Camera Practice - Saturday 6th March

On Saturday afternoon I headed down to Bertha's beach with my fellow camera class and
tried to put into practice what we had learned during the week. Tried being the operative word! It was a miserable day with heavy showers coming through every twenty minutes or so, so not the best light in the world to work with.

I did capture this pair, a mother and chick. She was coming out of the sea and her chick went racing up to her. At first I thought they were just being territorial and fighting but as I watch you could see her starting to regurgitate the food to feed her baby. I am glad we only have to breast feed (sorry boys) but man a beak down your throat does not sound good to me. The chick was really insistant and pestered her constantly for more and more.

One of the things you do tend to notice after you have got over your initial "oh my look at those penguins" feeling is that they all tend to have very different characters. This one was flat out asleep and completely oblivious to the world going on around him.

He managed to open on eye and lift his head just slightly as I lay belly down on the sand to take his picture but soon got bored and dropped back off to sleep again.

This lot were not so happy about me being laid on my belly and after their intial look at me decided that I really wasn't something they wanted to be to close to. I call this the racers as they remind me of a group of small children trying to win the race. I love their feet on the bottom with their thick black pads.

This one I decided was practising her syncronised swimming routine and I would definitely give her extra points for artistic impression!

These two were either have a line dancing competition or practising for an aerobics class and were not in the least bit bothered by me sitting and watching.

This pair were practising for the power walking championships and I would definitely give them extra points for the use of their wings as power aids.

Then you go from the activities to the types of penguin. Here you have Miss with her fur coat who is just not quite cutting it on Rodeo Drive but is definitely a wanna be.

You have the scruff who wants to make either a punk statement or just some sort of statement that tells the world he is hard and doesn't care what you think.

Then there is the teenage boy who cannot be bothered to do anything with his appearance although I think this one is slightly geeky.

You have the George Michael wannabe but he has managed to mix up which way round the goatee should go.

And then you have the city slicker type who likes to gel his hair down and doesn't mind getting a bit wet in the rain as it only makes him look harder and slightly more cool.

Then you have the one you feel sorry for. The ugly duckling syndrom which raises its head even in penguin circles. This poor chap spent ages looking in the puddle trying desperately hard to find his imaginary friend.

Okay so now we have determined that I need to get out more and find some other company rather than penguins I should go and do some work. I should also practice my photography skills a bit more as shooting in P mode is looking mighty good to me right now.

Love to all Helenx