The White Queens

 I had such fun at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge yesterday, spend some time out on the windy pads and caught this little calm area with this fantastic turquoise water and mirror like water, such a contrast from the saves and rippled muddy water elsewhere.  Here is a little before and after of this one shot.  Nothing fancy but I did some painting with light and some texture work, some dry brush filter and now its ready to share.  Enjoy!

House Finch, A Word of Advice

This little couple have given so many fun hours of amusement over the last months.  They play, they bicker and carry on like an old married couple.  I am pretty sure they have raised about 20 babies as the birdbath is often pretty busy.  Maybe she is telling Mr she has a head ache tonight!

I have been taking a bit of photography break with the Olympics on but I need to begin to sort through some of my images.   I have a photo contest I plan to enter offered from Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, using photos taken from the Refuge.  It will be their 3rd one and there are at least 3 categories that I can participate in.   Problem is I can not make a decision.   What will the judges be looking for!

Postcard If you are flying by!

Still playing around with the abundance of great shots from Hagerman Wildlife Refuge.  At some point I get to feel they all start looking the same so working on some fresh artistic looks.
Texture is I  believe is from Skeletal Mess and the brushes from Deviant Art.  Enjoy

Mother Load Painted Buntings

I was so happy to finally spot these little birds.  It was not

easy to find them and they were pretty shy.  Now if truth

were to be told, I might tell you this is actually just 2 birds out

of 8 shots I was able to get before they flew off never to be

found again.  They loved the middle of the road and this big pipe

where they would fly up and chatter, then fly down to the ground again.

Really comical and entertaining.  This image used a texture called

Ancient Wall which I liked as it toned down that glaring rust and

gave some softness to the busy background.  Taken in June 2012

at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge on pad L.

Yellow Headed Blackbird

Today was my first photo safari at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge.  It was such a laid back group, everyone enjoying the day with NO wind for a change, spring like weather and no harsh light.  My leader and other person who went along got to visit some of the places you never get to go and we saw a few butterflies and wild flowers, but I think in the next month of May it will bloom like mad out there.  The shore birds, ducks, geese, herons, egrets and array of song birds were just delightful.   With some luck of the camera gods a nice gentleman worked on my poor ole camera and we got it finally spot focusing, sigh... making me a very happy camper.  This image A Square Piece of Art was done using Kim Klassen's texture Poetic and Kristen Frank soft texture IX, some brushes and text.   Enjoy ~

Hagerman in the Winter

Well, at last there is an image without birds!  I thought these dead looking trees in the water were so interesting with the reflection and the way the water glistened in different textures and colors.      The Great Heron's were out  in abundance at the Refuge last weekend and I got quite a few images of them doing different things.  They really blend in with water and weeds so it was hard to get nice shots of them. I hope you are enjoying these winter images.

Dining In The Muck

Hi again, with birds!  Saturday I got to visit again the great Hagerman Wildlife Refuge http://www.friendsofhagerman.com/Home
and spent 2 hours just driving and walking about trying to get some photos.  Since its winter there are not many things to shoot except , what else...birds!  I got a nice assortment of birds that I will be sharing with you.  These are not Mallards but this pair kept close enough to the edge of the water to get some nice wakes behind as they paddled along the shore.