Day 39: Saturday, May 30, 2009: Take Two

Little did I know when I posted the first time yesterday, that I would be going to a carnival later on that night.  I wasn't incredibly impressed with any of the pictures I took there either, I guess, but here are my favorites.

Day 39: Saturday, May 30, 2009

1: Pileated Woodpecker - largest woodpecker in North America and the inspiration for "Woody the Woodpecker."

Well, I'm not terribly impressed with any of my images today, mostly because they aren't as sharp as I would like them to be.  I realize that I took these in somewhat low lighting conditions, so part of the problem may be camera shake, but the first one is pretty sharp and was taken at the same time and in the same place, so I'm thinking that's not all of it.  I feel much of the time like my lens has a hard time focusing sharply except in the most ideal of circumstances.  In the future, when I replace this lens I'm going to make sure I take care to get one that does better with that.  Anyway, these were all taken from the bird watching room at Wesselman Nature Center.

2: Male Red Bellied Woodpecker

3: White Breasted Nuthatch

4: Another White Breasted Nuthatch

Another male Red Bellied Woodpecker.

Day 38: Friday, May 29, 2009

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Well, Ari, her little friend Jason, and I all went to the pond out by the mental hospital today (yes, I know, but it really is a perfectly acceptable place to go, don't worry).  There were lots of duck and geese families (the latter of which, we continually ran away from) as well as this great blue heron.  I love these birds.  They managed to be both awkward looking and graceful looking at the same time.  Fabulous combo.  Anyway, because the heron is always around people he was let me get way closer to him than most would have, so I got some good pictures of him.  The kids liked him too because he saved one of the baby ducks from a mean goose one time and because when we all told him to fly, he actually did.  Not only did he fly when we told him to, but he flew all the way to the other side of the lake, landed and then flew right back over to us.  He, in fact, seemed to be following us the entire time.  Quite charming.

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7: Him flying away from us.

8: Him flying right back.

Day 37: Thursday, May 28, 2009

Nothing too interesting today.  Just Ari playing with my computer.  But, woohoo!  I'm caught up again!

Day 36: Wednesday, May 27, 2009

1: Notice how you can see the moth's tongue (?) sliding into the flower.

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Both of these were taken while Ari and I were having a picnic on the back porch.

Day 35: Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Taken at Wesselman Nature Preserve.

Day 34: Monday, May 25, 2009

1:  Ariana is in love with dogs.  Here she is sitting with Manny, the poodle, talking to him.

On Monday morning, we looked out our window to see that there were some other kids out there and a doggy too!  The kids were the grandkids of our neighbor, Mary Helen, and the dog was theirs too.  He was a gorgeous dog, especially when he ran.  Who knew regular poodles looked like this?  Anyway,  we went out and played with them all.  The kids consisted of four and two year old boys named Oliver and Simon and a one year old girl named Clara.  Oliver was quite obviously in love with Ariana ("Did you know I can slide down whole mountains?"), but unfortunately for him, she only paid attention to the dog.  At any rate, I only got good pictures of Ari, Simon and Clara, so you'll just have to imagine Oliver.  Enjoy!

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Day 33: Sunday, May 24, 2009

On this day, I drove back from Nauvoo, opened up my tripod, which had come while I was gone, to find that a screw was already broken, causing one of the tripod legs to not be able to lock in place.  I still took it outside for a very brief trial run, however.  That is when I took this photo, of the fountain in my backyard.  It was taken with, I believe, a shutter speed of 10 seconds.

Day 32: Saturday, May 23, 2009

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I am SO glad to finally be posting these and to be that much closer to catching up!  So, these are the wedding photos, with the exception of the first one, which I took while I was waiting for Shealee and Jacob to come out of the temple.  It's a church across the way.  Anyway, do tell me what you think.

2: In these first few, Shea is still getting ready.  This one I'm proud of because, without her knowledge, I managed to position her with the temple in the background and get her laughing.  She was pretty surprised when she saw.

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4: Shea and her sister.

5: Shea's brother and nephew.

6:  Obligatory hands photo.

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8:  Really wish that plug and vent weren't there.

9:  Obligatory bouquet photo.

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14:  So do you all like this one or the next one better?  Lighter or darker?

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17:  This is an example of one of the manage simple smiling photos I got of them.

18:  And there were several candids that I liked.

19:  This would have been a great photo if Shealee was more in focus.

20:  Lots of Shealee's smiling and laughing photos.

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22:  Would have been better if the tree in the background were not there.

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24:  Shealee's sexy face, which always leads to...

25:  Her laughing.

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27:  These two are definite favorites of mine.

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30: Would have been a good photo if Angel Moroni were all the way in the photo (for all of you non-lds people, that's the statue at the top of the temple).

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32:  This one may seem a bit boring, but I was trying to showcase the back of her dress and I thought it turned out nice.

33:  This one or 34?

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35:  Good candids.

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37:  GQ

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