Weekend Picture Taking

It’s been a long week­end already and it’s only noon on Sun­day :) Of course I started it on Friday.

Early fri­day morn­ing I headed out to take some flower and yard pic­tures and to start get­ting the birds at the new feed­ers used to my being around with the cam­era. The yard is a mess after a long wet coll spring. But A lit­tle close up work hides the jun­gle and just shows some pretty thing.

There’s pur­ple vetch grow­ing next to the ash trees in the front bed.

The blue flower whose name I always for­get is bloom­ing by the house. It is a most reli­ably self-seeder. ;)

Then there’s the shot of the wood sheds that I always see but can never get to work out. I think I should start by mov­ing the yel­low milk crate. Then maybe turn the wagon, but only if the side is as per­fectly faded as the back is. (And I’ll move the faded orange clip as well.)

And then there are the new bird feed­ers. They pro­vide plenty of enter­tain­ment when we’re soak­ing in the hot tub, and I can see — but more impor­tantly hear — the birds from my office window.

I’ve been spend­ing some time sit­ting out by the tub every­day to get the birds used to me and my cam­eras. So far it’s been the usual sus­pects, jun­cos and chick­adees and the stellar’s jays. But we’ve had a few oth­ers, there were purple(ish) finches for a day or two but they seem to have moved on. The gros­beaks are abun­dant this spring. And my favorites the goldfinches have been mov­ing in.

Lots of activ­ity and lots of bird song. But the pic­tures aren’t mak­ing me happy. I get a few out of every ses­sion that are okay. Like these of the pine siskins.

But okay is as good as it gets. Most are like this one. Over exposed — the dark trees in the back­ground fool the meter­ing. And not very sharp, in spite of using a tripod.

I’m get­ting fed up enough to con­sider tak­ing a lit­tle card­board cut out of a bird and tap­ing it to the feeder while I fid­dle around with the cam­era. Or maybe the small plush-toy rooster that a friend brought me back from Hawaii.

Still, how bad can a day be when it starts with sit­ting in the yard drink­ing tea and hav­ing the jays scold me?