Close Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) fly by
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
D200, f5.6, 1/1600, ISO 500, 80-400mm VR at 260mm, natural light
My good friend Ron chides me for being the “eternal optimist” and I do deserve the teasing he often gives me. I’m even optimistic on these gray, dreary and cloudy days. It seems there is always something to do even when the weather thwarts plans for going out to find birds to photograph because I know I’ll find something wonderful or fulfilling to do.
I’ve been busy cooking today, I made two kinds of homemade soup. It smelled wonderful at home with the savory aromas of simmering soup wafting through the house. I also prepared the fixings for Chicken Monterey so I could wrap them up and freeze them for an easy meal when the weather does open up for bird photography.
Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus): You lookin’ at me?
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
D200, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 200, 80-400mm VR, natural light
Gray days sometimes force me to slow down, to take a deep breath and they allow me the luxury of liesurely looking through my older image files one folder at a time. I’m often busy out in the field taking images of birds, so busy that there are days when I only get to edit a few files in a folder on the day I take the photos. So on gray days I revisit those folders and say hello to my “old friends”, the birds in the files. I swear I’m not hyper but I can’t seem to resist selecting pictures to edit that I had not processed earlier.
Long & Lean Great Blue Heron
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
D200, f5.6, 1/1500, ISO 400, 80-400mm VR, natural light
I’m not sure how or why I ended up looking at images from the folder that contained all of the images in this post but I’m glad I opened the folder up again. I can once again feel the wet sand under my body as I wiggle through it trying to get the best possible angles for the shots. I can smell the salt water, watch the feathers of the birds flutter in the sea breeze and feel the warmth of the sun caress me as I focus on my subjects. While it is gray outside it doesn’t feel that way inside my mind.
There are quite a few images in this folder I had not edited yet but today because the of the grayness outdoors, I have time.
Royal Tern busy preening
Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida
D200, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 200, 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light
The soups are done and stored away. It’s getting dark and I’m waiting for the snow to start falling from this storm. Despite it being a gray day it has been fulfilling.
Got to go, there are more older bird images I want to edit.
Mia
