Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged aspirational, beaver, busy, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dusk, Huntley Meadows Park on December 1, 2012|
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The beavers at my local marshland park have built a lodge that spills onto a bench on the boardwalk and the entrance to the lodge appears to be in the waters underneath the boardwalk itself. There are signs that the beavers have been actively getting ready for winter with new mud walls and fallen trees each time I visit. I’ve only seen a beaver a few times and it has always been a time of reduced visibility, i.e. early morning or late in the day.
As I was walking back toward the park entrance yesterday evening after taking photos of the sunset, I heard noise near the beaver lodge and saw that a beaver was visible through the brush. I snapped a couple of photos, but realized that ISO 400 would not work, so I cranked up the ISO to 1600, the highest that my camera would go. This was uncharted territory for me, because I had already seen prominent grain when I set the ISO at 800. Even with the ISO set that high, the shutter speed was around 1/15 sec, so I tried to keep my camera on my tripod. The beaver was somewhat preoccupied and did not immediately dive, the normal reaction of a beaver when I see them, so I was able to get some shots of the beaver in action.
In many ways, these are aspirational shots, for they reflect photos that I want to take in the future with better results. I am sharing some of them, however, because I find them to be interesting, poor quality notwithstanding. It will definitely be a challenge to figure out a solution to the dilemma of getting quality shots in limited light.
Gathering more sticks for his lodge
Swimming beaver
Beaver with open mouth
Beaver looking at me
Swimming toward the light
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
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Mike Powell 
Hide and seek
Posted in animals, commentary, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Eastern Gray Squirrel, hide and seek, Huntley Meadows Park, squirrel on December 18, 2012| 4 Comments »
Do you ever find that you totally missed a cool element of a photograph during initial review because the element was not near the center of the image? Today I looked over some squirrel shots from a week and a half ago and realized that the photo of a squirrel perched on the trunk of a tree was a whole lot more interesting than I had previously thought.
Hide and seek
My attention had been so drawn to the downward-facing squirrel (is that a yoga pose?) that I didn’t even notice the squirrel in the upper right corner, peering out from inside the hollow tree. That squirrel is so cute that I enlarged the corner of the photo so you can appreciate its cuteness even more.
Cute squirrel
By itself, the cute squirrel would have been worth posting, but in combination with the other squirrel, it’s a really fun image.
The lesson learned for me is that I need to look at my photos more carefully during my first review or take the time to look at them later a second time with fresh eyes.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
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