Every Day is a Gift!
Last week Sophia challenged us to show symmetry in our images. This week Donna has challenged us to show asymmetry – an informal sense of balance.
My first two images use the rule of thirds to show asymmetry.
For some reason I often capture birds in groups of three. The following images are some of my favorite bird trios.
Many thanks to our host Donna for the challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #274 – Asymmetry
Our host Tina has asked us to choose up to 10 of our favorite photos and to explain why they are favorites. If we choose one for sentimental value they should still be strong from a technical perspective.
All of my photos have sentimental value. They bring back fond memories of a good experience. All have been featured on my blog before. The hardest part of this challenge was limiting it to 10 favorites!
My header image is my favorite sunset photo. I pass by this tree to get to my house and I’ve watched many beautiful sunsets there. This is my favorite sunset image because of the dramatic orange sky, the bird on one tree, and the sun framed between two trees just before sinking below the horizon.
This next image of a pair of Orcas in Alaska is one of my all time favorite wildlife photos. We saw plenty of wildlife on our RV trip to Alaska ten years ago but when we reached Valdez, our last coastal town before starting for home, we still had not seen any Orcas. We took a wildlife and glacier cruise on a fairly small vessel and witnessed many whales, seals, puffins and other wildlife before a pod of Orcas surfaced near the boat. I was able to stand by the railing of the boat with my telephoto lens and take a few shots. This is one of my favorites because I captured a moment I will never forget.
Another favorite wildlife photo is this one of a Green Sea Turtle on Oahu’s North Shore in Hawaii. We were surprised when we spotted the turtle as we were taking a walk along the beach after doing some snorkeling.
I love taking bird pictures and I have many photos of Great Egrets. This is one of my favorites because he is showing off his breeding plumage and it shows the green color around his eyes.
This is my favorite hummingbird image. I was looking down on the garden when I captured this hummingbird drinking from a Mexican Sunflowers. I like the way the background is blurred and that the wings are in motion.
The next image just makes me happy. We were walking along Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island on a beautiful July day when I spotted the beach chairs set up underneath the colorful umbrellas in the middle of the driftwood.
One of the most memorable experiences of my life was taking a flight seeing trip to see Mt. Denali in Denali National Park from the air. This is one of my favorites from that exciting flight.
The next image is one of my favorite landscape images. On my morning walk in a campground in Colorado I spotted this fisherman beside the lake with storm clouds over the mountains.
I chose my final two favorites for the reflections and fog. Both of these were featured in past challenges and based on the number of comments I received they were favorites of readers of my blog.
Many thanks to our guest host Tina for the challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #268 – Tell Me Why
Here’s what happened in my world in April, 2023.
I can’t let April go by without mentioning that April is the Month of the Military Child. Military children are also sometimes called Brats. I am proud to be a United States Air Force Brat.
After what seems like a long, cold winter we took a short road trip to the country in early April. We couldn’t go by the Georgia Football Barn Sign on Georgia Highway 15 in Tennile with stopping to snap a few photos. The trees were just beginning to display their green leaves. We spotted a few deer and wild turkeys but I wasn’t able to capture a photo.
I was happy to see that these plants survived the freeze we had around Christmas.
Painted Buntings and other birds started appearing at my backyard bird feeder and in the surrounding salt marsh. The hummingbirds are also here but so far I haven’t been able to get a photo of them.
Our Book Club book for April was “The Blessing of the Celtic Curse”, the first in the Saints of Savannah series. The author, Leigh Ebberwein was our guest at our April meeting. We all loved the book and enjoyed hearing her stories about writing the book.
I also enjoyed reading “Remarkable Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt, “My Sisters Grave” by Robert Dugoni and “Still Life” by Louise Penney.
Shared with Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share
Many thanks to John for this challenge and for mentioning my WanderingDawgs blog in his post. He asks: “For this week’s challenge, I want you to think of your favorite type or style of photography as the road you’ve chosen to take most often.”
I enjoy many types of photography but I my favorite is nature photography.
Many thanks to for John for his challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #240 – The Road (most often) Taken
Our home away from home for our recent getaway to Florida’s Gulf Coast was a cute Airbnb in a quiet neighborhood near Crystal River. It was our first Airbnb experience and it was exactly what we were looking for. When we weren’t out exploring the area we enjoyed just relaxing on the large screened porch or walking around the neighborhood in search of wildlife.
I started each day with a walk. The sunrises were glorious and I enjoyed seeing the many birds each day.
Weeki Wachee Springs State Park was just a 45 minute drive south so we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see the famous mermaid show there. The park is celebrating it’s 75th anniversary this year. In addition to the mermaid shows there is a swimming beach, Ranger led wildlife talks, picnic areas, kayaking and a nature cruise on the Weeki Wachee River. Mermaid statues around the park are part of the 75th anniversary celebration.
We took the nature cruise where we saw Martha, one half of the resident Bald Eagle pair George and Martha, and a Tri-Colored Heron in the mangroves.
The highlight of our visit was attending the mermaid show. We arrived early for the show and while we waited for the main show we were entertained with videos of the history of the park and highlights of some of the old mermaid shows. My favorites were the old black and white videos with the mermaids in their old style swimsuits.
One of my bucket list items was to swim with the manatees in Crystal River. We had done this back in the 1990’s and I’ve been wanting to do it again ever since. We booked an early morning tour with Fun2Dive in Crystal River. Before we left home we watched a manatee manners video which explained what was acceptable and what was not when in the water with these gentle giants.
I donned a wetsuit and met our guide at the dive shop before riding a bus to the dock where we boarded our boat, the Manatee Life for a tour through the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. There are several springs which are protected Manatee sanctuaries in the refuge. Henry stayed on the boat with the captain to watch the manatees from above the water. I was one of four guests who got in the water with our guide. As soon as we hit the water we watched a small female chewing on the anchor line of another boat.
Our guide led us in our search and showed us where to look. We spotted several manatees and stayed in the water for about an hour before getting back on the boat. Our captain then took us on a boat ride around the bay to a second location. The highlight of the day was observing a huge female moving along the bottom grazing on the grass as we watched. She weighed about 1500 pounds and ignored us.
We watched her for a while before it was time to head back to the boat. While we were in the water Henry and the captain spotted a mating herd in the water near us.
Another day we took a drive along the Fort Island Trail. We stopped to walk out on a fishing pier on the Gulf and watched a manatee swim under the pier. We took a walk on a beautiful white sand beach near the pier and stopped at another smaller fishing pier before returning home.
Watching the sunset on Florida’s Gulf Coast was a great way to end each day.
Wandering Dawgs 