To insanity and beyond ...: Find the UNIQUE ....

“LIFE is like a camera .... FOCUS only on what is important and you will capture it PERFECTLY.”

~ anon.

Rock Pool reflections

To understand perfection one only needs to pause and take in what’s right in front of one’s eyes. As the hound and I walked down the road yesterday we were greeted by the tabby cat that lives a few houses down. There aren’t any dogs in this tabby’s life but he wasn’t perturbed by the hound’s presence. Little furry kitty nose met large wet doggy nose. The hound’s tail wagged and kitty’s tail swished as he arched his back and stretched forward for a closer look at the hound.

For just a moment, time stood still.

I couldn’t help it. I was grinning from ear to ear as hound and kitty sussed each other out. Trying to take the camera out the backpack broke the spell and kitty moved off on his morning meander. I didn’t get a photo but the image I have in my mind of those two noses touching is vividly clear.

The Rosea were VERY vocal on the way up to the view-site this morning

I LOVE looking at life through the lens. I see so much more than what I ever did before I started taking my photography so seriously.

FIND the unique, GET the angle, KNOW when to snap .....it’s so SIMPLE!

I wish it WAS that simple.

Sometimes the moment’s gone before you even know it’s happened. Pete drove past in his Black Mini Shorty as we headed over to the Co-op for coffee. Next to him in the Shorty was his hound, Bert. It was the most incongruous image ... this really cute LITTLE car .... filled to capacity with Pete and his hound.

They were away round the corner before I even had time to think of lifting the camera!

Mini Shorty + Pete + Bert = FULL!

Moments in time are exactly that .... a BRIEF interlude in the hustle and bustle of life that make you stop and think. Little pieces of your life that stick with you forever. I try to only remember the good ones .... it doesn’t mean there aren’t any bad ones but it means I’m making a choice not to give them prominence.

I LOVE life.

Up close and personal ..... and the hissing didn't stop.

Carol and Sam were both happy bunnies when they picked me up outside the Co-op this morning! Sam’s first ramble at Waiatarua since THAT op. I’m NOT sure who needed it the most .... him.... or Carol. Sam wasted NO TIME in turning himself chocolate. He found the muddiest puddle and splashed through it with ball in mouth.

I swear I could see him grinning as he raced back to us, mud splashing EVERYWHERE!

Sam turning chocolate brown

Daddy Swan doing his best to scare me away.
I don't frighten easily though.

The Black Swan Cygnets are growing. They’re almost as big as their Dad now .... and just as vociferous. They were at the filtration end of the wetland and close to the bank. I left both hounds at the top with Carol and quietly knelt down on the bank. It’s scary enough having one large Black Swan come racing through the water hissing at you ... three paint a very different picture! I stood .... or should that be knelt ... my ground and focused on their eyes.

One of the babies who'd been hissing at me

They really are magnificent birds. The hissing is all a ploy .... though I wouldn’t like to test that theory. They were happy enough to hiss at me and ruffle their feathers without feeling the need to come charging out the water. I think if the hounds had been with me, Daddy Swan wouldn’t have hesitated .... he would have been out there and defending his babies in a flash.