Iphone shot taken of the Roebling bridge while waiting for eagles to appear. One did show up and gave us quite a show.

I did rent a 400mm lens to hopefully get some better shots of my beloved eagles. Of course, the first week I had the lens. I was sick , so I extended the rental. However, there has not been as many eagles around so far this year and the ones that have shown up are still a little further away than I would like for the equipment I have.

In the meantime, here is an iPhone shot of Lake Aeroflex, taken with the Camera+ app (my favorite). One thing I like about the iPhone is, it’s so easy to edit right on the phone and there are so many creative options.

Seeing Eye Dogs a Tough Breed in New York City – DNAinfo.com.

Nine lives « Safe & Sound blog.

The following are my results from today: (using Odie as my subject)

Looking innocent

And another:

Enjoying her playtime

And the final: (for today anyway)

Hey Mom!

After looking at them again, I see I have a long way to go……..but, it is all about learning and progessing and the fun while doing it.

One of my favorite birds to watch and photograph is the American Bald Eagle. They are such majestic creatures and quite large. I’m always impressed by the way they “stick to business”. During the winter, they conserve energy and you don’t see them flying around wasting any unless it’s to snatch a fish.

I had a nice day watching them the other day and hope to go back. I am finding it a bit more challenging now that I have a wee bit of knowledge, but great fun anyway. I will post more pics later in the week.

A couple young ones hanging on the ice:

A seemingly puzzled mature eagle checking out his reflection in the ice.

Part of what I found challenging was that, the mature eagle was only about 20-25 feet away from the young ones, but the change in exposure was dramatic.  And, sometimes, I just forget to change my settings……….

A good place to learn about the eagles, particularly in the Northeast is to be found at the Eagle Institute.

I’ve been wanting to go into NYC at Christmastime for a few years. Somehow, we never manage to make it. This year we did-and got drenched to the skin! I put my iPhone and its apps to good use to grab some impromptu photos.

This is quite a delayed post. I, along with so many others, have been incredibly busy and have neglected quite a few things. But, never too busy to celebrate Ginger’s Freedom Day. That is the anniversary of the day I picked her up from the Seeing Eye and brought her home to be my “forever” pet.

Ginger was at the Seeing Eye for exactly 1 year and two weeks. She finished her training but never found her “match” among the blind students. I cried when they told me they were releasing her from the program. She’s such a good and loyal dog, I know she would have made a good guide and companion. That was my hope in raising her. But, now she is a good companion to me and my family and I am thrilled she is home. It was very distressing to me to know she was in a kennel for that long a period of time. Make no mistake, the dogs at the Seeing Eye kennels have a great life. They have individual trainers, volunteers that come and play with them daily, plenty of other dogs to play with, good food and excellent care. But, it is still not a home situation.

The really cool thing was, that, even though she had not seen me in over a year, she recognized me right away and was wild with joy. I was told that retrievers may forget their raisers, but shepherds never do. That held true at least in this case.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to everyone.

I don’t do as many photos of our girl, Beauty. She’s almost 15 and basically tries to stay out of the way unless there is food involved. Very typical lab.

Her name might be Beauty (& she is-inside and out), but it really is Love-all she wants is to be loved and she loves completely in return. We got her when she was 4 (her former owners were ready to just let her loose and hope someone took her in). I was on chemo at the time and had another dog, but it’s a decision we have never regretted.

Sleeping Beauty

We were recently in Chicago for my son’s wedding which was truly a wonderful affair. I still call it more of an experience than a wedding.

Chicago is such a great place for taking photographs. There’s so many things and people to see-a good variety of both. My niece and I jumped on a tour boat – BTW, DON’T believe the posted signs, it cost us quite a bit more than what the sign said. Anyway, I got quite a few nice cityscapes from the boat but have not had a chance to go through them except for briefly.

This was Navy Pier as we were sailing away and night was falling. I used Topaz Adjust 5 and the frame is by OnOne Essentials.