Military Romance Author
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
I can’t seem to get my act together with a trash compactor these days, so today’s late post will feature some oldie but goodie photographs. Have a ton of new photos to share from recent adventures, but can’t get on top of things. Stay tuned, some day I might get organized. Maybe.
Then we need to add some beauty to our visual break.
And last but not least, every writer needs a wingman, so here is mine, Spec Ops Cat.
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Back to the beach! Looking at my pics from our early August beach trip, I’m always surprised with what I see afterwards. Take this normal seagull. I took five pictures of him doing his feather cleaning and then a couple of him/her looking out to sea.
Five. Looking closer at the pictures when I got them on my computer, I noticed one photo of a nice, normal kind of happy looking seagull. Fluffy, pretty, bright colors.
Then I looked at the other four and saw the feather cleaning shot, couldn’t see his/her face. Then when I looked closer at the final three, I spotted this. Cranky seagull. Or is that just my imagination?
Checked the rest of the photos and three of the five are cranky gull. It almost seems like he knows what I’m doing and he’s not happy being a victim of the paparazzi. Maybe he is a celebrity seagull?
The best advice when taking photos is take as many as you want; you never know what will show up. When I went on a Europe camping trip for three months in 1983, I took 70 rolls of film; one for each day of the trip. Ended up selling a few rolls to my Autotours EX57 buddies, but I used most of them. When in doubt, take the photo.
Then be prepared for something to happen you couldn’t have arranged in a million years. Like this crazy person walking out onto the sea cliff across the bay from me at the same time a small boat was headed toward the harbor. Imagine!
If it had been earlier or later in the day, the lack of glaring sun would’ve made the colors deeper. But short of hiring people to stand out on rocks, we have to take what pops up in front of us. Literally.
So always be prepared with extra memory cards and backup batteries. There may be a cranky seagull in your future.
Photo on!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Spent a wonderful weekend with family at the beach the first weekend in August. Went on a walk to enjoy the great weather and stalk snoozing harbor seals with the camera.
Since we got a late start after sleeping in, the bright sun after 10 a.m. washes out colors but harbor seals don’t go by my preferred photo shoot schedule. They have naps to take.
Once again my trusty little Canon PowerShot ELPH340HS was up to the task. However, wearing a baseball cap would have helped keep the glare from the sun off the viewfinder frame. But patience and timing is everything when it comes to photos, plus taking good and bad photos too.
Turns out I took about 180 photos over the course of the two hour walk, most of them of seals. Some photos had only parts of seals and some had no seals since I couldn’t see what I was shooting in the sun glare. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Had three groups to concentrate on; young pups playing in the ocean, the adults lazing on the rock and one intrepid seal who I think was trying to get away from the kids on her own rock. This series of photos were shot over thirteen minutes, with a bunch of other not so great ones.
Taking pictures of wildlife from harbor seals to birds and even Spec Ops Cat is similar to taking sports photos; you’ve got to be quick and keep clicking away. Sometimes the harbor seal escapes the photo and other times you get lucky with a gem of a shot.
Practice makes almost perfect when it comes to photos, besides that whole breathing problem thing trying to keep the camera level.
Get outside and start taking action pics today!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Last week I headed out on an adventure with my Mom. Decided to take her to see my favorite places in Eastern Oregon, the town of Sisters to be exact. Showed her all the hot spots from the place where I get my bark pieces at Suttle Lake, to the Crescent Moon Alpaca Farm, the always great Camp Sherman and the Richardson’s Rock Ranch.
We had a good time and made memories. The weather was sunny and clear, while it rained back home. Somehow that made it even better. We both took pictures and had fun testing our photo skills. We had laughs, good food and slept a lot. Perfect vacation.
When I attended Elizabeth Gilbert’s author talk last Fall, someone in the audience asked her what was on her bucket list. She said she didn’t have places or things on her list, but people. That hit a very strong cord with me. She took her Mom on a walking trip in Ireland. We had fun in Eastern Oregon.
With the first great days of summer heading towards us, it can be easy to forget to slow down, enjoy friends and family and snooze. Must be time to break out the lawn swing.
Who is on your bucket list to visit with this summer?
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
After the long wet winter we’ve had, the sight of Spring blooms seems more welcome than usual this year. After thirty long days of rain in December and the wettest month on record, I’m going to cut myself a little slack about being so excited.
Sunday while taking out the recycling to the garage I noticed the blooms and the perfect morning light. I grabbed the camera and took some shots using the macro lens on my little Canon PowerShot ELPH 340 HS. Luckily I have a fence so the neighbors didn’t see me running around in my pink poodle bathrobe and slippers while I grabbed the best light of the day.
With the clouds whisking around and the sun peeking out, I only had a few minutes to capture some up close and personal posie pics. It was so much fun taking time to follow my bliss and enjoy the treasures of nature.
So here’s to more fun in the sun and taking photos. Get out there and click away people!
by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Last Tuesday Velda the hedgehog at the Oregon Zoo predicted an early Spring. Seems Phil the Groundhog said the same thing, but Velda has a better record than Phil, so hedgehogs rock! True to both their predictions, signs of the coming Spring abounded this past weekend.
On my way to my writer group, I stopped at my carpool buddy’s house. She needed to take her dog Amos, a Corgi, for a quick walk before we left. Amos was not too thrilled about the “quick” part of the walk, he wanted to mosey. I couldn’t blame him. So while they were off finding the perfect tree, I wandered in her front yard taking photos.
My carpool buddy is a member of the camellia society and you can see why. I could not resist the pictures. So here are a few of my favorites.
Not to be outdone, these red berry things looked gorgeous too. They felt like the holidays but looked like Spring. How do they do that?
Then the next day on my way back from the grocery store Super Bowl morning, I took a wrong turn but ended up with a perfect view of Mt. Hood. We say “the mountain is out” around here when we can see it, so this gorgeous sunny Sunday was the perfect time to get a picture of her with all her snow.
So have camera will travel! Right around my own neighborhood. Are you ready to take Spring snapshots?
You must be logged in to post a comment.