End of Season Color

A photo prompt brought me outside with my macro lens to see if I could capture some of that vibrant color only fall can bring to the leaves turning color.  I found some great leaves and also some great seed pods from my flowers.  These are marigold petals and some seeds which truly appear to be tiny paint brushes and the pallet of an artist.  Texture by R H West.

American Avocet

The saying goes "If you are not the lead bird, the scenery never changes"...and so they fly off to the other side of the water.  American Avocets were at the Refuge today and on our Fall Photo Safari our group was lucky to see a nice group of them.  As amazing as they are to see on the shore wading in the water, its even more dramatic to see them in flight.   For me, the white pattern on the back makes them seem to be flying in the wrong direction - An illusion to fool a predator?   Textures are blue cloud sky and French Kiss Crackelure.  

1st and 2nd Place!

I entered these two images plus a couple more in the 3rd Annual Photo Contest at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge.  Three professional photographers judged the entries of over 300 in classes Artistic (which mine are entered in), Landscape, Macro and Fauna, and Wildlife.  The top image is called Sunrise and is one of my very favorite photos of the canadian geese that migrate through and the 1st place winner.   The 2nd place winner are my scissortails.  Oklahoma's state bird, but I will not complain if they were taken in Texas!

Thanks Friends of Hagerman for hosting such a fun contest!