I was so excited to capture this photo of Red taking off the Ocotillo!
I’m going to the Bay Area to take care of my daughter post shoulder surgery. She has a repetitive use injury from swimming from kindergarten through college. Her practices in college added up to 12,000 yards of swimming per day.
I’ve been especially nervous and haven’t been sleeping well. There’s a back story to that, besides the anxiety and worry. (Ever since our last thunder and lightning storm our house alarm has been going of at 3 a.m. Now that I figured out how to get it to stop, my body is programmed to get up at 3 a.m.) Once awake, I worry about my upcoming trip and my daughter.
Mrs. giving a side-eye to another bird at the birdseed block.
I had an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon to take a last look at my ankle. I discussed my other foot with the doctor. My first visit to her was about the left foot, but she discovered my “sprain” was a break in the right ankle — and I was scheduled for emergency surgery.
Now we’re back to the original issue and I’ll have surgery after taking care of my daughter!
Here are more photos from my backyard buddies:
Gila woodpecker taking a turn on a flamingo.
I learned my chipmunks are really Harris Antelope Squirrels! Who knew?
Red’s turn on the flamingo.
The Beavertail sculpture is another favorite perch for Mrs.
This father quail keeps watch over his flock from the tree.
Red ignoring both flamingos and other backyard birds.
I’m afraid I’m at that age where my future will be lots of doctor visits. Hopefully no more surgeries.
A backlit bunny showing off his ears in the morning light.
I’ve been trying to capture the morning light with backlit sea glass for my photography project. I’ve been observing how light changes throughout the day.
The past two days, I walked with my camera in the early morning. Normally I take photos sitting down at home. The camera is a little bulky to carry on my walks compared to my iphone. But I managed because I was inspired to capture a gorgeous Texas Purple Sage in the morning light that’s on the other side of the neighborhood from me.
It’s a massive plant. Since I was using my macro lens that is for closeups, I couldn’t get far enough away to photograph the whole plant. Also, the sage is on the west side of a two-story house and was in the shade when I walked over.
Along my walk to the sage, I spotted so many beautiful instances of backlighting on plants like the Firestick cactus above and the Staghorn below.
My favorite is the following series of an agave. I took a photo of the whole plant and then got closer — and closer.
Last but not least, a chipmunk munching away on a blossom of a Golden barrel cactus.
Do you notice changes in light throughout the day and throughout seasons?
I’m working on my Semester project “Sea Glass: Memories and Meaning.” This photo was taken in the morning light with sun rising in the east. My professor gave me lots of ideas of how to take photos and recommended backlighting. So this is an example.
He also suggested sorting by color, size or shape and creating patterns. I did try that, but it was in noon light and not as dramatic. I’ll try the color arrangement in the morning light another day. Other ideas were to place the sea glass on white paper or even aluminum foil. He must have given me 10 separate ideas to try. I spent a few hours sorting colors from greens, browns, whites and aquas. Then there are some special colors of only a piece or two: royal blue, yellow and lavender.
Although I like the first photo of sea glass better, I do like the pattern our pool made in the background.
In my proposal for the project, I mentioned that I had photos of my kids collecting the sea glass, but no longer had the negatives. He suggested scanning the photos and using them in the project, which could be a slide show, photo book or who knows?
In our last class we learned all about scanning images and the best equipment to do that — a flat bed scanner. I used to have one, but it died. No worries really because it was so old it couldn’t talk to our computers. A tip I learned, if you are scanning a two-sided document or a photo with words written on the back, place black construction paper behind the document. That way the back side doesn’t bleed through.
My other project is a new month of reading (see Wednesday’s post HERE.) I realized I don’t own any of the books. I ordered a few from Amazon, paperbacks that weren’t expensive because the books are relatively old. I’ll check out my library before I order more.
Now for a couple bird shots:
I believe this is a Song Sparrow. I have trouble differentiating between sparrows and finches so I googled it and the article said that sparrows tend to hold their tails horizontally while finches tails are more up and down. Also, it said to check out the color of the legs. These have color!
Now that I’ve been home for a few weeks, I’ve been enjoying photographing my backyard birds. I find it relaxing as well as rewarding. Red and Mrs. stop by several times every day. I think I have another male cardinal, too. At first I thought it was Red, but this guy is a little chunkier and has a dark gray spot on his beak.
How can I be sure if there’s another male, because Red and the other guy are never in the backyard at the same time. Last spring, I saw two red Cardinals chasing each other, flying at full speed over our house. That’s the only time I saw two males together.
This one is definitely Red. See there’s not a gray mark on his beak. The photo below is the imposter Red. Or, it might be Red with a bruised beak. My first few days home, I took photos of this guy, thinking it was my Red.
Here’s Mrs. on a planter at the edge of our fence.
I was pleasantly surprised with this finch photo because of the sharp detail on the barrel cactus.
The birds love their perch on a flamingo.
Here’s a view looking out the casita window with my telephoto lens set at 80mm instead of 400mm I use for closeups of critters.
I haven’t seen the cardinal with the gray spot on his beak lately. So that brings the questions of the day:
Do you think I had an imposter Red? Or, did Red bruise his beak and now it’s healed?
What’s your opinion and why?
JoyRoses13 from Nuggets of Gold wrote a fun story on her blog using my photos and another photographer’s. You can read it HERE.
I liked the finch on a flamingo because of the light and background. The flamingos were a birthday present a few years ago from friends. At first I didn’t know what I’d do with them, but they’ve become a highlight of my photos and backyard.
Here’s Red underneath a bench in our backyard.
Mourning Dove loves to rest on top of the same bench. One day he/she was there for hours.
This is a bouquet of glass flowers on our outdoor fireplace. The prior owners of our house left them with us. I like the morning light on the edge of the fireplace and glass flowers. A hummingbird visits the flowers every morning to try and get some nectar.
Red stuffing himself while standing under the flamingo. Those two poles behind him are the flaming’s legs.
Mrs. found a perfect perch on a flaming’s head. She often stops there while grabbing a bite of seeds.
Our skies normally are bright blue. I’ve enjoyed a few cloudy days.
Seriously, Red asks. You’re still taking pictures of me?
Which photos do you like of the ones I posted this week?
I took this photo a couple days ago after my first photography class of Fall 2025.
So how did it go?
I was introduced to the five other students in the group. The class was by zoom. Then after we gave a short bio of ourselves, the professor shared our first photo assignment. We each got a turn to talk about our photo.
I was blown away by the talent in our group! Like the professor told me, everyone is internally motivated to improve. “We are all on the same learning curve, just at different points along the way.” Some are way, way ahead. It’s exciting to see their work.
The main problem I had was the time. 7 to 9 p.m. I’m not sure if it’s me getting older, recovering from surgery, or getting up early, but I fizzle out around dinner time. That day was busy with an earlier zoom call meeting from 8:30 to 11 a.m. and all my other daytime duties.
I managed to stay awake. I enjoyed seeing other photographers’ work plus learned about the semester project.
Memory and Meaning.
That’s the theme. I’m been noodling on it since Thursday. The professor gave all sorts of examples of what we can do. He said to reflect on the questions, “Why did I take this photo?” and “Why did I keep it?”
We can use photos from the public domain, photos we’ve taken before, new photos, or photos we’ve restored….those are just a few of the examples he gave. I’m thinking of taking photos with sea glass. I have tons of it from the days hanging out at the beach with my kids from when they were infants to before they left for college. My sea glass gives me memories of my favorite days at the beach with them.
We used to rent a cottage a few blocks from a cove in Laguna that was home to a bootlegger during Prohibition. The story the locals tell is that one stormy night, his ship came in to the dock by his house, and the liquor all went overboard. That cove is an amazing place to find sea glass. My daughter had a special eye for it and would spend hours wading in the waves, diving down to pick up pieces of royal blue, lavender, yellow, white, green, brown and turquoise sea glass. Some of the colors are unusual because of how old the bottles were.
I found a lilac piece of sea glass for the first time in my life, while praying during my DIL’s cancer surgery. I thought it was a good omen.
Then in my Palm Springs home, I refinished our wood block kitchen counters. I practiced on a nightstand in the garage that belonged to my husband’s grandmother. I didn’t know turpentine would self combust. I smelled smoke and was shocked to see the rags I tossed on the nightstand were on fire. Thankfully, the house did not catch on fire, although there was soot going up one wall.
I used sea glass and shells to fix the nightstand:
Although it smelled like an ashtray for a few years, I thought this was a creative fix for the smoldering hole on the nightstand.
I have sea glass displayed throughout the house and I found a banker’s box full of it. My daughter used to decorate picture frames with it. We had a grand idea of beautifying a glass table with sea glass. We never quite figured out how we would do it. Then she grew up and moved away before we got around to it.
I’m thinking about different ways I can photograph sea glass. I have tons to set outside for morning light, use water, different settings, frame beach photos. The choices are endless.
What are your thoughts for sea glass being an element in my Memory and Meaning photography project?
Now that I’m back home and have my camera, I’ve been taking photos when something interesting pops up in my backyard. From my cardinal couple, quail, finches and roadrunner, there’s been lots of action. Throw in a few chipmunks and I’ve taken a lot of pictures!
I’m impressed with this chipmunk’s balance on two legs.
I think this sweet bird is a female house finch?
This roadrunner actually laid down in our yard, waiting for prey. He had his eye on the chipmunk but left without any luck.
Mrs. staring at me taking while I took her picture.
Red found himself fending off quail to get a bite of birdseed.
Another shot of the roadrunner. Isn’t he beautiful?
Do you have a favorite of my backyard buddy pics? If so, which one?
