Kauai 2011 days 3 and 4: more waves

Just a couple of shots from day three of our trip; both were taken at what we call Shell Beach. In this first one, you can see from the shoreline why we chose that particular name:



And a look down the other way, back towards where we were staying:



Another day, another sunrise. But, seriously, how was I supposed to resist the photo op of the rising sun, the crescent moon, and that solitary star?





A lucky, lucky capture of some sun beams:



I intentionally framed this one so the sun was positioned right behind the palm tree, just to switch things up a bit:



I should have yelled down and thanked this couple for unwittingly posing for such a classic shot:



My first Egret sighting; as you can see, I was peering through a plant for this shot, and I like the way it ended up framing the bird:



A couple of photos of the Egret after it moved off a ways, undoubtedly hunting for geckos:





Another day, another beach, another try at wave photography. In this one, I was trying to capture both the variety of water colors and how you can see the sand being pulled up into the wave as it reached the shore:



I caught this wave as it was in the process of rolling over:



Finally, I'm pretty sure I crouched down a bit to take this shot, getting a slightly different angle on these waves as they came into shore:

Kauai 2011 day 2: whale watch

Sunrise the second morning:



This was the same day we made our first trip to the Kilauea Lighthouse, and it was a fruitful day photography-wise. In addition to these whale photos and my shots of an albatross in flight, I captured several other sequences involving a whale leaping from the water. While the ones I posted last year were my favorites, I thought these two jumps also came out fairly well. First, a whale flopping onto its back:














And then there's this sequence, which I thought was interesting because the whale's head was pointed toward the shore, providing a slightly different perspective:











I just liked how this shot of an albatross against the ocean came out:



Some sharp-eyed visitors to the lighthouse managed to spot a seal lying on the wet rocks; it took me a little while to pick it out with the binoculars, after which I spent another minute or two finding it again through my viewfinder in order to take a photo:



If you place your mouse pointer in the center of the photo, it should be right on the seal. And just in case you don't believe it's there, a cropped-in look at the same pic:



At lunchtime, I spotted a pair of Common Mynas on the wires across the street. It's a bird I've never seen anywhere else, but on Kauai they're as common as sparrows:





This was probably my favorite of the bunch:



And a closer look at a Myna as it hunted for dropped morsels of food:



A sparrow I caught as it took flight off a branch:



This Red-crested Cardinal was kind enough to pose prettily amidst the pink blossoms of the tree we sat under:





One of the more daring Cardinals came pretty close to me; I really didn't mind:



Finally, a pair of shots of a Red-crested Cardinal atop a nearby building. I loved the contrast of the red head against the deep blue of the sky, and how the shape of the feathers is echoed in the material used to make the roof. However, if I were to ever make a print of this, I'd probably Photoshop out the dark blurry wire that crosses above the bird's head:

New year, old pictures

Okay, one of my new year's resolutions is to get back to posting pics more regularly. I figure there's no better way to do so than by listening to my mom, who told me I really needed to get my pictures from my last Hawaiian vacation posted before going on this year's trip in a few weeks. So, a few shots taken on my first morning there last year, January 27.

Looking out from our deck at sunrise:



The first of my many, many attempts at wave photography. I also liked the golden glow imparted by the rising sun to the mist both over the water and coming off the waves:







A little later on in the morning; the golden effect was mostly gone, but the sunlight was still very pretty coming through the mist over the water:



And a few more wave pics; these shots were also my best examples featuring the fine mist coming off the waves as they crested and broke:

When seasons collide

Last night we experienced our first snowstorm of the year. If I dwell too much on the fact that winter appears to have begun in October, I'll probably end up curled up in a ball in a corner somewhere. So instead I'll focus on the unique photo opportunity it provided me this morning in the form of a maple tree I noticed when I got to work. Vivid red leaves, white snow, clear blue sky... how could I resist?





Not much in the way of snow in this one, but I still liked how it came out.



And a closeup of some leaves to close things out:

To baldly go...

About a week ago, a very scruffy-looking Goldfinch caught my eye when it was sitting on my bird feeder. I didn't realize exactly how scruffy it was, though, until I zoomed in on it with my camera. I have no idea whether it's molting (as the rest of its plumage suggests), survived a run-in with a cat or some other predator, or is the result of some cross-breeding experiment involving Goldfinches and Vultures that's gone horribly awry. What I do know is that this Goldfinch was, at the time I took these pics, practically bald:



Giving me the side-eye:



And a look at the opposite profile; if you look closely, you'll see that the bird has quite a few more feathers under its eye than it does on the other side. I just hope it's all filled back in soon, as it's getting a bit chilly outside to be going bare-headed all day long: