I'm back. Gulls and ducks. C&C Appreciated

[KHarmon]

It has been a long hiatus. Much too long in fact. I have been away for the last few months. Work has been all consuming and my sister lost her battle with cancer on the 21st of October followed by my father on the 12th of November. Photography has taken a serious back burner.

Since I have been gone I did purchase a new Sigma 120mm-400mm lens and that thing is taking some getting used to.

I went to one of the local parks in Lubbock. We have a large population of ducks and Canadian geese that winter here and with near perfect weather I decided it would be a good day to go out and play with the camera a bit. I am still in the process of post processing but here is a small group of what I shot yesterday.

C&C is greatly appreciated as always.

KHarmon

1. Ring-billed Gull


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4. American Coot


5. This guy was a favorite of my wife and daughters. They nick named him Blue Eyes.

[KHarmon]

I am sorry to post back to my thread so soon, but I wanted to share this one as well.

If famous boxing promoter Don King was ever reincarnated as a duck, I'm pretty sure it would look something like this.

[Bobobird]

Welcome back Kris. Sorry to hear about your sister and did. My condolences.

Congrats on the new lens. Hopefully we will see more great pics soon.

Pics - I like them all, particularly Don King.

[IzzieK]

Those are all nice BIFs...I like Don King best! He is so cute! and funny looking...

[deetheturk]

Kris,sorry for your loss,well done on these images,like Bobo and Isabel,Don King(he never looked this good)is my favorite too

[NorthernFocus]

Sorry to hear about the hurdles life has thrown up for you there, Kris. Photography can be wonderful therapy for the soul.

Nice set of shots. The coot's eye/beak look just a tad soft. It looks like the head on the back side of the DOF. That goose looks like a specklebelly. One of my favorite with their orange feet and bill. Nice shooting.

[KHarmon]

Thank's everyone. I agree on the Coot. I know that somewhere among the 800 plus frames I took that there is a couple of the Coot that are better. I'm still weeding through.

I have seen some of the incredible birds in flight on here, a series of Bald Eagle pics stick out in my mind from last year. I decided to give it a try and have found out how incredibly difficult getting them in flight is. The gulls are not as difficult to catch in flight as the Canadians because the gulls glide and hover at times. The Canadians are full motion and much more difficult to catch. If the weather is right on Thursday I'm going to go give it another shot on the Canadian geese.

[Downrigger]

I am sorry for your losses, a lot for you to work through, I am sure. But you've posted great results from what is hopefully some nourishing recovery therapy for you... love the Don King.

[KHarmon]

Here are some more from the series that I took on Sunday. You guys are probably sick of gulls. I had some good luck catching the gulls in flight....the Canadian geese on the other hand was a pain in the butt.

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