Day 19 – 365 Days of Photography

1-19-2014

Today was a very good day for photography.  I captured a weeks’ worth of images, in all forms, from the abstract to the natural, right in the comfort of my own yard.  Unfortunately I am only allowed one post per day.  I chose this one.

Why?  For its spunk, its attitude, its drama, and for the softly spoken story of holding hands, posing on a lurch.  Everywhere nature expresses love, and can be seen in the simplest of forms.

OK, turn your back to me, and watch me out the corner of your eye.  I see you!

The Ruddy Ground Doves!

p.s. Thank you Larry Khan, with helping me find the name of these birds! :-) 

Email contact: upborel@gmail.com

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited. 

Day 18 – 365 Days of Photography

1-18-2014

Saturday mornings I take my children to soccer (football) practice.  They play at Skinner Park in San Fernando.  They learn technique, speed, and ball skills.  I was introduced to this particular venue by my brother and his wife, who also take their children there.

As I entered the park, my sister-in-law is greeting me with a smile.  She explains to me that she found out that there was a tennis instructor in Skinner Park and she wanted to start at the same time that the kids practiced.  She said that she needed four to begin, so I would make number four. I thought she was referring to having the kids play tennis, so I asked if the practice would begin immediately after soccer, to which she said, “No, it has to be at the same time, to work for her schedule”.   I then asked, “How can the children do both, was she taking them out of soccer?”  This made her laugh, and she then said “No, it’s for me”.  “OH!” She was soliciting me to play tennis, but wait I play table tennis.  This is a different stroke and technique.  I am somewhat ambidextrous.  I say somewhat because, I do not write with both hands, although I can a little, but I do several things on my left side, like sweep and bat (cricket).  I decided that if I were going to play, in order to not mess up my table tennis technique, I best learn this game using my left hand.

It then occurred to me that although I have been in Skinner Park many times, I have never noticed a lawn tennis court.  So I asked, “Where is the court?”  She responded, “I thought the same thing when I was told, and your brother, when I mentioned it, looked at me with a strange expression as though he was wondering as well.”    The other lady that did all of the inquiring got there at this point, and we got her to walk us over to where the tennis courts were.  The instructor to be was there, along with a class in session.

This guy was just about to hit the ball.

Tennis

Email contact: upborel@gmail.com

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited. 

Day 17 – 365 Days of Photography

1-17-2014

So I sort of cheated on today’s photo.  I actually took it yesterday evening.  My daughter’s main hobby is drawing, she loves anime, and manga anime at that.  This particular evening, I caught her over her shoulder putting the finishing touches to a piece in a normal notebook, instead of a sketch pad.  I suspect that she has finished all the pages in her sketchpad thus she moved over to a notebook.  The sound of the shutter releasing made her aware of this shot after the fact. “Mom”, she yelled, “What are you doing?” “Taking your picture of course”, was my response.  She shook her head in disdain at me. I quickly retorted “You have your hobby, and I have mine”, to that she had no choice but to smile and shrug.  So today I present to you one of Sherrayne’s many pieces. 

My daughter has had no formal art training, her muses are natural, and she has improved over time and practice.  We’ve bought her a few books to help her develop technique.  Quite frankly, I do not know if she read any of them, for they still look brand new.  Her love of the Japanese culture, prompted her to join the Japanese club at school, it’s the main thing that she loves about her new school.  The availability of resources to learn to speak and write the Japanese language as well as learn the culture.   They were visited at the school by the Japanese ambassador and were told of scholarships that they could apply for to study there.  She is keen on going off to Japan to pursue her tertiary education.  I guess the Eastern world will be seeing me within the next 4-5 years.

Trinidad’s school curriculum is different from the one she was used to in Douglasville, Georgia.  There they alternated art with music.  Here they do art every week.  She is now learning to apply her natural talent to other genres of art.  Her homework often consists of pieces of still art, mosaics, sculptors, fabric, papier mache etc.  At her end of term exam, she was one of the very few that shaded their assigned piece.  She was awarded first place in her art class for it.  I am proud of my little munchkin as I fondly call her with what she has accomplished in this short space of transitional time.

I really should’ve asked her the name of this piece, but she is at school now, so I’ll have to name it whatever I want.

Sherrayne's Piece

Email contact: upborel@gmail.com

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited. 

Day 16 – 365 Days of Photography

1-16-2014

Once again, I ventured over to the neighborhood park at the Hollows, Palmiste Gardens in search of something apt for today.  Today I took with me an assistant (my mother), and my eyes fell on these beautiful tree stumps, laying next to each other.   I stooped and photographed it from different angles and she ran and sat on one of them posing as a model for me.  I stepped back, mounted my wide angled device and took a few shots of the scenery around.  I looked up and my mother was on a trail above signaling me.  I grabbed my camera back pack and walked over to where she was, where she pointed up into the trees at some birds flitting around each other.  She had the delight of a child on her face, having found a prize.

I have jested that I am not a bird photographer, so today’s capture will make one person in particular smile, and I purposely chose this shot for today’s display.

The Boat-billed Flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua) is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher, the only member, monotypic, of the genus Megarynchus.

It breeds in open woodland with some tall trees from Mexico south to Bolivia and Argentina, and through to Trinidad.

The nest, built by the female, is an open saucer of sticks. The typical clutch is two or three whitish eggs heavily blotched with brown. These are incubated mostly by the female for 17–18 days with a further 24 days to fledging.

Adult Boat-billed Flycatchers are one of the largest species of tyrant flycatcher, measuring 23 cm (9.1 in) long and weighing 70 g (2.5 oz).^[2] The head is black with a strong white eyestripe and a concealed yellow crown stripe. The upperparts are olive-brown, and the wings and tail are brown with only faint rufous fringes. The underparts are yellow and the throat is white.

The massive black bill, which gives this species its English and generic names, is the best distinction from the similar Great Kiskadee, which also has more rufous tail and wings, and lacks the olive tone to the upperparts. The call is a strident trilled nya, nya, nya.

Boat-billed Flycatchers wait on a concealed perch high in a tree and sally out to catch insects in flight. They will also take invertebrates off the foliage and eat some berries.

I took several shots of the birds at different angles, so I was able to determine that the head did indeed have white stripes.  I even have a shot with an insect in its beak.  My initial thought was that this was a kiskadee, but avid bird enthusiasts informed me that it was a boat-filled flycatcher and thus I have to update my initial post.

Email contact: upborel@gmail.com

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited. 

Day 15 – 365 Days of Photography

1-15-2014

I woke up at 5:15am.  This is my customary rising time.  As I lay on the bed always wishing that I could sleep just a few minutes longer, I thought of again going out onto my front veranda.  I pondered how would I get breakfast ready quick enough to enable my children to be on time for school.  How would I catch the sun while it was still below the roof tops, but yet showing light in the sky.  I decided that this would be a good banana, peanut, almond milk smoothie morning, a favorite amongst my children.  I raced out to the yard, and looked across my neighborhood eastward and saw just what I wanted, and decided to capture it from there.

As I sat writing this my mind thought in rhyme.

As I awoke in the early morn,

I lay in my bed and stretched

Thinking about the day with a yawn

Of plans that had not yet been etched

I wanted to lay in bed longer

But alas the night has gone

And morning has come for me to ponder

How to capture this early dawn

So I set out with tripod and camera

Out into the yard below

Still doning nothing but my pajama

What an image I want to show

I set up everything in its place

Set the settings for a capture

No sun don’t yet show your full face

I have a plan of pure ‘snapture’

I chuckled at what I saw

Pleasure filled my heart

For in the sky an image so pure

Now to share I must impart

Natural wonders and splendors

Heavenly grace and beauty

Whether foliage, wildlife, scenes or fauna

It’s right there for all to see

Email contact: upborel@gmail.com

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited.