A walk in the park

I went for a hike out to the Old Mill in Gatineau Park this weekend to practice play with shutter speed since there's a really pretty waterfall there.  I was inspired by Darcy's posts for her "31 days to a better photo" piece.  It was going ok and I was starting to get it but my pictures weren't turning out quite as well as I hoped.  I wasn't stressed though cause it was a beautiful day and I was just out there for some fun anyway.  Then as I climbed down to the bottom of the waterfall I saw this beautiful creature:

I LOVE BIRDS!!  Ahem, actually, I love all the critters that roam the earth but birds truly fascinate me.  I struggled to get some pictures that I really liked because I had Dan's lens on, which was great because it has better zoom than mine, but it sucked because I had to focus it manually while I was balancing myself on one rock, my knee on another, and my elbow on a third.  I wanted to get the lowest angle possible.  Here's another view:

One of my favorite youtube videos is "How to Be Alone"  It's a truly lovely production.  Interestingly, I was at the park by myself and as a result I was open to meeting new people just as the video predicted.  I met a guy that was caught up in taking pictures of the heron too.  We hiked out from the mill together talking about photography and the photo clubs in Ottawa.  It turns out that he's a registered massage therapist at the sports physio clinic just down the road from my house.  WOO HOO!!!  I have just landed myself a new massage therapist.  So happy :-)  as much as I adore going out to Le Nordik, it is far and a bit on the $$ side because if you go for a massage obviously you go for the baths and dinner and wine and dessert too!

I'm heading to Jasper this weekend to hang with some old friends so I'm sure I will have lots of opportunities to take some pretty photos...fingers crossed they're not macro bear photos!  That would be bad.