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Yup, no matter what I just can’t get away from the animals. Not that I’m complaining, because I’m not. I was up early enough, got to Valley of Fire in plenty of time to reach my intended destination for my sunrise shoot that I had scouted out the previous afternoon. I’m trying down the park road, and what happens next - slam (well not quite slam) on the brakes. There on the road in front of me - Bighorn Sheep! Five of them. I was heading out for landscape shots. Had the big wide angle on the camera. So I stop (how can I not!). Grab the camera and snap a quick shot. Geeze, the bighorn, as to be expected are tiny. So - with hope they’ll let me and give me time I swap out for the 70-200 with the 1.7 tc. Amazingly they stood and waited for me. This still blows my mind. So I fire away getting shots, ooohinh and ahhhhing at my incredible luck.
They move a little, strike poses, move a little, strike poses, this goes on for quite a while. I miss the sunrise shoot I’d planned. I still stand and admire these critters at close range. When I’m done, I thank them, walk back to the van and they trot away. It was all a “Kodak moment” that they probably set up for me. It’s the animals I tell ya’ they just like me and my camera.

With the first of the eggs from this years chicks breakfast this morning was great. It was a bit of a production with taking the pictures. Elvis’ first egg was destined for the menu with the choice item being my personal favorite, fried egg on toast. OK, yes, the egg is a bit small (as are the first eggs a chicken lays) but think of it as a “diet egg” and then this morning’s breakfast looks even healthy!

Click on the photos for a larger image.

check out the color of the yolk - a great deep orange. Can’t get that in store bought eggs!

Breakfast was great, thank you Elvis!

Elvis, my Golden Laced Polish laid her first egg today. I went out to top off the chicken feeder and give the girls fresh water and counted the chickens in the run. There was one missing. Then I realized it was Elvis! For the last week Elvis has been doing the hunker down move so I thought she may be getting ready to lay. I was right! I peeked into the coop and there in the nest box was Elvis. I did some other chores outside of the coop and run - I didn’t want to disturb her. About half an hour later I peeked in and there was a little white egg!

Here’s a picture of the egg Elvis laid (that’s Elvis at the of the photo).

Tomorrow morning it’ll be fried egg on toast for breakfast!! YAY!

And, of course a current picture of Elvis.

Really! This last weekend I had the opportunity to shoot for PBR at the Inaugural PBR Shoot Out in Del Mar Ca. What a great experience to be able to shoot from the arena floor. Incredible rides - many making the 8 second mark. Many of the riders that were there are at the top of the bull riding world.

The Shoot out will be on ESPN the first part of August.

Nikon D3 70-200vr f2.8 ISO1600

Well, actually, I was messing around with the settings on my D3  and went to the local park to see how they worked out. I was sitting by the edge of the lake and taking pictures, when suddenly there was a little bit of action in front - worthy of course of taking a few snaps.

This guy managed to have a catfish lunch.

Nikon D3 1/250/sec, ISO 500, F11

Nikon D3 1/250/sec, ISO 560, F11

Went to a wine tasting yesterday at a wonderful little wine shop in San Marcos, The North County Wine Company. Once a month they have a tasting when you can bring your dog. So of course we went with one of ours. Brill was the lucky dog of the day who got to enjoy the patio seating and wine tasting. Although the extent of the tasting for her consisted of Charlee Bears and dog treats that they had there for the pooches.

Last night a bunch of us went out to the Stone Brewery. We took the tour through the brewery, learned a lot about how beer is made, and that it can take from one to three weeks for beer to go through the process of cooking, fermenting and bottling. Afterward there was a tasting of four of the many different beers that are made at Stone. Of course there is also a gourmet restaurant that we definitely had to stay and have dinner at!

Out of my element - I’m so used to taking photos of animals and action that inside the brewery was quite different. I cranked up the ISO on the Nikon D3 to 2200 and gave it a whirl. Gotta love that camera and everything it is capable of - at 2200 the noise is not much of an issue. Should’ve tried higher ISOs to see when the noise becomes a problem. I know that the D200 noise creeps in an eats away at the images at ISO 800 and higher.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted to the blog. No good excuses, just didn’t get around to it. I’m loving the D3 and the images that I can capture with it. Yet, this blog entry, even though it has a photo, is not about the camera. Rather - it’s finally almost done, and is now being used by the chickens - it’s about the COOP! Yes fellow blog readers the coop is now in use, populated by the chicks who were pictured earlier in the blog. They are almost full grown now! So - here’s a picture of their new home - the coop and the run. Still need to paint and put the netting on the top of the run, but it’s working great and the chickens are loving it. And hopefully not on the menu of the Coyote Fast Food Lane Restaurant!
The coop has a dutch door, once the top netting is on just the bottom door will be open - kind of a giant size chicken door!

Here’s Elvis at 12 weeks and the Cuckoo Maran (Welsummer in the background)

The chicks are now in their new coop - and boy do they enjoy their new digs! Take a look!….