Here comes the bride...

Here are some pictures from Saturday's wedding...

Wedding shoes and helmet. The happy couple left on a motorcycle.


The bride getting dressed....

A solemn moment...


Isn't she beautiful!


I decided to make her reflection black and white.


Look at the beautiful dress! The dress was actually made with feathers. This is so cool as the bride is a parrot owner.

Having some fun...


A little closer....


Here is a picture of the beautiful cake.


That's it for today. Until next time, keep on snappin'!

At The Beach...

These are the last of the photos from my Florida trip. I am so glad we had the opportunity to play on the beach before it became affected by the oil spill. I see that this past weekend the oil made it to Pensacola beach. Yesterday I saw some images of oiled pelicans that were captured at Grand Isle, Louisiana and these images really touched me. I guess it's because I have been around pelicans recently and observed them enjoying their surroundings and hunting for food. These are truly beautiful birds and to think that their food source and their very existence is affected by this disaster is very disheartening.

We were on the beach for the Memorial Day weekend, so needless to say it was crowded. I shot these pictures with my new Canon Powershot SX20IS in manual mode. This is a great camera with an incredible zoom. It's also my first Canon camera and I have to say I am loving it! I will be taking it with me on all my future trips.

I thought this was so beautiful, two mothers attending to their daughters. Hopefully this will be me one day!

One thing we noticed this time on the beach was that a lot of people were being bitten in the water and this bite left them paralyzed for minutes. We believe jellyfish were the culprits but I did not confirm this. The picture below is one such instance of this. There were a couple others. The little boy in this picture was bitten. The life guard, in the red shorts, came to his aid as his concerned parents and sibling comforted him. For this reason alone, I did not enter the water for a swim. With my luck, I would have been the next victim!

I sat on the seashore and took pictures as my husband sat next to me reading.

Some more beach pictures.

Below are examples of the zooming power of this camera. These people were very far away from me. The Canon Powershot SX20IS has a 20X wide angle optical zoom so it brings you closer to the action. I was hand holding the camera for all these shots.

These other pictures were taken in the evening around 7:00pm as we arrived to capture pictures of the sunset.

This is where I sat to take my sunset pictures.

In the distance, way across from me, I noticed a couple getting married on the beach. From where I was sitting I was able to zoom in for this shot. I zoomed all the way to the faces of just the bride and groom but I had a hard time keeping the camera steady enough to get a good picture at such a long zoom. A tripod would have helped.

On the other side of me were these teenagers enjoying the water and the beginning glow of the sunset.

Well that's it for today. Enjoy the rest of your week and until next time, keep on snappin'!

Drive-by Shooting....

I try to take a camera with me everywhere I go. It's not convenient to always log around an SLR and I haven't seen one that can fit in my pocket. Some places will not even let you in with an SLR. Besides, when a photo op arises I do not want to be fiddling with aperture, lens or shutter speeds, not while I am still learning anyway. So my everyday go to camera that I carry around in my purse is my beloved Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3. I have had it for a number of years now and absolutely love it.


Of course I took it with me on my recent trip and all, except one on the pictures below, (which I will point out) was taken with this camera. I thought this was a really cool shot below. We had just driven through a storm and though we were back to sunny dry road, you can see what we left behind in the rear-view mirror.


A lot of the pictures I take are for scrapbooking. I take them because they evoke a memory or feeling for me that I want to remember or share for years to come. The picture below is one of these pictures. We were driving along smoothly for hours and then suddenly we came to a standstill on the highway. We were delayed in this traffic for about two hours. I wanted to capture this moment with the miles of traffic pile-up. I used my Canon PowerShot SX20IS. I had recently purchased this camera and used it for the first time on this trip. Needless to say I fell in love with it. We were miles away from the image you see below. I put the camera in movie mode which allowed me to zoom all the way out to 80X, at which point I snapped this photograph. I know this is not the best quality picture, but it satisfied my need to remember this moment.


While my husband was driving around, I was taking pictures of the beautiful view. These pictures were taken in automatic, just point and shoot. The originals are a much better quality. These were compressed to allow for quicker online viewing.




I thought this was interesting. This guy was riding along pulling his kid behind him. I had not seen one of these contraptions before.


I also thought this was interesting. While we were in Florida, we noticed that people were protesting outside the BP stations. I bet sales were down that day because I pity the poor soul that would choose to pump gas among this angry mob.




Well that's it for today. I will be sharing the rest of the Florida pictures on Wednesday when I share actual beach pictures. Have a great week and until next time, keen on snappin'!

My Last Meal...

Or maybe I should say my last delicious meal for a while! LOL! Once again, I am starting a diet. My recent efforts do not seem to be working for me, so I have decided that starting tomorrow, I am going to go hardcore! For the past couple of days I have been indulging in the stuff I like and savoring every bite as my goal is to stay away from these items for a looooong time.

So guess what little photo adventure I am sharing today? LOL! Yep, today I am sharing pictures of the last two restaurant meals I had recently, as I am going to be avoiding restaurants like the plague for the next couple of months. I love taking pictures of my restaurant meals! This little idiosyncrasy of mine makes my husband nervous as he thinks people are going to wonder what in the world I am doing. So as he cowers behind the menu, I whip out my camera. For these type of shots I usually whip out my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3. I love this camera! It is small enough to fit in my purse so I usually take it with me everywhere I go cause you never know when a photo op will arise. LOL!

I had a craving for Pappadeaux's Crawfish Etouffee, so on Thursday I satisfied that craving!

It was served with dirty rice and fried crawfish.

For dessert we shared their Banana Crepe. This thing is huge! We had to take half of it home as it was too much for us to finish at the restaurant. As I was eating it all I could think about was all the sugar I was ingesting.

On Saturday, we went to Bahama Breeze. We started with the Shrimp and Lobster Quesadilla.

And for the main course I had pan seared salmon in a mango butter sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans.

I washed it all down with their Ultimate Pina Colada.

Ahhhhh, the memories! Now I am eating grass and drinking lots of water. How delicious! Well that's it for today. Will be back next time with more Florida pictures. Until then, keep on snappin'!

For The Birds...

Hi everyone and welcome back! As you may know I was in Florida on vacation recently. In my last post I shared some of my sunset pictures with you. Today I am sharing pictures I took of some of the birds. Unfortunately, these are not the best pictures. Anyone who shoots animals, especially birds, know you have to be FAST and I was having trouble zeroing out my camera at the high shutter speeds required to stop action, mainly because of the poor lighting and the fact that my lens only opened down to f/5.6. Anyway, I still thought I would share these photos. If I visit Florida again with a better lens and more experience under my belt, it will be neat to compare these pictures to what comes along later. LOL! So here we go...

This photo was taken around midday. I used the 18-55mm lens that came with the camera as this little guy was not too far away from me. This crow was walking around stealing food and cell phones while the owners of these items were taking a swim. Note to the wise, do not leave your valuables unguarded on the beach because these unsuspecting criminals may just fly away with them! LOL!

I tried so hard to get some good flight shots of these birds but they were just too fast for me.

Even birds yawn of boredom. LOL!

I inquired about great places to take sunset pictures and was told about Pier 60. So we headed there to grab some shots. I got better sunset pictures at Sand Key Park but at Pier 60 I got to get up close to a pelican and crane. They were right there on the pier with us. It was beginning to get dark so getting good pictures was a struggle for me. I ended up having to use flash as the available light was not that great.

I could not believe how close I was to this guy!

I thought this guy had a strange coloring.

This is one of the few shots I was pleased with. I think it's pretty.

He kept moving around, so I followed him to different locations on the pier.

In the water below there was an interesting scene. This pelican would dive for fish and that seagull would come in and land right on top of him and try to get a share of the spoils.

I thought this was so neat!

Further out in the water was this guy. He stayed there the entire time we were there.

I decided to move in a bit closer, using a 70-300 mm lens.

And closer still. I forgot my tripod so these pictures were taken with me hand holding the camera and trying not to breathe. LOL!

It was about 8:00pm when this picture was taken and the sun had started to set.

I zoomed in for a closeup.

I then turned my camera back to Mr. Pelican. No filters were used in any of these pictures. The brilliant orange and deep blue was produced by the sunset.

A close up.

And there you have it. These are my birdie pictures from Florida! Tomorrow I will be picking up my seven little feather butts from the bird sitter. I can't wait to see them. The house is so quiet with them gone! LOL! Well that's all I have for today. See you next time with another photo adventure. Until then, keep on snappin'!