Today Emma and I went with the FONZ photo club to take pictures of captive birds of prey. All of the birds we saw today were unable to be released back into the wild due to some of their injuries. This bald eagle was hit by a car when she was young and lost sight in her right eye. She was sucessfully rehabilitated and released back in the Alaskan wild. Several years later she was hit by a plane and lost most of her left wing. She now has a permanent home with the Scales & Tales rehabilitation center in Thurmont, Maryland.

I have also uploaded a version of this photo as a destop wallpaper. Feel free to grab it for your own desktop.

Several months ago an artist stumbled upon my website and took a liking to a couple of my photographs. She asked for permission to paint a couple of them and I happily agreed.

All I can say is WOW. I really love the result. You can click the following link to view the original version of "Car Dreams." Please visit her website to view all of her wonderful work: Kay Crain.

It is spring break and I took Emma and her friend Elaine to the Catoctin Zoo today. You can tell that spring is here with all the trees starting to sprout new leaves and the grass is turning green again. It is also a time for all the new baby animals to be born.

This mother duck was keeping a close watch on her little ducklings. Little does she know that she just happened to build her nest in the alligator swamp enclosure at the Catoctin Zoo. There are currently no alligators yet and I hope she moves on before the zoo staff brings them back out for exhibit.

This was a photo I took for a review I did of the Canon 180mm macro lens. You can read my full review at my Canon Photo News website.

This is another photo using my new 180mm Macro lens. This statue is in my backyard and is about 10 inches tall. I have also created a wallpaper of this photo and placed it at my newly created desktop wallpaper section of my website. I currently have this photo as my desktop background.

On Sunday of this week Emma took some of her birthday money and bought some Rollerblades. I took several pictures and I really liked how this one came out in color. I decided to desaturate and overexpose it in Photoshop. I think her eyes really stand out now.

A closeup of a closed tulip bud from Brookside Gardens.

This is the other photo that I will be submitting for critique next week. I like this photo because it proves you can use a macro lens for general photography as well. It performs very well as a prime 180mm lens.

Today I attended a flower and garden photography class at Brookside Gardens. This was my first real field trip with my Canon 180mm Macro lens. The class will continue next Saturday and I will present this photo as one of my selections for critique.