Pretzel's Snack-A-Day (365 for 2014)

Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 184 - Celebrating the 4th... on the 3rd!

One of our small local townships always has their big firework shows on the 3rd every year. The population of the town TRIPLES (maybe goes up even more) for a few hours every year. ;)

OF COURSE, this was my first year to try and shoot fireworks, but knowing that I was hauling camp chairs and a large bit o' snacks for the family, I only brought the camera... left the tripod at home. All of these firework shots are hand held, taken by a big bald guy with his arse in one of those camp chairs. I switched from the 70-300 (used during the daylight hours for random shots) to the 18-55 right before the finale.

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 184 - part 2

A few more handheld firework shots.

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The following picture is actually from a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... and is PROOF that Yoda destroyed the Death Star, not Luke!! ;) ;)

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Saved my favorite 2 for last...

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 185 - Newborn!

Let me tell ya... newborn shoots are about as stressful as wedding shoots, except you get a chance to try again the next day (maybe) if needed? Have some fantastic friends that just had a baby about 5 days ago, and they were willing to let me practice! :)

These are a few of my favorite shots from the day. Fell in LOVE with B&W looks for a lot of the shots, but gave 'em quite a few in color too. These are the folks that I gifted the "Crayola Rainbow" pic to as well, for the nursery.

Every little tiny part is precious!

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For the record, those are O-State Cowboy colors!! GO POKES!

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Yeah, a little cliche, but it came out well? I need to add a bit of black to the edges, as I'm not sure I like the nails touching the bottom edge of the pic.

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LOVED this shot! Daddy's girl with her hand in his!

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Amazingly precious shot of all 3! This was both parents calming the wee babe down after she got a little fussy.

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Daddy is already doomed!

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 186 - Killdeer!

So on Thursday, my wife and son headed out to help her company set up for the huge local fireworks display, and while hanging signs, they spotted this little lady and her eggs... TODAY, after getting up at 5:30 a.m. to clean up the aftermath of debris that's left over from those displays everyone loves, I asked her to show me where she was so I could go back and get pics. Such a gorgeous bird! Unfortunately, her nest is set up right near the driveway entrance at some nearby soccer fields, so I'm not sure if her wee little nest will make it, but she seems to be a good mama. Most of the "kid" activity is much deeper into the soccer field area, so we can hope!

She let me get VERY close, so I backed off the zoom a bit to get into the sharpest range on the lens, which seems to be between 100 and 200mm. Here's a nice profile shot!

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Then, a half step closer, and a little more zoom... she turned to face me and scolded me a bit.

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Then, as I spoke to her to let her know all was well, and I wasn't there after her clutch... she went into the routine that we all know the killdeer for. She fled! But not in cowardice, but rather to feign "injury" just a short distance off in the hopes that I would think she was a much tastier and easy to catch lunch. All the while, she had an eye on me.

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A step in her direction, and she headed a little farther off. Different injury, same watchful eye.

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It didn't take long for Papa to hear the distress call, so he came in and joined his efforts to the cause as well. The weren't really all that close to each other, so it was a bit more of a challenge to catch them both in the same shot, but here you can see her (the brown blur in the foreground) with him a bit farther on faking his own injury after he gave me a fairly close fly by.

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They both gave me a couple of close fly by's when I went back for one last and QUICK snap of their clutch before I left them in peace. HOPING to get the chance to catch a few shots of the babies before they disappear, but not going to push the parents at all. I'd much rather have the babies run off without pics than risk the chance of scaring the parent too much and have them abandon the nest. It's rather funny to note that, where most birds line a nest with twigs, grass and other soft things, the killdeer seems to have an interest in lining hers with gravel?

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 186 part 2 - afterthought

Just to show how close she let me get before warning me, though, here's a 100% crop from 300mm. She was standing VERY STILL in the hopes I wouldn't notice her at all. I was probably within 6-8 feet before the whole routine started.

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