Seal Slough Pelicans

The day after I took the Egret photos from last weeks blog post I went back to try and find the pelicans. Very happy I did. These photos were taken in the same settings as the last time, Manual mode, F11, ISO 800, handheld, playing around with shutter speed depending on the light.

Brown Pelicans, ducks in the background.

I think this is also a Brown Pelican. Doesn't look exactly like the first two but I guess there are variations.

Nice clear photo.

So pretty.

Blue Heron, he was in the sun and I only got a slight silhouette shot then he took off. 

How lucky was this one? wow

American White Pelicans. They have been hanging out in Foster City for the last couple of weeks in large flocks. This (I assume) is a smaller group than what has been seen in the area recently. 

They slowly move along dipping their heads in the water and coming up with their bills full. 

Would have been a good reflection if not for the seagull stealing the shot.

If I had been in S Mode I think these action shots would have come out better. 

Still pretty good photo. With this turning out so well its hard to really try with S Mode. I'm too afraid I'll end up with no photos.

Watch the mud slide off his feet in the next photo.

Going to a less crowded spot?

Nope, not less crowded. 

So many birds, Blue Heron in the background with his head down, Black Necked Stilts and an Egret all behind the Pelican and Seagulls.

Another great set of flying pelican shots.

wow

Pelican on the far left has an itch...

Scratch must have felt good!

Happy Friday!!!

Bair Island Birds

     Photos from this post were taken at Bair Island Wildlife Refuge and Trail. I was there for less than an hour and left with 750 photos. I do take way too many photos normally so even for me that number is pretty high. Before I made my way into the park there were birds everywhere. A neighbor from across the street yelled at me to watch for large flocks of white pelicans. He said they flew by earlier and were staying in the flats. Unfortunately I didn't see any of them on this outing. All of the photos were taken in Manual mode. I don't usually use manual because you have to choose all of the settings and I was thinking it would have been better to only worry about one at a time. However my first few photos in Aperture mode and Shutter priority mode both gave me photos that I wasn't super happy with so in trying different things, manual mode just seemed to work best for me. It was mid morning without a cloud in the sky so a little on the negative side of exposure was helpful to keep the birds and water from being too bright. I think the ISO was at 800 (less made the photos very dark) and the white balance was set to full sun, aperture mostly F11. I have a Nikon D3100 and used a Sigma DC 18-250 lens, handheld, no tripod this time. All details in hopes of helpful critiques and advise from other photographers, please! I'd like to use the Shutter priority mode next time. For some reason the photos looked very dark. I thought that was sort of strange because of the bright sunlight but I must have had something set wrong. I'll try again next time. For now I'm super happy with these photos. Post editing is mostly just cropping and adjusting the input levels, which I was taught was pretty normal and minimal photo editing. I'd be happy to share the original photos (pre editing) if you'd like  Enjoy!

 I'd also love to identify the birds in the photos. Adding this to my list of things to do for my next bird photo blog post. 

This would have been better in S mode. Next time!

The egret shots below are my favorites. Such beautiful birds. Look at their feathers, so light and pretty. The whites aren't too bad, not super over blown, looks pretty sharp but I still want a perfect egret photo. I do love how you can see his feet in the water. 

And I finished my scarf....

Its a little wonky (lol) but not bad for a first scarf. I'm definitely in love with knitting. I've already started my second scarf. Learning to purl now. No progress was made on the cross stitch or needle painting projects this week, maybe next week...maybe later. 

Happy Friday!!!

Sydney Part 2

Here are the rest of my photos from Sydney. I hope you like them!

ANZAC War Memorial in Hyde Park.

Long walkway in Hyde Park.

St. Mary's Cathedral, across the street from Hyde Park.

Another view of St. Mary's from The Domain, which is another park space.

The trees are enormous! There is a person sitting under the tree having lunch. He looks so small comparatively.

Looking back at the city in one of the parks with a city train rolling through.

At first I thought this guy was a bunny, he was nibbling away at the grass but he is a cockatoo.

Navy ships, swimming pool and blue skies.

This was part of our running path while we were visiting. So pretty, nice paved path along the parks with great views and beautiful trees. The weather was perfect while we were there. 

Kookaburra bird :)

Another Kookaburra. 

View of the city and Circular Quay. 

Friendly pelican at the Sydney Fish Market. The seagulls could have taken lessons from this guy. He was very polite and never tried to attack me, much unlike the seagulls! We did not stay at the Fish Market for very long.

They do have a nice view of the ANZAC Bridge.

The Sydney Botanic Gardens. There is a kid running down the stairs, gorgeous park!

Loved these trees with their roots spilling over the edge of the rock wall.

This tree was top heavy.

One last beautiful giant tree. Thank you Sydney! 

Happy Friday!!!