(Day 221) Odds and ends

Today was our last day to go to a beach since tomorrow is a travel day. No, we didn't return to the one that the weather evicted us from yesterday. Instead we went to one nearby that we'd also visited a couple of times earlier. I had already walked around the area before and posted some photos from it. One of the 'pressures' of doing a 365-day photo project is to come up with at least one post-able photo each day, and to try to make it somewhat unique and interesting. I was really wondering what else I could get here.

Then, my wife and daughter spotted some dolphins cavorting only a hundred yards or so off-shore. I followed my wife and daughter, camera ready, as they took up the pursuit, and we ended up on the pier under which we'd last seen them swim. They were too far out in the water to get a decent shot by the time we arrived, so I remained loitering on the pier, while the others went back to the beach.

Before long, this fellow joined me and I thought he'd make a nice subject:

(70-200mm  f8  1/160 sec  ISO200)

After making a few photos of him, I too sauntered back to the beach, relieved in the knowledge I had a photo for the day.

We've become much more attentive to the weather and I've developed a better eye for interesting cloud formations. I was watching a pretty impressive rainstorm dumping on a community across the bay - you could actually see where the rain started and stopped. I thought I saw something developing out of the rather dark clouds, and sure enough, as I kept watching, a whitish funnel appeared to be forming. I'd never seen a real live waterspout before, but there it was, right before us (well, likely still about 2 miles away). So I figured I'd add it to the blog too:

(70-200mm  f8  1/1000 sec  ISO200)

We never saw it touch down, but we did see confirmation on the news tonight that it was a waterspout. It only lasted a few minutes before it retracted into the clouds.









Later that afternoon I decided to take a walk to an area near the beach where I had spotted some large yellow flowers, on a previous excursion. My daughter and granddaughters decided to come along for the walk. As we approached the large bushes with flowers, a quick movement caught our eyes, and there was a larger specimen of the fleet-footed 'lizards'. This little guy appeared to be friendly - he ran along branches and up and down the fence, pausing occasionally to allow a photo to be made of him. When I moved in closer for a better look, he flashed his colourful 'kerchief' at me. We all thought this little fellow was worthy of some exposure, so I've posted him below:

(70-200mm  f8  1/50 sec  ISO200)

This evening I did some research on him and discovered that he's a brown Cuban anole - I'll have to take someone's word for that since he wasn't carrying a passport. If you're interested in reading a humorous piece on these little creatures, check this out.


So I went from wondering what I was going to shoot today to having an assortment of subjects.



Note: tomorrow is a travel day; I'll likely make some photos but will likely not post, or visit anyone, till the day after.