… so many photos and such fun looking at them! The photo above is of a new colt and its mother … mom is nibbling on grass near the shoreline and the colt is nudging mom. The donkeys/burros are very social animals, live well into their late 30’s and 40’s and have been in the area for around 400 years. They are always to be found around the lake and scenes like this are just too touching to pass by.
First below is a shot of a great egret/great white heron doing a snatch and go of a fish last Wednesday … they fly over the water and when they spot a fish near the surface they drop down and grab it, frequently without having to land in the water … the following shots in this sequence show the egret/heron recovering to flight attitude and heading off with the prize. Herons and egrets do it by spearing/snatching with their beaks while hawks and eagles snatch them with their talons. Egrets/herons swallow the fish whole, hawks and eagles use their talons to hold their prey and rip off pieces with their beaks.
Below the egret/heron is a shot I took this morning of one of the red tail hawk fledglings landing on a rock near the top of Red Tail Cliff … I saw one of the others this morning too. So far so good and wishing them well as they make their way through life. The nest remains empty until next January … in the interim, nature will do its job in cleaning the nest … and with any kind of luck the red tails will return and nest there again next year.
Below the red tail photo is one of violet green swallows going into a nest and leaving it … I took this shot this morning also. There are hundreds of these beautiful little creatures living on the cliff and I took over a thousand shots of them this morning … kind of like shooting blue birds … take hundreds to thousands of shots and if you are lucky, you get a few really good shots.
Into a new week and methinks it will be a very good one … keep breathing and smiling … we are here, lets live!
Cheers,
Ted
Though work bring nought of power
nor wealth
Spare me from want of common needs,
And give a share of manly health,
A few good friends of honest deeds.
And till death’s peaceful slumber nears
A life of undishonored years.
excerpt from Work by Max Ehrmann
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
More about Ted Grussing …