Animals around your house...

Beautiful pics

Thank you for your compliments! However, there is someone in my family (I won't say who) who says my photos are very plain. He says they pale aside photos from other photographers, who own sophisticated cameras and re-touch their photos.

But my little black Powershot Elph 360 HSCanon camera is all I have (and it is a new one, since my old silver one broke). And re-touching my photos is just a no-can-do for me; I don't own a computer and I don't think the library's computers have the right program to re-touch photos. So, every photo you see from me is as is, which means they are as they came out of my camera.

I don't complain about my little camera. It is easy to carry and I have lots of fun with it. OK, I cannot take underwater pictures with it and I cannot take pictures at night, unless the artificial lights are strong enough (like street lights, Christmas lights or even fireworks). But I still appreciate what I CAN do with it: photographing landscapes, zooming far details, making detailed close-ups, capturing perched birds, immortalizing sunsets, etc. It is a lot more from what I could do before I even got a digital camera. So, why not focusing (litterally!) on the positive?

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Thank you for your compliments! However, there is someone in my family (I won't say who) who says my photos are very plain. He says they pale aside photos from other photographers, who own sophisticated cameras and re-touch their photos.

But my little black Powershot Elph 360 HSCanon camera is all I have (and it is a new one, since my old silver one broke). And re-touching my photos is just a no-can-do for me; I don't own a computer and I don't think the library's computers have the right program to re-touch photos. So, every photo you see from me is as is, which means they are as they came out of my camera.

I don't complain about my little camera. It is easy to carry and I have lots of fun with it. OK, I cannot take underwater pictures with it and I cannot take pictures at night, unless the artificial lights are strong enough (like street lights, Christmas lights or even fireworks). But I still appreciate what I CAN do with it: photographing landscapes, zooming far details, making detailed close-ups, capturing perched birds, immortalizing sunsets, etc. It is a lot more from what I could do before I even got a digital camera. So, why not focusing (litterally!) on the positive?

well said Valerie!

as long as you keep doing what makes YOU happy, then that is all that matters.

If someone else cannot say something positive and nice about your work and efforts, then their unsolicited criticism is not to be taken seriously. (And family members can be very unkind at times and say things they would never dare say to a stranger.)
It takes a special kind of person to always see the positive and that is a Great thing!

keep snapping!

I for one find your photos beautiful,  Valerie. Great attitude and keep them coming!

We have been having cold (for us) snaps. Manatees cannot survive the cold, and when it hits they migrate to warm spots, normally the many springs which flow at 22 degrees year round. A large spring complex near my home hosts many in the winter.
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A daily census sign at the entrance to Blue Springs State Park- sad when you realize this represents near 10% of the remaining animals.
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See the little calf? There are a couple older calves a couple pics up too. Hope they have long fruitful lives. The white marks on mom are boat propeller strike scars, not reflections. Boat strikes are the leading cause of death for these slow moving creatures, up there with red tide poisoning, environment degradation/loss of food resources, and cold stress.

Wow wow wow

It must be thrilling to be so close to these gentle giants, but it's painful to know what these creatures endure in their interaction with the human species. I sincerely hope that projects like this one prove decisive for the conservation of the species and contribute to an improved quality of life for these beings.

These photos are amazing! Wonderful marine giants, thank you for sharing them with us here Kelly. I too hope that they can survive their battle living alongside man.

Great to see so many manatees in their natural habitat!

Wonderful!!!

pipsxlch wrote:

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See the little calf? There are a couple older calves a couple pics up too. Hope they have long fruitful lives. The white marks on mom are boat propeller strike scars, not reflections. Boat strikes are the leading cause of death for these slow moving creatures, up there with red tide poisoning, environment degradation/loss of food resources, and cold stress.

thankfully they have somewhere safe to stay during the colder snaps? Is this place protected Kelly?
Your photos of them are so beautiful and they look ethereal in the green of the waters! Love seeing the little baby with mama Thank you for sharing!

Thank you everyone! Yes, this area is now a state park and protected from development. When the manatees crowd in, people are not allowed to use the water.
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An endangered vista

that's wonderful that they are protected Kelly! So glad to hear that:)
it is such a beautiful area, the clear green waters are mesmerizing!

It is good they are protected. We alreadyblost the Steller Sea Cow stupidly. Let's not lose this one.

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A group of bohemian waxwings.

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Black-and-white warbler in the forest near my home.

amazing photos Valerie! Well done!
it's really hard to capture the waxwings nicely because they are usually at the very tops of the tree!
A huge flock of 80 came here a few weeks ago from Scandinavia and stripped the Rowan trees bare of all their red berries. It was a thrill to see them as they are only occasional visitors to Scotland when all the rowan and other berry trees in Scandinavia fail or have a poor harvest on some years.
The warbler is a beauty as well, what a striking back it has:)

Wonderful pics Valerie :)

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Chestnunt-sided Warblers (only males here) in the forest near my home.

Bowhead Whale wrote:

So, why not focusing (litterally!) on the positive?

Absolutely, and also there is only one way to improve regardless of your skill level or equipment, and you are doing it--taking pictures! Your bird shots are great, thank you for sharing them! Anyone who criticizes someone's harmless and delightful hobby needs to find one of their own to keep them busy and out of other people's business . . .

Kelly, what a magnificent opportunity to see so many manatees at once! I was at Silver Springs, FL and we saw a mother and calf from a very great distance. It was really awesome, but I won't lie that I was hoping for an experience a little more like yours. Really awesome!

such beautiful birds those chestnut sided warblers Valerie!
lovely photos and lots of very green leaves! today was a small spattering of snow in Scotland, brrr

sunny wrote:

such beautiful birds those chestnut sided warblers Valerie!
lovely photos and lots of very green leaves! today was a small spattering of snow in Scotland, brrr

It is winter here in Quebec also, right now; the warbler pictures were taken in Spring and in Summer.

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These are not the best shots I have taken, but that is what happens when the sky is heavily clouded (on the two last pics, I mean).

Anyway, these are GREY SQUIRRELS. Grey squirrels are North American squirrels that are much bigger than the brownish American Red Squirrel. They have a very long, silvery grey puffy tail, but their head is bronish. It seems there are grey squirrels now in Europe, and their presence threatens the population of European Red Squirrels; am I right?

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These four pics show American Red Squirrels. These squirrels, as you can see, are different from the European Red Squirrels. First, they are lot less reddish than the European ones. Second, they do not have the long hairs at the tip of their ears. They are also smaller than the American Grey Squirrels seen above.

Interesting squirrel

Squirrels are urban animals in North America, apparently they can be seen everywhere.At least a few species including chipmunks, of course. I don't know how easy is to spot these. European red squirrels were reintroduced here not long ago but I've never seen a single one.

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Anyway, these are GREY SQUIRRELS. Grey squirrels are North American squirrels that are much bigger than the brownish American Red Squirrel. They have a very long, silvery grey puffy tail, but their head is bronish. It seems there are grey squirrels now in Europe, and their presence threatens the population of European Red Squirrels; am I right?

Yes, you are right.