Waiting for a meal.

Was that the dinner bell?

Nope...just a midnight snack.  I'll save you for later.

You may need to ctrl N on these pics.

There were 11 hummers at this feeder yesterday after a thunderstorm. I guess they were too hungry to be territorial. The little lady in the last shot kept shooing away the others today.
Hummer Hummer Hummer Hummer Hummer

WooooooofrigggggginHooooo......

DSC_3818 DSC_3847 DSC_3950 DSC_3953 DSC_3859

Experimented a little yesterday with action mode after spotting some young men playing baseball on the beach, shooting @ 9 frames per second.

Pitcher throws, ball is almost half way there.

Ball in air, over half way, almost blanked out by white water background.

Ready to swing, ball just off big end of bat.

A mighty swing, and miss!  Ball at waist.

Powerful follow through, but ball near ground between batter's legs.

All over but the cussing, ball rests on ground by right foot.

Female Hummer a1
Female Hummer a2
Hummer a3
Bee Butt
Bee 01
 Sunny Day

I'm ready poppabear Safe little worker When I get big... and for the challenge. Rainfall Drop off

...FIRE

...

Didn't intend this to be so late but I was hoping to get a few lessons on PS elements from my son before posting.  That hasn't happened so these are all untouched just as the camera caught them.  I'll work on cleaning up the street light on the right and some of the busy work of lower fireworks.  My wife thinks I should leave those however as it "adds something".  I'm on the fence and will be interested in your opinions on the matter and see what happens.  So, with out further adu. It's time for Red, White, and Boom.

I started with my XT set to TV (apeture priority) and set it to F16.  As it tried to focus on the black sky and figure out exposure time, my first shot resulted in an  Ugly 30 seconds where I could do nothing  but wait.  I immediately threw the settings over to M (Manual) and set the exposure to bulb so that I had full control.  I used a remote (wired) and of course a tripod and things started looking up.  I also focused on one of the buildings near the point of focus then switched to manual focus so that I wouldn't have to suffer any mis-focused shots because the camera tried to help.  Trying to keep an eye on the screen things looked a bit dim.  So remembering my reading on the subject of fireworks from here an a Cannon forum I also visit, I remember that anything from F8-F16 works and it's a personal preference as well as location etc.  So I adjusted to F8 and while the Center of the explosions is a bit bright/overexposed, I preferred the rest of the color and thought I could fix some of that in PSE.

So those are my settings XT Kit lens at varied degrees of zoom, bulb so I had total control of the exposure and F8 on the apeture and ISO 100 of course.  At this point, I did my best to settle into a rhythm of triggering the exposure just before the blast and held it till either just before another or till I thought it was a good stopping point. Sometimes I missed, while other times, I got some interesting colors. Some were Neon looking, and others were were more simple.  There were the palms, as well as the wilting ones. The big stars are always popular, as are the flowers.  Of course fireworks wouldn't be complete without the golden water falls.  All in all I took about 118 captures in 28 minutes of program.  From my perspective things were much better   through the camera including my personal favorite of red, white, and blue.

Hope you have enjoyed and I didn't wear you out with reading or watching the displays.  I guess I was a more than a little pleased to get so many decent shots.  Please comment and critique so I can make it better next year or know what to PSE under my son's tutoring.  All pointers welcome and appreciated.

  The other night went to a minor league baseball game..took a few pictures and after viewing this one just had to show for the challenge  ~~~~.
  From the big players to small guy T Ball

  Trying the O effect ~~~
 
  Take Care

Caught a robin doing a little worm flinging.

Thanks CF, this challenge has been a lot of fun!

...with the twins.  I took them to the park before lunch to play and take pictures.  Ten year old girls love to pose for a picture.  There was a little stuffed dog that kept trying to get into the picture.  He is Courtney's constant companion.  Guess which one is the more active twin.
Twins Swinging this is for the challenge!
Courtney Tree and Lauren Tree
Twin Spiders A and Twin Spiders B
Courtney Quiet and Lauren Surfing

It was in the 80's today and nothing was moving in the zoo but people...and flamingos...but that's alright with me...I like flamingos...

Fight time in the shower!
Surf's up, dude...
Dunking for diamonds....
Peek-a-boo drop...
Just a drop more....

Other than wanting to get in the water with them...I'll post more...

Comments welcome!
Blessings!

Here's a composite made from several photos from a recent game....he's only 10 and has hit 60 mph on the gun!...but no curves...yet. I'm a proud Dad, can you tell!8x10_Dylan07_pitch Here's a composite made from several photos from a recent game....he's only 10 and has hit 60 mph on the gun!...but no curves...yet. I'm a proud Dad, can you tell!

Here are a couple of pictures taken several years ago with a Sony DSC-S85:

H feeding Gulls
Z on Christmas

And a more recent picture taken with a Nikon D40x with 55-200mm DX lense.

Flying Finch Feeding

Fishing IMG_5325

Gotcha Gotcha

left a hole in the water and water drops in the air IMG_5327

When water drops hit the water body
IMG_5328

These are rather subtle action freezes, but I liked them anyway.

meow
lick

Running
Shake it off (Or as Michael likes to say, he looks like a member of an '80s hair band)
What?
I know this one isn't really freezing action, but it just goes so well with the one above it.

Comments, critiques, criticism?

Have a great day!

We didn't have as many fireworks as usual this year.  It was so dry we limited them to a few shells and sparklers in the driveway.

Double
Burst
Palm
Fairy Dust

These turn out much better if the person has decent handwriting.  Everyone had fun trying.  Shannon Sparkler

Thanks Robin for reminding me that these would fit the challenge! :)

I went to Fort Mac Arthur's "A Moment in Time" this weekend. They have every form of combat "troop" from Roman Centurains to the Iraq war....even Indians. It's a wonderful way to spend the weekend...even if the neighbors are a bit noisy....
There was quite a bit of fog in the morning so I'm switching back and forth between color and B&W...tell what you think..

The Battle at Bataan
Box's Brawlers
Fighting on Iwo Jima
Flags of....
B&W Flags

These next 3 are for the Challenge...
Stop action...
They had another photographer there! Well!
Oh No! It's a short way to the bottom...

Comments welcome
Blessing to all!

on the Chickahominy River..presenting the  Tubers , my daughter Katie and nephew Joe. restingslow start  fun. Here's Joe having lotsof fun. These were very difficult to get right and in focus as the water was choppy, boat bumpy and camera obviously hand held.
Please forgive the overabundance of shots, but I just couldn't pick a few.