Change of subject on blog, again. Finally, I convinced my husband to the zoo trip. As most of the photographers (at least those writing books for beginners) say- best place to photograph wildlife is … local zoological garden. Yeah. I am sure none of them lived in Midwest, with one zoo in the state, or closest just past the state line. And they did not consider how many fences, wires and stuff you can put between animals and people in such zoo. And, of course, that in summer heat here, all the animals would be more inclined to hide in the shade, in the furthest corner. I guess this subject will come back on the blog later.

Anyway, there was also something in the zoo I simply loved. You enter aviary with parrots, you can buy 1$ small container with feed, and…. you have parrots posing for you on your own or your partner arms! Excellent….

New construction of landing gear?

They say, take a camera, start shooting and you will get the chance to catch something cool. Well, my luck today.

Today, my dessert was the object of my photographic… experiments. I admit, I started from boring up and whole thing, and then got this idea.

And one more confession- the more photos I take, the more I start to enjoy and understand the freedom of Manual settings and focus. I was taking photos for half the year almost exclusively using Program, sometimes Aperture or Shutter priority. This week, I explored manual focus- and I could focus where I wanted, without changing settings of automatic autofocus. And Manual settings- I don’t need to explain that…

Just some photo fun during break while biking on Sugar Bottom…

Some more Sugar Bottom inside views. And some playing with Split Tone in Lightroom to enhance the effect.

Some interesting view of sunset, as highlights on the trees.

The bottom line of todays photo session- mountain biking is not the best way of looking for best photo spots….

This time, successful hunting for hummingbird drinking from our feeder placed strategically on the deck. Last time, the shutter speed was too slow, and the zoom lens seem to not be as forgiving as wide-angle when you don’t have tripod. But sitting on the floor for few hours with hand on the shutter paid off.

One more from yesterday’s session with small flower bouquet. Seems like Duotone made whole the difference for this image.

Quick photo sesssion with fresh cut flowers I just bought. For that purpose .

Instead of looking through Lightroom for photo for today’s post, I went to look in the fridge .  After all, having fruit there gives you some opportunities.

Well, OK, I need to work some more on my macro filters, but this photo is quite interesting.