During my thirty year career as an educator, I was up and driving to work by sunrise. Now I’m retired, I don’t see the sun come up as often! However, when I go fishing with my sister and brother-in-law we have a goal to be on the lake with our lines in the water by the time the sun crests the mountains. My first image was taken as we drove from camp to the boat launch and the next is sunrise from the boat on Odell Lake.
Sunrise Willamette Pass, OR
Quiet Sunrise ~ Odell Lake
At home in Vancouver, Washington, I enjoy sitting out by the pond in the shade of this bower to read and create posts on my laptop. My Wordless Wednesday post this week shows Max lounging on the same loveseat where I sit and took this photo!
On the Long Beach Peninsula, the weather is ever-changing. When I see a rainbow I rejoice; “Here comes the sun!” Though often it is only for a fleeting moment, rainshowers + sun = rainbow!
Sunsets at Long Beach often are stunning. If you follow my blog, you have seen some of my favorites. Below is one I love with its lingering sun-glow above the purple-hued ocean seen through a fringe of dune grass.
Dunegrass Sunset
Then there is this red sunset – so dramatic – as the golden globe, floating in an orange and crimson sky, sinks into the claret-toned ocean.
Red Sunset
In spring when the days tilt longer, I feel as though I’m coming to life – just like the plants in my gardens. Now, as our season leans into late summer and the big maple leaves start to drift down, I feel a bit of sadness knowing sunny days are starting to wane. Though the sun will continue to rise and set, the warmth of our summer sun will fade into memory. Thanks to Amy at The World is a Book for this timely and open challenge.
Wherever the sun shines on you, please honor our earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
It is challenges like this one that make me think I’m a lazy photographer! Honestly, I haven’t sat myself down to learn about the special settings available to me, so I just set the lens on auto, focus in or out and shoot. Nevertheless, in my archives I found photos that do have a sense of motion.
Toes in the Pacific
In the photo above wind lifts my niece’s hair as my sister bends down to comfort little grandson Micah. They are surrounded by the ebb and flow of ocean water and surf in the distance. Below, dune grass is out of focus as the waves sparkle and surge toward shore.
Wave Action
Standing by the side of the highway, I just held my camera steady and snapped a series of shots as these bicyclists sped on by. Below, at the dog park, the movement of the dog bodies tells the whole story!
This Mallard hen (Anas platyrhynchos) is paddling with her fledglings out away from the edge of a pond where Jello stopped herself short. This capture of a Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) with wings visible thrilled me. Water is the tell tale sign of motion for swimming birds such as in this Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus).
Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus and Brown-headed Cowbirds Molothrus ater
A solitary adult Bald Eagle stays steady on its perch above, as a flock of Cowbirds forages through the dunegrass. Below an immature Bald Eagle glides along the edge of the surf at ebb tide.
Immature Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Whatever activity gets you into motion, please honor our earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
Welcome back to our resident Lens-Artist hosts, as Patti Moed of Creative Exploration in Words and Pictures challenges us to capture motion in our photography.
Adult Male Dark-eyed Junco and Fledgling Junco Junco hyemalisFledgling Dark-eyed Junco getting a drink – Junco hyemalisAdult Male Dark-eyed Junco and Fledgling Junco Junco hyemalis
Wherever you do your bird watching, please honor our earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
One of the things I love about photography is that my camera gives me the opportunity to “capture the moment.” Whether it is a quiet sunset, a surging wave, a golden hour sunrise, a new bird to learn about, or some other surprise in nature, snapping shots gives me an opportunity to enjoy the moment again.
Silent Sunset
Breakers
Jello at Dawn
Nature has always been my passion and since living part-time on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington State, I have photographed many of the birds I see. Some are residents, others migrate through, and I feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m able to identify the bird(s) from the shots I’ve taken.
Bloody Beaked Bald ~ Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Sanderling & Western Sandpiper, Turkey Vulture, Long-billed Dowitcher, Ruddy Turnstone.
To finish, here are a couple more favorite “capture the moment” photos. A Song Sparrow is having a good-old-time in a small bird bath – its enthusiasm is infectious! Open field Wild Roses thrive in the Pacific Northwest and provide food for bees.
Splash BathWild Rose Bee
Wherever you are grooving, please honor our earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
Thanks to Anne of Slow Shutter Speed for this interesting challenge! It is truly an honor to be asked to host the weekly challenge, and also a big responsibility to read and respond to all of us who post. Hats off to all those who stepped up this summer to give our main hosts a bit of a respite.
My opening photo is one taken from the deck of our condominium at the Breakers in Long Beach, Washington. From winter through spring rain floods the meadows forming ponds that attract resident and migratory birds. This shot is a quintessential capture of the sky at sundown with threatening storm clouds suffused with pastel tones, reflected in the marshes.
Their Majesties
In mid-March 2020, we were settled at the condo in Long Beach, at the start of the Covid 19 pandemic when the state government issued a decree to stay in place. For the ensuing two and a half months the beach was closed to automobiles and virtually deserted. During this time I was able to earn the trust of a pair of Bald Eagles, who came to recognize me and were not disturbed by my being there. Accordingly, I kept myself and my beagle at a respectable distance. I captured many excellent images of various Bald Eagles and created a collection of poems and photos from this experience. The above shot is a favorite because it shows the pair side by side, in a quiet moment and unruffled by my presence.
Jello in the garden.
I’ll finish with a favorite snapshot of Jello, our beagle who died in February. A rescue, Blue-tic girl, she was the sweetest, easiest beagle we’ve had (Max and Daisy are our 6th & 7th). To see other photos of Jello, just click the menu button – she was very photogenic and was my constant companion for 10 years. I selected this portrait because she is sitting in one of her favorite ‘observation’ perches in our back yard. At the base of the tree is a small angel figurine which reminds me of Jello’s mild nature. Though I scattered most of her ashes in the dunes at Long Beach where we loved to ramble, some of her ashes rest here, under the angel.
Wherever you find new favorites, please honor our earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
Thanks to Sarah Wilkie at Travel with me, for this exercise in restraint and introspection. There were many other photos I might have selected that are more flashy, however I feel these express much about who I am and what I love to capture in photography. It is truly an honor to be asked to host the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, and also a big responsibility to view and comment on the posts followers contribute. Thank you again to all the guest hosts for giving our core leaders a bit of summer vacation!
As a student of the visual arts, I always found something alluring about Surrealism; the juxtaposition of absurd images, the venture to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality….” André Breton
Shadow Dancer
My opening image is of a driftwood branch photographed on a foggy morning. In addition to cropping and changing its orientation, I used the process filter (in iPhoto) and reduced the light to achieve this image.
Above, a piece of flotsam on the beach covered in goose-neck barnacles. I put my camera on the sand to take this shot. With the sky above it appears to be large, and the juxtaposition of hard metal and shell with a soft feather adds to its surreal quality.
Through the Glass
This image conjures a dreamy convoluted path toward an opening of light. It is a shot of a window reflecting on a glass paperweight. The egg-shaped paperweight is colored by Mount Saint Helen’s Volcanic Ash, signed MSH – 82.
In the gallery above none of the images are enhanced. There is something mysterious in the opaque transparency of Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) close-up, and below it the grotesque skeletal remains of a seal. On the right, what looks like a shadow image of two people is caused by a growth of black lichen on a wooden post.
Here Today Gone Tomorrow ~ Driftwood & Alloniscus Track
Clouds (not smoke) provide a natural filter across the setting sun in this photo. Other than cropping and flipping it upside down, there is no augmentation to the image. It has many qualities associated with surreal; dreamlike, unusual, freakish, unearthly – yet it is our Sun tangled in our Earth’s vapor.
Whether or not you enjoy the surreal, please honor our real earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
Thanks to Tracy at Reflections of An Untidy Mind for this provoking challenge. It is quite an honor to be asked to guest-host the Lens-Artists blog, and also a big responsibility to respond to the many of us who answer the challenge!
Walking With Eagles is a collection of original poems and photographs by Lindy Low Le Coq. A lifelong naturalist, amateur photographer and bird enthusiast, Lindy’s verse, composition and photographs open a window into the essence of her subjects. Her poems and photography reflect the rich natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest.
Bald Eagles mature over the course of five years. Walking With Eagles invites the reader to take a poetic and visual tour of this odyssey.
view ~ Walking With Eagles ~ in top menu bar for a preview, though the folio is much nicer!
Lindy Low LeCoq 