Another Mystery Bird

This bird is a female Red-Winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), I think. I'm looking for someone to confirm or correct me on this one.

I love how she's gathering most likely nesting material or possibly food; but my guess is on the nesting material. She's a cute little bird whatever she is.

Red-winged Blackbirds run in flocks with other Blackbirds, therefore are abundant in marshes and fields, which is where I photographed this one.

They breed pretty much all over the United States. Each pair produces 2 to 3 clutches a year. They build a new nest for each clutch.

Ally

It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. I really need to get better about this.

I had a shoot on Monday for this girl. She just wanted some photos for her Facebook. She brought tons of clothes and her stylist with her. Earlier in the day she had her hair and makeup done. She was really serious about this shoot.

For someone who's not a model, she did a fantastic job. She loves the camera and it loves her. I had a hard time choosing only a few for my site use. I like the lighting in this one.

Most of the photos were taken in Phillippe Park in Safety Harbor, FL. It's a beautiful park and offers many different locations for a shoot. We were all over the park, changing clothes before changing sites. Because of the humidity, her hair didn't last as long as she did, but her stylist made the best of it. In every shot, she had to fix her hair. Her stylist (also her sister) did a great job as well.

I'd love to have the chance to work with her some more. I tried to talk her into posing for my club; but she didn't really seem interested in posing for that many photographers. Maybe at a later date.

Lila

Meet Lila, who is the kids' nanny's sister's little girl. She just under a year old and absolutely loves the camera.

Since I photograph babies for a living, I thought I'd post one here of an older baby. The babies I photograph are under 3 days old, so this is a very different technique for me.

All I had with me is my camera and on-camera flash, so I had to get creative with the exposure to keep from blowing out her pretty little face.

Lila was pre-occupied watching the older kids play and was enjoying her toys while in the walker.

Isn't she just the cutest little thing?

Mother Great-horned Owl

Another trip to Kapok Park with my friend, Margo, was very productive. This time, we saw the mother guarding the nest. Since I've already shared the photos of the baby and the father, I thought it only fitting that I share the photo of the mother.

Owls never go very far from the nest. Usually, one parent hunts for food, while the other one stays behind to care for their Owlets. This tree is only a few feet from the tree the nest is in. As you can see, mother is keeping a watchful eye on her young.

Kapok Park is a small, community park in Clearwater, Florida. It hasn't been open that long but it promises to be a really good park for photo opportunities. There are marshes throughout the park and beautiful, Live Oak trees, like the one the Owlet is in. There are many foot bridges along the trails that allow crossing over the marshes. I have many photos from my two trips to this park to share with my readers. I've seen some amazing things here.

Mayo

This is Mayo, one of the girls in my newbie group. This image was made during a photo walk at Bay Walk in downtown St Petersburg in the late afternoon.

Making this image was very easy since Mayo is not camera shy at all. It's very difficult to get someone who is camera shy to look natural in a photo. This was made for her new profile shot in our group.

I was careful to compose this so her eyes would be at the top third in the frame, following the "Rule of Thirds". It was shot at ISO 400, using Partial Metering off her skin, at 109mm, which provides a perfect focal length for rendering a natural looking portrait. Other settings were 1/250 (because I was handholding the lens), at F7.1. No post-processing was needed other than conversion and resizing for the internet.