Return of the Burrowing Owl

As a perfect ending to an already wonderful Mother's Day, my husband took me out to look for raptors in our area. I realized that the burrowing owl we saw last fall would probably be back from migration, so we headed over to take a look.

We went only about 5-10 minutes from our home when we saw this burrowing owl on a fence post. We stopped a little ways before reaching him and I took a few shots through the windshield just in case he flew off as we got closer. My husband slowly crept the car forward and I opened my window so I could get some good shots. He didn't move, but did look at us as he sat perched on one foot.

We slowly crept even closer. I had my husband turn off the car so it wasn't shaking. We started the car again and I was afraid he would fly off at that point, but he didn't. The owl held his position and we crept up until he was directly in front of me.

The natural light was a lovely, soft, afternoon glow. At first the owl was strongly backlit by the sun, but as we moved forward the light got better and better and I was able to get some really great shots with good bokeh. He was perfectly relaxed, even closing his eyes as if in perfect peace and just enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

At one point, he began to let down his other leg as another car passed and we thought he was going to fly away, but he didn't, at least not that time. Later he did take flight, and I was able to actually get out of the car and take some environmental shots as he had landed over near what was, I assume, his burrow. It was on private property, so I couldn't get close enough to tell.

Anyway, those are the details of my latest burrowing owl encounter. It really is amazing I got any sharp images as I don't have IS (images stabilization) on my lens and had to shoot hand held from the car for most of the images. I get so excited about my subjects at times, that my hands just shake. I can't wait to get a faster lens with IS so I can get even better shots.

See more of my raptor images HERE!

Day 2-20th. Anniversary Trip

Day 2-Grangeville, Idaho to Cottonwood, Idaho

Our main adventure for today was driving out to Pittsburg Landing in the Hells Canyon Backcountry, then back onto the Camas Prairie with a stop at Tolo Lake and then on to Cottonwood. These are snapshots taken from the car (which I like to refer to as drive-by-shooting) as we were driving and also shots taken as we stopped along the way. My commentary is a bonus, free of charge. LOL

CLICK HERE TO SEE DAY 2 PHOTOS!

Thanks for looking!

DAY 1-20th. Anniversary Trip

This just posted! Day 1 of our latest travels, complete with commentary...see it HERE!

To celebrate our 20th. wedding anniversary, we decided to explore some of the wonderful state Idaho. Our focus was mainly North Central Idaho, but our trip extended into Montana before it was finished.

Current Project

I am currently working on images I captured on a recent nine-day trip I took with my husband to celebrate our 20th. wedding anniversary. I took nearly 3,000 photos. I will probably post by day. Stay tuned...

Tax Day T.E.A. Party-Boise, Idaho

On tax day, I attended one of the T.E.A. (taxed enough already) parties that went on in over 1,000 cities all over the United States on April 15th. Over 2,500 people came out to protest in Boise, Idaho.

Below are many of the people as they came over from Ann Morrison Park. It was a great sight to see the line of people coming. It seemed they would never stop coming...

After some speakers, including Bill Sali, we began our march toward the capitol building. We were escorted by 20 police. People were very peaceful, law abiding and smiling as we walked along, even thanking the police and even apologizing to people waiting in their cars for their wait as we temporarily blocked the streets of downtown.

Many carried signs and flags. Some had tea bags hanging from their signs, hats, jackets, etc...

It was quite a rush as we walked and I saw the capitol approaching. It's so great to be an American and have the right to protest and have freedom of speech. I hope it lasts many more years here in our great country.

The excitement of the crowd grew with each step and my own pride swelled with love and patriotism for the best country in the world.

In spite of all the things we were upset about, there was joy in the air and smiles on faces, no matter what you may have heard from the mainstream media. Even the police were in great spirits.

People were polite, even helping me up on a bench for some better images. It wasn't easy walking and photographing, especially since my main purpose was to participate and not just cover this event.


Above is one of our finest (who has no doubt fought for the very freedoms we were there to protect, yesterday) as we closed in prayer to the awesome God on which our country was founded.


I would encourage anyone to participate in an upcoming TEA Party, (I believe the next one is on July 4th.) who believes we are being taxed too much, the government is too involved in the private sector both in business and our own private lives, our liberties are being unconstitutionally taken away and our voices are not being heard. I could go on, but I won't.

For more images from this event CLICK HERE.

Spring Cover 2009

God has blessed me with a third magazine cover! The name of the photo is "Ritter Creek", Thousand Springs, Idaho.

For more information on CHOIS (Christian Homeschoolers of Idaho State) CLICK HERE.

To see more of my published works, CLICK HERE.

To God be the glory!

Lunar Eclipse

On February 2o, 2008, I stood on my front porch in freezing cold weather and photographed the lunar eclipse. It was so cool to watch the colors change as each phase emerged. I decided to make a sequence of images into a "poster" type collage. This is my final product. I like how it came out. I've had comments from friends and family that have said it looks like something from a science textbook. I'll take it! My daughter has a space room, maybe it'd look good in there as a 16x20 poster or something. There's an idea...

Don't miss a post!

Good morning!

If you're like me, you have many blogs bookmarked or in mind that you'd like to return to on a regular basis, but you forget. And, of course, by the time you remember you've most likely missed some posts by your preferred blogger. Or, you may just be new to this whole blogging thing. Well, I have a couple of ways you can remember to come back to my blog. If you're a Google Blogger, you can click on "follow" in the right side column to become a follower of my blog.

Probably the best way for everyone to make sure you don't miss a post of mine is to "subscribe by email." You just click on "subscribe to Shots n' Thoughts by email" in the right side column and add your email address. You will then receive a confirmation email. Then, just click the link in your email to activate your subscriptions and you will begin receiving updates each time I post.

If you're reading this post on my multiply.com blog, and you're not a contact of mine, you'll need to sign up for multiply.com and become a contact, or CLICK HERE to go to my Shots n' Thoughts blog, then follow the instructions in the previous paragraph.

I hope this makes sense to you all. I know some people aren't as used to computers and blogs and such, so I wanted to post about his option for those who don't already know about it.

You can also comment on posts, if you wish. I will have to approve it first, though, so don't expect it to show up immediately. There is no need to post your comment twice.

Thanks for reading!

"High Voltage"

We recently went out for a shoot out on the Snake River Plateau. There, we saw some of the Idaho Power lines. I used a closer one to frame the ones going off into the distance. I loved the colors and how the mountains had different depths due to the haze in the sky.

In the above shot, I took a different approach. I used the power lines in the distance, only as scale to show the vastness of the area. I like how the sunlight spills over the Owyhee Mountain Range.

On the way back home, I saw this empty nest in a lone tree and decided to stop for a shot of it. Spring is coming and this empty nest will hopefully soon be filled with a nesting pair of birds. I used a different processing technique with this shot. I like it, but I'm not so sure it was as successful as I'd hoped it would be.

"Spring Fever"

I took this photo last May of a pincushion flower just budding. It's now mid March so we don't have any flowers blooming here quite yet, but there is the promise of flowers and spring coming soon and I am ready.

Even though I love winter, I always get anxious for spring as it approaches. I've photographed snow and gloomy days all winter and I have to say that I'm ready for COLOR and FLOWERS and all that comes with spring. I'm even ready for warmer weather, since my recent frostbite has pretty much brought a halt to my time in the field in this freezing cold weather.

So, I welcome spring with a poem I wrote...

"Welcome Happy Spring"

The cold and chill of winter's frost,

as snowflakes melt will soon be lost.

Winter days are almost done,

the subtle signs of spring have come.

As the sun begins to warm the ground,

and heats the earth newness abounds.

A bud, a blade, a robin's song,

all tell us now it won't be long.

Warm days ahead the cold behind,

blue skies filled with sunshine.

All tell us winter's 'bout come and gone,

Welcome Happy Spring!

~© KFB 2009~