Wednesday, August 31, 2011

on the river today....

Remember I mentioned a week or so ago that we had seen a Great White Egret do a fly by when we were out in the canoe?  We both thought that he was just passing through and we would never see it here again as it just isn't a "known location" for such birds. Well, today Sandy was walking back over the Mitchell dam and there was the Egret sitting on a log in the river!  It eventually flew away but I thought well, I just might give the "Orange devil" a break from taunting me and my camera (see my last post) and go see if it was still around and to my delight there he was below the dam having lunch!

Great Egret
  
I ended up sitting there for an hour or so watching him catching little fish after little fish...he must have been getting a full belly by the time I left, but he was still at it although I saw at least 20 little "somethings" going down the hatch. 

Immature Green Heron

There were 2 immature Green Herons also fishing in the same area and Kingfishers bopping around but not landing anywhere convenient for me of course!  I estimate at least 5 pairs of Kingfishers on the river above the dam...still hoping for a few good shots of them this year.

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The "Cherries" are finished but I haven't had time to write up the notes with all of these distracting photography opportunities this week, hope to get at it this evening and will post again soon!

Cheers!
J

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Orange throated Ruby throated hummingbird

This fellow showed up in the garden this morning, I have been trying to get a really clear photo off and on all day but he is being chased away by another male so this is the best I have so far. From just looking on the internet this is apparently uncommon ...maybe he spent the summer sipping too much orange liquid from oriole feeders! LOL  All 3 shots are from different attempts so the light and angles are different in each - the last shot was in shade under the apple tree (and he did have to back away so the string from the niger bag was in front of him!!!)  





  

Friday, August 26, 2011

Hummingbird photos

Hummingbird happy dance!

This is the time of year when we start to see young Hummingbirds in the garden, they love the scarlet runner beans and sitting in the apple tree watching the other birds at the seed feeders. Yesterday was drizzly and cool most of the day and last evening a little guy sat on the feeder for a good half an hour, sipping sugar water and looking around my garden..was almost dark before he flew up into the apple tree where I presume he spent the night.



This fellow sat right above me on the clothesline "digesting" his sugar syrup lunch.

and I have loaded a photo of a Cardinal on my photo page - a pair have been coming to the feeder almost constantly for the last 2 weeks grabbing seeds for feeding to some babies they have hidden away somewhere.

J

Thursday, August 25, 2011

New pages, new photos and CANDY!

I have a couple of new pages added. One is a collation of Work In Progress photos so that you don't have to weed through all the chat to see the progression of a piece from start to finish, and one is a page with E-packets that I have for sale.

I've also put up a few more photos on the wildlife page, I got lucky last week with some "neighbours" of ours..and I have a few new backyard birdie shots that will be coming in a day or so.
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My trusty Nikon D300S hasn't just been busy taking bird and flower shots, I usually spend a fair bit of time in the summer shooting still-life set-ups of seasonal fruit and veggies that I eventually plan on using as paintings (someday...I have enough to keep me going for a while LOL)  A while ago I purchased some irresistibly photogenic cherries in Cedar Springs on the Lake Erie north shore (down home to me) and spent a pleasant afternoon arranging and re-arranging them.

Tomorrow I am making relish from the cucumbers that are growing fast and furious in my garden - they love all the rain we have been having lately - and once I get that out of the canning pot I am going to start a little ATC sized rendering of the 2 cherries pictured above which I plan to use as my first blog freebie!
...for those of you who work in CP's  I will put together a little instructional packet  that you can have totally free for the asking...and  I will be also giving the finished ATC away as blog candy to one lucky person who leaves a comment!....more info once I get the piece finished and the packet typed.

...until then, enjoy the new photos!
J

Monday, August 15, 2011

Woot! Woot! Lucy is finally finished!



She has actually been done for a couple of weeks now, but with summer activities I just haven't gotten around to processing photos or updating either my blog or Facebook page until today. There are about 35 different pencil colours listed in my notes, some used heavily like Gingeroot (and white of course) and others that I only used in one specific area to add that little "something" that was needed. I can't wait to see her framed up!

I have also completed another piece that I will be teaching at Krafty Kennedys in London Ontario this September. You can visit my Classes and Seminars page for more info if you are interested in attending.

Trompe L'oeil Day Lily

The ref for this Burgundy/Orange day lily is out of my garden, it is the only summer flowering day lily that I have other than large masses of "ditch lillies" on each side of the stairs up to our deck. I brought this plant with us when we moved to this house, it is quite an old variety and much more delicate in form than some of the newer plants.
Most of our ditch lilies are the usual orange but we have one small area of the patch that produces double or actually triple lilies that are quite spectacular.

I tried cross pollinating these with the burgundy lilies and small pods did form but for some reason they have shrivelled and turned brown,  I guess I will have to try that experiment again next year!
My camera has been busy this summer, whether we are away or at home it is never too far away from me.  I have spent the better part of the day today processing the few hundreds of photos I have taken in the last month or so and some of them are now up on my photo pages. 

Here is one that I particularily like.


I'd love to hear your comments on my artwork or photography!

I'm not sure what is next for me in the studio, I think I may switch over to acrylics for a while or maybe oils...well, maybe not oils...I can just see Sherman walking through them! (((sigh))) He is 4 months old now and gets into everything!

Love my kitties!

J