Here By The Sea And Sand ...

Nothing ever goes as planned¹

During one of my walks working on my Sand Project I happened to see an interesting shorebird that I hadn't noticed before. My camera wasn't setup for bird photography and I didn't think to just snap a photo anyway. Instead, I figured I would just walk again later with a camera/lens combination suitable for birds and maybe I'd get a lot of gulls, terns etc. and of course some of this particular group of birds (Royal Terns btw).

So I mounted my 70-200 with a 2x extender and took another walk. As it would happen, I saw very few interesting birds, but I had a lot of fun with some high contrast scenes.


Pier

Shore

Recede

Shimmer

Watching

"Bug Hunting"

I try to make it a habit to go out into the garden occasionally with my camera setup to get pretty close (usually a 70-200mm w/25mm extension tube) When the summer flowers are in full bloom is an opportune time. The echinacea, daisy, black-eyed Susan and mint are all especially attractive to "bugs". Late morning and late afternoon seem to be the best times. I've been a little slack this year, but managed to take time out of my day to do some "hunting" yesterday.



Bumble Bee on Top of the Cone

A Particularly Popular Cone

Bug Sex at the End of the Earth

Bumble Bee in a Rose of Sharon

Zoom in - Bumble Bee in a Rose of Sharon Like a Pig in ...

My Model - The Green Heron

Every time I go to North Myrtle Beach I make a couple visits to The Heritage Shores Nature Preserve.
Almost every visit is rewarded by a few nice bird photos. This year was no exception. The Green Heron below sat and "modelled" for me for 15 minutes before I moved on in search of other "models."



Green Heron Facing into the Sunrise

Green Heron "I'll Stand Up Taller"

Green Heron "How's This Side Look?"

Green Heron "Let Me Look Off Into the Distance"

Green Heron "What's That?"

Green Heron "I See You!"

Green Heron "Is That Something to Eat?"

The Sand Project, Part 1 - iPhone

I spent a week at the beach recently and decided to do a "project" that would be naturally limited.
Images of the beach sand.

The project was limited by:
Time, I was only at the beach a week
Tide times, so the sun would be low enough to get decent shadows and contrast
People/crowds, I didn't want contend with too many people or footprints in my photos

I took two walks with my iPhone, and two walks with my "real" camera (A Canon EOS 6D Mk1 for those who might care).

Here are a half-dozen of the iPhone images.


Scales

Creature From the Deep

Whale Tail

Tropical Islands

The Tree of Life
>

Reflections