Oh What a Beautiful Morning, Oh What A Beautiful Day!!!

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, oh what a beautiful feeling, everything is going my way!

It was such a beautiful morning, that when I was downloading these pictures that song came to mind.

I wanted to capture the rising sun through the trees.

Someone forgot their book.

As I was taking this picture I remember the tips that I read in an article, using the surrounding leaves, trees for framing. I hope the narrator of that article approves of my attempt.

Water Drops

I was watching some UTube videos and one of the photographers was doing an experiment to get the perfect water drop. I was really fascinated and decided to do my experiment but not to the extent of doing a special set up. I just took pictures of my faucet with the water flowing in one instance and dripping in the other instance. I especially like the first photo that I took, the sink is blue giving a lovely background for the water. The only fault in my eye is the shadow of the water.

I Got It!!!!!!

I am so excited!!! I got my Nikon D60 camera today!!!! Yesterday I was taking some pictures with my Konica Minolta camera and was having great problems keeping the batteries in its position.

You apparently the camera fell and the latch that keeps the batteries firmly in place was damaged. Yesterday was the final straw for my camera, it gave up on me. I have been using this camera to take all my pictures for my cooking website, beautiful hair blog and this blog.

Subsequently my son sailed to St. Marteen on Sunday and I contacted him and asked him to get one for me. My budget was $500.00. This is what he got for $465.00. Absolutely fantastic!!! I got a new toy!!!

Well of course I have to read up as much as I can, on what I can do with this camera. The first video that I would like to share with you, basically lists the features of the camera.

This video is about some cool photography tips.

Flowers On Each Leaf

I really love these pictures especially the first two. I had some other pictures that I had taken, just playing around with the camera and taking black and white pictures of various objects etc. But these first two, just blew me away, I deleted the others that I was going to post today.

The plant really caught my attention yesterday, with the little young flowers on each leaf, they looked pretty and unique.

Well as you can for yourself in the pictures .... hope you agree with me.

Rain Drops

I got this tip from one of my blog followers and I think it gave me the inspiration to take these photos.

While I was taking a shower yesterday morning I notice the rain drops on my clothes line which is situated outside our apartment. I then got the idea to take these pictures. The clothes line did not work out. These pictures are of the rain drops on the iron poles that the cloths lines are tied on to.

TIP

"Also, don't ever run out of ideas for taking photos. Consider trying all sorts and shooting what you don't normally shoot. Try taking close ups to produce striking abstracts. Try shooting from different angles. Example, think of a door:You could lie down, close to it and take an unusual shot up at it, or stand on a ladder or high chair and shoot down on it. You can take a standard portrait format shot of it, from fairly close, or from a distance, move the main subject of the door around in your "frame" - sometimes putting it closer to a corner, or using the two thirds rule for great composition. Get in close and do the same with the door handle. Find different doors and take close ups showing off the different textures or wood grains of each door. 

Hold a pair of sunglasses in front of your lens for a different color effect - or even a stocking for a dreamy hazy effect, or hold something up close to the camera that has a hole in the center of it, but focus on the door you see through the hole - this will give you a blurry edge or "frame" in your photo with the point of interest standing out clearly in the middle (or whichever third of your frame you decide to use) - but most of all, just have fun and enjoy taking photographs!"

William The Donkey At 40!

I was driving around Road Town, today and saying to myself that I have run out of ideas of what to take photos of. And I subsequently thought that God will inspire me to what to take a photos of.

Then guess what, I saw a man riding a donkey in the heart of town!!!! I feel blessed to meet William (the donkey) today. The owner told me that William is 40 years old!!!! WOW!!!

The owner of the donkey is Reginald 'Pollock' Smith now deceased.

This is his part time job taking his master for a walk around town looking for people to purchase lottery tickets.

His other part time job is attracting the tourists when they visit the territory via a cruise ship. His owner normally dresses William up with flower and maybe a pair of shades. Hopefully next time I would get a picture of him on the job!

There is another donkey in St. Thomas and the owner dresses him up for the tourists as well. Her name is Oprah!!!

Photos taken with my Nikon D60 DSLR camera

Cheese!

This is my little friend Elliot.
He is the son of our IT personnel.
He is so cute and very intelligent. As school is on holiday, when ever his father comes by the office, he is with him. I think he is learning to become an IT guy as well!
When I was first taking his picture he was a little timid until I told him to say 'cheese' and he did exactly that!!! So the first picture is when he said 'cheese'!

A Day for the Birds

It has been about a month since I have been looking for these fowls to take a picture of them. You see there are some palm trees located just at the front of my office building and these wild chickens would occasionally come and nestle in the dirt.

Well today was my lucky day. As I came back from my lunch, I saw the hen and her young ones just enjoying the warm dirt.

Of course I pulled out my camera and snapped away. It was not feasible for me to stand to the front of them because there are a lot of plants there so I had to stand behind them. I could not take the chance of getting too close either because I did not want to scare them.

The last picture of is a particular bird that enjoys fast food. They are just amazing the spot where I took these pictures is the cruise ship dock Road Town, Tortola.

The Government planted some coconut trees in the areas and now that they are a good height, they provide lovely shade. During the hours of 12:00 noon and 1:00pm alot of people, choose this spot to spend their lunch hour. It is quite relaxing and very breezy. I love spending my lunch hours there.

These birds are just marvelous. They love fast food. If you throw out a piece of food for them, they would catch it in flight.

British Virgin Islands East End August Festival 2009

The height of the British Virgin Islands August Festival is celebrated on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of August each year.

On Monday morning the parade begins with J'ouvert celebrations at Road Town, Tortola, where basically everyone dances/walk on the street accompanied by a large musical band. Later on in the evening, there is a parade of bands with the paraders dressed in beautiful costumes.

What is J'ouvert?
J'ouvert (pronounced 'juuvay'), is a large street party.

The celebration involves calypso/soca bands and their followers dancing thru the streets. The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise. Another part of the tradition involves throwing coloured powders, water, smearing paint, mud, or oil on the participants known as "Jab Jabs".

Some theorize that this is done in remembrance of a civil disturbance in Port of Spain, Trinidad, when the people smeared themselves with oil or paint to avoid being recognized.

On Tuesday is horse racing and basically everyone goes to this event. On the Wednesday, the parades go the eastern part of the island. Starting with J'ouvert early in the morning and in the evening a parade of bands.

On Wednesday 6th August 2009 the parade started about 4:30am so my husband left the house about 5:30am to see the parade. Of course I walked with my camera.

The parade passed very close to our house so all we had to do was just walk down the road as we were able to see everything.

The policewoman was positioned at this point so she would divert the traffic. No vehicles was allowed to allowed to pass beyond where she was standing until the passed that area.

As the truck with the music and the 
paraders approached I began to take pictures soon after I realized that my batteries were low. I could not believe it! I normally keep two reserve battery in my camera case but this morning I just picked up the camera and left the case at home!!! I was so disappointed with myself.

Anyway all was not totally lost, I was able to get a few good pictures as you could see.

The last picture of one of a little boy riding down the hill that leads to our house. He and his brother was having their own fun. I was just lucky to get 

this picture.

The party is over now, back to work. Until next year!!!

Baby Shower

I had a beautiful outing today. I went to a Baby Shower at Shannon Estate. The shower was hosted for a friend of mine who is expecting her baby in about three weeks time and she will also be permanently leaving the island. Of course I took almost 100 pictures and posted them on Facebook.

Late in the evening, we decided to take a dip in the pool and one of the ladies realized that there was a slide leading in to the pool.

So she took a slide. Her first attempt, I moved a bit too slow and missed out on that shot. But fortunately she make another attempt and this is what I got! Doesn't the water look absolutely divine??

The cute baby is the son of the lady who took the slide to the pool. He has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. The same color as his mother.

He was absolutely wonderful during the shower. He had a lot of fun. He ate, played and slept, no problem at all. Do you see that, the posed for me too!!! AWESOME!

A cake was purchased for the occasion and after we have the expecting mom cut the cake, it was served for dessert. The presentation was absolutely fantastic.