A dog and his balloon

So far December hasn't disappointed at all. It's cold and dreary, and everybody is bundled up in big dark coats, gloves and scarves. So it's always nice to see something more cheery, colourful and a little different around this time of year.

And to think I was going to put my camera away because my fingers were getting cold... pfft. Moment almost missed.

...and buses might fly

In the future, maybe. We already have hybrids, flying ones shouldn't be too far away.

Pigeon or dove?

The internet says they are similar: "doves are white pigeons", "pigeons are a type of dove", "pigeons are crusty, grey and dirty but doves are clean, white and pretty", blah blah blah. All I know is that this white pigeon decided to sit on the bench I was sitting on and I had my camera with me.

I had a white carrier bag with me at the time, so maybe he (I shall refer to it as a "he" from now on) thought I had food. He was quite content with just perching near me.

I rustled the bag a little, and he got closer. Then I noticed the tip of his beak was overgrown and curling inward. He probably isn't that used to scrounging and fighting over crumbs. This along with his more friendly temperament lead me to believe that he might have been a hand-reared pigeon which was released during a ceremony (wedding?) and that instead of finding his way home, got lost and ended up in a park, joining a bunch of other "normal" pigeons. I offered him a piece of a nut and he pecked it out of my hand.

Naturally I wanted to see how close I could get the camera...

Almost into his face actually and he wasn't too scared of it, but my 35mm lens only focuses from about 30cm so this was about as close as I could get and still get a good picture.

Then he was joined by a friend (up top), but she (yes, the other one shall be referred to as a "she") had some black parts on her tail-feathers. Maybe she was also a hand-reared bird, and whoever released her coloured the dark bits white so she looked like an "all-white dove", and the white colouring washed out after living the street life for so long... Yeah, that's right, I created backstories for a couple of street birds.

A final "Hey, what's that ya got there?" pose.

Lego jacket

Strange fashion choices ahoy:

I won't knock it, I think her style is kind of interesting. But I don't know how comfortable it is to have a bag strap over the Lego blocks. Surely the weight of her bag is digging the blocks into her shoulder...?

In for the landing

130mm f/6 1/400 at ISO 400

The seagull just coming in to land had already ousted another gull from that post, and was ousted itself moments later by the seagull right behind him. I don't know why 3 birds were fighting over that one spot, it's not like there was a shortage of posts or anything.

Sometimes I like to take these freeze-frame type shots because most times I have my all-round walkabout lens on (Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di2) and I want to push it because it's not exactly the fastest lens around. It is convenient though. This lens isn't very bright towards the tele end and it was a cloudy day so I adjusted exposure and a few other levels in post to brighten it up a bit.

Pile of ducklings

A female Mallard sheltering her ducklings from the rain, like an umbrella... a duckbrella?

That's a lot of fuzzy ducklings. Duckpile!

(I believe these are the same ducklings as the ones in an earlier post)

Good for what ails you

Another antiques/curios shop display window. The bottle reminded me of those old pharmacies with the glass bottle full of a particular coloured liquid. I also liked the grungy colours and textures of the rusty ironwork, the patchy mirror and the painting in the background. This would make a good still life painting. I could probably give it a go in oil paint, once I finish my plague doctor mask.*


*It's almost done, it's just missing a headband of some kind. I just haven't gotten around to photographing it and uploading the pics.