Beak to Beak"
This is the time of year that the hummingbirds start to come down from the mountains in northern Colorado before their long migrations south. We have put out one hummingbird feeder and a couple of flowering plants that they love. Our day often starts with an early morning rise and a seat out back with our cameras not far from the feeder and flowers. Every day is uniquely different. On this morning, we had 3 different hummingbirds vying for the feeder and flowers. Sometimes they share nicely.....but that's very rare. THIS morning....things got rowdy out back! It's usually the Rufous hummingbirds (the bird on the bottom) that are the bullies and pick fights with all of the other hummingbirds... they are incredibly territorial. However, this morning It was our local Broad-tailed hummingbird that had enough and became the main challenger. I had just finished with my morning photo shoot and stepped into my house. Just then, I turned around to see these two at war. I grabbed my camera, slid the back door open and began to shoot. Moments like these are just so difficult to capture for many reasons......but somehow, I got incredibly lucky and captured a few shots of these two battling. This is my favorite of the morning.

Tags:   HUMMINGBIRD HUMMINGBIRDS Hummingbirds in flight Colorado Colorado birds Nikon Nature birds Birds in Flight Colorado hummingbirds

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Finally getting around to posting some shots from a much needed vacation to Iceland this May. In my opinion, Vestrahorn is one of the most beautiful mountains that I've ever seen but until this particular evening, I had only been able to admire it in the photographs of others. I truly believe that I could have easily spent three or four days just shooting this mountain and never gotten tired of it or run out of original comps. However, since I was traveling with family, I only had one evening in Hofn and therefore, at most, a few hours at the mountain.

When we first arrived in Hofn, (just before dinner time), we were pretty disappointed to find the mountain range completely obscured by a thick blanket of fog and gray clouds. We looked around a little but the conditions were so drab that I left without taking even taking my camera out of the bag. Sunset was still several hours away and the wind was picking up, so I was hopeful that things might clear up later in the evening. When I returned for sunset the clouds had indeed started to clear. The winds, however, had picked up and were blowing at a sustained 45-50 km/hr (gotta love Icelandic weather). In fact, the winds were so strong that it made getting in and out of the car quite difficult - I'm sure if someone had been watching, they would have had a big laugh watching me struggle to open and close the car door and hatchback.

The winds not only made it difficult to simply keep my camera and tripod from blowing away (I've got a fairly sturdy tripod and this was the first time that I felt like I could not let go of of it without fear of it being blown over), it became virtually impossible to keep my eyes open for more than a couple of seconds at a time as the wind had turned the sand into miniature projectiles. Naturally this also made it more difficult to find pleasing compositions and every set of shots was followed by a long, somewhat painful walk back to the car to flush sand from my eyes and to get a short respite from the wind.

Although I was pretty miserable at the time, looking back, I feel fortunate to have found a few comps, such as this one, that I am really happy with despite having to pick sand out of my eyes, clothes and camera for days!

Tags:   Vestrahorn Mountain Wave Clouds Landscape Iceland South East Coast Icelandic Vestrahorn Mountain Game of Thrones Sand Sand Dunes Beach Black Sand Beach Black Sand Sunset Colorful Landscape Photography JMK/Photography Nikon z7 Nikon Travel Sunrise Spring Stokknes Beautiful Nature Hofn Höfn Fjall Fjords East Fjords Stokknes Peninsula Ring Road Stokksnes Stokksnes Peninsula

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Fanal forest - Madeira Island - Portugal

05-2023

Acheter cette image ici - Prints available here

Tags:   madeira portugal island fanal skye tree trees wood forest foggy magical magic light nature landscape

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... and presence ... cling together on the prairies of the West.

Tags:   Horses Mustangs Wildlife Wild Horses Wyoming

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