November 2015

Sneaky Cardinal

So lately we have had some pretty awesome birds hanging around the yard. We have the Hawks which I posted about earlier this week, a few sneaky Cardinals and I even spotted a Wood Pecker today but wasn’t able to capture any decent shots of it.

Here are a few of one of the Cardinals. He was hiding so it was hard to get a clean shot and my editing skills aren’t at a high enough level to edit out all the branches and other distractions.

I am still happy with them and have more and more respect for wildlife photographers as I continue to photograph these birds.

Ohh and Oshie still could care less about the birds…well except for Turkey which he has been enjoying for the past two days. 😉

November 27, 2015 2

Happy Thanksgiving

Nancy, Oshie and I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We hope everyone had a relaxing day spent around loved ones.

Oshie is currently in a food coma.

November 26, 2015 2

Red Shouldered Hawk..I Think

Hey look! A post that isn’t about Oshie. So we have a few hawks that have been hanging around the neighborhood lately. I am not sure what has drawn them in but there are at least 3 different hawks that I have seen flying around or perched on trees in the morning. There is one hawk who always perches on the top of the same tree looking into the sunrise. He or she appears to be the biggest of the bunch and is the easy spot for me to try and photograph. I say try because the lighting is terrible at the time of day that they are out and my camera equipment is not professional and neither are my skills yet. Even with my Tamron 70-300mm at 300mm I have trouble getting a decent photo and to top it all off the little bugger keeps an eye on me and takes off any time I get within 100 yards or so. Anyway here is the best shot I was able to get so far. Nothing special and I had to crop like crazy to make it presentable.

Ohh and Oshie could care less about the hawks.

November 24, 2015 0

Dogs drool and we all know this. Of course there are some breeds that drool more than others like Bulldogs, Mastiffs and Newfoundlands. While Oshie doesn’t drool nearly as much as those breeds, he does have his moments. Typical of the Golden breed, he loves all things edible (and sometimes not edible) and you better have a towel handy to wipe off your legs if you are eating around him. The drool is almost immediate and the longer you ignore him the worse it gets.

Something I have noticed is that he often drools even when there isn’t food around. This usually occurs when he becomes focused on something. It is almost as if he completely forgets to swallow. I believe that I actually read that somewhere too. It was something about how dogs drool when they focused on something because they can’t handle swallowing at the same time. Not sure how true that is.

Our furry friends can also drool due to a condition known as hyper-salivation. This can be brought on when food or a treat is present or by fear and anxiety. If a dog has this condition they produce excessive amounts of saliva. If you notice your dog drooling a lot more than normal you might want to schedule a visit with the vet.

Drool is a part of your life if you own a dog and you learn to expect and accept it. We certainly have and we know to keep a wipe ready if we have food around Oshie.

Anyway here is a shot of Oshie staring intently at something outside beginning to drool. I wonder if he was just day dreaming about what Mom and Dad were going to have for dinner that night.

Photography Contest

Do you all remember the picture of Oshie’s eye that I posted a little while back? Well if not here it is again.

oshie_eye_2 (1 of 1)

Well I have entered it in a competition on Flickr. The theme for the competition was reflections and I thought this photo would be a decent submission. Out of all the pictures I have taken of Oshie since picking up photography it is by far my favorite.

As awesome as it would be to win the competition, I am jsut excited to share this photo with a larger audience and receive feedback. The individual running the competition reviews many of the submissions in a YouTube video and my hope is that this photo makes it into the video and I get some feedback from a pro on what I could do better. Wish me and Oshie (after all without him I wouldn’t have this shot) luck!