There was significant back light, so I chose to show the bird as a silhouette. I particularly liked the repeating pattern of the ripples on the marsh water.

Again, I used my new Canon 70-300mm zoom lens to make this photograph. The Image Stabilization on this lens was very useful in that I was able to capture numerous wildlife images without the need of a tripod. Having received the lens in December, I did not have a lot of experience with the lens. This lack of experience with the lens was not a problem, it worked flawlessly. Canon hit a homerun with this lens.

I admit when I saw this magnificent fellow, I was reminded of “Toucan Sam.”

For these photos, I used the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM zoom mounted on my Canon EOS 90D DSLR camera. I used a wide-open aperture to blur the background. Nancy gave me this lens for my birthday (last December) replacing an older lens that lacked Image Stabilization (IS). I found the image stabilization to be quite useful so that I did not have to use a tripod. The auto-focus on the new lens is much quicker than the old lens (very useful when photographing fast-moving monkeys and birds).

While in Scotland, we visited the Glasgow Necropolis, a Victorian cemetery, near the Glasgow Cathedral. It sits on a hill overlooking the city center.

Over fifty thousand individuals are buried there. Many in Glasgow refer to the Necropolis as the “City of the Dead.

My reaction to the whole atmosphere of the place was to make images with muted colors and an aged tonal quality. Below is another photo I took at the Necropolis showing the spire of the Glasgow Cathedral in the background.

Here is another photo from a walk through the garden.