New image in the candid shots photography contest

…
at the pond photography picture

Ice builds up on the pond.

This photo was taken while waiting for the Full Moon Hike to start at the Quogue Wildlife. If you’ve never gone, I highly recommend it — even if you’ve been to the refuge a million times, it’s drastically different in the dark.

The Sunset Over the Refuge
05 October 2009
Quogue Wildlife Refuge, Quogue, NY

12/15/09

As I post this new image a major winter storm is dropping over 18 inches of snow in West Virginia. I only ventured out once today to test the roads. Suffering from a little cabin fever I decided to revisit some images from a recent trip to Acadia National Park. This image is from the Tarn Pond and is one of several I took that morning. The pond is slowly filling in and is full of aquatic plant life. In the early morning the sky is reflected in the calm waters and allows images such as this.

The image was shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70 f2.8 lens at 24mm. I used a Heliopan Warming Polarizer and exposed the scene at f16 for 6 seconds.

The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Just a pretty picture to cheer people up on a cold winter’s day when everyone is busy making preparations for Christmas. This deep pink water lily was photographed in the rain at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales last August.

© Jessica Winder and Jessica’s Nature Blog, 2009. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material, including both text and photographs, without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jessica Winder and Jessica’s Nature Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 Photographs in this blog are copyright property of Jessica Winder with all rights reserved

Cultural divisions are proven insignificant where true love abounds.  “Love’s Exotic Odyssey” is exemplary of an extraordinary passion and friendship between two persons who unknowingly are searching for the other.  Disregarding societal mores, two persons become friends and lovers despite having grown up in two very opposing cultures.

~B.K. Wright~

Available at www.beautobeau.com, as well as Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, 1 Romance ebooks, all of which can be accessed via Links from my site.

Whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year we hope it brings you joy, warmth, wishes granted, and love.

With all our love,

MW, DH, Gavin, and Patty

वाप्यं स्नाति विचक्षणो द्वजवरो मूर्खोऽपि वर्णाधमः
फुल्लां नाम्यति वायसोऽपि हि लतां या नामिता बर्हिणा |
ब्रह्यक्षत्रविशस्तरंति च यया नावा तयैवेतेरे
त्वं वापीव लतेव नौरिव जनं वेश्याऽपि सर्वं भज ||

- मृच्छकटिक

In a pond all kinds of people take bath – the learned, fools, brahmins, common men, people of lower caste, so on. A creeper full of flowers will bend if a peacock sits on it. It does also bend if a crow sits like wise. While crossing a river, you can find all kinds of people on a boat. Just like a boat, or the pond or the creeper a prostitute does serve everyone of her clients equally favoring none.

- Mrucchakatika

More photographs from the CS Lewis Nature Reserve near Oxford

Fujicolor C200 film and Minolta X-700 with MD Rokkor-X 45mm 1:2

Fujicolor C200 film and Minolta X-700 with MC W.Rokkor 28 mm 1:3.5

Fujicolor C200 film and Minolta X-700 with Tamron SP 90 mm macro 1:2.5 [52BB]

Do not forget to care for your pond: fish can die if the pond is allowed to freeze over.

Speaking practice for the 14minute exam based on the two photos on page 123.

There are two parts to each question:
- the first is to compare the photos.
This means you have to find things that are different (often ‘opposites’ like the ones you came up with in this case – height/depth, bright/darkness, etc) as well as aspects that are similar (like the ones you mentioned: all the training and equipment needed, the fact that they are both ‘at one with nature’, they are both highly dangerous, life-threatening sports, etc);

- the second part is to say (in this case) why some people might find them either a nightmare or enjoyable. Here, you gave some very valid reasons.

All this in 60 seconds (in the exam!).

Language: revise the other parts of speech for …..

Adjectives: long, deep, wide, high
Noun: ?
Verb ?

Talking of landscapes, we moved on to listening to five people talk about where they live and whether they like it or not. (Page 21). Some lived in the countryside while others lived in the city. Remember, Crema isn’t a city, it’s a town, albeit a large town.

Vocabulary: view, right in the middle of, scenery, I feel so isolated, no facilities nearby, no sense of community, peace and quiet.

We looked at more pictures describing natural landscapes on page 24.

Do you remember the difference between a lake and a pond, a bush and a hedge? What plain are you living on? What’s the highest waterfall in the world and where is it?

No homework for the Christmas holidays! Yippee!

I took a trip to Slimbridge Wetlands the other day, had a great time. I went to watch the Starling roost in the evening and have a general wonder around. It is an awesome place and I will be heading back when I can! The Starlings were incredible, some 50 000 show up to roost at Slimbridge every evening around 3:30-4. The only thing was that they weren’t in the best place to photograph, so I spent most of my time watching. I meet another photographer (Pro or semi pro I think) on site and he said that it was a wasted trip, as he didn’t get any good shots. To me this is the wrong attitude. I thought the trip was a great success, sure I didn’t get many shots but the starlings are just so amazing to watch that it is always worth seeing them camera or not! I think this photographer was there because he thought he would get some great pictures for his portfolio, not because he wanted to see one of Britain’s best wildlife spectacles and I very much disagree with this. For me it’s seeing the starlings first and pictures second. Which I believe should be the way when photographing any wildlife.

Anyway rant over! Below are a couple of the shots from Slimbridge and one from my trip to Frensham today. I have visited Frensham three times over the last week to see the starling display. However each time I have been the starlings have been nowhere to be seen! I have been to  Frensham Great and Little Ponds in the hopes of finding them and I have managed to see a total of 8 starlings in the 3 visits. They appear to have moved onto a different roosting ground and I have no idea where it is. The reeds that they normally roost in look a little thin and beaten up from the heavy rain and strong winds we had a week or so ago. I believe this is why the have moved on. Hopefully they will be back in the coming weeks, but in the mean time if anyone knows where they have gone then please let me know!

The pictures below aren’t my greatest work but I want to share them anyway! The starlings aren’t to clear in the blog sized photo, larger version can be found on my Flickr account (link on the right).

Andy

Pattern Name:   Lilypads
Pattern Price:  $3.99
Stitch Count:   216 stitches wide x 150 stitches high
Size in inches:  15.5” x 11” (39 cm x 27 cm)
Colours used:  40

     We now live lakeside and didn’t have to move or spend a fortune.  It rained all day and with the ground frozen, the rain had no place to go.  The yard is now a lake, and by this time of night, a frozen lake.  It’s a good thing that the rain stopped earlier tonight or the Koi might have had a chance to explore the grounds.  Knowing them, they would’ve camped out at the back door and waited for food.

     Patty doesn’t like wet weather so she only asked to go outside today when she absolutely HAD to go.  Gavin doesn’t mind rain, doesn’t like snow much, but the rain he tolerates.  He always wants to go out and gives the ‘go out’ bells a good workout every day.  Yes, there are days that I want to choke him with the bells.

     Bells ring.

     “You were out five minutes ago.  You peed on everything that is upright.  You don’t NEED to go out.”

     Bells ring.

     “You can’t possibly have to go.”

     Bells ring.

     “ARGH!  All right I’ll take you out.”  I put on boots, coat, hat, and we go out.  Gavin tinkles on the Tulip Poplar, barks at nothing but the wind, and heads for the door.  We go in.

     I take off my coat, boots, hat, and settle in front of the computer to work again.  I type one sentence.

     Bells ring.

     “You’ve got to be kidding.”

Bog gardens can be made around the edge of a pond: however be aware that bog garden plants need some drainage and air.