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!
I just arrived back home in Vancouver, WA from my annual fishing trip at Odell Lake, with my older sister Diana, and brother-in-law Les. Although the fishing was not as good as usual, the setting in the Deschutes National Forest of Oregon, is magnificent. Our days started early – before sunup – as the fish weren’t biting much after 8:30 a.m.
Full Moon Setting
Diamond Peak (right), turned a lovely rose tone as the sun lifted above the mountains. The taller summit is 8,744′ (2665m) high.
We stay at a small campground on Crescent Creek. There are many trails to hike in the area, and my beagle companion, Daisy and I enjoyed one that started just beyond this bridge (above). If you are a fan of waterfalls, Salt Creek Falls in Willamette National Forest, is worth the short drive off Highway 58. It has a well constructed trail with rails that descend down near the bottom.
In addition to the joy of being out in a beautiful natural setting, I love this special time with Diana and Les, enjoying good food, campfires and life stories.
Wherever you find your Summer Vibes, please honor our earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
For my opening shot I’ve selected a muted sundown at Long Beach, with the sun suspended in clouds and reflecting on the water in two areas – a triple sunset! Perusing my archives for this challenge, I found many of the photos that popped out at me are of two birds of the same species, either mirror images or echo’s of each other.
Below, a collage of a few of my favorite beautiful bird reflections, from upper left clockwise, Sanderling, Mallard Duck, Baird’s Sandpiper, Wilson’s Snipe and Canada Goose.
Since I spend much time in, on or around water, there are plenty of scenery reflections in my photo collection as well. Below are two taken while fishing with my family at Odell Lake, at the summit of Willamette Pass in central Oregon.
I have shown both of these photos in prior posts, and have no qualms about sharing them again. 🙂 Above, the clouds have a popcorn-like consistency and their reflection on the smooth water (this is a lake that often has whitecaps!) remains a favorite of mine. Below, the wavy reflection of the two dead-trees was what attracted me.
Serendipity is one of my best friends. As happy chance would have it, I was driving along the side of Lake Sacajawea in Longview, Washington on an autumn day, and was captured by the image below – too lovely to just cruise on by!
I’ll close with another sunset, this one reflecting on the winter-spring marshes at the Breakers in Long Beach, Washington, where I live part-time.
As you reflect upon life, please honor our earth, be kind and stay safe.🐾
Thanks to Jez for hosting this week. It is a distinction to be asked to host, and a big responsibility to create the challenge and even more to then acknowledge all of us who diligently post our responses. Being a water lover, this one was lots of fun for me!
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 