We are lucky here in My home town. There is a lot of wildlife within a few miles of my house. I have been sneaking out to see this little beauty for the past few weeks and finally have something that I like. I got some really cool photos from this pond. I had some great light and I will probably make a print from one or two of the photos to go with the painting, I am thinking a tryptic but I will have to see where things end up. I usually head off in one direction and end up somewhere completely different. 
     I love  when I can work on something and let it lead me down a path. I used to experience that all the time when I was younger and I would do creative writing.  Now my writing skills are so rusty that I can barley put a sentence together.  Oops there I go Mr. Attention Deficit Disorder, they tried to beat it out of me in school but it's still there thank god, back to our feathered friend. 

     This guy was about 34 inches tall and held up in a wall of tangled trees and vegetation. He is at the same pond most nights and preens and poses in the late afternoon sun  like he was on the payroll of the chamber of commerce. He was about thirty feet from a large sleeping blue heron. 
     I am finalizing a new picture frame design and will be mounting it soon, I will post pictures when I am done and I think he will be the first mount. I realized I am out of paper today so I will have to re-order before I can print.  I am very excited to get it printed, I never know for sure how I feel about a painting or photo until it's printed and mounted. Countless times I have loved something on screen only to be disappointed with the print. I then end up tweaking until I am happy with the result. It used to be mostly a brightness or more accurately a darkness issue, but I am much better these days at nailing that, proper histograms were the key there. Now it is usually is a cropping or composition issue. I just have too see the print before I can finalize it, but I think I share that with many people. 
     Well off to bed with me. Peace.