Owl Love

I love all birds, especially owls! I've captured a great pic of a Barred Owl in the creek behind my house.

My daughter, who was about 11 years old at the time, came running into the house yelling that there was an owl in the creek. I'm like "yeah, right". She insisted, and I grabbed my camera, just in case and he just sat and watched me while I took his picture, and I took many!  That was when I fell in love with owls.  I can still hear them outside my bedroom at night and I love the sound!


On Facebook, I belong to Cincinnati Birders.  People began posting sightings of a Snowy Owl, in Cincinnati of all places!!!  I kept an eye out and one Sunday morning I had my gear all ready and when someone posted a sighting, I was ready to go!  He wasn't hard to find, there were about 40-50 photographers on the side of the road, the owl paparazzi and I joined in!

Bless his heart, he was perched atop a highway sound barrier off of I75.  Most of the photographers kept a respectful distance, so he wouldn't fly into traffic.  I got a few good pics, but I really don't have a long lens to get close. These were taken with my 70-300mm lens and then I had to crop!   The very sad news is that my dream bird was hit by a car and killed on the expressway the very next day.  A local raptor rescue group did a necropsy and said that it was indeed a male and he was well fed.

 I think the next bird I will seek is an Eagle. There have been a sighting of one in the Loveland, Ohio area and several in surrounding areas, so chances are good!

To order prints of these owls, please visit my website at www.teachmidphotography.com

Snow Days

I love to photography birds on snowy days!  The weatherman had forecasted snow, but you never know! I went out the night before and filled up my bird feeder and put out suet.

Had some strange bedfellows, a yellow bellied woodpecker feeding with a Starling, a cardinal and a fox sparrow, two Cardinals and a little Finch,

Some shared nicely, some fought. Either way, it was a bird nerd's heaven!

My favorite bird to photograph in the snow, besides an owl, is the cardinal. Both male and female are so beautiful with a snowy background.

 I had more Cardinals at my feeder than I have ever had! The Blue Jay was great to see too!

If you'd like to buy prints of any of these photos, please visit http://www.teaschmidphotography.com/Fine-Art/Birds/i-h2HNFc5

Fishin' Jimmy

Last week I decided that I wanted to get a really good summer themed photo of Jimmy. I took him to a nearby church that has a pond with a dock.

With his ADHD and ASD, I knew he wouldn't pose and I'm not really into posed photos anymore anyway. I tied a string to a stick and let him play. For the above photo I was going for a vintage look. This I'm going to enter into the Rock The Shot photo challenge www.rocktheshotforum.com

Here's the color version. He had a lot of fun and now wants to go fishing with a real pole and catch some fish! Now I need some fun summer pics of my teenage daughter!

www.rocktheshotforum.com

Yellow Springs, Ohio

Took the kids for a two day vacation to Yellow Springs, Ohio...a fun little hippie town north of here. They have a great dairy farm with lots of fun things for kids to do!

 This purple cone flower, at a city building in Yellow Springs, Ohio was edited with Kim Klassens' Follow

Fun in the Woods

I was lucky enough to be commissioned to take photos of Melina and her Cousin Alison on Melina's birthday. They wanted a wooded setting, and told me I could have fun with the photos, and I am having fun with the photos!!!

 I've added fire and wings....

a wolf, fox and butterfly.....

 The fog is from smoke emitters I had with me.....

 The girls were so lovely and fun to work with.....

and a happy birthday to Melina!

Catching Fire

This is my entry for www.rocktheshotforum.com monthly contest....Favorite picture from last year. I titled this "Catching Fire" My daughter had no idea why I asked her to hold her hand up while taking pictures. Then she saw and liked it!

I am quite behind on blogging as at the end of September I had to have two stents placed in my heart and then a few days before Christmas I had a stroke (at the ripe old age of 49).  I'm feeling much better and getting back into the swing of things!

The Wild Bunch

I was trying so hard to get a serene and peaceful Fall photo of my kids, with leaves gently floating around them. This was as close as I could get! It was still a keeper. I'm also entering this into the Rock the Shot monthly challenge at www.rocktheshotforum.com