A Backyard Bird Study: A Family of Cardinals Nesting

For the past two weeks our family became extremely lucky as a family of Cardinals, or to be more specific Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), nested in a hibiscus bush just outside of our living room picture window.  We watched in wonder as the the mother (the female is the darker color of the species) nested over, what was originally, three hatchlings.  One morning when we sneaked a peak one of them had disappeared.  I got busy for the next 4 or 5 days with other things when I noticed they had left the nest and saw one of the babies roosting on a branch near the nest.  I decided it was time and I went and grabbed my camera:  a Canon Rebel EOS XS with a Zoom EFS 55-200mm lens with an ISO setting of 800.  With the mode setting on (Program AE) with auto focus I shot the series you are about to see.  I took around 75-150 shots over a period of 45 minutes while the parents of the baby went about the business of getting food an feeding it.  The colors of all three Cardinals are stunningly beautiful as you will see.  I went through my set and picked out 30 of the best ones and put them in a slide show set to music.  I got incredibly lucky during the feeding sequence.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Leave a comment and let me know! 

Jamie's Rapture

As I was going through some old scanned photos I ran across my favorite ambient photo from our family collection.  The funny thing about this particular shot was it was by accident and the setting is unknown.  All I can say for sure is it definitely came form our Canon Rebel Xs EOS.  Since there is no date mark on the photo itself I would have to guess Jamie is about three or four years old.  I like to call this "Jamie's Rapture" because we were at the beach, which she loves, and she had just come out of the water.  She was really enjoying the cool breeze coming off the water and cooling her off as it was a typical Florida hot day and she was standing with her eyes closed taking it all in.  Martha was telling me the camera went off by accident as she was trying to dry Jamie off before applying more sunscreen.  The image it captured for me is unforgettable.  [Be sure to click the image]

Hollow of A Tree and A Fern Root

While out on a walk today my wife and I ran across this hollow in a tree.  I found it interesting because of the beautiful fern growing out of it.  Tree hollows has always been a favorite of mine since I was a kid and saw the movie, "To Kill A Mockingbird."  In the movie a cigar box of child keepsakes are kept and found in the hollow of a tree aligning as a plot device for the movie.  Ever since that move I have been fascinated with tree hollows and how different they can be sometimes with fauna and flora growing out of them.  This was taken with an iphone 7 camera about 2 feet back. I hope you enjoy the color contrast as much as I did.