Picture-A-Week 2023 - Week 09

[pierces]

Pictures taken between Monday, February 27 and Sunday, March 5.

 

Time marches on. As proof, I present the fact that March starts this week. March out the door and take a few photos to share!

 

 

Rules: See above

That's it. This isn't a contest.

All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising).

Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize.

The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays.

Post one. Post many. Up to you.

Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

[Re-tired]

Well, might as well get this week started...   

In our SoCal area snow is fairly unusual.  With the series of cold storms we have had there is a lot of snow.  It typically melts on our local mountains by noon, it has now been here for over a week.  This is Mt. Wilson, about 5,700' high, and where most of the radio and TV broadcast antennas for the LA Basin are located.   

 

[Re-tired]

Well, with all of this positive reinforcement I'll try another.  This was taken further west, just below the Jet Propulsion Lab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Docker123]

 

Fifth day of autumn, sunny, hot (32), a bit windy. A little rain shower a couple of days ago and purple fungus has popped up all around town.

 

Last time this happened, about 6 years ago with yellow bikes, citizen action occurred. Bikes end up trees, in bushes, on top of building, just bike pile and other vandalisation, many in rivers of the bay, etc. I have not seen any of these being ridden

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by Docker123

[pierces]

When Grandson Matthew started playing hockey, we would go to the games and mostly watch. I took a few photos but in the starting divisions, it was less like hockey and more like ducks mobbing a handful of bread tossed into a lake. I took more shots the next year as the players progressed with skill and strategy replacing pinball physics. This year, they are playing real hockey and shooting is more challenging. This week’s photo was taken in a string of six frames, and I am still in awe of the autofocus being able track a speeding subject at 10 fps in the rink’s moderately bad light. As someone who started in a time when ISO 400 film was “fast”, being able to shoot at 1/500s at ISO 6400 or even12,800 in so-so light is a gift that just keeps on giving.

 

Split Second

 

 

 

 

Dave

[ski ww]

Nice shot, by both of you. 

[pierces]

On 3/4/2023 at 8:59 PM, Docker123 said:

 

Fifth day of autumn, sunny, hot (32), a bit windy. A little rain shower a couple of days ago and purple fungus has popped up all around town.

 

Last time this happened, about 6 years ago with yellow bikes, citizen action occurred. Bikes end up trees, in bushes, on top of building, just bike pile and other vandalisation, many in rivers of the bay, etc. I have not seen any of these being ridden

 

 

 

We aren't as vigilant as y'all down there...the evil little machines taken a foothold up here and are carrying out their nefarious plots. Didn't anybody pay attention to the Transformer movies?

 

 

😉 

 

Dave

[TLCOhio]

As add proof that Spring is coming early for this part of the U.S., I have some visual "evidence" as shown below.  Here in Central Ohio, for a Midwest location, the weather continues mild and very nice.  Mostly sunny!!!  Can you believe two days above 70F in the past six days!!!  How are things in Canada and the Northeastern U.S.?  We are not Florida in our part of Ohio, but doing well for early March.

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Sydney to NZ/Auckland Adventure, live/blog 2014 sampling/details with many exciting visuals and key highlights.  On page 23, post #571, see a complete index for all of the pictures, postings.  Now at 242,419 views.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1896175-solstice-live-australianzhawaii-many-pix’s-jan-20-feb-3/

 

As an example for how Spring has arrived so early here in our part of the Midwest, below are some of our daffodils in full bloom in early March.  You can also see that part of our front lawn is fairly green for this time of the year.  Amazing weather?:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these visuals larger/better!)

 

Over this past weekend, we were down in central Virginia for visiting with our grandsons, family there.  It was great, this early, to see so many trees fully flowering.  Another sign to prove an early and nice Spring!!:

 

[TLCOhio]

On 3/5/2023 at 10:43 AM, pierces said:

This week’s photo was taken in a string of six frames, and I am still in awe of the autofocus being able track a speeding subject at 10 fps in the rink’s moderately bad light. As someone who started in a time when ISO 400 film was “fast”, being able to shoot at 1/500s at ISO 6400 or even12,800 in so-so light is a gift that just keeps on giving.  Dave

 

Appreciate the great photographic background and follow-up from Dave about the challenges with sports photography.  Saturday, we were down in central Virginia for a soccer game with our ten-year-old grandson.  

 

FORTUNATELY, it was a super sunny Saturday and we were not inside with those high ISO challenges.  Lighting was great and makes such an amazing difference.  Could shoot at a good ISO setting and benefitted from the ability of better cameras to shoot multiple frames with quick auto-focus helping much.  

 

Below are some of the soccer game visual results.  Also, for those who have not learned the top photo rule.  Shoot lots of pictures and only share the "good ones".  In shooting sports with fast action, you must anticipate what happens next and capture lots of images to find those few "magic moments" that are good and exciting.  Used my Nikon D7200 with 55-300 mm lens, many shot at ISO 640, f11, 1/800.   Doesn't bright sunshine help so much?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise from Copenhagen, July 2010, to the top of Europe. Scenic visuals with key tips. Live/blog at 246,401 views.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1172051-livesilver-cloud-norway-coastfjords-july-1-16-reports/

 

From a soccer tournament in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, below are a few examples of our ten-year-old grandson in action wearing green during two different games.  They won both games and went on to the Sunday championship game.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these visuals larger/better!)

 

 

 

[pierces]

2 hours ago, TLCOhio said:

 Also, for those who have not learned the top photo rule.  Shoot lots of pictures and only share the "good ones".  In shooting sports with fast action, you must anticipate what happens next and capture lots of images to find those few "magic moments" that are good and exciting.

 

Yup. It took me a little bit to learn the ins and outs of hockey strategy to predict where the puck might next be going at high speed. Fortunately, I had a season or two to learn the ropes with the kids starting slow and gaining speed and accuracy. 

 

Here's a photo from one of the first few games. The puck is in there somewhere...

 

 

Dave

[zackiedawg]

I'm late in posting for this photo week - I was out on both Friday and Saturday in the wetlands as I had 3 friends in from up north, down here to see the wildlife.  I took Friday off of work and took them out to 3 different wetlands in the area - two were down here last year from New York and New Jersey and liked it so much they came back again, and another friend from Maryland joined this year.  Took a bit of time to sort the photos, and then I've been busy this week trying to make a hole for a 5-day weekend vacation to Disney starting tomorrow.

 

Here are some of the highlights of the 2-day wildlife photo weekend with guests:

 

First big surprise was this bird, who was around from October through January, then had disappeared most of last month - it's a rare sighting and I had bemoaned that they probably wouldn't get a chance to see one as it had disappeared.  But lucky they were, as that very Friday was the first day the chuck-will's-widow was spotted again at the wetlands - and just 8 feet away!:

 

The tricolored herons have all started their nests - most have laid their eggs now:

 

A brown basilisk lizard up on a tree stump, watching us:

 

A very upset snowy egret - it had just chased off another bird from its territory, and was still a little riled up:

 

The beautiful male green winged teal, down here for winter:

 

And the American wigeon, another wintering duck hanging around down here:

 

And a more rare sight, but a nice one - the male lesser scaup was hanging around the western ponds - they are a winter bird for us, but I can go years between sightings:

 

Among North American ducks, one of the most stunning to see is the male wood duck in its full breeding colors:

 

A nice closeup of a juvenile Egyptian goose, resting on the levee - I had to shoot over the shoulder of a very protective poppa goose who faced off with me to make sure I wasn't going to get any closer to his family:

 

The elegant lesser yellowlegs, walking along the levee next to the pond:

 

Cattle egret flying past, with its beautiful breeding plumage:

 

Double-crested cormorant flying this way just before sunset:

 

Tricolored heron approaching head-on - also all colored up in its breeding plumage:

 

A wood stork at sunset, arriving back to its nest with a nice big stick:

[archstroke]

Sunset from Antigua

 

Great Bay, Philipsburg, St. Maarten

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by archstroke