Amateur Photography

I am not a photographer, but I'm trying to be one. I'm thinking of taking some classes, and my neighbor is quite helpful in passing on his photography magazines for me to read, but right now it is all off the cuff. The following photos are my attempts at capturing nature:

This photo was taken on the property where Madison had her speech contest. My car was facing this scene in the parking lot. The bird put up with a few clicks, but then Darcy made a loud noise and he flew to a different area of this pond.

I thought my camera did a good job with color. I like that I got the bird, but also captured the surrounding area. The most interesting thing about this area is that it is nestled in this little nook not far from a heavily traveled main road. If you didn't know it was back there, you would never guess it.

This is a picture of a bush in the corner of our backyard. I believe it is an azalea bush. It was given to me by my friend, Ann, after the death of my father.

Originally Tom planted it outside Madison's bedroom window, but in his many jobs of re-working our sprinkler system and his attempts at landscaping, it got moved to this corner of our yard. It is a better fit here because it sits outside my pool area and is the only color in our yard at that end. It makes me happy to see it while I'm lounging on my raft in the pool!

Don't think this picture is any prize winner in photography, but I like the sentiment behind it.

This picture was taken in St. Petersburg, Florida. I took it for the palm trees. I like that I captured the trees, the water, the sand, and the birds flying in the background.

I think it is a pretty good nature photo. The picture was a tad dark, which is probably a negative in the world of photography, but I used the "I feel lucky" button on my Picasa program and it lightened it a tad. This is something I would like to learn regarding photography.

I'm shooting with a digital pocket-size Canon so I'm not sure that I can get award winning photos with that camera. Again, something I would learn.....

This last photo is of our orange tree in the backyard. It was full of oranges when I took the picture. I got under the branches and looked up into the tree, hoping to capture the abundance of the fruit, but somehow only got this lone fruit. I think it sort of makes the picture.