Photography, Nature

Psychedelic Ducks

An artsy take on a twilight scene

Dennett, this one is for you because I know how much you love ducks! On a recent mountain bike ride, I passed by the Peter’s Canyon Reservoir near my home in Orange County, California at sunset. The light was low, but the ducks were out. I zoomed in with my Nikon COOLPIX 1000, but, alas, it was too late in the day to get much of anything in good focus.

But when I loaded up the photos into Lightroom, I really liked the patterns of the ripples on the water, so I thought I’d just have a little fun with these and over-process them until they looked sort of artsy.

A little de-hazing and voila — they are sort of Monet-ish!

Although you can’t tell from the photos, these are Mallards. Every spring these ducks show up in our backyard, taking dips in our pool and quacking at the cats, who love to perch on the lip of the pool and marvel at these giant birds.

For several years running, we had a duck (we called him Mr. Duck) return each spring. He be-friended our cat, Leo. Mr. Duck would come to our french door and tap at it with his beak to let Leo know he was there. Then the two of them would sit together in the garden for hours on end. It was a most unusual friendship. One year he brought Mrs. Duck with him. But that is another story….

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Story and photos © Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.