Peregrine Falcons Save Lives

Although they may look like nice, unassuming birds, peregrine falcons are formidable hunters that prey on other birds (and bats) in mid-flight.  They hunt from above and, after sighting their prey, drop into a steep, swift dive that can top 200 miles an hour.  They are used at airports to scare other birds away from commercial and military airplanes.  Even larger birds leave the area once they see this small, but determined hunter.  Due to their extreme hunting abilities, they .have saved many lives and thousands of dollars by preventing other birds from flying into airplanes.

"Oh, Great Spirit

"Oh, Great Spirit,
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.
I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and make my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes,
so when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit will come to you
without shame."

Chief Yellow Lark (19th/20th century), USA

Balloon Fest

"Throught-out my whole life, during every minute of it, the world has been gradually lighting up and blazing before my eyes until it has come to surround me, entirely lit from within."  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), France

These balloons glowed from within, creating light for those who were near.

Water Droplets in the Woods

"I feel that God is behind every flower and every tree in the woods. He is behind every mountain rock and every foam-crested wave in the sea."  Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), Norway

This little group of leaves and a spiderweb adorned with water droplets was close to a local waterfall that I photographed yesterday.  The droplets caught my attention and than I noticed the nice color of the neighboring leaves.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 

Retirement

Living in retirement beyond the world,
Silently enjoying isolation.
I pull the rope of my door tighter
And stuff my windows with roots and ferns.
My spirit is tuned to the spring-season:
At the fall of the year there is autumn in my heart.
Thus imitating cosmic changes.
My cottage becomes a universe.

Lu Yun (265-303), China

I Want to be a Cowboy

The second lesson in my book is about checking your camera settings before you start shooting.  Have you ever changed your ISO or set your exposure compensation and then forgotten to change it & ended up with a ruined shot?   I certainly have & it taught me to always check before I shoot.  I once ruined what would have been a great picture of a Trumpeter Swan landing on a lake in Jackson Hole because I forgot to check my controls.  I had shot a moose the night before and had increased my ISO to 1600 and forgot to change it.  With some of today's cameras that might not be a problem, but with the D30 that I was using at that time, it definitely was.  So, remember to check your ISO, exposure compensation, exposure mode, focus point, shooting mode, etc. BEFORE you start shooting. 

This is Teddy B.  We found him in Black Water, a small town in Missouri, & posed him in several  locations there and in Arrow Rock.  You'll probably see more pictures of him in future blog posts.  I've found that stuffed animals make great models.  They're very cute, never complain and always stay where you put them.  LOL!

Little Bear

                                     


You just never know what you're going to find in with your plants.  LOL!

Have a great day!

Know Your Camera

This is the first tip in the photo how-to book I just wrote, "Killer Tips for Better Pics - A Field Guide for Photographers".  If you'd like to order the book just go to blurb.com & put Carolyn Fox in the search box.  It'll bring up information about the book.  If you live locally, however, just let me know & I can save you some money.

The first thing you should do before you leave for your photo shoot is to get very familiar with your camera.  Read you manual & practice changing controls until you can do it in the dark.  If you're out shooting & you don't know how to change shooting modes, set your exposure compensation or change focusing points, you might miss the shot of your life.  So, your first assignment is to become an expert at operating your camera.  That may be the most important tip I can give you, so open your manual, with your camera in hand, & start reading.

Relaxation for the Soul

"The mark of a successful man is one who has spent the entire day on the bank of a river without feeling  guilty about it."  Chinese Proverb

The Jail

Sometimes it's fun to just hop in your car and start driving.  That's what I did yesterday, just my camera and me. This picture is one of the interesting things I found on my "road trip".   It's part of a tiny  building that I found in a small town in Missouri.  I told a friend about it and she thinks that it was a small jail.  I think that's probably correct, but it sure is tiny.  A person would barely have room to lay down on the dirt floor.  I guess that's when prisoners were actually punished when they went to jail.

Killer Tips for Better Pics

If you follow me on Facebook, you know by now that I changed the cover of my latest book to black. I decided it looked better that way and, since it's intended as a field guide that photogs can stick in a camera bag, I thought it might stay looking cleaner for a little longer. At least, I hope people will like it enough to carry it along on photo shoots. There's nothing spectacular in the book, just a bunch of tips that people sometimes forget about. One thing I should have put in there, and didn't think to, is that you should immediately back up your photos and then format the memory card, in camera, of course. I guess that will have to be in the next version. I always back up my photos quickly, but forgot to format the card yesterday, so I had to uncheck the photos that I didn't want to load or just upload them again. I hate it when I forget to format before I start shooting. It's a huge waste of memory card space. Oh well!

This is the proposed cover of the photo how-to book I'm working on. I won't be updating this blog until I've submitted the book for publication. Hopefully, that will be in the next couple of days. Stay tuned.