I wish us all a good weekend.

I've already made my picks for the NFL's Wild Card playoff round:
   AFC: LA Chargers over Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens over Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills over Denver Broncos
   NFC: Philadelphia Eagles over Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Washington Commanders, Minnesota Vikings over LA Rams

Half a rose can still be pretty...

   

Good day, all.

Two sunrise shots from a couple of days ago, taken a few minutes apart.

1) From a frequent vantage point...

   

3) A few minutes and maybe 50 steps later...

   

I hope all of you are having a good day or night.

Around 6:45 this morning my photographer friend Sandy and I will be at the city's largest park. The main goal (unlikely to be reached) is to see and photograph the bald eagle that has been spotted there. But the park has many other things of interest to photographers, so we're hoping the strong winds die down by the time we get there.

Well the winds are increasing. Sandy and I agreed that it would be frustrating and useless to do any outdoor photography today.

Our front yard is divided into 2 sections: the larger part runs to the sidewalk and has a variety of succulents, ornamental grasses, and drought tolerant flowers. It also has my small raised-bed planter and 15 or so large pots for seasonal attempts to grow various tomatoes and peppers.

The other areas is called the inner yard. It runs from the house about 15 or 20 feet until reaching the first section and is bounded by a wrought iron gate between 2 brick pillars and an old fence.

Five days ago I looked around the yard for some fall color to photograph.

1) Here is one of the brick pillars and a small section of the fence...

   

2) A few paces east of the pillar I saw this group of dried ivy foliage...

   

Have yourselves a  productive and healthy day.

Hello and welcome to a NORMAL week.
OMG, did the holidays popping up in the middle of the week throw anyone else for a loop as it did for me?

Okay, looking forward to NORMALSY.
And my first thing on the list is to start this thread.

I submitted this image for the Macro Monday Group on FLICKR.
The theme is key chains.  I cannot believe how many cool KEY CHAINS there are out there. I shouldn't be surprised since you would find some in every gift shop and souvenier store, right?

Have a great start to your week.
LORELL
PS.  How about them LIONS?   (For Peter: Detroit Lions football team won their division last evening)

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Well it is Saturday evening here.

This is one strange car.
It started out as an FB Holden. Which is the Australian built car loosley styled off the 57 chevvy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_FB

I suppose it has been 'chopped', melding 5 cars into one.

The owners call it tailspin.

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TGIF everyone.

I've been going through more of the Burrowing Owl photos I took two days ago, and it seems I have more good ones than I thought at first. Here's one I processed a few hours ago...

   

Tomorrow I'll pause with the owl photos and share a shot of a different bird - either of a Great Blue Heron or of a Snowy Egret.

Local photographer (a very talented one) and friend Sandy and I made another visit to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands Ecological Preserve yesterday, hoping to spot and shoot the Burrowing Owl that had been spotted there.

Against the odds, we succeeded, as did many other local photographers. This photo, taken by Sandy, shows just a few of the many photographers. The lady lying down under the rail was only a few feet from the tiny owl, and I'm the one kneeling.

   

I came away very pleased with the outing - I got 4 keeper photos: 2 of the owl (my first photos of this species) and one each of a Great Blue Heron and a Snowy Egret. I'll share them one a day, starting with this shot of the Burrowing Owl and American Coots in the background...

   

Hope everyone has a safe, healthy and photographic new year in 2025.

Well it is only two and a half hours left in the year at this point in Aust.EDST.

Here's some work I was doing with water reflections.
   
   
   

Good morning to all - last week of 2024.

Here is a sunset taken in Budapest before we embarked on our European River Cruise.

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