I had posted some of my images over at a photographer's site and there were some issues with them. One of the photographers that I respect greatly suggested I try a couple of things to improve my images. Today I spent time trying his suggestions. Basically it meant getting off "auto" mode and actually trying to focus and expose the shots myself using all manual settings. I had great fun doing this surprisingly enough, I thought it would be fraught with danger but in actual fact I enjoyed messing about with the different settings and actually manually focusing the shots to where I liked them. As it turned out I got what I thought were some nice shots, so I shall share them here.

First up the blue jay, now you have to understand that me and the blue jay have issues, because he is so damn fast, he stuffs his face with peanuts and he is gone. Today I actually managed to get a nice pose and a nice exposure, I was grateful for that



The male cardinal did a nice job of posing for me while I was practicing, but then my cardinals tend to be very accomodating to me



and much to my delight I actually got a shot of a Ruby Crowned Kinglet, this is not the best of shots, but I was just delighted to get a shot of him (or her) at all seeing as all my previous attempts have failed.



It was a good day, in which I learned alot about my camera and about myself. You can't say better than that.

Oh how precious, Hanoi Jane shows up at an anti-war protest. Well that should put the lid on all the anti-war protests from now on as 26 million veterans rise up in arms at the nerve of Hanoi Jane speaking about anything. Not only should she not be speaking, but in my opinion (and probably the opinion of 26 million veterans) Janey-poos should be languishing in a jail right now having been convicted of treason, of course that would have been the bright side for her, the alternative would have been execution. Listen people, do not turn Iraq into another Vietnam, the press and the weak public lost Vietnam and they are about to do the same with Iraq. If we lose this one folks then the entire world is going to realise that the American public simply does not have the stomach for a protracted war, outlast em a year and they give up.

DH watched King Arthur again this evening, he likes that movie. Personally I can take it or leave it, I like Clive Owen, he is a good actor, given the right material, ditto Kiera Knightly, and I LOVE Ray Winstone (have since Robin of Sherwood days). But you know, don't go messing around with my legends and I won't go round messing with yours. How about I make a movie where Davie Crockett is actually a nasty wildlife murderer who spent his entire career slaughtering innocent animals for profit? Would you like that? No. So don't make a movie where King Arthur is a Roman - knife to the heart. Of course don't get me started on Robin Hood Prince of Thieves cause you know I have a real issue with Robin Hood landing at the White Cliffs of Dover and telling his pal "we will eat dinner with my father" in Nottingham some three hundred miles North, ON FOOT, and via (thanks to the filming) Hadrians Wall on the border of Scotland (another two hundred miles out of their way), but then you know who am I to question the historical accuracy of Hollywood which is known for its historical accuracy.

And another thing. My husband has a habit of watching AMC on a saturday morning which shows westerns. Now I am all for a good western, but as of late they have been showing really old westerns, I mean black and white you can almost hear the guy in the background cranking the player type of westerns. This morning we watched another one where John Wayne was some sort of government agent who was sent in to save a town from its corrupt local officials. I must admit this the perhaps the tenth such film that I have seen in the past couple of weekends. Did the scriptwriters just keep writing the same thing over and over again back in those days, just changing the names of the towns and the lead players? Anyhoo, what really annoys me is that in these old westerns 1) when someone gets shot they die immediately, it doesn't matter where they get shot, chest, arm, shoulder, left toe or right finger, they die immediately, which as we all know is completely implausible. Even if one gets shot in the heart or stomach it takes a time to die, one would lie around moaning for a bit, or even going "god dammnit you shot me" but no in these westerns one shot and you are dead. I bet today's police officers wish they had some of them guns. b) black people look silly, eat chicken and rolls their eyes alot. It is quite scary actually (oh and in todays movie the male black person was listed ON THE SCREEN as SNOWFLAKE). I'm English you have to remember and we never had segregation or any such nonsense so the idea of a black person being portrayed as anything other than a normal person with normal inflections is quite amazing to me, and the very idea that an actor would have a screen name of Snowflake just about had me falling out of bed to be honest. c) There is always a simpering female who appears to be enamoured of the lead character (be it John Wayne or Audi Murphey) d) John Wayne in the early days always turned his jeans up so they had the inside-out cuffs on the bottom, what is up with that? They didn't have tailors who could cut off the excess and hem them? I mean they had barbers and hookers and druggists and everything else but they didn't have a tailor who could fix your jeans? e) Maureen O'Hara was da bomb, I mean really, the epitome of a strong, sexy, in your face, takes no shit, woman. No wonder John Wayne loved her as a pal as he did. f) Fist fight scenes were really pathetic, I mean really, it is so obvious that the swing misses but there is a "sound effect" to sound like there was contact made that it is silly to watch these days. Having said that at least in those days you knew that the bad guy wore the black hat and that eventually the good guy will win (and get the girl.)

This morning DH and I were sitting in bed watching tv. Lucky was in the bedroom with us. The boxers were outside whining at the bedroom door. All of a sudden we hear the phone with the "off the hook" sound going off. I put on my dressing gown and go out into the living room. Cueball is walking around with the telephone in his mouth. Now this would not be strange had perhaps the phone been on the floor or perhaps on the coffee table where he could easily reach it, but no, the phone was on the charger and Cueball must have stolen it off the cradle and decided to wander around the living room with it in his mouth, loudly screeching that it was off the hook. I opened the bedroom door and allowed Cueball to walk in there so that DH could see what his boy was up to. I then took the phone off him, wiped off all the slobber and put it back on the cradle. Now I don't know why he did this but I am thinking that it was a really good way to get our attention.

Joke -Two hillbillies were out in the woods hunting. One says to the other "if one day you were out hunting alone and I snuck over to your house and made love to your wife and she got pregnant and had a child would that make us kin?" the other hillbilly thought a while and said "don't know if it would make us kin but it would make us even."

I'm a photographer. I look at the world differently that other people. I notice light. I notice a scene the way a photographer notices a scene. I was walking back from the courthouse today and after leaving the new courthouse and entering the old courthouse I noticed how striking it was that my shadow was falling on the concrete, as I was driving home I noticed a single bright star nestled in amongst inky black clouds. It has occurred to me that since taking up photography I have begun to look at the world in a completely different way. Everything I see is a potential photograph, and every fall of light, every shadow, every glint of the sun on water is a potential shot. It is a wonderful place to be in, your entire life is consumed with looking, with watching everything around you. You have no idea how much it energizes you to find that every single thing you see is interesting, is potential, is that next great shot. While a walk from the courthouse back to the office could be a harried, boring walk, being a photographer it is just an opportunity to see something that you will view as a great shot. My name is Dawn, and I am a photographer. Damn life is good.

On Sunday I rose early to begin the dough to make my husband scratch made cinammon rolls (he loves them) after loading the breadmaker I went back to bed with my tea and then planned my day. Laundry had to be done of course (seeing as my husband insists on wearing the same 5 pairs of pants every week despite the fact that he has about 30 pairs of pants in his closet). I had also planned to do the dishes, clean the kitchen and do various other chores. When I got up to finish making breakfast I looked out of the kitchen window and it was like grand central station out on the bird feeders. Apart from anything else I appear to have been invaded by an army of Cardinals. While I normally have several breeding pairs in my garden it would appear that every pair in the neighborhood has taken up residence in my garden to take advantage of the continuous "all you can eat buffet." I counted at least 15 males and just as many females and that was conservative considering I discounted some sightings on the grounds that I may be counting twice. There were mocking birds (one of whom decided at one point that the feeders were HIS territory and no one else was going to get near them, he even chased off the Blue Jays which I thought was impressive seeing as the Blue Jays were twice his size.) There were Blue Jays, there were sparrows, there were chickadees and tufted titmice, there were woodpeckers and there were mourning doves. There were Wrens and Pine Warblers and even a Ruby Crowned Kinglet (a rarity on my feeders.) I view the scene out of the kitchen window and immediately discarded all other plans I had for the day other than the laundry and set about doing the dishes to clear the sink for my camera and tripod. I had a good feeling about the day and boy was I right. The birds were posing for me, posing just perfectly, and I thought at one point that it could almost have been in gratitude for me providing a feast when the world around them was frozen. The Red Bellied Woodpecker came down and did such a fantastic job of posing for me that I was amazed.



The Blue Jays were obviously taking part in some weird "how many peanuts can I get in my mouth at once" eating contest of which I was not aware, I am not sure who won but this guy as far as I could see was ahead at last count.



The Mocking Bird sat on guard for a while, and kept everybody away....



But pretty soon he ate his fill and then went off to sing on the power lines. Then it became a waiting game for the other birds, despite the fact that I have 11 feeders out back there was only so much room on each one for so many birds so the posing branches became a sort of "waiting room" for the birds that were waiting for a table to become free. Here the Cardinal and the Pine Warbler hang out waiting to be called.



Then a couple of mourning doves waited their turn



*sigh* it was a good day.

(and possibly in the universe) Elizabeth mentioned the other day that she did not know what Judy looked like, and I realized that I have spent so much time talking about the 600lb gorilla (Cueball) that I had neglected to sing the praises of my darling little girl. To begin with she is a petite boxer, slim, slight and of the most perfect form. Not only is she small for a boxer she has the most delightful personality, she lives to please her humans, and it is with delight that we are pleased. Judy is beyond doubt the most precious dog that ever lived, and is beyond doubt the most beautiful boxer that ever lived. I often regret that we had her fixed, as I really think that not only her perfect form should have been passed on but so should her exquisite personality. So here she is, Ms America, my most beautiful and precious Judy, if there is a better dog on the planet then I would like to meet it.