Posing as Passerines

Monochrome Madness? Possibly. This week, Sarah’s calling for things beginning with P. I’ve picked birds. Birds beginning with P.

I need to confess that not one of the birds featured below is a passerine, though this order of birds accounts for about half of all bird species. Peacocks, puffins, parakeets, pigeons, pelicans, pheasants – none of them fits the bill. The raven in my featured photo is a passerine however. Though he doesn’t begin with P …

A perfectly posh peacock.
Parading puffins.
Pious parakeet.
Paddling pigeons.
Prying pelicans.
Pair of pheasants.

For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness, hosted today by Sarah of Travel with Me.

A Monday Portrait of Joey

Here’s who we found on a visit to Thorp Perrow yesterday. A mother wallaby and her frisky and curious joey. He didn’t get out of the pouch while we were there, but we knew he was skittish, because when he was nowhere to be seen, his mum’s pouch rippled energetically as he rushed around within.

Good morning joey!
This is who s/he will grow up to look like.

Monday Portrait.

This post is dedicated to Brian of Bushboy’s World, because he has wallabies frollicking around in his back garden. Lucky Brian!

Those Lucky Shots

You know the sort of day. When things just go right. When, perhaps unexpectedly, you have your camera with you just when one of the flighty, nervy Neighbourhood Squirrels is posing nicely, as ours was one day last week.

When, camera in hand, you manage to point-and-shoot at just the right moment. These images come from a long-past day in the Farne Islands when the Arctic Terns, frantic to protect their young, wheeled and dive-bombed overhead, giving chance after chance for action-packed shots even to a strictly amateur type like me. We had no idea where their nests and babies were and certainly weren’t going to go looking.

There were those red squirrels in Málaga, who managed to forget me for just long enough for me to whip my camera out …

Or that heron in Córdoba. It wasn’t so much the heron I was afraid of losing, as this collage of evening light.

Sofia, of Photographias fame wants us to showcase those moments for this week’s Lens Artists Challenge: Lucky Shot. Thanks Sofia, for helping us remember those joyful lucky seconds.

A Lake, the Sea, a River

Patti invites us, in this weeks Lens-Artists Challenge, to consider the shots we take – those which have a foreground – perhaps introducing the scene; middle ground – perhaps what the shot is ‘about’; and background, setting the shot in its context, and rounding our ‘story’ off.

I’ve chosen three watery shots. The first, the featured photo, is so freighted with memories of a calm, peaceful November evening at l’Albufera, Valencia, full of peace and joy that I can’t really judge it on its merits. I like the swell of the rippling water in the foreground. The middle ground merely has a bird (I can’t any longer remember what kind) pausing on that pole: for me providing a little context. And the background is surely that dramatic evening sky?

My second is also an evening shot: a beachside walk in my daughter’s home town in Spain. There are seashore strollers silhouetted in the foreground. The Mediterranean itself provides middle-ground context, with no action whatsoever. And there’s Barcelona in the background. Or is Barcelona part of the middle ground, with the sunset providing the backdrop?

I come closer to home for my last shot, to Knaresborough. The raven perching on the wall is a surprising visitor to the photo, perhaps acting as compère, describing the scene behind: the quiet River Nidd and riverside houses. Behind is the commanding viaduct. Is this background feature actually the dominant part of the image? Three sides of the shot are framed by trees, giving a slightly bucolic air to this urban scene.

This was an interesting challenge, Patti. I think that in some ways the techniques you describe start to become more instinctive the more time one spends with camera in hand. But it’s good consciously to revisit them and think about them anew. But looking out of the window at the rain, I think I may give photography a miss this weekend!

Black and White and Minimalist

This week, PR is our host for Leanne’s Monochrome Madness, and has chosen Minimalism. Look at PR’s post on the subject to see some fine examples. I didn’t find this too easy. But I had a go.

Fog can be our friend here …

… as can dusk …

… and a flying machine to keep the lampost company. Otherwise it’s all about the natural world.

Here are a few plants that might work.

I found some peacock feathers …

… a bird or two …

… cherry blossom …

…and a solitary tree at Brimham Rocks, spotted last week.

I’ve a feeling these are only a little bit minimalist. Why don’t you have a go, and do much better? Link your post to PR and to Leanne’s post, at the links above and we’ll all come and have a look.