Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

Canon ELPH

You Wanted The Harbor Seal IN The Photo?

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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.

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Mom getting out of the ocean on her own rock away from kid or suitor? I’m not sure which. 

 

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.

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Kid/suitor slips away into the ocean and this seal looks like it’s a challenge to get up on the rock. I know that feeling so well.  

 

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.

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This is what happens when you are try to hold an ELPH camera by hand at full zoom and then breathe. The seal disappears and only the tail is found, far right. Cute tail!

 

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.

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Even a seal can’t seem to find peace from kids, suitors or rock crashers. Somebody always wants your rock. Sigh.

 

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.

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And All’s Well That Ends Well as Shakespeare would say. I’m a sucker for a happy ending. Now I need to go find a warm rock to nap on myself.

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!

 

 

 

 

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?

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!