I wonder if these birds Tweet??

Was great seeing a little bit of color that this Blue Jay provided during a snow storm a few weeks ago. He really stood out in a sea of dull brown and white that the winter brings!

Finally back with a new photo! Missed me?

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Something a bit different from all the Autumn photos today.  I saw this large Garden Snake slithering through the pine needles on the side of a trail while hiking a few weeks back.  He was actually pretty large which you cant really tell from this photo.  He let me get real close so I was able to get this photo.

Also I just created a page for my photo blog on Facebook so if you want to “Like” me that would be cool!! Here is the link: Fotoblography.com Facebook Page.

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It may be a bit hard to see on this smaller version of the photo but on the mooring ball of the sailboat there is a bird with his wings all stretched out! Thought that was pretty cool. If you click the photo to make it larger you should be able to see the bird better.

Another shot of the Owl Family! Here is a photo of the mother Barred Owl! She is either giving me a High Five or showing off her razor like claws to warn me not to get to close to her babies!

As always click the image to make it bigger.

Lots of exciting developments in the owl family! First of all the first baby owl has left its hole and is now in another tree! The parents still seem to take care of it and it cant really fly yet.  I will post a photo of him later in the week. This is the second owl baby. I took this photo yesterday afternoon with my Tamron 70-300 lens combined with my Tamron 1.4x TC.  As you can see he is getting big!  Soon after this photo he left the hole as well and is now high up in this tree on the branches! He often stretches and flaps his wings to practice flying. And I thought that was all of them but nope soon I saw a third baby owl head in the hole! So there is still another baby owl in there.  I also got some great shots of the mother owl.  I will post one of her this week too! So this is Owl week on Fotoblography.com!

As I said in my last post I had a few cool bird photos for this week. Well this one is a first for me! It is a photo of an owl I took a couple of weeks ago.  Be sure to click on the photo to make it larger so its easier to see the owl. Believe it or not there is a tree near where I live that has an owl family in it! This male owl watches over the tree where his mate is and gets food for the female owl who is I assume sitting on her eggs in the hole. If any birds or animals get close to the hole he chases after them to protect his family. They are a noisy bunch always hooting back and forth. After researching online I found out it is a Barred Owl and has a really unique hoot that they describe on that site I linked to as sounding  like: “Who, cooks, for-you? Who, cooks, for-you, all?” There is alot more great information about Barred Owls  at that link.

What is really cool about this  is the tree the mother owl is in is the same one that the Raccoon family lived in a couple of years ago! I am hoping to get more photos of the male owl and maybe the mother owl someday too if she ever comes out of the hole! And who knows maybe I will get some of the baby owls too!

I have a couple of cool bird photos to share over the next few days. First this Hawk photo that I took on Friday. He let me get really close to him and was not afraid of me at all. He was sitting above a bird feeder so I think he was on the hunt for dinner. I am not sure what kind of hawk it is does anyone know?

About a week or so ago I was dog sitting for my brothers pug puppy (you can see a photo of him much younger here) and decided to take him to the beach! It was his first time there and he had a blast. He would run towards the waves when they went out and run away when they came in. Also as you can see he loved digging around in the sand with his nose!

I just realized that today is the 2 year birthday of my photoblog!! Wow I cant believe its been two years already. Time flies. I want to thank all the regular commenters  and visitors as without your encouragement I doubt I would still be posting photos! I really do appreciate your visits and comments alot! Here is hoping this coming year on Fotoblography.com  is a good one and the camera keeps clicking.

-Andy

My cat challenging the camera to a staring contest.

I processed this shot pretty heavily and eventually decided I liked this one the most. It has a sort of desolate feel to it that I liked. What do you think did I over-process it?

Here is a photo of my brothers new Pug puppy! His name is Craisin since he is wrinkly like a raisin and also crazy when he plays.

While hiking I came across this caterpillar that looked like a walking cigar! After some research online I learned that it is a caterpillar for the Pandora Sphinx moth. To see what they look like all grown up check out wikipedia.

Taken last weekend. When you see the birds starting to fly south for the winter it is a sad sign that Summer is almost over.

Looks like these Squirrels may have a system where one looks for food while the other acts as a lookout.

I know it looks like I was laying on the ground when I took this but in fact the Squirrels were on the top of a hill and I was standing pretty much eye level with them at the bottom of the hill.  I just zoomed way in! It was alot easier then getting all dirty on the ground!

Meet the new Double-Mint gum twins!  This was a beach side photo-shoot for their new ad campaign. 

These Ducks tucked their heads in when I came near. I think they where cleaning themselves but it looks like they are trying to hide! Or maybe they were mad at me for interupting their romantic seaside date so they gave me the cold shoulder?

I caught this Black Capped Chickadee making himself look nice for the other Chickadees!

Forget a quarter this seagull was not going to let anyone use this viewfinder at the Nubble Lighthouse unless they paid him with some treats!

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

-Bob Dylan

My Persian cat was infatuated with this pineapple and kept rubbing up against it and smelling it. Here he is challenging it to a staring contest

I have been a bit under the weather the past few days that is why I have not been posting. Hopefully I will be back to 100% soon and will be able to post more often!

I took this photo of a woodpecker yesterday afternoon during a snowstorm.

I visited my brother a couple of weeks ago and here is a photo I took of his Russian Box Turtle named Ivan the Terrible. As you can see Ivan the Terrible is not so scary when he is taking a bath!

I took this photo just as this cold bird was shaking the snow off of his feathers. I wouldnt want to be him on a snowy day like today! Also I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

It was a dreary, cold, drizzly day today with not much of any color outside when I looked up from my computer and this Bluebird was right outside my window! We don’t get Bluebirds to often here (or of least I don’t see them often) so this was a real treat. This photo was taken through my window so considering that I don’t think it came out bad at all.

I think my cat is trying to tell me he is sick of me taking his photo

At the same farm where I took a photo of this relaxed goat that I posted awhile back they have this very neat ramp system that the goats can climb up if they want. At the top of the ramp there is pulley system that people can put feed into a little cup at the bottom and lift it up to them. Its really pretty cool!

I went to a farm last weekend and this goat was taking a nice break from doing whatever it is that goats do!

I had the chance to visit my brother today and we went to Borderland State Park in Easton MA. The foliage was near its peak and the colors were amazing! I only had my new Panasonic TZ5 with me and not my Pentax DSLR but I think it performed well. Here is a shot of a goose in one of the ponds there that was stretching his wings.

BTW I want to thank everyone for your kind comments for my last post as it reached the 20 comment mark and I think that is a record for me! So thanks for the comments everyone!

Here is a shot of one of my cats as he was rolling over. He is an indoor cat so instead of being the King of the Jungle he is the King of the House!

Here is a shot I took a couple of weeks ago near Lake Winnisquam in NH. There was this big Osprey nest that I saw and just as I was taking my lens cap off the giant white Osprey flew away leaving me with only her nest to take a photo of. Still the nest is pretty cool and very well built so of least I got that I suppose.

I almost missed this little frog that was relaxing on the top of these colorful leaves. In fact the first shot of this plant that I took did not include the frog because I did not see him right away.

Here are some tame Giant Rainbow Trout. They live in a pond on the grounds of the Castle in the Clouds. There is even a feeding machine where you can buy some food to feed them. No fishing is allowed here that is for sure as these fish are really used to getting free meals! I used my circular polarizer filter on the lens to help cut through the glare on the pond and get a clearer shot of the fish.

This Friendly Duck came right up to me while I was sitting near the lake.  He probably was looking for some free food but I sadly did not have any to give him.

While on vacation in NH I saw tons of farm country. Here is a shot I liked that I took of some cows eating during feeding time at a farm.

This photo of the Seagull with his reflection in the wet sand was taken at Hampton Beach, NH.

Well the raccoon family I posted some pictures of a couple of weeks ago has left their tree house for another year. The baby’s where getting to big to all fit so I guess the mother found them another home as they are no longer in the tree. But momma raccoon left me with this parting shot just a few days before they left.

Here are a few shots I took today of a Raccoon Family that lives in an old dead tree in my back yard. It is fun to look at them from my back porch with binoculars (who needs the National Geographic Channel!). Sometimes the mother even sits on the branch outside the hole when it gets to hot or she needs a break from the youngsters. So far I have seen three babies that occasionally pop their heads up in the hole. Here are a few of the better ones that I took today. Its pretty hard to get good ones because the leaves constantly blow around and make it hard to focus on the Raccoons. » Continue Reading…

Sometimes you just get lucky when taking a picture. That was the case with this photo I took of the Nubble Lighthouse in Maine. I was just setting up to take a normal picture of the lighthouse but by the time the shutter clicked I ended up getting a seagull in the foreground of the picture that was totally unplanned but something I think enhances the image. The seagull gives a little life to the image since this picture was taken in March when there was still snow on the ground and the grass was brown.

As promised here is another shot I took today with my new lens the Tamron 70-300 Di LD Macro. I barely saw this little squirrel in the tree he blended in so well with it. He looks pretty comfortable laying on that branch. I am pretty happy with this lens so far it. The lens was at the full 300mm and the image is still very sharp. I could never have gotten in this close with my old lenses. You can see some minor purple fringing on the small twig in front of the squirrel but that is something I knew this lens sometimes has trouble with when I purchased it. I took a whole bunch more photos today with my Tamron lens. I will be posting some of them tomorrow along with my mini review of the Tamron 70-300!

I just got the Tamron AF 70-300 LD Di macro that I ordered for my Pentax K10d in the mail today and this is one of the test shots from my front yard. I have been wanting a lens that could get in a bit closer then my Pentax DA 50-200 and the Tamron was very affordable and had some pretty good reviews like this one at photozone so I decided to purchase it. The sun was starting to set when I took this shot so it is a little grainy. I am hoping when I have some better light I will be able to really give this lens a good test. Stay tuned as I will be posting some pictures taken with my new lens over the next few days.

Here is a good shot of my cat. It is rare for him to stay still long enough for me to get a good picture of him so this was a bonus. I took this with my Pentax K10d and the DA 50-200 lens. I actually won a photo of the day contest with this picture last year which was cool. Check out the site that featured my picture  photographyvoice.com if you are interested in seeing it there. 

I was at the bottom of the hill in my front yard when I took this so I was basically at eye level with the squirrel. I zoomed all the way in and I think this image gives a glimpse of what the world looks like from the viewpoint of a squirrel.