Project 365 - Photo of the Day - January 5, 2009

First day back at work started out to be fairly uneventful, but then around mid-day . . . it is almost as though the financial world hiccuped because not only did I have an issue that I had to deal with immediately, but one of our contracted organizations said that they didn't get paid the right amount on the invoice that they submitted, but I had it right in front of me and didn't understand what they were talking about and then I had issues with a online account where I was trying to pay my writers and couldn't.

So by the time I got I home, I couldn't wait to throw on a pair of shorts and sneakers, grab my camera and get outside. The sun was beginning to go down and I wasn't sure that I could get any good shots, but these are results and I am fairly pleased.
























In this first image, I was laying flat on my back at the guard gate to our complex (people in my neighborhood really must think I am nutty but who cares??). I wanted to get a shot of both the palm tree with the reddish orange of the setting sun AND the moon way up in the darkening sky.



I loved the silhouette of the duck on this dock. I promise, I didn't use Photoshop to make this happen. I had to move off of the dock fast because above my head there were about 50 birds in the trees and they are BIG birds. The BIG birds have a lot of BIG poop so as soon as I heard the first "rainfall" of the poop, I got out from under their tree. The problem is that these birds are nested in most of the trees that line the lake. I didn't realize that their numbers had grown so much. They make a lot of noise too and sound like the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz!



I was very persistent in following this bird around the lake. He wanted to get far away from me. I was as quiet as possible but he kept on moving away. When he was flying over the water I caught him but I blurred the shot. This was when he landed. You can see I ruffled his feathers a bit!!



Before I headed home for the evening, I snapped this last shot at the guard gate because that was where the sun was setting and just loved the color of the sky.