White Ibis

The lighting on this guy was horrible as was the background.  The two combined to make a striking image. Properly exposing the highlights caused the background to go black.  There is a lot of noise in the blacks but the photo prints surprisingly well as long as you don't go over an 8x10.  I took this shot in a drainage ditch in downtown Ocala.  The amount of litter in one small section of this ditch just flabbergasted me - come on people and use the trash cans.

Okeefenokee Ibis

In spite of the name of this blog I do occasionally leave the state and find awesome places and things to photograph.  My wife took me on a trip to the Okeefenokee Swamp for my upcoming 63rd birthday.  We went to both of the entrances on the eastern side of the swamp and had a great time.  Just to prove that I'm not over the hill yet I even climbed to the top of the observation tower at the north entrance.  I'm still not sure of just what this proved but the pain in my knees is manageable.  This juvenile white ibis was braving the profusion of gators and hunting along the waters edge or maybe it hasn't learned of the hazards yet.  I had not been to this swamp in many years and it was beautiful in spite of the recent fire damage and the low water levels.

Ibis close up

My wife and I went to a local flea market this past weekend.  While walking around I ran across a Canon A520 in mint condition with a SanDisk 2gb Memory Card in the slot.  I ended up paying $10.00 for this 4mp camera.  I took it along on a visit to a local park today with our son and his family.  The Ibis are out in force at this park and responded eagerly to the bread my wife and grandchildren were feeding them.  I got a real kick out of this tiny camera and am amazed at the results.  I usually carry a rather large bag with my D50 and D1H with several lenses.  Today I felt very free and my shoulder isn't complaining tonight.  I might have to explore the option of a smaller system to replace my system with.