A bit of a tight crop on a Horned owl launching right at me! I hope you'll look through some of my other work and leave comments as well. They are very much appreciated. Horned Owl
When revisiting old pictures today, it just jumped out at me and screamed MY PRECIOUS! So it got a re-edit and hopefully captured my renewed vision for this image. Tomorrow I'll strap my cameras to my head and sling myself from planes. If all goes well, I'll see ya'll later, maybe even with a new skydiving shot or two to share. Have a great weekend!!!! My Precious
A falcon at rest listing to the call of something way off in the distance. Majestic
A lizard suns himself on a broad leaf in the rain forests of Costa Rica. He kept an eye on me and as long as I did not approach to close he was happy. Thank you in advance for your votes, fav's and comments, they are very much appreciated! Leaf me be!
Red Tail Hawk with pin straw in it's claws Red Tail Hawk
A curious humming bird checking me out from a branch. He seemed rather curious about what I was doing. Curious
Pink Flamingo checking us out from a small distance away. Falmingo
I happened to catch this Pelican doing this every so often. It had not been out fishing or in the water in a good 20 minutes while I was sitting watching. I'm really not sure why it kept doing this, but I thought it neat and snapped a few frames. The light was terrible, bright, mid day... I did the best I could with it. Thanks in advance for your votes, fav's and as always, comments are very much appreciated! Leave me a comment and I will try and check out your work as well to return the love! Bad Breath?
A young red tail hawk sitting on a rock watching his handlers. Watchful
Barred Owl turning head to listen to something behind him. Barred Owl
Young Barred Owl in flight. Sorry about the last upload. I had limited my export to 500px. Hopefully this one shows a little better. Barred Owl
Harris Hawk in flight gliding past. Love the intensity in his eyes. This was shot a bird of prey show, he is a rescue bird. If you see birds like this in the wild, please respect their habitat and don't try to 'help' them. If you find an injured one, find your local game warden and notify them. After learning more about the Harris Hawk, I think these wonderful birds may be my favorite bird of prey now! Hope you like this image. I really wish that this could be displayed larger, on my 27" IMac at work it's just stunning, his eyes are so brown and his face so clear... the display size of 500px does not do it justice here. Harry
A pelican gliding along looking for a meal outside of Siesta Key, FL Gliding
This was our year old pug watching everybody open presents today. he kills me on the arm of that chair. Lazily Watching
A Harris Hawk with left overs on it's beak. I'm in a close up detail kind of mood the past few days. This will be the last super close up for a while. I'll work on other stuff to post next. Hope you like it though anyway. :) Messy Eater
Red Tail Hawk eyeing the camera and flexing his wings for me. Tight crop, bit of a high key edit. Playing with new techniques here. Eye See You
A humming bird in Costa Rica takes a perch and checks me out while I'm pointing my camera at him. Resting
Big Horn Sheep checking me out back. If you like this image, be sure to check out some of my other work as well. Thanks! Big Horn
A wonderfully colorful rooster jumped up on a bar to check me out. I enjoyed a few moments taking his picture before he got bored with me and moved on. I love the colors and feathers he's got. He seemed to enjoy strutting his stuff and showing off too. Yard Bird
A peacock say'n hey, look at me, look at me, so I did! =) Show'n Off!
A magical moment when a humming bird stuck it's tongue out and I just happened to catch it. It's as if we said cheese and he said, OK! =) Your votes and favorites as well as comments are always appreciated! Thank you in advance. Say CHEESE!
A humming bird sunning it's self in the early morning sun. Your votes, fav's, and comments are very much appreciated! Thanks in advance! Morning Sun
Harry the Harris Hawk (I tagged him as Harry in my LR catalog. That's just my fun little name for him.) only has eyes for another... =) A young Harris Hawk rescue bird. These are wonderful animals that hunt in packs. Very, smart birds! Check them out if you have time, they really are amazing creatures! Thanks in advance for your likes and fav's and comments are always encouraged and welcomed! If you leave a comment, I WILL try to visit your work and often do leave comments. =) Eyes for another...
The liger is a hybrid cross between a male lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress (Panthera tigris). Thus, it has parents with the same genus but of different species. They are only known to exist in captivity! I had never seen one prior to this past November. It seemed to be staring me down when I was trying to get a decent shot or two of it. Votes, fav's and comments are allways apprecited, thanks in advance! ~~test <a href="http://500px.com//photo/vote/25840807?vote=1" class="button like vote_button display" data-method="post" data-remote="true" data-type="json" rel="nofollow">latest</a>~~ Liger
A young Egret goes fishing and comes up with something unexpected. It promptly spit it out and after a couple more tries came up with a small fish (<a href="http://500px.com/photo/24339009">see next image in series</a>); that it promptly upended and ate. I'm not sure if this young bird was learning to fish, or had just been on a bender the night before, but his hit/miss ratio was much higher than I expected it would be. Thank you in advance for your votes, fav's and comments! If possible I will try to return the love on all comments by checking out your work. ~BK Doh! Didn't expect that!
This image goes with the <a href="http://500px.com/photo/24337809">other image</a> that I just uploaded. In that image the young egret had just caught a twig. He promptly spit it out and kept going until he came up with this one. He then promptly spun it head down and swallowed it and so quickly that I of course missed it all... sigh. Thank you in advance for your votes, fav's and comments! If possible I will try to return the love on all comments by checking out your work. ~BK Ah, that's better!
I was walking on the beach early one morning, the sun was just starting to crack the horizon and I happened to catch this guy flying past. It almost seemed as if he was out for his morning jog, he was flying almost racetrack patterns. I slowed the shutter speed down a bit and tried to capture a nice sense of movement over the water with him. I hope that you can tell by looking at this, he was only a few inches off the water and hauling ass! I boosted the saturation a tad and added just a hint of vignette via Color Efx Pro via Photoshop in post. The rest was done in LR4. Thank you in advance for your votes, fav's and comments! If possible I will try to return the love on all comments by checking out your work. ~BK Morning Jog
This is another experimentally processed image. I'm just playing with different PP techniques again. Beyond that, nothing special, just a horse eating at sunset. Last meal
This appears to actually be either an Eastern Towhee or Rufous sided Towhee. I at first thought this to be the common robin. Thanks Lorraine for pointing out the difference, I believe you are correct. Towhee
I believe this to be a rufous tailed humming bird. They were our daily companions while in Costa Rica, we enjoyed our breakfast hours with them. And as you can tell from the several that are in my portfolio here, a regular target of our cameras. It's a wonder they never ran into the flowers as they zipped in and around them after small insects. Really amazing to watch. Running the Gauntlet
On the same trip to Costa Rica, we were getting ready to go into town and watch their independence day celebrations at the local gym. I had a flash on my camera and was out playing with some things and thought I'd try and see if I could freeze the action one of the ever present Rufous humming birds that hung out with us daily. The reason the background is so dark is because the sun had nearly set and I just managed to use the flash to freeze everything that you see here. Sunset meal
This lizard is hanging out sunning himself and keeping an eye on things. I moved around quietly looking for different angles to shoot him from. I loved the way the green background bokeh set him off with just a little bit of rim light. I hope you like it too! If you do, please vote, fav and leave me a comment. The ultimate honor would be to also follow me. Thanks in advance, and I will try to check out your work as well. ~BK Yes???
I know that this image is quite similar to my last posting, but I thought I'd share it anyway. I was actually editing this one to have printed for display on my desk at work and thought I might as well go ahead and share it here too. I like how much detail was hiding in the eye just waiting to be brought out. I hope that you like it! If so, please throw it a vote or fav or both. =) Thanks! Edited in LR4, CS6 and touched up with Nik and OnOne tools. The "Eye's" have it!
Iguanas are in the tree's in quite a few places in Costa Rica, but you have to really look to see them. They blend in quite well and don't move much. Having an experienced guide really helps too as they can help point them out. This guy was HUGE, check out how long that tail is. He's 4-5 feet if he's a foot! I never saw any of them closer than this the whole trip. Last upload for the day, in keeping with the lazy mood for today. Yawn... Sunny afternoon = nap time!
This parrot belongs to the owners at Leaves and Lizards in Costa Rica. I made it my goal on the evening we arrived to make friends with this wonderful bird. By day 2 or 3 I had figured out scrambled eggs was the way to it's heart! I would walk into the dinning area each meal after that and this guy was on my shoulder or the back of my chair in a matter of minutes. I took this shot with open air view of the Arenal volcano way, way off in the background. I wanted one of these when we came home but my wife put her foot down, so far no parrot's in our house hold. This was one of my fonder memories of Costa Rica! =) Hope you enjoy him too! Posing
We found this beautiful example of a dwarf leopard (ocelot) at an animal park that seeks to rescue and spread conservation efforts here in our area. I thought this was a very pretty cat indeed. I've cropped in tight as I like to do with many of my animal portraits. I hope you enjoy, leave me a comment and I'll try and sneak over to your page and return the love. Thanks, BK Kitty, kitty...
A barred own in flight passing by rather close. I then cropped it in even closer and boosted the details in his face. I love how he looks like he has a mustache going on. He looks rather wise doesn't he? Ok, last picture for today. Have a great weekend!! Take care, BK Oliver - the wise one!
Have you ever looked at a wild animal and wondered what they are thinking or what they see that we miss? When I shot this picture I remember thinking to myself, here I sit thinking about getting it framed just right, getting this and that right, and wondering what is this bird thinking about. He then looked off way, way into the distance and it was very apparent he could see/hear something that I could not. Try as I might, I never did see it, but he sure did and for quite a while too! Hope your weekend is going well. Please leave me message so that I can come check out your work too! Thanks, BK What's up there?
Cardinals, which make up the family Cardinalidae, are passerine birds found in North and South America. They are also known as cardinal-grosbeaks and cardinal-buntings. These are robust, seed-eating birds with strong bills. The family ranges in size from the 12-cm (4.7 inches), 11.5-gram (.40 oz) Orange-breasted Bunting to the 25-cm (9.8 inches), 85-gram (2.99 oz) Black-headed Saltator[verification needed]. They are typically associated with open woodland. The sexes usually have distinctive appearances. The Northern Cardinal type species was named by colonists for the male's red body and crest, reminiscent of a Catholic cardinal's cassock and biretta. *source <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_(bird)">wikipedia</a> This bird haunts me. He likes to sit just out of my range, but today he stayed a little longer and I was able to grab my camera and snap a few frames. It's still not 'the' shot that I want, but it's getting closer to it. I'll know it when I've finally got it. :) Cardinal
These bird's haunt me. They like to sit just out of my range, but over this past week he's become more and more trusting of me. This evening as the sun was beginning to dip he hopped across the yard and up into a tree, I slowly turned to find him working his way up this tree. Still not the perfect shot, but getting closer. I don't like the shadows that are still on his back from some higher branches that are out of frame, but if this continues, I think by summers end that I'll be able to make some even nicer shots of this guy! I really want a 400 to 600mm lens though! ========================================= A little bit about Cardinal's: Cardinals, which make up the family Cardinalidae, are passerine birds found in North and South America. They are also known as cardinal-grosbeaks and cardinal-buntings. These are robust, seed-eating birds with strong bills. The family ranges in size from the 12-cm (4.7 inches), 11.5-gram (.40 oz) Orange-breasted Bunting to the 25-cm (9.8 inches), 85-gram (2.99 oz) Black-headed Saltator[verification needed]. They are typically associated with open woodland. The sexes usually have distinctive appearances. The Northern Cardinal type species was named by colonists for the male's red body and crest, reminiscent of a Catholic cardinal's cassock and biretta. *source <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_(bird)">wikipedia</a> Cardinal #2
Northern Mockingbird. I was walking back from lunch today and heard this guy just making a racket and I stopped and made a few frames of him. I loved how he turned and looked right into the camera for this shot. Thanks for the likes and comments, I'll try to return the favor as much as possible. Keeping my eye on you!
A great blue heron at sunrise. I found this guy feeding in a swampy area outside of Fort Myers, FL. I was surprised at just how tall he was!I would love to hear your thoughts. I will try to return the love if you leave me a like, fav and/or comment. Weak in the knees!
A grey heron coming in for landing to start his morning meal shortly after sunrise. I'd love to hear your thoughts and will do my best to check out your work and return the love. Morning Stretch
A great blue heron launches up and out of the water to move to another spot. Shot taken just after sunrise one morning. I would love to hear your thoughts so please post. I will try and return the love by visiting your work as well! Takeoff