I’ve noticed that recently my submissions have been following a convenient pattern: one week I serve you cold sunrises/sunsets on the rocks, the other it’s photos that have a sentimental value for me, a story that I want to share with whomever cares to read it or photos that I want in my gallery to make it a bit more varied. Well, this one falls into the second category.

Although I consider myself an animal lover, there were no pictures of animals in my gallery. Well, there are some self portraits but I’m speaking of cute little animals, not extinct species, ok? So, everybody meet Snow-White! And while you’re at it mark the date this one was taken on: August 18 2008, the day my journey into landscape photography started.

The story behind this one… It had been almost 2 months since the date I’d received extensive data input about all the basics in photography by *KirlianCamera and I still refused stubbornly to put any of it in practice, instead I continued snapping happily and carelessly at anything that drew my attention, leaving the serious/artistic stuff to him and thinking there’s no point in trying to impress him! I had the best excuse in the world: “yeah, I didn’t get any good pictures but after all I haven’t even tried, I was just fooling around”! Being a teacher though, I know what happens when you use an excuse once too often, so on that date I set off for my most favorite place in my little island having made a pact with myself: be serious (hell, I even took my tripod with me!), try to put everything I knew into practice and get back with just one decent photo or forget about photography altogether.

By the time that shot was taken (7:48 am) I already had two pictures I was pleased with (Alone and Sunlight) and I was anxious to get home and have the opinion of an expert. Yet I decided to hang around for a bit more to review my shots and delete those suffering the most from my 3 constant (to that date) curses: crooked horizons, unstable hands and “where in god’s name were you focusing in this shot?”. So I’m sitting there, perched on a rock, having covered my head and camera with a towel (there’s very little you can see in a D70s LCD screen in bright daylight) when I hear a loud quacking at my feet. I untangle myself and see a bunch of ducks having a jolly good time looking at me. Miss Snow-White here gives a final quack and gets in to have a shower. Splash, snap, that was all there was to it. No filters, no technique applied here, no thought into this shot but I love it almost as much as any of my “me and my crazy filters” shots!

Now, let me hear you say “awwwww”!

PS This one is for my DA sister =Rheazblaze. I know you prefer wildlife Diane but this is as wild as it gets in this island!

Location: Langada Village, Chios Island, Greece

<sub>tech stuff

Nikon D70s
f:5.6
ISO 200
S: 1/500 sec</sub>