Ladee's Travels

I was awake before dawn and decided to take a local photo tour to capture dramatic lighting and early mornings sights.  I incorporated my black and white photography work in to this trip. I had my smaller lens because I intended to only work on landscapes. But when I saw this beautiful bird in Papago Park, I had to quietly approach it to get close enough for a photograph.  I was ready to take this "bird in take off position" type of photograph.  This is a view of Papago Park.  Today it is a municipal park in Phoenix and Tempe.  The area is know for the desert plants and the geological formations.  It is a former national monument (1914) but the ownership was transferred to Arizona in 1930.  This is the First Solar office building.  It is interesting with the top part of the wall leaning away from the main part of the building.  This is the new Salt River Project (SRP) office building.  This is a stunning lobby with the neon ar...

I joined a group of photographers at the Gilbert Riparian at 6:30 am. It was cold but I had all of my cold weather gear and was reasonably comfortable. The sun wasn't up yet when the group gathered to share information about the facility, lens, cameras and all that good chatter.  I found a spot behind a blind and set up my tripod. Santa brought me a big 600mm lens for Christmas and I was excited to try it out. I am not a "birder", so I will need to do more research to identify the birds.  (Hopefully, Paula will call me and help!) This group was hanging out with feet in the water, cleaning and chatting. The sun is just starting to rise. Canada Geese.   These little ones were busy looking for things that hid in the dirt.  These mallards are out for a swim.  The next two photos go together. I thought that tit was funny that the group in the middle all turned to look at something at the same time.  Canada Geese  I have always lik...

I attended a presentation with Lisa Langell, a local wildlife photographer. The title of her presentation was "How to Avoid the 7 Key Mistakes Wildlife Photographers Make".  She is lively and engaging. Her PowerPoint presentation was filled with examples of her own work with the "mistakes" and the joyous results. I went back to my February 2013 photographs taken at the Gilbert Riparian Observatory.  Yes, I made all of those mistakes. The big one was that I went from place to place to take photos instead of quietly finding a spot to watch the activity and learn the action of the birds.  I decided to process the photos and post them on line so that I could compare the "mistakes" with future photographs (given that I am adaptable enough to learn.)  These are plain and uneventful....  Birds are in the  middle...just standing there.  And one final comment...I need a bigger lens if I am going to do this more often.  No comments necessary.  This i...