Personal Goal - Practice Photography

In retirement, I needed to start to set personal goals. There always room for self improvement and learning new skills. One of my goals is to spend an hour each week where I go out and practice my photography. This can include many different things, but mostly it is just becoming comfortable with my camera.
Here are some of the photos I took on this week's practice.

When I went outside this morning to put the trash bin out and to pick up the morning paper, it was only 42F and my car had iced windows. That is way too cold for Florida in March. But the sun was shining brightly and I saw that the sunflower my neighbor had looked very happy for the warmth of the sun.

I noticed another plant that I hope is suppose to be white and was not affected by the cold temperatures. I love the little red blooms at the end of each cactus stem. It was sitting in the shade and provided a look of being frozen...

I decided my practice would be at the Brevard Zoo. I stopped at the Pineda Inn for lunch and I saw that the birds were trying to get warm. There were two docks, both ruined by recent hurricanes, but the poles were still standing. The first set had all seagulls with one cormorant.

The second dock had a complete set of cormorants. Every pole was taken, no matter the size...

The temperature had not reached 70 yet so I was not sure of what activity would be at the zoo. The pair of siamang gibbons were staying close to home. I like how the guy seems to be just hanging out....literally.

My real intent for going to the zoo was to see if the emu eggs had hatched yet. Apparently not as the male emu was still atop the nest with the female emu close by...I did not hear any nagging.

 I went into one of the two apiaries.  This red crested turaco posed for me. I wish the sun was shining on him better but he was where he was...

At least the cockatiels were out in the sun. I was practicing my perspective shot. One shot to practice is to have both birds in focus, or just one or the other. It was too crowded in the apiary today so I did not practice this. The whole Zoo was packed today.

I also like getting two different species in a single shot. That is a white crested turaco amongst the cockatiels.

Both of the apiaries have turtles in the water. I waited for ten minutes for him to lift his head and take a breath. The shadow would take a lot longer to move. The eye and nostrils look good so maybe I will crop.

Outside the apiary there is a salmon crested cuckatoo. This bird is smart. Two weeks ago I watched as he sorted his food by color, like people with M&Ms. He then ate each color separately. Today, he was dipping the food into the water. You can see a drop of water at the bottom of its beak.

Of course, I sometimes catch a non-zoo animal. Today it was a honey bee. I guess I should clarify, there is a beehive of honey bees at the zoo so maybe this was one of the zoo residents. Regardless, it is one of my favorite photos I took today. I was trying hard to get the bee in flight, but they have a habit of flitting around like a butterfly. Patience is important in photography...

The wrinkled hornbill was flying around today. I saw a small bird was in the same cage and I think it was making this hornbill angry. His wife is in the nest (box at back in this photo), and I think he was bored. Like the bee, it was hard to get him in flight. It is kind of out of frame but I can recrop that, bigger problem is that it is not in focus...

I knew Africa would be warmer because, you know, it is Africa. I purposely caught the klipspringer through the trees. When in the wild, that may be the best shot you can get. Try and do something with what little you have. I think it turned out nicely.

At the Brevard Zoo, the zebras share the area with the rhinos. I saw about three geometric balls added to their display. I posted a video on Facebook of the zebra playing with the ball. Here is a photo of the same zebra with the ball...

There was a sign today that said the zebras are black with white stripes. Never thought about it. Funny, but even the rhino was pushing the odd shaped ball around. Maybe they can train them for a soccer game.

Here is a wide angle shot of the three rhinos...

When I got there, none of the giraffes were near the feeding stands. I usually like to go and see the lemurs. That is where there was a giraffe, trying to eat the new leaves off one of the trees. At first, I was gonna zoom in on the long tongue, but for clarity of what it is (and not to be mistaken for other body parts), I figured the wider shot would be better. Again, the tree was between me and the animal and I tried to get the best shot that I could. Practice!

Then I looked over and saw one of the large giraffes getting a drink. It kind of reminded me of some of my dad's jokes, or what it may look like at a retirement home swimming pool. The smaller giraffe is one of the new additions in the last year. Born right here at the zoo.

The lemurs were all lazing around while the zoo trainers were removing some of the palm fronds.

If you have an itch, use the log to scratch it. Wait, if the zebra is black with white stripes, why is the belly white? I guess I am going to have to look that up in wikipedia.

I decided to get a wide angle shot of the lemur watch stand. You can see the long-tongued giraffe on the left. Sometimes, it is okay to get people in your photos.

The giraffes know how to pose for photos...

Feed me!

There was an Armerican Crocodile at the Florida section of the Zoo. For some reason, it was lying there with it's mouth open. I wonder if it was snoring or drooling?

This American Alligator was swimming away from me. I should have switched to video because his tail was doing all the paddling, sweeping from left to right. Can't see that in the photo.

You would be an idiot not to take a photo of one of the American Eagles on display.

And now the beer from lunch was begging to come out, so I quickly took this front shot of the American Alligator. Looks like he may be retired too!