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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Winged Sky Watch should have been a cloud watch


Photos by Kay Davies

One day this past winter, my husband called to me from his home office: "We have a treeful of birds!" He grabbed his camera to shoot through his office window but, as I was on my way out to lunch, I just took my camera out with me.
I carefully eased my way through the snow, slush, ice, and water, toward my car, until the birds saw me and some of them flew away.
I stopped, lifted my camera...and couldn't see a thing, either through the display or through the electronic viewfinder, because the sun was in the south and I was shooting toward the southeast. So I stood in one spot and pointed my camera in the general direction of the ornamental crabapple tree, then clicked nine or ten times, moving the zoom a little here and there.
I had no idea what, if anything, my camera had captured.
After lunch, I came home and uploaded the photos to my computer. Several shots of the tree contained no birds at all, and the rest contained only a few, but I had expected something like that. What I hadn't expected was the sky, which changed color from blue to turquoise to washed-out white, in a short few minutes' time.
That's our roof on the right and the other roof belongs to our neighbors. Obviously, clouds were moving across the sky, but I didn't see any of them until I looked at the photos later. I think my camera must be the skywatcher around here, while I'm just a tripod of sorts.

Posted for Sky Watch Friday, that heavenly meme
hosted every week by the Sky Watch team: Klaus, Wren, Sylvia, Sandy and Fishing Guy,
now in its 5th season. Congratulations, team, and thank you!

To see other skies in other parts of the world, please click HERE!

22 comments:

Dianne said...

A tripod of sorts!! - that made me laugh. You've caught some lovely changing sky shots plus a few birds.

Friko said...

clicking away can often produce surprises.

Jim said...

That's what our trees look like right now.
Sydney - City and Suburbs

Emzkie said...

beautiful shots!

mine is up here A SAHM Reviews.Net

eileeninmd said...

Great captures, sometimes just clicking away can bring you some nice surprises. Happy skywatching!

Leslie said...

haha, i like the idea of you as the tripod :)

but seriously, these trees look almost like lace against those lovely blues...

Dhemz said...

awesome collections...plus the birds hanging around!

Lew said...

Sometimes the camera sees things we don't, especially in glaring light.

clairz said...

"A tripod of sorts"--so funny. With our bright desert sunlight, I am often in the same position of not knowing exactly what I'm capturing. Dusk and dawn are the best photography times for us, but the best opportunities don't always present themselves at the best times, as you know! Happy sky- or bird-watching.

Sylvia K said...

Marvelous captures! Lovely skies and I love the birds in the bare trees! Perfect silhouettes! Happy SWF, Kay! Enjoy your weekend!

Sylvia

Chubskulit Rose said...

What a lovely sky shots, I love those birds!

My Skywatch, have a nice weekend ahead.

Rajesh said...

Fantastic shot of the sky through the trees.

Lynette Killam said...

Mystery photos can be a treat, can't they, Kay? I like these shots and absolutely love your tripod comment! For my part, I seem completely unable to use a point-and-shoot camera that has no view finder...have great trouble framing things -and seeing them- on display screens...LOL.

Have a great weekend, my friend...:)

Lynette

Linnea said...

Your quite talented with that ole point and shoot! I think those birds were enjoying a bit of skywatching.

Kay said...

Good grief! A tree full of birds would give my mom and Art heart attacks! They would think they were all lying in wait for the papayas. :-) The sky color is fascinating.

Fran said...

It's amazing how we can be so oblivious to what's happening around us. How lovely that your camera managed to capture so much drama. Great pictures xxxx

SquirrelQueen said...

The skies are indeed very different in each shot. I love to see bare branches against the sky, with or without the little birds.

Pearl Maple said...

a tree full of birds is a deligthful sight,thanks for sharing with SWF

Dimple said...

I have taken many of the shots you describe--either because of aiming into the light or because of the general brightness interfering with my ability to see the display. It's always fun to find out what I've captured.

You got some good shots!

Anonymous said...

So very pretty!

Joyful said...

I had a chuckle as I often take photos in the way you've described. Your bottom photo was able to capture many of those birds. How great is that?! Happy SWF!

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

I see your profile photo of the train, I see the winter photos, I thought you came to Auckland.

See my Sunday Still Photo tomorrow, we have the same train.

Cheers,

Ann