Archive for January, 2009

So I wake up this morning at 5:00 am and let the dogs out.. When they come back in we head up stairs to my office as we always do and there in the middle of my office is a dead fish, yes a dead fish.  It’s about the size of a sardine.. Now I must explain, we don’t have fish as pets, we don’t live near a creek, pond, or lake.. I can’t stand the smell of fish and we certainly don’t eat fish.  I only like the ones behind glass at aquariums..  I wake up John , yes at 5:00 am and tell him there is a dead fish in my office LOL.. and to come and get it (I don’t do dead fish either).  The sweet husband that he is, he gets out of bed and disposes of the fish (Why didn’t I take a picture) John tells me the dogs must have brought it in as he found one on the deck yesterday.

As weird as it is to find a dead fish, I move on and decide a bird must have dropped them as they were flying by…I go on to work, run some errands and come home.  It’s 7:00 pm and the John let’s the dogs in again and low and behold ANOTHER dead fish on the floor.  Okay so it’s dark outside so we can’t go look but I will be out with a vengence tomorrow trying to figure out where the hell these fish are coming from.  Either my neighbors now have a fish pond and I missed the constuction, a creek now runs through my yard and I have missed that as well or someone has thrown fish into our backyard…  I am guessing the last one otherwise I am totally stumped by this mystery..  I will keep you up to date on the fish saga LOL

Now for the Squirrels… I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing squirrels.  When we built our house 3 years ago, the squirrels moved out and sadly, they havent returned yet, even though we have woods to the left of our house.  Woods, no ponds or fish ) any way I am at a local park yesterday after work and I see this guy just scurrying around, having a blast.  I grabbed my 70-300 lens and just started shooting…

It’s funny the things you miss or forget about when they aren’t around.

He is also alot cuter than a dead fish

Have a great Saturday.  Welcome to the weekend

Before I get started with today’s post I must first thank everyone for their well wishes yesterday.  I did go to work today and made it most of the day.  I am feeling better although not 100%.  It is so nice that we all care so much about each other.   Thanks also for all the comments on the Mallard Duck.. I knew when I took it that I had something special.. I can’t wait to print it, which I don’t do with many of my shots…

Today I have two shares, the first is this pretty blue bird… I saw him outside John’s office window and grabbed the camera.  It’s not as clear as I wish but I take it as a sign that Spring is on its’ way.

Here is the other shot, the real POTD.. I love when I see these old buildings in downtown Richmond.. It for some reason always reminds me of antiquing with my dad.. Just a nice feeling when I see them.. Anyway, I see this building every day on the way to work and for about 2 weeks I’ve been trying to get a shot but it is at an intersection and I always catch the red light either too far up or down, but today BINGO, perfect location and the light had just turned red so I knew I had time to grab the camera out of the backseat and shoot fast LOL..

I applied Kelsey Smith LR Preset “Dream” and then adjusted the black a bit more…

I hope you have a wonderful Friday… Yea, it’s almost the weekend again!!

So I stayed home sick today as I was feeling like crap when I woke up.. a lot of people at work have been sick and I decided why try and fight it so I called in sick and then headed straight back to bed where I slept for over 4 more hours. Later, the fed ex guy delivered my upgrade to iLife for the mac so I installed and started playing with it. One of the reasons I wanted to upgrade was due to the new video enhancements including stabilization. Knowing I had a video of the gorgeous James River here in Richmond with some shake to it I decided to try it. The results are below.. Still some shake but not like before and since I never read directions, it’s possible I could get it better but I am impatient. I plan on actually following the directions and do it again when I am feeling better. Anyway, here is the video, one of the reasons I love living here, oh and if you see those building across the river, my new office is being built to the left, yes in 8-10 months this will be my view everyday (god willing we don’t do more cuts at work).

In keeping with the river theme, one of my all time favorite things is to be by or on the water.  It really is a hobby for me. NOTHING makes me as happy, I love creeks, ponds, lakes, rivers and of course the ocean.  So last week at work I was thrilled to find this pond near my office where I can eat and read over lunch.  While scoping it out, this little guy came over towards me.. A pond and my favorite of all water fowl.. A Mallard Duck… I was quite happy as you can imagine.

I am pretty happy with this photo but before I print it out are there any suggestions you have to make it better? (It really looks better larger so you can see a larger version on my Flickr stream if you wish, just click on it there on the right and then chose sizes on the top). Thanks for any comments you have on it.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful Thursday.. Take care!