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.

yeah it's a weed, but it's a pretty weed
pur­ple vetch 
more weeds, love the bright green and the dark purple
yup, more vetch

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

I can never remember the name of this plant
very pret­ty blue
a little more detail
clos­er still

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.)

next winter's fire wood
the wood shed and the wagon

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.

planted be with maple tree
the bird feed­ers hang in the cen­ter of this bed
the new set up ready for diners
a seed tube, a tray, a small sun­flower tube, and a very stur­dy pole

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.

some more pine siskins
note the messy eat­ing habits of the guy at the top
a couple of little brown jobs, pine siskins?
not a bad pic with a lit­tle post-pro­cess­ing help 

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.

pretty bird, icky picture
cer­tain­ly the bright­est bird of the morn­ing, too bad about the picture

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?

About the Author

Lara Harriger