JULY 18th - FRIGATEBIRD - ANCHOR BAY, MI

Kathi and I were enjoying a quiet Sunday evening when she got a text from Martin Blagdurn - "FRIGATEBIRD - ON ANCHOR BAY NOW". A quick phone call to Martin to confirm the bird was still in view, and we were on our way towards the north shore of the bay. It was a frantic ten minutes while we called back and forth to Martin to find out where the bird was headed. As we drove east, Kathi spotted the bird gliding overhead. There was Martin right beside it, as we arrived at BobbyMacs bayside grill. We spent about twenty minutes following it back and forth over an area of only a few hundred yards. In that entire time I don't recall seeing it flap once! It soared effortlessly in the onshore breeze, staying just above the tree tops - and likely looking for a place to roost. By the time we saw the bird it was around 9 pm so photography was difficult. However I did manage to get a few diagnostic shots. This was a Michigan first for all of us, and many thanks to Martin for the prompt notification!

JULY 4th - fireworks on the beach

To celebrate the holidays, Kathi, Carina,her girlfriend Sam and I went to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. One of the highlights of the trip was sitting on the beach watching the incredible display of fireworks. It was hard to know where to look! The displays went on for hours and stretched for miles down the beach in both directions. It took a while to get the exposure correct but after playing in manual for a while I got the hang of it.



Sometimes experimentation brings some great results. In this case I was having trouble with auto focus so I moved to manual. While I was trying to get the right focal range I cranked this out of focus shot by mistake.