The "Doing the Unthinkable" Story

It was an ordinary day. And, I'm feeding the sea gulls. Love to do that, especially with my grandkids. Now I know that some of you may think that they are dirty, unhealthy birds and that I'm nuts, but I think the sea gull is a majestic bird. Pure white with very dark gray banded head with white eye liner, dark gray wings with light undersides, and a red beak. And they can change direction instantly while in flight. I know they can be aggressive at times, but then we all are when it comes to getting food for ourselves. Have you ever been in a buffet line? OK, now you understand what I mean. For the past few years we have been renting a top unit condo in Ocean City, NJ. Perfect for feeding the birds. Off of Carol and my bedroom is a nice size balcony that works well for feeding. Most every evening while supper is being prepared, Courtney, Camille, and Caden head to the balcony with me to feed bread to the sea gulls. I have been teaching them the fine art of feeding for severalyears. Take a small piece of bread, roll into a ball andthrow underhand into the air when they approach. They can remember if you do it with them for maybe one time, then they just grab a big piece and throw overhand and it always drops to the ground immediately. But, that's OK, except for the cars that are parked below. Birds gather on the ground to fight for the pieces in front of them. While thekids feed the gulls, I enjoy taking photos of them. Use my DSLR with the tele-photo lens. Sometimes set it on multi-exposure and hold the button down. Fires off photo after photo as long as you hold it down. Good think itisn't film in the camera. Could get costly. Then, Courtney asked if she could take photos with it. Had her sit in a chair, away from the railing on the balcony, put the strap around her neck and showed her how to use the tele-photo feature. She was having as much fun as I was taking photos, and gave me a chance to feed the gulls. Some of the best times of the day were when we fed the sea gulls. Called 'Gull-Bonding'. Well, when I got home I downloaded my photos and found that 2/3 of the pictures were of feeding the gulls. And 2/3 of those photos were photos that Courtney took. She loved the multi-exposure mode and seemed to use it the often. Just finished making a CD with photos from our vacation for her and her family. Matter of fact, I had to use 2 CDs, since there were over 400 sea gull photos. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: common sea gull, Courtney getting ready for the action, teaching how to feed the gulls, last 2 shots are from a feeding session.