As seen by me

You might think this picture doesn't look like much, but this blazing ball of fire in the night sky represents one of the most exciting things I've ever seen. I took this photo just after 4 a.m. this morning, as the Space Shuttle Endeavour blasted off into space, headed for the International Space Station. The captain and I just stepped out onto our balcony and watched as the night sky lit up, heard the roar, and marvelled at the sight of the shuttle as it rose up, finally disappearing into the darkness.

I was going to set the camera up on the tripod and try to go manual, with the hopes of getting some knockout photos, but the truth is that I am not at my best at 4 o'clock in the morning -- fiddling with a tripod and choosing appropriate aperture and shutter speed settings is simply beyond my middle-of-the-night capabilities. So I played it safe. All I really wanted was a photographic reminder of an extraordinary event, and I'm so thankful that I achieved just that.

And here are some other photos of what's recently caught my eye. No fancy photoshopping here, just some of what I've seen through my lens over the past few days.

from our balcony, gazing out at the ocean

again from our balcony, spotting a dolphin -- which, I might add, is one of the hardest things to photograph; you see a fin break the water's surface, but quickly it disappears and where it will resurface is a guessing game; I often pick a spot, zoom in, and hope for the best

yet again from our balcony, a gathering of gulls

today, driving through a local wetlands

yes, an alligator -- also spotted today in the wetlands area