Wordless Wednesday

Well, I don't have much to say about Wednesday- it's been a rainy, quiet, Sense & Sensibility day.
However I have plenty to say about yesterday:
Tuesdays are the best... one of my favorite days of the week and always brimming with possibilities. While Monday is often filled with angst over my lack of productivity, Tuesdays are usually the polar opposite. I feel a spring in my step before I even have my first sip of coffee (and believe me, that's saying something). I stay focused, I have loads of patience and we almost always have time for a swim either in our kiddie pool or at The Club Pool.

On Tuesday there are more hours in my day, or so it seems.

I woke up yesterday feeling excited as usual. My to do list was simple and easy: Chores, photography homework, then off to the pool. I especially felt excited about my photography homework: shutter practice outdoors. This shouldn't take long I thought as I took out the trash and checked out the hummingbird feeder for a possible photo op. Hummingbirds would be the perfect subjects- if I set a fast shutter, I could capture sharp images- frozen in space. A long shutter would produce delicious motion blur. I pictured beautiful and artistic images that would make my teacher proud.
Dang. The feeder had been taken over by sugar ants. I didn't want to photograph sugar ants. Ok, no big deal, I quickly rinsed the ants off and hung the feeder back up but as I turned toward the house to get my camera, the wire cord snapped, the bird feeder fell to the ground and shattered into a hundred sharp, curvy pieces. Now, I'm the kind of girl who doesn't like wearing shoes. If I had been on my way to feed the chickens I would have been wearing my "poop boots" as my little girl calls them but unfortunately I neglected to put anything on my feet since I was just stepping out onto the deck for a second... I felt silly pulling shards of glass from my foot. I felt downright grumpy as I swept up the mess and scrubbed blood off the back deck. 

My perfect hummingbird photos had slipped away. But I wasn't giving up so easily.

This was Tuesday, after all.

I hobbled through the store, picked up one of the last feeders of the season and headed to the pool with my children, who never forget a promise. As soon as we came home from the pool and the kids were tucked into bed I filled the new feeder, hung it in the old spot, picked up a good book and my camera and waited...

Those fickle little birds didn't show up until 7:00 PM and even then, they didn't stick around long. I only got a couple measly shots, hardly enough to satisfy my shutter requirements.

f/3.5, 1/200sec, ISO 400

Feeling defeated, I hobbled up the hill to practice on birds who:

a. don't move fast and

b. can't fly away

f/3.5, 1/320sec, ISO 800

...and that's about the time it started to rain. 

Seriously? This feels surprisingly like a Monday.

I retreated to the house and looked out at the rain,
hoping it would go away before every shred of light had vanished.
Of course, that's when the bottom fell out. 

And that's when I decide to roll with it. I flopped down on the kitchen floor with the back door open
and snapped away. 

The rain turned out to be the best practice I could ask for-

and since I had just scrubbed the back deck earlier that day, there were even bubbles! 

Perhaps not as interesting as Hummingbirds in flight, but definitely better than chickens.

As for Wednesday's homework: Creative Focal Points, I think I'll stick with something safe. 

And I'll definitely be wearing shoes.