Skywatch Friday - Blue Skies At Last !!!

After weeks I've fairly dreary skies, interspersed with the occasional blue, we are finally seeing consecutive days of brilliant blue up there in them heavens!! Spring may finally be on the way. :-)

While there is nothing really remarkable about this photo ..it does mark a big forward step in my learning curve with my 35mm SLR film camera.

A photographer friend of mine, suggested that I buy a polarizing filter for my lens.

Oh, the difference it makes, especially when you are photographing a scene with a blue sky and clouds.

Run of the mill photo or not ..I was over the moon when I brought this snap up on my computer. I saw a bright blue sky and white fluffy clouds .. instead of the pale, whimpy images I'd been getting previously.

Three cheers for polarizing filters!!! :-)



Taken at Virginia Lake, Reno, last week ... the trees are still bare, but beginning to bud and the lake was free of ice. The sky was glorious !

Go to SKYWATCH for views of the sky from all over the world !

Camera Critters - At The River

a

I recently bought myself a OM-G SLR 35mm camera and have set myself the challenge of going back to the basics and learning good, old-fashioned film photography.

Unfortunately there is not much in the way of classes for 35mm in our area, as people are turning to digital, so it's turning out to be very much trial and error !!!

But I'm having fun doing it :-)

The following photos are all unedited, except for some cropping on one. My next challenge will be figuring out how to use GIMP... :-)

The details come out better if you click on them to enlarge .... I found things I'd missed the first time..

These were all taken down at the Truckee River, in Reno.


I had the aperture set wrong on this one, which is why I think the ducks are so dark. However I love the way it's captured the choppy water and the reflection of the buildings above..




Watched these two for awhile. They were catching and eating something in the water. It was fascinating watching them ride the wind stirred water...


The Truckee River is very cold at this time of the year, as it is fed by snow melt from the mountains surrounding us.

Despite that, this young lady was having the time of her life chasing stones that her master would skim across the water for her.

I had to laugh at the look on her face though, when she realised that the stone that he had just thrown her, was indistinguishable from all the rest in the river bed. :-)


She went bounding through the water, kicking up clouds of white spray. So enthusiastic.

When I was looking at the photo after I'd clicked on it, I noticed that there is a goose standing on the other side of the river, keeping an eye on what is going on.

Now go to CAMERA CRITTERS and join in the fun.

A Fun Winter's Day

We have this little lake/lagoon, that's about a comfortable, 10 minute stroll from my place. It's host to a variety of bird life, ground squirrels and much to my consternation, a couple of years ago, rabid bats. Haven't seen any dead bats lying around for awhile, so I'm hoping they cleared up that particular problem.

The word 'rabid' has the same effect on this Kiwi, as 'snakes'. Neither of which I had encountered before coming over here. Well, not quite true, I had met a couple of snakes when on holiday in Australia, however, that is another story and I digress.

Yesterday, was a beautiful winter's day, with the temperatures above normal, so Taylor and I decided that a picnic lunch at the lake would be a nice way to spend it.


The half frozen lake looked very pretty, with the snow covered foothills and mountains in the background. There were a couple of intrepid fishermen out on the pier hoping to catch the 'Big One'. At the point that I took this photo, even the 'little ones' were eluding them.

Taylor and I sat at a picnic table, eating our lunch and watching this view. The geese provided a comic interlude as they took off and then came into land. They'd hit the ice and give various interpretations of far from graceful skaters :-).


After lunch, we set off for a walk around the lake. A couple were feeding this collection of geese. The geese were getting rather combative over the bread scraps, with lots of hissing,pecking and sliding going on. Not sure why, as they all look pretty well fed !!!


Taylor had a fit of the giggles, at one point, when she turned around and found that we had a line of geese , sashaying along the path behind us. This one was almost on our heels.


A little family group. Not sure what kind of geese? these are. There's not a lot of them on the lake and they tend to stick together in little groups.


These two, happily sunbathing, let me get quite close ......


... before they waddled off to the water.


Around 2pm, there was suddenly a great commotion in the sky. Hundreds of geese appeared, wheeling and honking. It was rather amazing to watch. I gathered they'd been out hunting for food or something and were returning to the lake for the night.



Two of my favourite views of the lake. You'd think those townhouse in the distance, would cost a small fortune, considering the view that they have. However, they are part of an affordable housing development that the city is involved in.


Taylor, red faced and hanging upside down. Like the crossed leg thing that she has going on. :-)


The pink vest is one of my favourite presents. My friends Lori & Shawnee, Taylor's mum & dad, gave it to me for Christmas. It holds all my photography gear and is so much easier than logging around a camera bag. It's got 18 pockets !!

Sitting on top is my 'new' baby. An Olympus OM-G with a 28-85 mm lens. I've decided to go back to photography's roots and master using an 35mm SLR camera.

I used up two rolls of film on our walk, and am looking forward to seeing how they turned out as I'm still learning and experimenting.

You don't get the instant gratification of digital, however, I'd forgotten how detailed using film was. I was looking at the results of another roll that I'd shot. The water looked like silk and you could see all the individual ripples.

I took the above photos using my digital, point and shoot camera and then took the same or similar shot using my SLR. Going to be interesting to see the difference.

Anybody else also using a 35mm SLR ?