In this challenge Anne asks us: ”From squirrels to birds, wildlife is around us. What non-domestic animals live in your neighborhood or nearby?”
The salt marsh, salt water creeks, rivers and the Atlantic Ocean attract an abundance of wildlife close to my home in coastal Georgia. Whether on the beach, in the waterways, in my neighborhood, or in my own back yard I am grateful to be able to see such a variety of wildlife.
Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin near Tybee Island, GeorgiaFlock of Terns, Tybee Island, Georgia
In this challenge Sofia asks us to work on exposure. We can use our camera’s shutter speed or play with the aperture settings when we are shooting. Another way to work with exposure is to change the exposure when editing.
This is a great challenge for me because I tend to be on the lazy side and let my camera do the work using the automatic feature. This method is great when I’m shooting wildlife that moves and I don’t have time to change settings quickly. Often, when taking photos of other subjects I’m not happy with the results if I let the camera do the work.
The two images below were taken just minutes apart. I used the camera’s automatic settings for the first image. I used the manual settings to change the shutter speed to 1/20 to achieve the overexposed look for the second image.
In the images below I played with different settings to capture the first camellia of the season. For the first image I set the aperture to a low 4.6. I set the shutter speed to 1/4000 for the second image.
Amy has asked us to share our joy of visiting/climbing mountains. I live in coastal Georgia where the nearest mountains are many miles away. Some of our most memorable trips are ones we took to visit mountains.
A few hours north of where I live is Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia at 4784 feet in elevation. I don’t have a picture of the mountain itself but here is a view from the top.
View from the top of Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia
If we travel a little farther north into North Carolina, Tennessee or Virginia we can visit the beautiful Great Smokey Mountains National Park or take a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Cataloochee Valley Overlook Great Smoky Mountains National ParkBlue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
We can keep going farther north in Virginia to take a ride on the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.
Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
We’ve made a few RV trips to the western United States to visit the majestic mountain ranges there.
Rocky Mountain National Park, ColoradoStorm over Sangre de Cristo Mountains, ColoradoPikes Peak – “America’s Mountain”, ColoradoSandia Crest, New MexicoBighorn mountains in WyomingGrand Teton National Park, Wyoming
We even traveled to the Canadian Rockies.
Banff National Park, Alberta
Of all the mountains I’ve seen, the ones in Alaska are my favorites. The rest of the images are from our RV trip to Alaska several years ago.
Denali (formerly known as Mt. McKinley), 20,320 feet tall, is the tallest mountain in North America. The last three images were taken from three different locations. No matter where you are when you see it, it is an amazing sight.
In this challenge guest host Sarah asks us to pick three favorite photos and describe why they are favorites. I had a difficult time coming up with just three images but here they are.
My first image is one one I took earlier this summer while I was sitting in my back yard. I was hoping to capture birds at the feeder or butterflies on the flowers. The birds and butterflies didn’t cooperate so instead I took a few shots of the coneflowers using my telephoto lens. I’m happy with the effect and like the purplecone flower in the background.
Summer Coneflowers
I couldn’t pick three favorites without including a bird image. This next image is my favorite hummingbird image. I captured him from above as I was sitting on my deck above the flowers.
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
My final image is of two Orcas I captured on a wildlife cruise from Valdez, Alaska. Valdez was near the end of our nearly two months of traveling by RV through Alaska. We saw plenty of humpback whales on two other wildlife cruises but we had not yet seen any Orcas. This wildlife cruise would be our last chance to see them before we headed south for home. I was thrilled when a pod surfaced close to our boat and I was finally able to capture a few shots. This one is one of my favorite photos from the trip.
A pair of Orcas on Columbia Glacier tour from Valdez
Wandering Dawgs 