{"id":1763,"date":"2011-01-08T18:33:41","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T01:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=1763"},"modified":"2026-04-28T07:22:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:22:55","slug":"gray-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/01\/08\/gray-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreatClose Great Blue Heron fly by – D200, f5.6, 1\/1600, ISO 500, 80-400mm VR at 260mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 my apartment.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalRoyal Tern preening on the Gulf shoreline –\u00a0 D200, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 200, 80-400mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Gray days sometimes force me to slow down, to take a deep breath and they allow me the luxury of leisurely looking through my older image files one folder at a time.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

So on gray days I revisit those folders and say hello to\u00a0my “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.<\/p>\n

\"LongLong & Lean Great Blue Heron – D200, f5.6, 1\/1500, ISO 400, 80-400mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

While it is gray outside it doesn’t feel that way inside my mind.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"RoyalRoyal Tern preening wing feathers – D200, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 200, 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Got to go, there are more older bird images I want to edit.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Great Blue Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.\u00a0Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Royal Tern photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,704,166,407],"tags":[4117,4021,4083,408,3987,627,626,4376,2090,629,4267,313],"class_list":["post-1763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-great-blue-herons","category-royal-terns","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-bird-photography","tag-birding","tag-gray-days","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-royal-tern","tag-tern","tag-terns","tag-thalasseus-maximus","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t