Weekend in Review

Howdy y'all! This post should have gone up on Monday, but I'm having quite the time getting my rear in gear. These are some things I saw last weekend. Hope you enjoy!

Port Allen, LA⎯Friday, Nov 7th

"Friday Night Lights" with my friend, Bridget. We (she) drove across the river to Port Allen where we watched tugboats
and ships go by. B taught me a few tricks I didn't know and I think it has reignited my love for photography.
The State Capitol is on the left. I kept seven photos out of 103, so I might post a few more at a later date.

 Capitol Lakes⎯Saturday, Nov 8th

American Coot.
Out of 200+ shots, I kept this one and the one below. I have gotten very cut-throat on what I toss and what I keep.

A little fall color, finally.

 Madisonville, LA⎯Sunday, Nov 9th

Brown Pelican, Louisiana State Bird

I first shot this couple surreptitiously from the back. Ha! Then I got the nerve to ask permission.

They were so cool about me shooting them. The girl reminded me of my good friend, Jo, from high school.
The vocals and guitar work were really good.

 Mandeville, LA⎯Sunday, Nov 9th

Small beach on Lake Pontchartrain at Fountainebleau State Park.
Debbie from It's All About Purple inspired me to take some timed couple shots!

I hope to post again on Friday to get back into my Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine.

Linking with

Thanks, Anni!

Miscellany and a PSA

Miscellaneous shots taken on an outing January 3rd.

Great Blue Heron

Mockingbird enjoying the peaceful setting.
I always imagine myself sitting in a place like this, but can never seem to actually do it.

Snowy egret

PSA: When I previewed this post, the photo of the snowy egret looked noticeably degraded in quality from what was appearing in Lightroom and Photoshop. The blue was more of a navy and the smooth water was filled with noise. Fiddling with the export settings did not help. I eventually discovered that the "Auto Enhance" feature in Google Plus's settings was not just for photos uploaded to G+, but it's applied to blog photos, too. That Google just takes it upon themselves to mess with photos that I have painstakingly edited makes me angry. After unchecking "Auto Enhance" under Google+...Settings...Photos, I re-uploaded the image. It's much better than it was, but I still find the quality and color off from LR and PS. Here is a better blog post explaining it if you care to read further. I just want to say to Google, "Knock it off!"

Photos from January 5th:

 Trio of canoers on the Tchefuncte River.

Lake Pontchartrain, Mandeville, LA, late afternoon
All of the photos that were shot with 200 ISO and f/8 came out looking 1/2 blue and 1/2 gray.
I wish I was technically savvy enough to know why, but I just accept and appreciate these happy accidents.
Maybe it was because dark clouds started to gather and my sensor was too low on sensitivity to record the scene properly.
The only editing applied was resizing, cloning out sensor dust in the sky, and a slight lighten.

I love the way the light hit the center of the Causeway Bridge

Water's like me. It's laaazy... Boy, it always looks for the easiest way to do things.
Bob Ross (painter and host of The Joy of Painting)

Fontainebleau, Part II

More of our day at Fontainebleau State Park.

Shallow waters with sandy beach.
I'm too afraid of the brain-eating amoebas to get in there.

Anhinga

How delighted I was to see a rabbit AND a fawn together. Awww!

Time to skedaddle!

Children playing on low-lying live oak branch

Linking to Skywatch Friday. Many thanks to the meme's host!

Fontainebleau, Part I

A couple weekends ago we decided to revisit Fontainebleau State Park to see what progress has been made since Hurricane Isaac blew through last year. It was astonishing to see that nothing has been done. There are still no restrooms, no cabins to rent, and Alligator Boardwalk is still in scattered pieces. Very disappointing. It amazes me that the government requires all public facilities to have working restrooms, and will levy a fine if the requirements are not met. I guess they are exempt from their own rules. Oh, I'd best not get started down that path.

Half an hour before sunset

When these children saw me setting up my camera they came running over shouting,
"TAKE OUR PICTURE! TAKE OUR PICTURE!"
Who could resist these little hams?

More children wanted in on the action. After each click, they'd run over to see themselves on the back of the camera display,
then run back out for more photos.

I was so surprised by their enthusiasm and wanting to get the gazebo in the photo,
I failed to notice they were standing over a big ugly drain. I should have moved
them over to the grassy area. 

The sun setting over Lake Pontchartrain as viewed from the gazebo.

More photos to come!

Happy Sunday!

Two posts in one weekend. What has gotten into me? The equation is as follows:

Overwhelming number of photos + rainy day = blog post! 

I am also suffering from a little disappointment, but this too shall pass. Sure wish I didn't bruise so easily, but nothing I've tried has changed that part of my personality. Being ultra-sensitive really sucks sometimes. Okay, I'm done whining. The sun is starting to come back and my redbud trees are bursting. They are begging to be photographed. Later gators!

Lake Pontchartrain and the Causeway Bridge, 3/8/13

Red-headed woodpecker, Fontainebleau State Park, 3/8/13

Yellow-bellied sapsucker, Fontainebleau State Park, 3/8/13

Eastern Bluebird, Fontainebleau State Park, 3/8/13
I had no idea they could rotate their heads like that!

I chased this little cutie all over the park entrance until he finally got enough of my nonsense and disappeared for good!

Turtle party, Blackwater Conservation, 3/6/13

I finally had some time to play with Jill's pretty little American Goldfinch. I'm not too good with textures and embellishments, but here is my submission. Check out She Who Carries Camera for Creative License Fridays! This should be a fun new meme and something different. 

Grunge Polaroid frame by Heather Green
Texture by Shadowhouse Creations

Fontainebleau

After I scheduled my previous post, my aunt called to let me know about a couple of state parks good for birding. One of them was Fontainebleau State Park. This is the most visited state park in Louisiana, with over 300,000 visitors per year. Fountainbleau has over 2,800 acres and was once an old sugar mill. It is located on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain and also bordered by Bayou Cane and Bayou Castine. As soon as I read that there are over 400 different species of wildlife, including birds, I asked Double D if we could go to Fontainebleau instead of Lake Martin. Being the happy-go-lucky, good ol' boy that he is, of course he obliged. Enough chit chat. Come see what I saw!

Double D spied this bald eagle twice on our hike. It helps to have a second set of eyes when birding.
For this shot we were about 30' away from the tree.
That's the closest either of us has been to a bald eagle. Easily the highlight of the day.

Red-headed woodpecker. Had several opportunities for shots, but he was always very far away, thus the subpar shot. :(

A pavilion that looks over Lake Pontchartrain. The Causeway Bridge is in the distance.

I'm 99.99% certain that this is a Swamp Sparrow. Interestingly, they only winter here.
They live year long on the East coast and parts of the Great Lakes. 

Hurricane Isaac tore up several areas of the park, including Alligator Boardwalk.
Seems to me this should have been repaired by now. I'd also like to add that all the bathroom facilities
were boarded up. Kind of disappointing. Doesn't the state carry hurricane insurance?

Eastern Bluebird. Oh, I have so many of these. You'll likely be seeing him a few more times. :)

After hiking 4 miles with no lunch (only breakfast) we wanted to stop off at Friends Restaurant in Madisonville for an early dinner.
Unfortunately, Hurricane Isaac caused damage there, too, and unfortunately we didn't find this out until we pulled into the parking lot.
We ended up at another seafood restaurant nearby, and I was delighted with this deluxe seafood salad which included
lump crabmeat, shrimp and crawfish. I even peeled the bug and ate the tail meat at the end!

No dinner is complete in Louisiana without enjoying a big honkin' slice of bread pudding. We shared, of course.
Don's Seafood Restaurant has my favorite because it has NO rabbit poo (raisins), but has white chocolate cream sauce. YUM!
I think I earned this indulgence after all the hiking. Now my knee is hurting, so I think I'll go rest now.

Please visit Madge and her wonderful meme. Thank you so much for hosting!