I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille

A bit of a show-off!

Through the trees

I stopped by the duck pond after work today. I shot this fellow using pine branches to frame the shot.

Flying Solo

After yesterday’s dueling shots, I thought I’d share a few hummingbird onesies.

Hummingbird Duel

I captured these this afternoon in my backyard. For such tiny birds, they are pretty fierce.

Hummingbirds in the Backyard

Taken yesterday, early evening.

This morning.

My next dog will be a Jack Russell Terrier

I have adored this breed for years.

Buddy has an owie on his lip

I have a feeling I know how he’s doing it (this is his second scraped lip). Our neighbors, on occasion, let their dog run free. He runs up to the outside of our wooden fence and races back and forth. Nina and Buddy just about kill themselves running back and forth with him. Buddy puts his face very close to the fence to keep an eye on the interloper, and I think he scrapes it when he bolts to run with the neighbor dog.

You can’t see it from this angle, but it actually extends up and sideways under his right nostril. It looks like it hurts…

Test flight

I finally broke down and bought myself a EF 70-200mm f/2.8L (the less expensive one) and I’ve been taking it out for a whirl. So far I am quite pleased. The clarity of the photos are very good, even under low light and high ISO. (The photos I posted of Buddy and Nina yesterday were taken with this lens – Buddy’s image was taken at ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/50s, 200mm and Nina’s at ISO 1250, f/5.0, 1/50s, 200mm.)

Today I ventured out into the backyard. I wanted to see what it would do at 200mm in bright sun, shooting wide open at very fast shutter speed.

These doves were coming in for a landing on our power pole at the corner of our lot. ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/1600s, 200mm.