Picture-A-Week 2017 - Week 51

Pictures taken between Monday, December 18 and Sunday, December 24.

Orlando Wetlands Park - Dec 19, 2017

Banded Water Snake

Anhinga

Great Blue Heron

Sandhill Crane Flyby

American Alligator

A White Christmas??!! Below is some photo "evidence/proof" from this morning while visiting in central Kansas, in Junction City, along I-70, near Manhattan and K-State University.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 191,000 views for this posting.

Here are two morning visuals from this morning in Kansas as we prepared for Christmas.:

(Open your screen/viewer wider to see these pictures larger!)

70° with light clouds and a breeze. There have been exceptions in both directions to this typical Christmas Eve weather but for the most part, this is what I grew up with and it is what I am used to. A white Christmas is as alien to me as shorts, flip-flops and a Christmas-themed t-shirt are to a New Englander. The same with the meaning of the season. To true Christians it is deeply spiritual. To others it’s the shopping and giving. For some, it’s just December 25. In my case, it is when I give thanks for all the bits of chance, destiny, or pure blind luck that resulted in my having the best wife and family one could reasonably ask for. Even if they are very, very noisy when all are together.

California Christmas Eve

Dave

How true Dave, could not of said it better my self. Have a Happy New Year.

Allan

You are absolutely right Dave.

YujtGUlqZSY

Beautiful photos.

Happy New Year.

Keith

More Florida wildlife, from farther south, on a nice Dec 23 day:

Eastern phoebe:

Green iguana, turning on his orange mating colors:

Closeup of a great blue heron sitting on its nest:

Ibis flying overhead at sunset:

Tricolor heron coming down to land at dusk, after the sun had set:

Beautiful pictures!

It's -15C and snowing here. We're not going anywhere, so your pictures are a sight for sore eyes.

Thank you for posting those great pictures.

I love you pictures Justin.

It's -15C and snowing here. We're not going anywhere, so your pictures are a sight for sore eyes.

quote]

 

JUSTIN - great shots as usual!

 

It's kinda cold here too! Got my sweater on. It's 65F now and it doesn't look like it is going to be higher than 71F.

It's a bit chilly here too - about 78 degrees. Brrr! Winter us upon us here in Florida. ;)

I jest - next week we may get properly cool - not COLD, but cool - supposed to get down into the low 50s next week. We actually look forward to that weather, especially if you're a bird or wildlife shooter as cooler weather brings wintering birds farther south.

Many amazing photos.

Keith

Orlando Wetlands Park - Dec 19, 2017

American Alligator

This is a great picture. Well, really, everything you posted this week is great.

I have to ask, how close were you to the alligator? And if you don't mind, what were your lens and exposure settings?

DrJamba

This is a great picture. Well, really, everything you posted this week is great.

 

I have to ask, how close were you to the alligator? And if you don't mind, what were your lens and exposure settings?

 

DrJamba

Hi DrJamba

Glad you like the photo. I think I was about 30 maybe 40 feet from this gator.

The camera I used was a Nikon D500 with a Tamron 150-600mm lens. You might be surprised at my setting for this photo. I generally keep the settings high/fast because my main subjects are birds in flight. When I find a subject sitting still, I'll take a shot at the higher/faster settings before resetting the camera because animals don't cooperate with photographers. After I took this shot I reset my camera for a lower ISO less/noise setting and as I was lowering the exposure, the gator closed his eyes for a nap. I waited for maybe 5 minutes and he didn't open them, so I moved on knowing I had at least one good shot.

Here are the settings:

ISO 2000

Exposure 1/1000 sec

Aperture f/6.3

Focal length 320mm