2. Daily shots for the dailies forum on Dgrin

Dailies

These images are ones shot to post in the daily community on smugmug. I've been participating in this community for about twelve years. For the first few years, I tried to always post a shot taken either that day or the day before. Now, although I try to shoot everyday, I don't necessarily post the images on the same day they are shot.
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I think this photo of a turkey vulture cleaning her/his feathers looks like the bird is wrapped in a feather shawl. I watched this vulture for over an hour cleaning every single feather on her body. She ran every feather through her mouth. If you look at this image in the largest sizes, you will see that there were, nonetheless, problems with quite a few of the feathers. I was kneeling on the ground with my big 200 - 400mm lens. I wanted the bird to fly off so that I could capture her in flight. After an hour and a half, my arms and legs were shaking; my knees were in agony from kneeling on the rocks and I was afraid I would have to give up. Both vultures I was watching finally flew off, but they really took their time with their grooming, wing warming, etc. Be sure to look at this in the larger sizes. You can really see the feather detail well. Have a great day everyone!
1729 / 1959

I think this photo of a turkey vulture cleaning her/his feathers looks like the bird is wrapped in a feather shawl. I watched this vulture for over an hour cleaning every single feather on her body. She ran every feather through her mouth. If you look at this image in the largest sizes, you will see that there were, nonetheless, problems with quite a few of the feathers. I was kneeling on the ground with my big 200 - 400mm lens. I wanted the bird to fly off so that I could capture her in flight. After an hour and a half, my arms and legs were shaking; my knees were in agony from kneeling on the rocks and I was afraid I would have to give up. Both vultures I was watching finally flew off, but they really took their time with their grooming, wing warming, etc. Be sure to look at this in the larger sizes. You can really see the feather detail well. Have a great day everyone!

turkey vulturevultureturkeybirdfowlwildlifeanimalnaturebig bendtexaswingsfeathers

  • A male anhinga in full mating plumage. The green marking around his eye indicates he is completely ready for mating. Photographed at Shark Valley in the Everglades in Florida. Look at this in the largest sizes to see the detail around his eye and his "hairdo." This shot is another taken on our recent trip to the Everglades. The anhingas are one of my favorite birds of that area. Enjoy your Saturday! I'm going to my grandson's 9th birthday party! At least, if the snowstorm misses us. Thanks to all you smugmuggers and others for your comments on my little blue heron shot. I sure enjoyed looking at all your fabulous shots...and there were certainly a bunch that qualified as FABULOUS!
  • A female purple martin with an insect in its mouth, photographed in the Florida Everglades; look at it in the largest sizes to see the detail. I'm off camping, so I posted this before I left. I'll be back on Sunday. I also posted a tricolored heron shot early, since I won't be able to post for a couple of days. I'm hoping some of you get to see them.
  • Camellia in bloom in Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama. It reminds me of a seashell somehow, though I'm not sure why. I just love its delicacy and perfection. View it in the larger sizes to see the details. After spending 5 hours in the dentist's chair today, I'm wiped out. Hope everyone has a good day!
  • This orchid has bloomed for me reliably twice a year for about five years now. It is a fairly large plant and is absolutely covered with flowers, which last for about 3 - 4 months. It is quite late in the day to be posting a daily, but I just got wifi access, so I have to take advantage of it when it have it. I hate to be missing all of your great shots but we are having a really good time. Today we visited Bellingrath Gardens in Alabama and I filled three 4GB cards with images. I'm sure some of them will find their way to the dailies eventually, as I get them processed and uploaded. Hope your day was good and that tomorrow is good, as well.
  • On our recent trip, we visited Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. The cave is huge and very dimly lit, so photographs were a problem. I did not take my tripod, as I thought they might not allow them (they do allow them) so I ended up trying to steady my camera on the round railings. I found that exposures of 1.6 seconds provided the best shots I could get. I generally still had to sharpen the images a lot. They do, however, provide a pretty good idea of the amazing formations everywhere you look. Actually, I could not see many of these structures in the dimly lit cave, but when I looked at my photos, I saw a lot of detail that I had not seen myself. Hope everyone has a really good day today. We are having the last of the winter storm that hit yesterday....cold and very windy. You need to look at this in the largest sizes to see the detail in the image.
  • A white-winged dove, photographed at Big Bend National Park in Texas; you will see a lot of detail in the feathers if you look at this in the largest sizes. Thanks for all the comments on my camellia photo today. I sure enjoyed looking at all your great shots. May your day be sunny and bright!
  • This wasp was sort of floating/walking on this puddle in Big Bend National Park in Texas. Note his reflection in the water. Look at it in the largest size to see the detail. I love insects and am always trying to take macro shots of them, though I don't seem to succeed too often. This one is better than many I have taken. I really appreciate all the comments on my pelican image. We are having storms move through tonight...rain, sleet, hail and snow. Beginning early in the morning, we're supposed to get a lot of snow. We'll see. They miss the forecast about as often as they get it right. Hope most of you are having better weather than we are. From the pictures, I can tell that a lot of you are in the midst of spring. Enjoy your spring!
  • A roadrunner who has just caught a lizard, photographed in Big Bend National Park in Texas. This little guy would come out to hunt every single afternoon behind the line of RVs in the Big Bend campground. For this picture, he let me get within about five feet of him. He had caught this lizard in the grass and he evidently did not want to eat it there, so he took off across the asphalt road. He was making little moaning sort of sounds as he was carrying it. Every little bit he would stop for a second and make this sound. We saw quite a few roadrunners in Big Bend and all the others were quite a bit larger than this fella. Thanks for the comments on my kite boarding picture. Have a great day!
  • I think this photo of a turkey vulture cleaning her/his feathers looks like the bird is wrapped in a feather shawl. I watched this vulture for over an hour cleaning every single feather on her body. She ran every feather through her mouth. If you look at this image in the largest sizes, you will see that there were, nonetheless, problems with quite a few of the feathers. I was kneeling on the ground with my big 200 - 400mm lens. I wanted the bird to fly off so that I could capture her in flight. After an hour and a half, my arms and legs were shaking; my knees were in agony from kneeling on the rocks and I was afraid I would have to give up. Both vultures I was watching finally flew off, but they really took their time with their grooming, wing warming, etc. Be sure to look at this in the larger sizes. You can really see the feather detail well. Have a great day everyone!
  • I think this is a northern mockingbird, photographed in early morning in Big Bend National Park in Texas. Bird detail is seen much better in the largest sizes. Hope everyone has a really good Monday. Thanks so much for your comments on my flying blue heron. I really appreciate your comments. I certainly enjoyed looking at all your wonderful postings today.
  • I photographed this turkey vulture in Big Bend National Park in extreme south Texas on our recent trip. I stayed on my knees for about an hour photographing this vulture and another on a nearby telephone pole. I believe this one was the female. She meticulously groomed every single feather on her body...one at a time! She did every feather the way she is doing this one, running her beak along its length. Look at this image in the largest sizes and you'll see some marks on her feathers. I'm not sure if they are parasites or something else. Her feathers were, on the whole, gorgeous and I think even her head is not ugly like many people think. You can see the little hairs on her head. The other vulture did some grooming, as well, but he was not nearly as meticulous and some of his feathers were pretty ratty. I wanted to get the vultures taking off and by the time I finally got those shots, my legs were shaking, as were my arms from holding my position for such a long time. I shot this with my 200 - 400mm lens and it is a big sucker to handle. I'm going to post a bit early, as my sciatica is killing me. It is great to be back posting and looking at all your wonderful images. Hope your weekend is terrific. Tomorrow we'll have to dig out from our recent blizzard. Hoping the sun melts a lot of it.
  • Day 135 - The seedhead of echinacea, purple cone flower; the detail really only shows up in the larger sizes. I shot this yesterday afternoon while my grandson and I were each looking for interesting things to shoot in our garden. I really was only trying to keep Spencer company, so was pleasantly surprised when I got several pretty decent shots. I kind of liked this one...hope you do, too. It is after midnight here; I'm posting this and then going to bed. I look forward to seeing all your shots...there were lots of great ones today!
  • Day 136 - This turkey, unfortunately, was not alive when I shot it. I had taken my grandson to his archery event and this bird was stuffed and mounted on the wall. Since I have very little opportunity to shoot wild turkey, I took a photo and then removed the background in photoshop. Let me know what you think of the image. And, have a great day today. I'll be having another epidural cortisone shot in my spine. I'm hoping this one will get rid of the rest of the pain.
  • Day 134 - This shot was taken on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This very old pine tree with wonderful swirling roots amazed me with its beauty. I've applied a number of effects, including Topaz Adjust, several Pro Color EFEX, and then some Photoshop CS3 blending and filter effects. I like the drawing-like quality of this image, which still retains the photographic quality. Let me know what you all think. Thanks for your comments on my water drops on the pine tree. I really enjoyed the great shots you all posted today. Browsing your images is often the best part of my day. Our weather has gotten cold and windy again but it is supposed to be a bit better tomorrow. Hope your day is terrific!
  • Day 133 - My interpretation of a radioactive squirrel that has tunneled into the White Sands Research station and chewed on various things he has found there. I decided to do something fun for a change...there have been so many wonderful pictures of squirrels on the dailies that I knew I could never take a squirrel pic that would equal many of those. So, I decided to have a little fun with a squirrel, since they get everywhere and into everything, it seemed only a small stretch to think that they might get into something radioactive. Hope you enjoy my little joke! Have a great day!
  • Day 131 - White chrysanthemums with statice in the background; this image really looks better in a larger size. I took it some time ago but had never processed it. I rediscovered it yesterday and decided to use it as my daily today. Like many of us, as winter drags on, I find myself drawn increasingly to images of flowers. I've loaded this photo and several new flower pics into my Flora and Fauna gallery. Thanks for all your comments on my latest Rocky Mountain National Park image. I have a gallery with quite a number of pictures from that trip, including photos of elk and bighorn sheep that we saw. We are supposed to have a pretty warm day, so the buds on the trees will swell even more. I know spring is just around the corner, although some of you are already experiencing it. Have a great day today!
  • Day 130 - A bouquet with lilies, chrysanthemums, statice and astroelomeria; this is another of the images taken last summer but just rediscovered in my files and processed. It was very gratifying to see so many of you enjoying my "radioactive squirrel." Thanks for all your comments. Hope you like this flower shot....have a great day today!
  • Day 132 - The morning sun strikes rock formations in the Grand Canyon, as seen from the North Rim in Arizona; detail in this image is best viewed in a larger size. This shot of the Grand Canyon is one I recently rediscovered in my archives from the early fall and reprocessed. I used a number of different effects, including Topaz Adjust, Color EFEX Pro, and some regular Photoshop filter and blending effects. If you view the large size, you will really see some detail! I'm going to post this and go to bed. I hope you all have a really nice day! It is supposed to be quite warm here today. It got up to 65 degrees in Colorado Springs today, not a good day to sleep away. Oh. well. Oh, if some of you should like to look at the other North Rim Grand Canyon shots, they are here: <a href="http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/6698528_KNq6d#476011624_efKkk">http://fotoeffects.smugmug.com/gallery/6698528_KNq6d#476011624_efKkk</a>.
  • Day 129 - Happier Days - I have taken one of the shots of the interior of the tumbledown, abandoned house and have added a number of "ghosts" from a happier Christmas past. I took four separate shots taken a couple of years ago, cut them out and added them to the tumbledown room. It was fun to do. The "dad's" gift is really too up-to-date, as is the "mom's" outfit, but that was what I had to work with. I may try to actually shoot some new ghosts in the future that are more appropriate, but, for now, it was a fun effort. Hope you like it!<br /> Thanks for all the comments on my foggy, hoarfrosted tree...it was wonderful to have so many of you say such nice things about it. I probably won't get a chance to comment on your shots for today until late in the day, as my hubby is having a diagnostic scoping procedure. Hope everyone has a grand day! It was really windy here today and is expected to be pretty windy tomorrow, as well.<br /> <br /> I just received the following link via e-mail. It is a photographic review of American in the 1930s, with some extra info on Kodachrome film. It has a lot of great photos and you all may be interested in viewing it. <a href="http://www.openmyeyeslord.net/ALookBackInHistory.htm">http://www.openmyeyeslord.net/ALookBackInHistory.htm</a>
  • Day 128 - Looking up at the Colorado College Center for the Performing Arts building. I took this shot as part of my project for the Monday Challenge of "Looking UP." I used my 10.5mm Nikkor fisheye lens, which distorted the shape of the building. I, however, like this effect. The building at this end is covered with copper tiles. Thanks so much for all the comments on my North Rim of the Grand Canyon shot. I am overwhelmed at the response to this image. For those of you who have inquired, the epidural cortisone shot this time does not seem to have made much difference, as yet. However, they say it can take up to a week to fully take effect, so I'm still hopeful. The first shot did give me a lot of relief, so this one may not make as much difference. Thanks for all your good wishes and have a great day!

  • malcolmjenkinsphotography

    on July 14, 2018

    A stunning photo. Everything feels right about it - the composition; the pose; the colour and how you have edged it. Simply excellent.

  • Greg&Rose Photography

    on July 14, 2018

    Absolutely stunning

    Yes we are back from an amazing holiday and unfortunately walked into a death of my Aunt and other family drama that has caught us short on time

  • Tony Britton

    on November 21, 2016

    Fantastic photo. Very well done!

    Tony

  • jean-mckenna-photography

    on November 4, 2016

    Terrific feather details, and in my opinion, always nice to share a moment in the life of a critter. Nicely done!

  • nelli

    on September 23, 2016

    BRILLIANT

  • johnchapmanphotographer

    on October 22, 2015

    Hi, Brilliant.

  • 349390pitchingwedge33

    on December 28, 2009

    quite the stretch.... very interesting look....

  • Boobaby

    on April 30, 2009

    Awesome shot and details!

  • John (300m)

    on April 30, 2009

    nice details on the feathers. I like the colors and tones you captured.

  • Sam (tylwydd)

    on April 29, 2009

    Amazing details ! Great shot !

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