A Nature Walk in My Front Yard

I am at the end of my photography schooling through NYI and I'm super excited. I have finished all the bookwork and now all that is left to do is take, and submit my photo project pictures. I have to take 7 more pictures before they are ready to go.
So this morning I decided to go on a nature walk around my yard in search of a banana spider I saw the other day. I had knocked down his web when I was mowing and had hoped that he'd re-build; he didn't. On the way to the spot I heard lots of noise in the trees above me. When I looked up, there were several woodpeckers hopping around in the tree branches. I ran back inside to get my zoom lens in hopes that they would stay till I got back.
I found out that bird watching is really challenging, especially in the oak trees in my yard. I did get a few good pictures though.

Isn't he a beauty!

This bird hopped around a lot and as you can see there are a lot of branches that can get in the way of a perfect picture. These are the two best pictures that I got before he took off.

 

One of my assignments is to get a close up of something; i.e. insect, flower. This was my first reason to go out this morning and I got side tracked by the woodpecker. Back on to my mission I found a dragonfly perched on a fence post. I learned something else this morning, dragonflies will perch in one place for a long time. If you move they might fly off but come right back once your still.

I first started shooting this blue dragonfly and got these shots:

I moved around a little bit and this one was shoved off by another dragonfly.

This one is my personal favorite. The colors are really bright and crisp, and the dragonfly is clear.

 

It is interesting how the background changes with a slight turn, or when the cloud cover changes. Both of these dragonflies were taken on the same post, just at different angles and minutes apart.