A Close Encounter

As I promised last week, while Amy was walking along the beach, she had a close encounter with a resident of the sea. Here then is an awesome series of pictures I took with her camera. Mind you, I couldn't have done it with my little Panasonic, it just isn't fast enough between shots. But Amy's has an automatic focus and has burst shot capability. I only used the thing for a couple days but I am sounding like a true photographer with all the hip lingo. OK, here we go.

Here is Amy walking along, checking for shells and simply enjoying her first day down here, after seeing the eagles we featured a few days ago.

I noticed some thrashing, and it looked like a fish that had come too close tot he shore and was trying to get back to deeper water. Then it went away, and I thought I had lost my opportunity.

But then the thrashing started up again. I started taking some pictures.

Here you can see two small protrusions poking out of the water.

And then the thrashing stopped.

This picture shows the two little thingies jutting out again. Very small, but if you look close enough you can see them.

And then a large thingie is seen.

Yep, if you hadn't guessed already we have a ray warming itself in the shallows. I'll be damned if Amy didn't almost step on him.

And he wasn't a small one either, this was a big guy.

He decided it was too congested in this area so he took off for a piece of beach a little less crowded.

He was a big guy and I'd hate to guess, but maybe a couple feet from flapper to flapper.

And thanks to Amy's camera, and my inestimable skills as a nature photographer, we have a great picture of the guy skimming just below the surface heading to parts unknown. Nat Geo, I'm presently between gigs. Call me.

It was Amy's close encounter and really made the walk special. By the way, Amy is an accomplished photographer herself and has hinted she may post some of her pictures on her own blog she is developing. But today, I was the Master of the Aperture, the Commander of the f-Stop, the Lord of the Lens. A great camera and automatic settings makes anyone look gifted.

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