This week’s Sunday Stills’ post is partially inspired by Lisa’s Weekly Bird Challenge. What kinda birds live or visit in your backyard? As you read in my post last week, I have enjoyed my backyard as a happy place. Not a huge backyard, but it does the job with the 5 redwood trees I planted …
If you haven’t guessed it, this week’s Sunday Stills theme is DRY. I’m using the literal version of dry, as in lack of water, to share my version of dry. This post marks my first entry to Becky B's October Kinda Squares Photo Challenge. Many of my photos today are square, some are not. Last …
Straight is this week’s theme for Sunday Stills photo challenge. Thank you to Graham of Graham’s Island for the theme idea! Straight conjures up endless meanings in phrases like “Let’s get something straight,” as my post suggests. Or "on the straight and narrow"…you get the idea. “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look …
Continue reading Sunday Stills: Let’s Get Something #Straight
What’s up with the expression “for the birds?” Easy enough to google…it’s an expression that “became army slang for anything that was pointless, ridiculous, or simply without value to any but the most pathetic or least capable.” Someone who announces, “that idea is for the birds” is saying the idea is useless or meaningless. A …
This week’s theme is all about “something scary” since Halloween is right around the corner. Aside from the requisite ghouls, ghosts, witches and other scary things we associate with the season, I admit that there are scarier things! To answer my own question, “is anything scarier than a two-headed hummingbird” I would have to answer…probably! …
Continue reading Sunday Stills: Is Anything #Scarier than a Two-Headed Hummingbird?
This week’s Sunday Stills photography challenge is all about creatures and critters, big or small, insect or mammal, bird or reptile, ugly or beautiful. I’m choosing to add creatures with wings to my selections today, well, just because. They need to tell their stories. Pink Lady Butterfly On a recent trip to the Sierra Nevada …
Continue reading Sunday Stills: Creatures and Critters with #Wings
If you reside in the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice arrived on Friday, marking the longest day of the year. I acknowledge my friends in the southern hemisphere as midwinter has arrived! Is the notion of stillness even possible during the summer? For most of my adult life, summer was constantly go-go-go, with work demands …
Tis the season for showing us something green, if you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Even if you don’t, the color green is all around us. If you want to get creative, you can use and interpret green idioms as in “green with envy,” or “going green” (environmental). Show us your version of green!
This week's Sunday Stills theme is "macro-anything." Now what does this mean exactly? Macro photography is also considered close-up photography. However, using a true macro lens yields the sharpest, tiniest details whereas a closeup may not show each detail. I got a close-up shot of my resident Anna hummingbird perched after feeding. She was quite …
Continue reading Sunday Stills: #Macro or Close-Up Photography; Is there a Difference?
What is lurking just below the surface of the water? Why, a gigantic whale shark, of course. Would you like to play Peek -a-boo with the largest animal on planet Earth? C'mon, there's nothing to it! Almost two years ago, I had the opportunity to swim with whale sharks on our vacation in Mexico in …
Nothing satisfies a hobby photographer more than capturing great close-ups of birds feeding. Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life. Linus Pauling, Scientist "Satisfaction is not always the fulfillment of what you want; it is the realization of how blessed you are for what you have." Unknown
A few weeks ago, as the never-ending much-needed rain trickled to a drizzle, my resident hummingbird enjoyed fluffing his feathers after a well-deserved feeding. We are all used to seeing hummingbirds in flight, we may forget they actually perch! Submitted for Musin' with Susan's Macro Moments Challenge Photographed with my Panasonic Lumix FZ300 in full …
I have a hummingbird family living in my backyard! I believe they are the “Allen’s” species which are known to stay year-round even in Northern California. Since most hummers migrate to warmer climates, it’s nice to see this little family sticking around. I captured this photo as the male hummingbird finished feeding. It had rained …
Continue reading Resilient Hummingbirds: Backyard Birdwatching
If you are a bird watcher, you know that birds love to eat! Every day I delight in watching my hummingbird family enjoying their hourly quest for food. The male is very brave and has been know to fly right up to me as I patiently wait for the right photo op! Soon, the female …
Reward The weekly photo challenge for February 27 asks, "What is your reward?" Here are mine. In Lake Tahoe, after waiting to dock after a two-hour cruise on Emerald Bay, we were greeted by this incredible view. After taking a windsurf lesson with a pro (bottom left, teaching a child), I headed out for some …
Continue reading Rewards of Waiting, Wind, Wings, and Wicked
Marian Beaman
Every Day is a Gift!
Musings from near 60 degrees north.
I love light, I love to write, I love life - I create my words and images to capture the light in my life.
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