Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Photography

Is That A Rock Or A Sheep?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Photography is one of my true passions and I was thinking about the photos I didn’t use in my blog last year. Thought I’d give you a peak at a very fun experience I had with my buddy Joann, aka Gate Girl, while we were on our way out to the thunderegg beds last September.

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What I saw from the car.

 

Gate Girl can spot any animal at 1,000 yards, I swear. She can also tell me what fashion accessory they might be wearing. A hunter and country girl, she is always asking me to see stuff I can never find with my challenged eyeballs. So concentrating fully on the rutted dirt road to get us to the mining beds, this was my first alert.

“Sheep! Big Horn Sheep!”

Since I didn’t see any standing right in front of me on the road, I turned to see her pointing directly left.  I could see a desert slope, some trees, rocks. No sheep.

“Look, right there!” she exclaimed.

I pulled Subie over to the right side of the one-lane road and proceeded to scan. Nothing. Then I grabbed my first ELPH camera and went full zoom. Maybe a brown something, Might have legs. Dug around in the other bag and grabbed out the newer ELPH camera with the longer zoom. By jiminy, brown sheep things!

“I think that’s a rock,” she added at the large clump next to one of the sheep in my viewfinder. “It moved!”

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Aka the rock, Barbary Coast Sheep. Not moving.

 

Besides almost throwing the camera over my head at that outburst, I tried to find the moving brown rock with my Canon Powershot ELPH 340HS point and shoot. Given the camera is the size of a deck of cards and doesn’t have a zoom lens to balance in my left hand like the 35mm, I tried not to get seasick at the same time.

I managed to find the rock, er sheep, focused and took several shots. They started to move; sheep are such unreliable models that way. At the end of the short time before they ran off, I took 23 photos and waved three cars past who were blocking my view. They had no clue there were sheep.

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Big guy and one of his harem. Wow.

 

Back at the Richardson’s Rock Ranch gift shop we asked about the sheep. The family brought six of the Barbary Coast Sheep over from Africa about five years ago and now they had close to 200. They are not for hunting, just amazing animals on the ranch.

And I got to see them because of Eagle Eyes Gate Girl and my zoom lens. Never leave home without it. Priceless! Got zoom?

It’s Tiger Tuesday?

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by Kimberly A. Cook              (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

So what comes after Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Tiger Tuesday! Have several big cat photos I took in Las Vegas I wanted to share. So what better way to do that than pile on to the naming day craze?

Last week I showed the picture of the white tiger cub so this week I wanted you to see both cubs. They told us they never know when they will get a white or a golden tiger cub in a litter. I love both!

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In this photo the cubs were in the nursery display area for four hours each day. Even with attendants, a large stuffed white tiger helped to ease their missing Mom. Obviously, the golden one thinks it’s Mom since he or she is cleaning the tiger. How adorable!

Next up is a close up of one of the leopards on a high rock shelf. This is the zoom full out. How gorgeous is this big guy? It took some framing of the shot to get his eyes between the link fence, but I am so happy I got him looking at me. I’m quite sure I bored him or her, but wow what a beautiful pussycat.

IMG_0787Came around the corner from the leopard and there was one of the large male white tigers with his eyes locked on the prize. Another leopard next to him had been out of his enclosure next to this guy and then came back in; white tiger had his eyes on him. The leopard never looked at him. I can understand why. I was not more that ten feet from the white tiger and he couldn’t care less about us humans, it was an amazing show of territory among big cats.

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Just to prove he really didn’t care about humans, how about this close up?

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And last but not least, who could leave without a swim by from one of my favorite mammals, the dolphin. Here is one of the boys keeping an eye on me and the rest of the two-legged humans. How amazing is he?

IMG_0748.JPGI always wonder what they’re thinking. I know they are so much smarter than moi. Easily.  And they can fly in the water! I require flotation devices, at least two.

If you get a chance to visit Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage in Las Vegas, go check it out. Your visit helps their conservation programs, including the one for the white lions of Timbavati who were rescued from the brink of extinction by the entertainers.

Maybe white lion pictures next Tuesday? Every Tuesday should be Tiger Tuesday!

 

 

Pink Clouds And Serendipity?

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by Kimberly A. Cook            (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

On my way home from the day job last night I noticed how the sunset started filling the sky with pink. So when I got stuck in a traffic jam due to an accident, evasive maneuvers were required.

I turned off onto a road I rarely travel and came across a great open spot to view the pink clouds.

Doesn't this look like a Monet painting? It doesn't look real.
Doesn’t this look like a Monet painting? It doesn’t look real.

Drove past. Then I turned around and came back. One must never pass up the opportunity to take pictures of pink clouds.

Monet is one of my favorite artists and these were his kind of clouds. Snapping off several shots, the light quickly faded and dark began to descend.

With the hectic pace of life we all lead, taking the time to appreciate beauty and savor the gorgeous does wonders for our human spirit.

It’s also a nice pause in the middle of a hectic day. I find it helps ground me again when all the pressures of a normal day crowd in.

Losing the light and the scene becomes more dramatic. The tree top at the bottom right provides some scale to the photo.
Losing the light and the scene becomes more dramatic. The tree top at the bottom right provides some scale to the photo.

The leaves are turning here in Oregon to beautiful yellows and oranges and the golden light of Fall is painting everything with a glow, including pink clouds in the sunset.

Saw a cute sign at a shop this past weekend that said, “Do One Thing Every Day To Make Yourself Happy.” Done.

Now spread some happiness around; it’s a good thing to share. Like pink sunsets!

Can You Capture The Sun Rays Of Fall?

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by Kimberly A. Cook          (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

When I took a three-month camping trip to Europe in 1983, I carried 70 rolls of film with me. Some of my best shots were sticking the camera out the window and just shooting. Shit shots, I called them. Nothing to lose!

The rolling clouds, the Washington gorge hills, the bridge and the Columbia River; without ever leaving my car!
The rolling clouds, the Washington gorge hills, the bridge and the Columbia River; without ever leaving my car!

On our recent adventure to Hood River we went to one of the Columbia River parks for a look-see before heading home. It had started to rain and the wind was whipping up in the gorge, so I did my usual and took a few pictures from the car window. Just like in Europe. (Yes, I rolled the window down.)

Sometimes the most important thing as a photographer is to just take the shot. I had some cars coming toward me and I was about to hold up someone driving behind me, so I grabbed the shot. I’m pretty happy with it.

One of the reasons I always carry one of my little Canon Elph cameras with me is I never know when I might see a photo I need to take. Kind of like the Boy Scouts, always prepared. Which includes a fully charged backup battery too.

With the leaves starting to change colors and the pumpkin decorations everywhere, this is a great time of year to capture the golden light in the morning and evening. You don’t need a ton of equipment or to even get out of your car; be lazy and creative. You might be able to use the photo for a blog post.

Whether taking pictures on the road, in your own backyard or trying to capture your pet’s latest antics, for us photo freaks it’s always a good day to take a picture. The weather folks say the rains are coming in this week. Yeah! Cloud and rain pictures! Woo Hoo!

Do You Have The Eye Of A Photographer?

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by Kimberly A. Cook               (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

Spent part of last week on vacation at the beach, Depoe Bay, Oregon, one of my favorite spots on the planet. In the quest to get there we ended up in two traffic jams, so a stop at the Oregon State Park Van Duzer Corridor rest stop in the Coast Range was a great idea and a necessity.

Photo 1 - overall scene setting shot. Photojournalism rule - always make sure you get an overview picture.
Photo 1 – scene setting shot. Photojournalism rule – always make sure you get an overview picture.

I love to visit the stream which runs through the trees by the picnic tables, away from the rest stop building. The sound of the gurgling water is so relaxing. Even with low water at this time of year.

There are two rest stops, one North and on South. On on the way back we always check the river on the South side too, since it runs deeper than the North side stream.

I’ve been travelling this road for 35 plus years so I must have hundreds of photos of this stream. Thought it might be fun to show you the series of photos I took that day, in order. Kinda.

Photography, like writing, requires practice. What better fun for us shutter bugs than to take pictures outside by a forest brook? It was late in the afternoon so the light was still bright, so the green in the left side of photo one fades by being bleached out by the sun.

Next up I decided to zoom in and focus on the larger rock in the stream bed in photo three. Normally the water is deep here any other time of the year, so this was an opportunity to use the rock as a focal point in the lower left of the photo.

Photo 3 - yes I skipped two. I put the rock in the upper third on pic 2, then changed my mind and put it in the lower third to draw in the eye. Better.
Photo 3 – yes I skipped two. I put the rock in the upper third on pic 2, then changed my mind and put it in the lower third to draw in the eye. Better.

Close ups are good, but I also wanted to see what a mid-range photo would look like so I pulled back the zoom and framed shot five. Liked the filtered light coming through the trees and into the water and the better contrast between the water, rocks and trees.

So the last picture is my favorite of the five I shot in this series. I checked the times on the photos and I shot them all in two minutes.

The great thing about digital cameras is you’ve always got pixels to spare; as long as you carry an extra charged battery and memory card.

Spent part of the trip trying to use my new Canon PowerShot Elph 340  HS camera. Somehow managed to shoot video when I hadn’t planned on it, so more time is needed with that camera. It has a much longer zoom and greater pixels, the better to get harbor seal close-ups!

These stream photos were shot with my trusty old Canon PowerShot Elph SD800 IS. It’s so hard to give up an old reliable and move onto the next one. I’m talking about cameras here, by the way, just to be clear.

Have you played with your camera today?

Picture 5 and my favorite. I can count, I just skipped two other photos in between.
Picture 5 and my favorite. I can count, I just skipped one more photo in between.

Been On A Weekend Shopping Safari?

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by Kimberly A. Cook               (Twitter@   WarriorTales)

Spent this past weekend dashing around like a maniac. Zipped over to Craft Warehouse for their tent sale on Saturday, then managed to get stuck in our first rain storm in two months on the freeway. The downpour created two traffic jams and two car wrecks I avoided in 75 minutes trying to get to my writer support group; but All’s Well That End’s Well. Made it!

A favorite sign at Craft Warehouse. I may have to go back and get this....
A favorite sign at Craft Warehouse. I may have to go back and get this….

On Sunday I zoomed over to the grocery store to hand off a wedding gift and try to beat the after church crowds at the same time. While waiting at the designated outside meeting spot, I noticed the bees busily working away on the flowers in the garden center. Go bees! Took out my ever ready camera and got a few pics.

Then finished up Sunday by binge-watching three “Who Do You Think You Are” shows on The Learning Channel before the start of the new season that night. It’s like a cozy mystery for every show and so fun to follow the genealogy trails.

I enjoy when they use military records, since heaven knows there is always paper involved when serving in the military. A nice by-product of the tv watching was Spec Ops Cat approved of the lap time.

So we got some rain, had a cool weekend, and here comes the heat again. Seriously, Mother Nature is having hot flashes and I can do without temps in the 90s. Let’s hope for cooler temps than predicted and if not, keep your cameras ready for the outfits! In high heat I see the most amazing clothes combos.

Bee on the job. Even on Sunday!
Bee on the job. Even on Sunday!

P.S. Happy Birthday to Beatrix Potter today. Her “little bunny book” as she called it, “Peter Rabbit,” helped her preserve hundreds of acres in the Lake District of England. The little bunny that could!