Ha! We're into the second lovely week in a row. Many years this would be par for the course (for the past several months) and nothing to comment on, but this year every nice day we get is one to be cherished.
This being the case, I've been beyond busy with my photo collecting, both for my own enjoyment and working through the backlog of client bookings, some of which have been deferred for months now while we were waiting for no (or minimal) mud, decent light and nice temperatures. Now it's a bit of a race to the finish line to get everyone fitted in, the main problem being that we don't know where (or when) the finish line might be, so I'm working on the "do it as soon as possible" principle. It's been a bit hectic but I think I might just get all the planned shoots done before the weather gives way again.
I find it very hard to stay indoors when the weather is nice, on the theory that I'll have more than enough indoor months when winter sets in, so even if I'm not booked for an outdoor shoot, I go off and make my own opportunities. I headed to the zoo to check things out last week, expecting to be one of the few people there as it was a weekday. But no. The fabulous weather had drawn large numbers of people to enjoy the lovely fall colours and to check out the animals. Shot one shows the young grizzlies having a tussle in their enclosure. The fellow on the right had just emerged from a long and lazy "bath" in their pool where he was having a lovely time just soaking and playing with some leafy branches before emerging to engage in mock warfare with his room-mate.
Shot two is one I caught as I was leaving Ebon stables later in the week. It shows our young (well, young compared to me, at any rate) barn manager coming in from a ride across the fields in late afternoon. That was the same afternoon that I finally had my first glimpse of the Ebon moose, a creature I have been hoping to spot for a couple of years now. I had my gelding on the east side of the barn enjoying some grass, when I noticed a cloud of dust in the field across the road. Something was churning along towards the road at a fair rate of speed, and at first I thought it was an escaped cow or bull, but then I realized it was rather an odd shape, in addition to the fact that there aren't any cattle anywhere in the vicinity of the stables. I did have my camera (with the right lens on it even) at the barn with me, but it was locked in the car, plus I had this large horse attached to me by a lead shank. I rushed Alpac back into the barn as fast as I could (not being quite sure where the moose was coming and what the horse would do when he saw or smelled it) and dashed for the car keys so I could liberate the camera and record the moment, but of course there wasn't enough time to get a shot. By the time I had the camera (and a couple of other witnesses to the sighting) the moose was obscured by the line of bushes to the north of the barn. So, no photo, but at least I have now seen the Ebon moose. 
Sunday morning we made our annual "family and friends" trek to Pike Lake, for the birthday breakfast that commemorates my husband's and my younger daughter's birthdays, which are only a few days apart. We've been doing this breakfast for a few years now, sometimes with snow on the ground, and usually with at least a fair amount of frost, but not this year. This was the most supremely lovely day imaginable for such an outing, and we enjoyed every minute of it. Shot three shows the tall native marsh grasses along the shoreline, backlit by the sun.
The chickadees of the Pike Lake area are well used to people, and generally expect a handout when picnickers or campers appear. These are the birds that will come and eat out of your hand if you have the right offerings for them. This one was all over our picnic table looking for food of the right sort, and I caught this shot as he came in for a landing on our coffee thermos. My shutter speed was a little slow for "stop motion", but I like the blurry effect of the moving feathers as he touches down for a landing. We had a laugh when my grandson Mark stuck his arm out to point at something, and a chickadee immediately landed on his hand. We did bring offerings of sunflower seeds for them, so they had a generous feeding in the end.
Shot five is from this morning's outing to do some client dog shots. This was a bit of a combined effort as there were two friends who both wanted photos of their dogs, both located in the same small town north of the city, so we put the dogs together for a bit and enjoyed the proceedings. The big guy is Ammo, the Dogue de Bordeaux that I have featured in a couple of other blogs of years past. His new friend is little Marley, an English bulldog puppy. She was a bit taken aback when Ammo appeared in her yard, but both have very good social instincts and nice calm owners, and the whole event was a big success for all concerned.
0 comments:
Post a Comment