Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is my Grandma's birthday. And we also happen to have my two younger cousins up for the week, so we decided we'd spend the afternoon out in the snow sledding and playing around.  Here are a few shots from that adventure.

Mount Baker

Mount Shuksan 

Icicles are just amazing...  They are so unique!

The hill that was used for sledding.

You are  never to old to have some fun! 

Hope you had a good day, Grandma! 

Snow

If anyone has a better title, well I'm willing to use it! Just some more snow related pictures. A whole bunch of everything. Despite the fact that is it about 25 degrees outside, I've spent a good majority of my day out there walking around and snapping pictures. Chickadees, Northern Flickers, Grosbeaks, Hawks, Woodpeckers, Juncos, Sparrows and a bunch of other species of birds are all out there too...  I'm really starting to think that this is my favorite time of year for photography. Just something about it...

Randomness

I awoke this morning to an unexpected, pleasant surprise. The ground, the trees, and everything else was white. It had snowed! And snowed and still continuing to snow. I excitedly grabbed my camera bag and headed out the door. For Christmas I got a few new photography related items. So, I just had to try all those out. A few different filters (including macro) and a macro/wide angle lens. After about an hour of playing around I decided that was enough, as my fingers were getting pretty cold. Anyways, we didn't have a white Christmas, but today sure made up for it! Hope you like the pictures.

"Snow Globe"

"Stillness" 

"Winter Wonderland" 

"Flock of Grosbeaks" 

These birds are so awesome. We must have around 100 now.  Flying all around our property...  Did I mention they let me walk RIGHT up to them?  I was about 2 feet away and this was taken with a 55mm! :)

"Yellow Joy" 

"Friends"

"Birds of a Feather will Gather Together" 

Dark Eyed Junko 

Male Evening Grosbeak

Female Evening Grosbeak 

The Lone Pond

"Simplicity" 

The View?

Okay, so I was playing around with some filters in this shot....  The purple is kind of cool looking.... 

"Falling"

"Silence"

On Old Houses

A little information about the house in the first picture:

The simple little house in the photo was built in the 1940’s. The sweet little English lady who resided here was born in London, England to a British seaman and his stay at home wife. She was about 5 foot 2 and drove a 2 door 1928 model A Ford car. She never mastered backing up, so if she met someone, the other driver would get into her car and back it into the nearest turnout. Your great great Grandmother and this dear lady drove into Chilliwack to attend a movie; a night out on the town in the 1940’s. What a delightful sight. This lady had few wants except to play scrabble and read books and magazines. She was very intelligent and was a book of knowledge. Her faith was Roman Catholic and she married an atheist, so sadly her marriage ended, but they had a son to whom we all know and he still survives. I talk to him frequently and sadly he is quite ill at the present.

The little house sits empty, but isn’t it a beautiful picture? It has been vandalized but it still stands up here on the hill reminding us of a happy simple way of life.

            I mentioned that Mrs. Ross had few wants in her life but she travelled the world. On one occasion while crossing the ocean in rough seas, she was the only passenger that was in the dining room for breakfast. All others were seasick. She lived a full life and passed away at the age of 90.

-- Information from my Aunt

Evening Grosbeaks

Birds... are my most favorite subject matter to photograph. My most favorite animal. And if I could be anything but a human in this world, it would be a bird. I mean they are so graceful, so beautiful, so much fun to watch, so fun to listen to and so many others things too.  But one must have a lot of patience when photographing birds, I mean, A LOT of patience.  I spent about half an hour outside photographing them this morning. The pictures didn't turn out nearly as nice as I thought they would of, but here are four of those pictures that are okay. The Evening Grosbeaks absolutely love sunflower seeds. They can devour all of our feeders in just about an hour - we have about 6 feeders. This morning we had a flock of about fifty. Now that was a lot! They definitely made my day. 

    

What is your favorite thing to photograph?