The Pelican Blog

Not to be confused with The Pelican Brief. (Just in case you did not catch the reference.)

So, pelicans, huh? you may be thinking. Oh yes, I will respond, having read your mind with my astounding telepathic abilities. Pelicans. Allow me to introduce you to the splendors of pelicans.

See, I recently spent a week in Port Aransas on Mustang Island (not a horse in sight) off the coast of Texas, just across from the thriving and historical metropolis of  Corpus Christi. Mustang Island is the only island I know that has a name for each half. The eastern half is Mustang Island, the western half is San Padre Island (where I actually saw horses). How this came to pass, I have not the faintest idea. It was quite confusing and in the end, I was really more fascinated by the pelicans.

Yes, I repeat, pelicans. I found myself fascinated by pelicans. They are an extraordinary bird, embodying an endearing appeal of a comically ponderous dignity while exhibiting a flat out exquisite and graceful power when airborne.

I was not expecting to fall in love with pelicans. I was expecting to be on a relaxing beach holiday where I would read bad novels, go swimming and possibly work on my tan for the first time in....too many years, let's leave it at that. How white? You don't want to know. Think lilies.

However, I did pack my bad ass camera and my brand new, bad ass 70-400 mm lens. I figured it would be the perfect time to give it a whirl, pearl. It was, though I had hell getting it right, especially since I have yet to pick out the tripod that I really, really need to work with this kind of lens. Because the longer the lens, the more any teeny weeny shake shows. Apparently, I shake worse than a life long drunk on Day 3 without booze.

But I bravely ventured forth into the unknown and assigned my long suffering husband the status as honorary tripod. "Hold your breath, honey, don't move, DON'T move!! Hold it, hold it, hold it! What do you mean you had to breathe!!??? I missed that shot! You have all frigging day to breathe, and you choose THAT moment to do it???!"

It also didn't help when I realized -  belatedly -  that my early morning conviction that I had set the camera to Auto the night before so I could just worry about figuring out my new lens turned out to be erroneous. I actually had it set to Aperture while I played with the evening light. Oops. Not so great for the sunrise extravaganza.

Oh well. I will likely cringe at having shared these publicly in a few years. But what the heck. They are not perfect, but I like them anyway. Fortunately for me, my husband seems to feel the same way about me. At least, we are still married and living in the same house.

So did I play around in photoshop with these photos, you may well be asking yourself. Hell yes! I had to do SOMETHING to make up for my husband's inconvenient habit of breathing while tripodding.

P.S. Why some are showing up small and some big, I have not a clue. I am no tech goddess. But if you want a better view, just click on a picture.