Busy Week for Photography

Wow this has been such a busy week for photo shoots!!!  I was honored to take photos of 2 families in the last 2 days.  The O'Connor's and the Lewis's.  This is something new for me since I normally photograph wildlife.  Both families were so much fun and they loved their photos!!!

Tuesday Dec. 22nd I was able to spend some time at my favorite place, the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch.  Below are some of the photos I took that day; enjoy...

Finally a Black-crowned Night Heron Awake!!!

Last weekend I found two Black-crowned Night Herons asleep in the trees.  Today was my lucky day I found five Night Herons awake at the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert.  I really need to go buy a lottery ticket since I even got one of them in flight!!!  It's been an exciting day today :-)

Great Photo Weekend

This weekend has been cloudy on Friday and cloudy and rainy on Saturday perfect days to take photos outside.

Friday afternoon after work I went to Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert to take photos and see if I could find birds I hadn't seen before.  I was lucky to finally see both male and female Black-crowned Night Herons.  They were both sleeping in trees and was able to get a photo the female awake before I left the preserve.

Saturday I had 2 photo shoots lined up and unfortunately they cancelled on me so I took the opportunity to try out Veteran's Oasis Park in Chandler.  I was on the hunt for Birds of Prey since a photographer I met in Gilbert said he had great experience photography raptors.  I was lucky and was able to photograph Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed Hawk and a Hen Harrier.

My favorite photos from the Veteran's Oasis Park were a cute little Verdin and the biggest Jackrabbit I've ever seen.

Below are some of the photos from Friday and Saturday.

Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch

Above and Below -

Black-crowned Night Herons

Above and Below -

Great Blue Heron

Anna's Hummingbird

Kingfisher

Neotropic Cormorant

Snowy Egrets

Veteran's Oasis Park

Above and below -

Great Blue Herons

Red-tailed Hawk

Hen Harrier

Jackrabbit

Mourning Dove

Above and below -

Turkey Vulture

Verdin

Late Afternoon Photo Shoot

I tried something new this weekend to practice my action shots in the late afternoon.  I went to my favorite place the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, AZ.  It was a spur of the moment thought when getting home from work on Friday.

Friday was an overcast day perfect for taking photos.  I arrived at the preserve around 4:00 p.m. so I didn't have much time before the sun was setting.  I learned a lot that day on how difficult it is to take action shots in low light and without a tripod.  I will definitely be going back for another late afternoon photo shoot to practice some more.

Below are photos that some what turned out; enjoy.

Baird's Sandpiper

Canada Goose

Cooper's Hawk

Canada Geese

Belted Kingfisher

Neotropic Cormorant

Snowy Egret

Sora

What a Week!!!!

This week has been super exciting.  I have been submitting a photo every day to the Arizona Highways Magazine in hopes that one would be featured as one of their "Photos of the Day".  It finally happened, one of my photos that I submitted in October was the Photo of the Day for November 28, 2015!!!  Here's the link to the Photos of the Day Archives, http://www.arizonahighways.com/photography/photo-archive.

The photo is one I took at my first Pow Wow I went to thanks to my friend Linda.  She called me one Saturday morning and asked me if I'd like to go to the Pow Wow in Mesa and take some great photos.  Who knew at that time if would turn out to be a great photo opportunity.  Another photo I took that weekend was featured on Arizona Highways Facebook page.  The them was "red" and I submitted one of the dancers from the Pow Wow in a red costume.

Than I receive an email Sunday night that my Snowy Egret photo that I submitted to BirdWatching Magazine website is selected for Photo of the Week!!!  Here's the link to the my Snowy Egret photo, http://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/blog/2015/11/30/photo-of-the-week-snowy-egret/.

I'm on Cloud Nine, this is so exciting to have photos featured on well known magazine websites so early in my photography career.  I've only been taking photos since January 2015 and I still have so much to learn.  I can't wait to see what happens next.

Here are the photos that have been featured.

Photo of the Day

 

Arizona Highways Facebook Page - theme Red

Snowy Egret - BirdWatching Website

Peek-a-boo Woodpecker

Started my day out at the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert before spending time with family for Thanksgiving.  When I was leaving the Preserve I took this shot of a Gila Woodpecker.

Snowy Egret Stole The Show

I went to my favorite place to take some wildlife photos and had a great treat by a Snowy Egret. 

I was walking down the path along pond 1 when I saw something in the water and couldn't tell what it was.  I went down by the ponds edge and saw it was a turtle sitting on a log in the water.  This was the first turtle I've seen at the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch so I had to take some pictures.

While I was taking pictures of the turtle a Snowy Egret flew by and put on a show.  I couldn't believe my eyes and started taking photos of the Snow Egret skimming the water. 

I still can't believe I got these great actions shots.  Enjoy the photos.