.  But somehow Logan was sleeping so soundly he was snoring a lot of the time, and didn't seem to care about anything besides the fact I was paying attention to him.  I tell you, my dog's mental.  On the bright side, it made it easier to deal with his grooming needs with him asleep.


*~*


I've been making some holiday themed fabric bags as reusable alternatives to wrapping paper for gift giving this year.  Here's one of them so you can see what they look like:




I thought it would be nice to use bags that can be reused for gift giving, rather than wrapping paper that will just be torn and thrown away.  And I thought it would be even nicer still if I made them myself.  But I wanted them to still look festive, hence the holiday themed fabric.  I still need to make a couple more, and also make tags so I know which bag is for who, but I thought I'd show you one of the completed bags so you can get an idea of what they'll look like when I've sewn each one.

 

*~**

 

Two weeks ago, I got a call from the hospital asking me to go there to see their doctor again, since he wanted to discuss my test results with me.  I was kind of concerned, since the only thing I could think of was that they saw something they felt needed discussing in the results of the tests they sent off when I was there a couple of weeks before.  Bearing in mind, they said they'd only get in touch about them if there was something of note in the results.  Anyway, I was meant to go last Thursday (October 21st).


Then, a couple of days later, I got a call telling me not to go to that appointment after all, because the doctor wanted a couple more weeks before he saw me so as to be able to have enough time pass between blood tests, because he wanted to check my levels again.  Which suggests he wants to check my heamoglobin and platelet levels again.  And they've made me an appointment for November 8th.


So, now I'm not entirely certain if they found something in those tests they're concerned about, just want to check my levels - especially with how low my platelets were last time - or both.  I guess I'll find out on November 8th.  In the meantime, I'm trying not to worry about it.  Yeah, anyone who knows me knows how well that's working out.  LOL! But I'm trying.


*~*


I feel like I've said this a lot this year, but: our weather's been a bit all over the place recently, with mild almost warm days, rather chilly days, dry days, wet days, days somewhere in between, and days where it can't decide which to be.  We've even had a couple of storms.  Mostly rainstorms - Wales is good at those.  But there was an impressive thunderstorm early on the morning of October 20th.

 

At least, I thought it was an impressive thunderstorm.  Logan wasn't so impressed.  He's still not a huge fan of storms.  OK... He hates them.  Though at least he doesn't get quite as scared as he used to, and only cowers against me rather than whining and barking in fear like he did as a puppy.   Lilie isn't really bothered by them.  Neither is Mollie, except if storms cut off the power and she loses her music or TV.  And as for Artemis... She was sleeping, and I'm not even sure she noticed the storm happened (though I strongly suspect she knew it was coming, since she dug in early the night before the storm).

 

~

 

We tried filming the thunderstorm, but - though it was impressive, asI said - the thunder and lightning were spaced so far apart we kept missing getting it on camera. We did, however, get a video of the rain, where you can also hear my wind chimes tinkling in the wind that accompanied the rain.  And here it is:



*~*


Lilie had a vet checkup yesterday.

 

She has to be evaluated regularly because of the pills she has for her skin irritation issue.


The skin irritation issue (which is a common problem for certain breeds, Westies among them) has moved to her ears, so now - on top of the pill she has every day - she has to have drops in her ears.  At least for a while.  As it stands at the moment, it's twice a day for a week, once a day for another week, and then every other day for a couple of weeks.  After that we talk to the vet again.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

A #Tortoise And #Cavapoo #Photo Shoot - #Blind Photographer

I've been playing with the camera again.

I played around with the camera a little with Lilie and Logan, and made a few attempts - mostly failed ones - with Mollie. But I was able to do it a lot with Artemis, since the tortoise is easier to work with. Though Logan's not too bad of a subject to work with, since he stays still better than Mollie and Lilie do. Artemis is the easiest by far though. I mean, Artemis is a fast tortoise, but fast tortoises are still much slower than dogs and chinchillas, and easier to keep track of, especially for someone like me who's trying to use the camera and still have a hand free to see where things are. After all, I only have two hands!

Anyway, you've seen some of the results of my attempts at playing photographer over the past couple of weeks, though not every photo or video I've shared lately was done by me. I didn't do the videos and photo of Mollie from this past Friday's post, or the videos I'll be sharing next Friday (not this coming Friday, but the next one) for example. But here are some photos I did do that I haven't shared with you yet. Haven't shared on here anyhow, since they've been on Facebook for a bit. Either way, here they are. And, yes, I took all of the photos in this post myself.

First, here are some shots I got of Artemis slowly stomping about and playing in the tortoise playpen...


Next, here are some shots of Artemis eating some lettuce...


Plus, since I had a reasonably co-operative subject to work with, I decided to play with some of the camera functions, and discovered our camera has a setting where it can actually do black and white photos...


Well, to be honest, I should probably say, "Rediscovered," there, since I'm pretty sure I originally knew the camera could do black and white photos. I'm almost certain I knew it could, even if I wasn't sure how. It certainly didn't come as a surprise to me to learn it could do it. But we've had this camera for about three years now, and not really used any of the settings apart from the automatic photo taking function, and the video mode.

Oh, and... In case you were wondering: yes. Though I rediscovered it could do that by accident (and only realized I'd made it happen when the photos were being sorted afterwards) I do know how I made the camera do the black and white photos.

Anyway, I also have a few photos of Logan to share with you today, so here they are:


I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Versatile Blogger Award From Cat

I was nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award, by Cat from The Strawberry Post, a couple of weeks ago. Thank you, Cat!

For those who don't know what they are, here are the rules:
  • Thank the person that nominated you for the award.
  • Include a link to their blog.
  • Nominate 15 other bloggers.
  • Share seven things about yourself in your blog post.

I already said, "Thank you," above. But I'll say it again: thank you, Cat! The award is very much appreciated. If you don't know Cat, you should check out The Strawberry Post.

OK, so... Seven things about me. Hmmm... I'm going to try and keep this interesting for long-time readers, as well as anyone who happens to be new here, so I hope you all enjoy learning these things about me, and sorry to those who have been following me long enough that they know some - or all - of these things already. Ready? OK. Here you go:

  1. When I was 18 years old, I flew half way around the world to meet a man I'd been dating online for some time. On my own. Yeah... It was only much later I actually considered all the things that could have potentially gone wrong with that. Luckily for me, it turned out well, and I later married him.
  2. I used to love doing photography when I still had some sight to use for it. I was never great, but I tried, and was interested enough to attempt to get good shots. So much so that, despite my Dad having a keen interest in photography himself, I was the first in our family to get a digital camera (which my parents brought me for Christmas... Probably figuring it would be cheaper than me keep wanting photos developed). I still like to "play" with the camera from time to time. Unfortunately, most of the shots I get these days aren't worth sharing... Unless you're in to shots of table legs, a single dog's ear, and things like that, which I doubt.
  3. WARNING: Possible PTMI alert on this one!
    I haven't been able to face the idea of eating chocolate cake since I was a teenager. Someone offered me some while I was changing a toddler's nappy (diaper). From that day on, the thought of eating chocolate cake has made me feel sick. Even now, when it's been almost 20 years. I can make and serve it for others with no problems. The moment I consider eating it myself, I instantly start to feel sick. Doesn't matter what kind it is. Other chocolate things are fine. It's just chocolate cake that gives me a problem. I'm even feeling sick thinking about it enough to write this.
  4. I've been writing since I knew how, and publishing since 2012. I now have more than 50 published titles to my name - some poetry collections, and the rest children's stories - available in multiple formats from a variety of online retailers. There's a fantasy and sci-fi anthology I contributed to as well, which is only available in eBook.
  5. I'm one of those people who prefers to stay home on a Friday or Saturday night. Always have been. My idea of a perfect Friday night is a nice walk with the dogs, followed by an evening curled up with a book. Actually, that's my idea of a perfect end to any day, regardless of the day, time of year, weather, etc. I used to offer to babysit for family friends to get out of going to the pub, or to parties, and don't regret doing so.
  6. I hate shopping, despite my Mam's best efforts to get me to like it. With two exceptions: petstores and bookshops. I can spend hours - and a lot of money - in either of those, buying toys and things for my furkids, or books for myself. Take me in any other type of shop though, and I'll be looking for the quickest way to get things done and get out of there. Online shopping is one of the things I actually like about the technology we have today, because I can do my food shopping without having to set foot in a food shop, and get clothes when I need them without having to go to clothes shops. Doesn't make me like shopping, but it helps.
  7. I only like wearing casual clothes like jogging bottoms or shorts with a t-shirt, and never wear dresses. In fact, I hate wearing dresses so much I got married in a pair of jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. I'm pretty sure it was an ADIDAS t-shirt. Kelly was in a pair of casual trousers, and a t-shirt I'd brought him that had a dragon on it. Hey, it was our day, it was a small ceremony anyhow, and we were comfortable dressed like that, so... *shrugs*

As for tagging people: I'm going to cheat here. I know plenty more than 15 bloggers who deserve this award. However, I also know that a lot of the bloggers I follow don't do these things. So, I'm just going to say that if I follow your blog, I think you deserve this award. So, if you're someone I follow who follows me back, and you want to claim the award - I think there's a picture for it in Cat's post, if you want a fancy image - consider yourself tagged. Just let me know you're playing along, so I can make sure not to miss your post.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

#Blind #Ocean #Photography, #Crafting Kits, Technical Issues, Weather Reports, And Day To Day Life



The photos at the top of this post are ocean photos taken during one of our walks with Lilie. In this case, on May 15th 2019. I took them while we were resting on a bench along the seafront. If you look at the second one, you should see that I snapped it just right to catch a passing bird in the shot.

Yes. I've been playing with the camera. Mostly I've been leaving photography up to Kelly. In fact, since we got the new camera just before my zoo experience, I haven't even touched it other than to hand it to him. Until recently, when I decided to have a go at using it. So I've been playing with it with Lilie - photos of her to come at the end of the month, since they're all in a post from her - and took a couple of photos while we were along the seafront last week. I've only had a couple of shots where I didn't get what I wanted in the shot properly. I guess all that practice when we used to have the bird feeder when we still lived in Wales, when Iggy patiently checked photo after photo for me in hopes of a successful bird shot - something I'm very grateful to him for having the patience and willingness to do - paid off. *wink*

Anyway, for the benifit of those who like to know: my May Makerly box contained a wet felt purse kit, which they say can be used to make a pouch for something else rather than a little coin purse, if you don't want a coin purse (they suggest something like a mobile phone pouch). These kits are certainly going to have me trying some new crafts.

Oh, and... Speaking of craft projects: there's progress on the unicorn, but Kelly hasn't quite finished helping me touch up the paintwork yet. Not because there's a lot to do for it, but because we've been doing other things. As eager as I am to get on with my next craft project, crafting has had to take a bit of a back seat over the past couple of weeks. It seems to happen like that for us though, despite my efforts to balance things out. We go in stages, where one thing gets made the priority for a while, and then another thing does, until we come back to the first thing. It all works out in the end though, so it's no big deal. At least, I don't think it is.

In other news...

I was almost no longer on Facebook, and if it happens again, I won't be on Facebook any more. Long story short, Facebook locked my account, and my attempts to prove I was me weren't working. I got to the stage where I wasn't even going to try any more, deleted the app from my phone, and sent out messages telling Facebook friends I could contact in other ways that I couldn't get on it any more. Then, Monday morning, I finally got the code through on my phone for the only way to prove I was me that was accessable to me, so was able to regain access to my account after all. Except the same thing happened again a few hours later, only I got back in quicker. As I said, if it happens again, I won't be on Facebook any more; if it happens again, I'm just deleting Facebook. If that happens, Kelly - who also has admin rights on my author page - will maintain that, and those of you who I connect with through Facebook will have to keep in touch in other ways. There's via this blog, Twitter, Goodreads, or eMail. I'm also on YouTube, which isn't as easy for keeping in touch, but I figured I might as well mention too.

On a more cheerful note, for those interested in weather reports: the weather's been lovely during the day over the past week, and kind of chilly but otherwise nice at night. We've had lots of times when we could have the window open. I was even able to leave it open all night one time. I love when I can do that. I'd do it more, but I have to think of others with temperatures. Mollie would be OK, since chinchillas can handle cold, but Joshua might not be. I'm willing to sacrifice having my window open more if it means reducing the chance he'll get sick. Especially with him getting up there in years in degu terms. It did get kind of cold and drizzly one day. But one day out of seven, and only a bit of light drizzle at that, isn't a big deal.

Anyway, it's been one of those weeks where it's a busy and productive week, but it's difficult to explain what took up all the time. We've been trying to finish up some stuff before the end of the month, so we're all caught up before the thing that's happening in June. My reading and DVD watching goals for the year are among those things. On top of that, the sores Kelly had on his legs before have come back, and this time the doctor is sending him for a bunch of tests to look in to why properly, so he's got various appointments to go to, one of which involved him having several vials of blood taken, so feeling pretty lousy and drained for a day or so afterwards. Then there are all the general day to day tasks that seem to need doing again as fast as you catch up with them. I'm sure you know the ones I mean.

We have more appointments coming up, since Lilie has an appointment to get her nails trimmed tomorrow (she doesn't wear them down properly on walks, even though she walks on concrete a lot; it's common for small dogs not to wear their nails down properly, and to need them trimmed regularly) as well as her yearly vet check-up, I've got the dentist stuff still being sorted, and Kelly's not done with his appointments yet.

You might think we should postpone the thing happening in June because of all the stuff going on. But we can't. Even if we could, I wouldn't want to. I'm super excited about it happening. When I tell you what it is, I expect you'll understand why. Those who know me well will anyhow. Besides, there's always something, isn't there? So it's happening, and I'm really looking forward to it. Just a couple more weeks.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

#Photos Taken With Our New Camera

My "keeper for the day experience" at drucillas park is this coming Wednesday.

Now, we can't guarantee we'll be allowed to take photos of everything. But we want to be able to take decent photos whenever taking photos is an option. I mean, if taking photos will upset the animal in question, we'll obviously avoid doing so. But we want to capture photos of as many of my animal encounter experiences as possible, as I'm sure you can understand.

Unfortunately, the camera we've had for the past several years isn't that great: we keep forgetting how to work the flash, and the lense keeps getting dirty. This means we either get blurry shots, or shots that are too dark to see anything. Remember those times it's looked like a bad day and I've said it wasn't? That was our old camera playing up.

My iPhone has a camera on it, which does take good photos. But the battery doesn't last long on it because of me needing to use voiceover all the time, and the battery life is even worse when I'm using TapTapSee to take photos (if you don't know, TapTapSee is a talking photo app for iPhones, and the only way I can take and interact with photos successfully using my phone). Not to mention, taking photos using TapTapSee is a slow process. This means that using my phone to take photos will only be an option for maybe a couple of shots (if we're lucky) and will then leave us with a phone that has no battery in it... Not the end of the world, but not ideal (especially when we're so far from home). Oh, and there's the small problem of Kelly not being very good at using my iPhone, which means him taking photos of me doing things is rather difficult to say the least, since he takes even longer than I do, due to me needing to talk him through each stage of it.

So, we did the only thing we could think to do: we brought a new camera.

In all fairness, we've been saying we could do with a new camera for some time.

Anyway, it's a Canon IXUS 285 HS Digital Compact Camera, if you're interested in knowing exactly what we got. Not the most fancy of cameras, perhaps... There were much fancier ones (with much higher price tags, of course). But much better than the old camera; Canon is usually a good make, and was one of the brands approved by my Dad, who knows a lot about photography.

So, we got it a couple of weeks ago, and have been testing it out a little to see how it works. The photos of the rodent gang I've put up since the start of March were taken with the new camera, and so were the photos I'm about to show you (the ocean photo from last week was taken with my iPhone, in case you're wondering).

Anyway... Enjoy!

(The photo above is a view of the ocean from our living room window, and was taken late afternoon on March 2nd 2017).

(The photo above is another view of the ocean from the same window, which was taken later in the evening on March 2nd 2017).

(The photo above is a night time view out of the same window, just to show we get more than just a blank dark image when taking nighttime photos with the new camera, and I believe was also taken on March 2nd 2017).

(The photo above is of the nearby church steeple, and was taken from another of our windows, this time on March 3rd 2017).

Thursday, February 16, 2012

What I made for the Valentine's Swap

Now I know Autumn has the items, I can reveal what I made for her for the Valentine's swap (for the benifit of those who are interested and follow my blog, but don't follow hers). Here's the knitted dog I made: I'm really pleased with how the dog turned out; I think it's my best knitted toy ever! When I showed my Dad the photo he mentioned the orange-ish colouring to it, and pointed out that was due to the use of artificial lighting; said I should have taken it outside to get the photo. But since it was raining when we wanted to get the photo and I had to get it ready to be posted (as it was it only just made it in time for Valentine's Day) I can't really help that. Anyway... Here's the card: There was a keyring I made too, but I forgot to get a photo of it.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Storms, cameras, birds and helicopters

We've had some really weird weather lately. It's been alternating between being beautiful, dry and sunny, and being stormy. Always hot though! I'm not sure exactly how hot, but too hot for me! The weirdest day - weather wise, I mean - this past week was Sunday though. At one point on Sunday it was trying to rain, but it was so hot the rain was evaporating before it even had time to properly settle on anything. It was strange being out in the rain and not actually ending up wet. I could feel the rain drops landing on me, but the spot they landed on was dry before I could even get my hand to it. The photo above was taken just before one of the storms started. And the photo above this text, which appears to be of a Collared Dove, was one of the first photos taken with my new camera. Actually, all the photos in this post were taken with my new camera. None of the ones in other recent posts were though... They were all from my old camera. My old one still works OK at the moment, but I got a new one last Thursday. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that my old one is making a weird noise, which we can't even figure out how it's making, and because of that we aren't sure how much longer it will continue to work for (it's already slower than normal to respond when you try and do anything with it). The other is that I wanted a camera that would be easier to carry around with me, and my old one - which was brought for all its functions, and for the fact the screen on it was large and easy to see - is a bit bulky for taking around in your bag with you unless you're definately sure you'll be using it. While I was still able to see the screen I needed the bigger camera, but now that screen size makes no difference anyway - and since my old camera sounds close to giving up the ghost - I wanted one small enough to carry about with me. So, last Thursday - after my hospital appointment - Mam took me to find what I wanted. And I tried it out over the weekend. Oh yeah, for those who are interested, my new camera is a Vivicam 5399. Anyway... We think the bird in the above and below photos is a House Sparrow. With the second shot I was actually aiming to get the helicopter as it circled above us... The bird was just a bonus. :) A close-up of the helicopter... I did consider trying to use the helicopters to do an interesting post about helicopters. Unfortunately, I know nothing about them (except that they can fly). I've only ever even seen one up close once, and I was only about 10 years old at the time. It was a police helicopter I saw during a class trip to a police station. Anyway, I'm not even sure where to start with looking for helicopter information. Plus, my interest in them only goes as far as, "oh, look! A helicopter!" Meaning that I'm lacking in the enthusiasm required to make someone want to look for information on a given topic. Which basically translates to, "I don't know anything about helicopters, and I really can't be bothered to look anything up." Hope you enjoyed the photos though. OK, that'll do from me for now... Enjoy whatever's left of your day, and - to those who, for one reason or another, aren't well at the moment - get well soon! *Hugs and healing thoughts* :) Tori

Saturday, June 20, 2009

More bird photography

Yep, me and my camera have been in the garden again. And look... Two birds this time! :) One of the birds in the above photo appears to be a House Sparrow (like all of the birds in the photos in my post from Monday) and the other one appears to be a Collared Dove. But my aim wasn't to get birds sitting on the shed really (though I did manage it quite well). No, this time I wanted birds in flight, perhaps on their way to or from the feeder? Something like - for example - this photo... Chow down little House Sparrow! :) I'm getting good at this! :) Tori

Monday, June 15, 2009

Bird photography

As most - if not all - of you know, I've been trying to get photos of the birds that visit my garden. I posted a couple of photos some time ago that were taken by other people for me, but I wanted to do it myself. The camera is mine, the blog is mine, and I wanted to prove to everyone that losing my sight hasn't stopped me doing what I love. And I've always enjoyed taking photos and showing them off. I mean, I've owned cameras since I was about ten years old. And I know I have, because I spacifically remember when I got my first one... It was given to me by my Nan when we went on holiday to Cyprus. Anyway, I got my current camera almost three years ago, and had only had it for a year when I lost the sight I'd had. This meant I never learned the functions on it well enough to have them memorised. It also meant that my ability to spot a good shot and attempt to capture it became non-existant. And I didn't see the point of trying. So, I just left the photography to others. That is, until recently. There have been a few times when - in order to get a shot of everyone - I've been the one holding the camera. And - judging by comments made by various people - I haven't been doing too bad of a job. This inspired me to attempt to take photos myself again. So, for the past two weeks, I've been trying to get photos of the birds in the garden myself. I hadn't been having much luck. I managed to get some really nice shots of other things, but no birds. But I was determined I was going to get at least one bird photo. So, I sat on a chair in the kitchen and waited, and listened. And then I heard it... The flutter of wings, and the sound of a bird eating seed. There was a bird at the feeder, and all I had to do was get the camera aimed through the open back door and I'd have my photo. I hadn't had much luck with doing this so far, but maybe this time? I tried all sorts of angles, then... Jackpot! We have a bird! :) This next one is the same bird, but the photo has been cropped for me. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but if I had to guess from the description I was given then I'd guess Goldfinch. My Dad is pretty good at identifying birds, so perhaps he can come and take a look and let us know? Anyway... Determined to get more bird photos, I settled myself just outside the back door with my camera, and waited. Got it! Except the camera decided to focus on the tree rather than the bird... No problem! I took more! :) I even got it to look at me. It only took me two weeks and about 200 photos to get these bird photos. But I got the shots eventually! :) Before I close this post, I just want to say one more thing... Thank you Iggy for having the willingness and patience to go through all those photos for me. I really appreciate it. *Hugs* :) Tori