Saturday Snapshots - December 31st 2016

Saturday Snapshots is a meme hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. The rules of the game are:

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky below. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

Personally, I find that this is one of the most fun memes that I've participated in. Not to mention that it's a bit of an incentive to get out and take more photos every week!

I'm sticking with the Christmas theme for the first photo - taken at my cousin's place on Christmas Day. I had a bit of fun experimenting with my camera using their Christmas tree as a target. In the process, I figured out how to change flash modes on my new camera - a completely different process from the last one.

The second image was a bit of a surprise. We hadn't realized it was still that cold at our favorite park for photography walks. Usually we see plenty of rabbits and birds there, but not so much this past week. On the other hand, we did see a pair of bald eagles. Unfortunately, they were still too far away for decent photographs - and I ran into a hazard of using auto-focus rather than manual: the camera focused on the branches just beneath the eagles, rather than the eagles themselves.

Still, I liked how this one turned out:

I'm going to throw in a third image too - an older one from Whytecliff Park:

Well, as 2016 comes to an end, I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year with all the best wishes for the year to come!