Wildlife Photography May Not Be My Thing

Admittedly, there were a few flaws in my "wildlife photography" execution today.  I put some birdseed out on the brick planter at the front of the house, and I don't think the squirrels knew it was there.  I also had a full-figured dog with me, who may (or may not) bark at wildlife.  I also only sat outside for about 25 minutes before it was time for me to get dinner for the dogs.

However, I'm not sure that I have the patience to sit out for hours at a time in hopes of getting "the shot". Of course, I'm also not sure about the wisdom of training the squirrels to come up on the planter in search of birdseed, but that might not stop me...

Anyhoo, this was the best of my wildlife photography.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't quit my day job just yet.

Guard Doodle, defending the porch from squirrels.

In my defense, I wasn't actually planning on photographing birds (one of the rotten squirrels knocked my bird feeder off its hook yesterday and I haven't hung it back up yet).  But still....  I think I might want to stick to Wild Doodles.

Unlike actual wildlife, Wild Doodles can be lured out into the open with tennis balls - which make them vastly easier to track and photograph.  (And it requires much less patience on the part of the photographer...)

Day 175/365.

Fun With Tennis Balls

Yep, more fun with tennis balls.

A rare sighting of the Velociraptor Doodle

Somedoggie seems to have been watching World Cup soccer while I've been at work!

Clearly Fi is starting to rehearse for Doodle Lake!

Hi Mom!

Ear flappage!

Happy tennis ball zoomies!

Day 174/365.

I Took A Lot of Pictures Today

I actually didn't realize until I had pulled them off the camera that I had take 161 pictures today.  Admittedly a bunch of them were immediately deleted (heads cut off, out of focus, etc.), but I still had a bunch of them to go through.   The only thing I have to say about these is that I shot them all on manual, because I like being able to use a smaller aperture (more depth-of-field) while still getting good action shots.  Beyond that, well, I had great intentions to spread out some sunflower seeds and get photos of squirrels (and no comments from the peanut gallery, Mom...), but that didn't happen.   So more doggie photos.  Not that that is a bad thing...

Day 173/365.

Patriotic Doodle, First Attempt and Going Manual

One of Fi and Abby's friends (in 'blogville' - they've never actually met, but they are good buddies on Facebook and they visit each other's blogs) is this painfully cute Golden Retriever named Newton.   Last year, when Newton was a wee pup, his parents got a picture of him holding an American flag in his mouth. There were rumors that there might have been some cheese wrapped around the little flag pole, but given Newton's general awesomeness we find it hard to believe that he required any 'performance enhancing' substances!  (Yes, I've just finished reading a book on Lance Armstrong  Why do you ask?)  To see what the picture of Newton looks like, check out this link: http://www.cafepress.com/mf/79344951/4th-of-july-patriotic-puppy_sticker?productId=1188611828 (Newton's parents sell the image, and I haven't contacted them to see if I could post the actual photo, and I didn't want to do so without their permission.  But trust me.  It is painfully cute.  Go check it out.)

Anyhoo, I have long desired to come up with a similar photo of either Fi or Abby, or both.  In my attempts to do so, I discovered that neither one of them understands the concept of holding something in their mouths. Other than tennis balls (with they are both reluctant to give up).  So, I finally came up with the brilliant idea of sticking one of the flag in the tennis ball.

Today was my first attempt at this, and while I had some lighting issues (mostly Fi kept moving around and I wasn't fast enough in moving the lights around, and Fi was rapidly losing interest in the project, so I had to accept that the first time around wasn't going to be perfect), I was pleased with the results.  (For some reason, blogger has lightened these photos - no idea why...)

You get the idea.  We've got some work to do before the 4th of July, but this was an encouraging first step.

In other excitement, I've been getting a little frustrated with the shutter-priority setting - even at 1/4000 sec, on sunny days, it drops the aperture to f/3.0, making it very hard to get photos that have any depth-of-field (so anything that isn't in the immediate area of focus gets very fuzzy).  So, I took another stab at the manual setting.  While I had to do a lot more adjusting of shutter speed and aperture to get what I wanted, it finally worked out.

Look up, Abby!

Day 172/365.

Ready to Relax

It's been a busy week and I'm ready for the weekend and a little relaxation.  I'm going to take my cue from Fi.

Hanging out in the shade.

I actually got a bunch of action shots of the girls, and here are a few, in no particular order.

Day 171/365.

Business as Usual

The snow is gone (except for two stubborn clumps on the back porch that will likely be gone by morning), and it is back to business as usual.  For uninitiated, that means tennis ball action!

Day 170/365.

The Aftermath of the Storm

Yesterday's snow storm came in quickly, dumped 3 inches of snow and moved on by 10pm or so.  This morning it was brisk, but warming up quickly, so there was a lot of melting.  Fi had a vet appointment today, so I stayed home and we went on an early walk before Fi had to be there by 8:30am.  Abby and I then spent some quality time during the day before I picked Fi up at 2pm.   The snow had pretty much completely melted by the time Fi and I got home, but we still managed to have fun in the afternoon.

So, I got a few shots of everything.  Some scenery photos...

Some dog-in-snow photos...

And some tennis ball action...

If you look closely, you can see some downed branches in the background.  The snow brought down a few branches,  and there is some clean-up to be done, but luckily there was no serious damage.

And luckily a little snow remained in the shadows and Fi was able to get some snowball action, too!

We now return to our regularly-scheduled weather.

Day 169/365.