The Tree in My Backyard

We’ve lived in our house for 12 years now and one thing I’ve really enjoyed is the view from my back window.  There’s a scraggly old maple about 10-12 feet from the house and this 2nd level kitchen window puts me at a ‘bird’s eye view’ of it.  My husband bought these rustic old bird houses that I hung along a horizontal branch with hopes they would be home to the cute little finches and other small birds.  It has never failed, at least one bird family makes their home in one of these houses.  Here is the view from inside the house after the snowfall we had yesterday.

My Little Bird Houses

Often I’ll open the window and capture this tree because it also has this interesting hole that the birds and squirrels have been working so diligently on making deeper and deeper. It has a certain character, and is like what you see in a many hand drawn pictures, or those in child’s drawings, that ‘hole’ that probably has a name but I can’t think of it.

The Hole

So as the seasons change and I see the the tree in each phase I open the window and take a photo of it.  It’s always been my intention to get a photo for every season, though it hasn’t really amounted to me doing anything with them.  I’m not even sure where I filed the others, they are probably on a spare SD card that I intend to work with one day…

As I was photographing the tree, a curious little bird landed on the window sill, and as I was trying to so carefully get a picture of the bird, I startled it and  wound up with just a blur…

The Blur of Wings Flapping

I was disappointed, though not surprised, it’s almost impossible to change camera setting so quickly from manual to the correct shutter speed priority needed for this shot.  Seconds later a male cardinal landed on the chimney right outside the window but missed that shot too.  Birds are just so darned flighty!! Hard to photograph.  Maybe that will be on my growing list of things to accomplish in my photography.

While working on my ‘night-time’ photography I took a photo of the tree from the living room window.  It was around 9:30 p.m…It always amazes me how bright things get at night when there’s fresh snow on the ground.  It pretty much takes away the creepiness of the darkness.

Shutter speed 4 seconds, ISO 200 (taken at 9:40 at night)

Shutter speed 4 seconds, ISO 200 (taken at 9:40 at night)

One thing I’ll miss when we move is my view, particularly this tree, my bird hotel, nature’s little haven in my very own backyard.

My View

Another thing on the list of photographic ‘things to do’ is to shoot better high-contrast images…one day.  Today I am enjoying the sounds of the birds and watching the snow melt.  Getting ready to tackle the sink full of dishes, darn!!