I was lucky today and spotted a barred owl fishing in Morgan Creek while walking my dog. I rushed home and came back w my camera and amazingly it was still there. 5DMKIII + 600 f4 II + Better beamer (note redeye in the one I didn't fix in post), f5.6, ISO 800.
Heard a bit of a "cooing commotion" outside earlier today. Slide my curtain aside just a little, and saw a couple of Mourning Doves mating. They had this cute little ritual: Preen, Cuddle, Kiss, Mate. They "did it" about a dozen times.
I have a blog forthcoming, but here are a couple of shots that I've quickly processed. I had no time to really set up, so I just grabbed my lens (only thing readily available was my 600mm, and they were RIGHT there on the railing of my deck, so apologies for the tight crop...these are all mostly 100% full frames), stuck it to the sill of my sliding glass door to my deck, and started shooting...no real artistic flare here, just a small little documentary of a cute dove couple in cute little dove love.
One of my dove photos just hit the first page of popular on 500px. First time any of my photos have gotten quite that far. Given that it was a from-the-hip shot without ANY planning or artistic goals whatsoever, I'm pretty stunned:
UPDATE: Now it's the first image in the second row of the popular page! Pulse is 99.7. I wonder if it will hit the top row before it's pulse is knocked back at 24hrs...