WPC Structure: Wings

For the past 7 years since I moved to the USA I’ve become ever so slightly obsessed by hummingbirds. They’re absolutely amazing! They’re so small, fast, squabbly (is that a real word?), colourful, noisy and un-afraid. I saw one take on a titmouse the other day!

Anyway this weeks WPC of structure is a good excuse to use my weekend shots of the hummingbirds and in particular their wings and the structure of their feathers.

Technical jargon if anyone is interested: the shutter speed I needed to capture these shots was 1/3000 of a second with an ISO of 1600 at F6.3. I was using an 18-300mm Sigma lens on my Pentax K5 at full zoom and when editing I used a huge crop as well. I’m pretty pleased they turned out as sharp as they did (not counting all the binned blurry efforts btw).

I love how they fly right up to you and look you in the face as if to say “Hey giant thingy, what are you?” Now if I could only get one to perch on my finger.

Structure

Photobombing dawg

Outside this afternoon trying to photograph my beautiful Azaleas and dawg decides to sneak into the shot.

Pouncing pooch

One minute he’s quite happily chasing bees on the grass…

 

I’m invisible!

Next he’s sneaking ninja-like into the shot…

 

Do you think she saw me?

Then he tries to act like he’s not there…

 

This is my best side. Does my nose look big in this?

Finally he strikes his perfect pose.

At least he’s not pulling the heads off them or digging them up. I do have a 3 foot hole in the grass though. I think he’s trying to dig to Australia (or wherever the opposite of the USA is. Is it China?)  Good job he’s cute. He just looks at me with his big brown eyes and gets away with mischief. Stinker!

Repurpose: Weekly photo challenge

As a wise man once said…. “If it wisnae fur yer wellies, whaur wid ye be?” Sage advice indeed.

This weeks theme was a hard one I thought. Plus I’m so busy I didn’t have time to go out and look for something repurposed (is that a real word? I’ve looked at it for so long it doesn’t seem right to me anymore) Anyway found this one in my archives and I thought it was pretty cool. Wellies repurposed as a plant pot. These aren’t MY wellies (rainboots American peeps) – these ones below are my wellies.

Ahhh, if it wisnae fur yer wellies ye’d be in the hoaspital or infurmaree.

Repurpose

First Date

Gypsophila

There I was, sitting in a coffee shop in Indianapolis, shamelessly eavesdropping on a first date from a couple in their 70s who had met online. They were having a lovely time getting to know each other and complimenting each other on various things including their hair – him, abundance of – her, colour (she admitted it was dyed if you’re interested). I was feeling all warm and fuzzy and full of happy thoughts as their date was wrapping up and he asked for her phone number so he could call her sometime and she refused to give it to him. I felt so bad for him I was tempted to go up and give him MY number so he could call me when he wanted to chat, but thought if hubby found out I was giving my phone number away to random elderly strangers just because I felt sorry for them then he wouldn’t be very happy with me.

Romance in the twilight years is alive and well and (mostly) better off kept online.

 

Photography 101: Nature and leading lines

Nature in miniature

Any excuse to play with my camera when I should be working is a good excuse!

Macro shot of the inside of a tulip.