THE NAKED PHOTOGRAPHER

The things we do to get a good shot ................and the story begins! On the day of the event, I had just got out of the bath tub and Alan shouts Are you decent? I yelled, No! But he said, you should come here and see the California quails, there are hundreds of them! I quickly tied the towel around me, grabbed my camera and clickity split saw Mr. and Mrs. Quail, (Dale and Gayle) and another male (Mayle) and what looked like big bugs scooting all over the place. Oh, how cute!! My camera is set to perform and the towel bolts to the ground, but I, creeping along between soil, gravel and shrubs, could not give a care about being starkers - I had to make the shots! My husband was gob smacked! I fail to see why! Hope you are truly thankful that no one was around to take a picture of the photographer taking a picture of Mayle, Gayle and Dale Quail and their four and twenty day-old chicks. So here are some of the photos - hope you enjoy them! Unfortunately there is always sadness in nature. We kind of wondered why there were two males and so many chicks. (I counted 24 and they usually have about 12 in our area) There was actually two coveys of them. The mum would kind of sit on one group and spread out her wings drawing them all together, then go to the next group and do the same thing and they would all be neatly packed up in a tight circle (two tight circles). It dorned on us later that these were actually two sets of hatches and unfortunately one of the mum's must have come to a bad end. We had heard a lot of noise and commotion earlier that day but we could not figure what it was. Anyway, between the three adults, they seemed to be managing remarkably well.......but I do get very upset with nature at times!

THE HAPPY PHOTOGRAPHER (sequal to the naked photographer)

..............and just to prove that I do dress appropriately some times, my uncle took these two pictures of me in the pouring rain, when he was last with us from England. This goes to show there is no stopping a determined and happy photographer, when the prospect arises of some good shots.

Brolly won't seem to open quick enough,

got to keep the camera dry

This time, in pouring rain, my aim was to take some of the water fowl which graced this beautiful pond at one of our favourite eating spots, the Crow and Gate, which is an authentic old English style pub.

The residence of the pub owners

It is in a unique spot with lovely gardens and a great pond with an island (at least twice as big as ours), but this is sort of how I would like ours to look. This one is quite exposed, whereas ours is mostly in the shade.

My aim in the rain

One of a pair of beautiful black swans

A very attractive male teal

Thanks for looking.

Pauline :)