Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged Cameron Run, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, clouds, rock, water on January 25, 2013| 7 Comments »
I came upon a rock last weekend and my eyes were drawn to its shape and texture and the way that it seemed to be floating in the sky. Normally I don’t shoot abstract shots, but I somehow felt compelled to take this photo. I like the way it turned out—it’s simple and graphic.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Architecture, Art, Photography, Travel, Winter, tagged brussels, Canon A620, Grand-Place, mannekin pis on January 18, 2013| 1 Comment »
On my final night in Brussels for this trip, I made one last walk through the city. Despite the frigid cold, there were still a lot of pedestrians stopping in the Grand-Place to take photos or to visit one of the numerous bars and restaurants in the area. Some of the previous times that I was in Brussels, the buildings in the square were illuminated, but the were pretty dark this time.
I balanced my camera on my stocking hat to stabilize it for this first photo, which you can probably guess was a pretty long exposure. I like the way the different lights in the scene turned out differently, with varying strengths and colors.
The second photo is one of Mannekin Pis, a statue of a little boy that is one of the symbols of Brussels. Sure, it’s a touristy thing place to visit and the statue certainly doesn’t rate high in terms of art. However, I usually try to stop by and see him, because sometimes he is wearing one different outfits for different occasions.
Tomorrow I’ll be home and will probably return to posting mostly nature shots in my blog. It’s been an interesting experience the last few days trying to orient myself to photographing different things in a completely different environment.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Photography, Travel, Urban, Winter, tagged brussels, Canon A620, smile, statue on January 17, 2013| 3 Comments »
Walking around in Brussels, I came upon this stone statue with a smile that simply drew me in. There is a kind of mischievous glint in the eye that matches the smile.
I hope that you’ll smile too when you see him.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Architecture, Art, Photography, Travel, Urban, tagged Adventures of Tintin, art, brussels, Canon A620, murals, Tintin on January 16, 2013| 4 Comments »
One of the cool things about walking around in the old area of Brussels near the Grand-Place is that you can unexpectedly come across giant murals on the sides of buildings illustrating scenes from the Adventures of Tintin. This series of comic books was created by Belgian artist Georges Remi (who wrote under the pen name of Hergé) and was one of the most popular European comic series in the 20th century.
Here are photos of a few of those murals that I took in September, during a previous trip to Brussels. I really like the colors and the style of the illustrations and the way that they were integrated into the buildings on which they were painted.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Architecture, Art, Photography, tagged blue roof, boat house, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Potomac River, reflection on January 11, 2013| 4 Comments »
I don’t usually take photos of buildings, but the unusual blue color of this roof of this building and its beautiful reflection in the water prompted me to take this shot. The building, is a boathouse, I believe, and it is located along the Potomac River, just north of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to its colors, I really like the angled lines of the tin roof and the lines and geometric shapes in the rest of the image.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged black-and-white photography, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Mimus polyglottos, mockingbird, Northern Mockingbird, Potomac River on January 7, 2013| 6 Comments »
On an overcast day last week, I came across this Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), silhouetted against an almost white sky. As I was focusing on him, he hopped to a slightly higher branch. He didn’t flap his wings at all, and I managed to catch him in mid-air.
The image was underexposed and as I played with it to bring back some of the details, I realized it was already almost black and white. It was not a far stretch to desaturate the photo and play around in black and white. In fact, it was so much fun that I decided to work on a second photo of the same mockingbird.
I think I need to work on my techniques a little more, but I like the initial results of my dabbling in black and white.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, color, garden, green spring gardens, pink, red, winter on December 27, 2012| 7 Comments »
As I have mentioned in some other posts, the local gardens are looking awfully bleak and colorless. I did manage to find some new growth and posted some photos of blooming snowdrop flowers yesterday morning. I had to search even harder, though, to find some small splashes of color in the midst of all of the brown, shriveled vegetation.
I found two plants that still had some color, though I have no idea what kind they are. One is pink and has some kind of berries and the other is red and has small spikey flowers on it.
The plants are modest and the colors muted, but they will help to tide me over as I await the return of the glorious colors of spring.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, geese, Huntley Meadows Park, landing on December 19, 2012| 2 Comments »
A couple of days ago I featured a photo of Canada Geese coming in for an early morning water landing in a posting I called Photo Finish. So many people made positive comments about the photo that it prompted me to take another look at the other photos from that morning. I played around with one of them and decided to post the result.
The overall effect in this image is similar to the previous photo, but in this one you can see some reflections in the water. Tonally, it has more brown in it. It’s a bit muddy in appearance, but it still conveys the sense of motion of the geese in flight and the panning stripped away all of the excess details in the background. I recommend that you click on the image to get a higher resolution view.
Coming in for a landing
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern cardinal, red berries on December 7, 2012| 5 Comments »
It’s a cloudy gray day. It started out with rain and the weather has improved only marginally. I feel a need for some bright colors, so I am sharing a shot I took this past weekend of a male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in a bush with bright red berries. Unlike most photos that I have taken of a cardinal, his eye is visible—normally it blends in with the black mask of his face.
The bright red color seems festive to me and reminds me that Christmas is almost here.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, green spring gardens, milkweed pod, pod, simple composition on December 3, 2012| 4 Comments »
This past weekend I visited my local garden, the site of many of my photos during the spring and summer, when I was concentrating my photographic efforts on flowers and insects. I was not surprised to observe that many of my favorite flowers were no longer blooming. Without these bursts of color to distract me, my eyes were drawn to simple elements, like the shapes of the branches that were now visible.
I really liked the color and texture of a particular pod—a milkweed pod, I believe—that was the sole survivor on its plant. I like the texture of the pod and its color, which is a nice contrast with the green of the background. Even the background turned out pretty well, with a few blotches of yellow helping to break up the solid green.
The composition is simple, like several of my recent photos. Maybe I’m going through a phase, but all I know is that I find simple compositions exceptionally appealing at the moment.
Pod composition
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged bird, branch, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, composition, Huntley Meadows Park, little brown bird on December 2, 2012| 7 Comments »
What is the main subject of this photo? I know that when I took it, I was intently focusing on the little brown bird. When I pulled the image up on my computer screen and cropped it, however, I became much more interested in the composition. The blurry background with faintly visible trees and the little branches of tree on which the bird has hooked his feet suddenly became of equal importance to me as the bird itself. I find the pose of the bird interesting, but I think its interest is magnified by the simple setting.
What do you think?
Brown bird on little branch
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Cameron Run, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, contrast, dove, geometry, graphic, man-made versus natural, mourning dove, Zenaida macroura on November 26, 2012| 3 Comments »
One frosty morning this past weekend as I was was walking on a bike path, searching for a subject to photograph, I spotted a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) sitting on a bush. The bird’s small head and long tail made it pretty easy for me to identify. I snapped off a couple of shots before the dove flew away. Following the bird in its flight, I watched as it gently took a spot on some powerlines, where several small, noisy birds already were perched.
I like the contrasts in the photo I took at that moment. The two small birds are shadowy and full of sharp edges, suggesting a kind of nervous, frenetic energy. The dove is larger, softer, and brighter and radiates a sense of gentleness and peace, undisturbed by the outside world. The parallel lines of the wires provide a man-made geometric structure for the natural elements and the sky provides a gradient-like backdrop to the entire scene.
Morning Mourning Dove
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged Alexandria VA, Bombycilla cedrorum, branch, Cameron Run, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Cedar Waxwing on November 24, 2012| 5 Comments »
Today was cloudy, windy, and overcast—definitely not an ideal day for taking photos. Sure, I like to have some clouds to cut down on harsh shadows, but you need sunlight to have shadows, and we sure did not have much of that today.
This afternoon I was walking on a path along a creek when small flock of birds flew into some nearby trees. They were pretty noisy and that attracted my attention. Looking though my telephoto zoom lens, I saw that they had an interesting silhouette, so I took some shots. They sky was already really light, but when I tweaked the exposure a little it went totally white and a really cool-looking bird emerged from the shadows. Usually I am pretty bad at identifying birds, but my initial Google search on the very distinctive yellow wing tips was successful in identifying this bird as a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum).
Cedar Waxwing on a branch
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cedar Waxwings feed on mostly fruit year-round, one of the few North American birds that specialize in eating fruit. One of the consequences of doing so, however, is that they sometimes get intoxicated from eating fermenting berries. The range map for this species suggests that they may be present year-round in this area (we are close to the northern boundary), but this is the first time that I have seen one.
This photo is more “artsy” than realistic, but I like its graphic character. It looks a bit to me like an illustration, in part, I guess, because of the white background.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged abstract, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cobwebs, early morning, Huntley Meadows Park, spider webs on November 22, 2012| 3 Comments »
One early morning recently I was walking through the marsh, lamenting that spectacular spider webs of the summer and early fall had disappeared. Suddenly I noticed that some of the plants were covered in a silky, web-like material. It was almost abstract in its construction and I wondered (and still wonder) about its purpose. This photo captures pretty well—in a minimalist set of colors and tone—the mysterious moodiness of that morning moment.
Natural abstract
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged Ardea herodias, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Great Blue Heron, heron, Kingstowne on November 18, 2012| 10 Comments »
Late this afternoon, I was at a nearby suburban pond and noticed a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) on the opposite bank. He was in a shaded area, where the water was calm and the reflections were beautiful. I was a bit too far away for a close-up shot, but couldn’t get any closer because of the bushes and underbrush that kept me from the water’s edge. Nevertheless, I was able to get some images that I like, including this one. I decided not to crop too closely to the heron in order to retain some of the bushes and their reflections that add a lot to the photo.
Heron in the shade (click for higher resolution)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, tagged Ardea herodias, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Great Blue Heron, heron, interaction, Kingstowne on November 17, 2012| 7 Comments »
It is always interesting for me to see two species interact—you never quite know what will happen. Last Sunday, I was in the bushes in a local suburban pond area, pretty close to a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). He seemed to be willing to tolerate my presence, though there were a lot of bushes that kept me from getting a clear shot. I photographed several encounters between the heron and Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) that live semi-permanently at the pond.
I took the first photo just after the heron made a threatening gesture with his beak at a goose that must have invade his personal space. The goose appears to have gotten the message and looks to be exiting the area. At the time of the shot, the sun was bright and was reflecting off the water, somehow turning it almost turquoise in color. The branches of the bush get in the way a little, but don’t detract too much from the charm of the photo. The whole effect is to make the image look almost as much like an illustration as a photograph.
“I need my personal space.”
The second photo is much less action oriented and is a study in contrasts. The goose seems to be looking at the heron with wonderment and curiosity, while the heron seems to be cool and disinterested. The background reminds me a little of a psychedelic image from the 1960’s.
“How did you grow to be so tall?”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged autumn, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, green spring gardens, leaf, sunset on November 10, 2012| 3 Comments »
After a frosty start, today was the warmest it’s been in a while, partly sunny with highs above 60 degrees F (about 16 degrees C). As the sun was starting to set, I decided to be a little creative and see if I could highlight a single leaf with the colorful sky in the background. I found a suitable tree without too much problem, but finding a leaf at the right height with an unobstructed background was a little tricky. I happened to have my 100mm macro lens on the camera and decided to go with that. I knew that I would need to use a little flash on the leaf to keep it from getting lost in the shadows. I used settings of ISO 100, F32, and 8/10 sec to get the effect and tweaked the image slightly in Photoshop Elements, though I chose not to crop at all. Here’s a couple of shots of my experiment. (In case you are curious, the leaf is still attached to the tree, even though it looks like I am merely holding it in from of the lens.)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged Monet, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, red-eared slider, red-eared slider turtle, snake, Trachemys scripta elegans), turtle, water snake on November 10, 2012| 2 Comments »
I haven’t seen a frog in a couple of weeks, but the turtles and snakes still make an appearance when the sun is high overhead, seeking somehow to warm themselves in the rays of the sun.
The first shot is a red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans), a type that I have featured before in blog posts. I find them to be amazingly photogenic. In this shot, I particularly love the reflection that he is casting. The blue of the water is a little unusual and reminds me a little of some of Monet’s paintings in which he used a similar blue.
Sunning turtle in the fall
The second image is a head shot of a Northern Water snake (Nerodia sipedon). He was stretched out in a grassy portion of the marsh, probably trying to expose the maximum amount of his body to the sun. I got down pretty low to get the shot and, as you can see, the grass made it difficult to get an unobstructed shot.
Sunning snake in the fall
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Landscape, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged abstract, Canon 100mm macro lens, Canon Rebel XT, color texture, green spring gardens, rust, shap, weathervane, yellow on November 8, 2012| 5 Comments »
Sometimes my eye is drawn to the shapes and colors and textures of objects more than to the objects themselves. The result can be a somewhat abstract looking photo, which is very different from what I usually shot. Here are couple of photos of that ilk from a trip last week to a local garden.
The first was taken looking through a ground-level weathered weathervane and the framing of the shot is just as it came out of the camera. I like the contrast between the light and the shadows and between the rust and the blurry natural colors in the background.
The second is a shot of a feathery looking yellow plant in which I narrowed the depth of field to isolated a few of the yellow needles and the reddish branch. I like the variations of color in the photo and the blurry repetitions of the foreground shapes and colors that can be found in the background.
Weathered weathervane
Abstract yellow
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Landscape, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged autumn, backlight, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, drops of water, fall, Huntley Meadows Park, leaf on November 2, 2012| 1 Comment »
The leaf is back-lit and drops of dew glisten on its surface, a surface that is scarred and torn and unevenly colored with the tints of the fall. In its beautiful imperfection, this autumn leaf speaks to me in the simple, abstract language of lines and shapes, of light and color.
Abstract fall leaf
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Uncategorized, wildlife, tagged Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dipping, dripping, geese, goose, Kingstowne on November 1, 2012| 4 Comments »
Last week I encountered Canada geese twice. The first time was when a few migrating ones made a brief stop at a local marsh. The second time was at a suburban pond where the geese seem to be semi-permanent residents. I had a great time observing and photographing the geese in the latter venue and have a couple of photos this morning of geese dipping their heads into the water. I couldn’t tell for sure if they were grabbing for plants underwater, drinking, or doing something else. Often they would submerge just their heads and blow bubbles in the water and then, as in the second photo, just let the water dribble out of their mouths.
Synchronized swimming geese
Dripping, dipping goose
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dancing, duck landng, ducks, fall foliage, pas de deux, reflection on October 29, 2012| 5 Comments »
Do you have aspirational shots, i.e. images that you really want to be able to take? This past weekend I took this shot of two ducks, a male and a female, coming in for a landing in the water, with reflections of the fall foliage in the water in the distance. This is the kind of shot I aspire to shoot, for both technical and artistic reasons. I didn’t manage to produce a great image during this first attempt this past weekend at a local suburban pond, but I gave myself something to shoot for, a future goal. With practice and good fortune, I hope to be able to produce a better image. In the mean time, I’m happy with my initial effort at shooting synchronized duck dancing.
Duck pas de deux in the fall
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Nature, Photography, tagged birds, birds in flight, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, silhouette, storm on October 28, 2012| 7 Comments »
The skies were dark and overcast early this afternoon as we awaited the hurricane that was likely to bring rains and winds, though we are probably not directly in its path. The birds in my neighborhood were unusually active, so I decided to try to take some photographs of them. With few exceptions, my photos turned out to be silhouettes, because the existing light was too weak to illuminate the birds against the backdrop of the sky. I like the effect, however, and decided to post some of these silhouettes. The first one, my favorite, was a shot in which the bird started to take off just as I pressed the shutter and I like the result better than if I had captured him on the branch. Some of the other images show birds in flight or in action. Somehow they seems appropriate for a stormy day (and I can hear the wind and the rain outside as I write this entry).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, fall foliage, floating leaf, Kingstowne, leaf, reflection, simple pleasures on October 27, 2012| 3 Comments »
Life’s pleasures can be so simple, like watching a floating leaf on a sunny day as it is propelled across the water’s surface by a gentle breeze.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dew, early morning, Huntley Meadows Park, spider, spider web on October 23, 2012| 18 Comments »
I was really happy when I came across this large dew-covered spider web early one morning this past weekend. I am not sure exactly how big it was, but I think it was probably about 18-24 inches across, with an amazing number of rows, especially at the bottom part that is fully intact.
I processed the same photo in two ways to get different looks. In the first photo, I desaturated most of the color to try to draw attention to the strands of the web (and you should click on the photo to get a somewhat higher resolution view of the web). In the second photo, I tried to punch up the colors a bit by increasing the vibrance and saturation settings.
Which one do you think works best?
Spider web (mostly desaturated)
Spider web (increased vibrance)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged black bird, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, colorful leaves, Common Grackle, fall foliage, grackle, Huntley Meadows Park, Quiscalus quiscula on October 18, 2012| 4 Comments »
The tree is ablaze with vibrant fall colors and in the middle of it sits a dull black bird, a Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), whose only touch of color is his yellow eyes. The juxtaposition of the contrasting elements, I believe, makes the image more interesting than either of them would have been separately.
Common Grackle in a tree
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, fall foliage, Huntley Meadows Park, light, nature landscape, stormy light on October 15, 2012| 4 Comments »
It was just after 5:00 in the afternoon and storm clouds were gathering for rain showers that eventually came. I headed back to my car and just as I reached the parking lot I looked up. Beautiful late-afternoon light was shining on the tops of the trees with dark clouds in the background and I snapped a few shots. I decided to fight my temptation to tweak the image (for fear of messing up what I had) and didn’t crop at all.I did just a little sharpening and a slight increase in saturation. I don’t know if the image adequately (and accurately) captured the wonderful light, but it gives you an idea of what the scene looked like to me.
Stormy light
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Argiope aurantia, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dew-covered, early morning, Huntley Meadows Park, spider art, spider webs, webs on October 13, 2012| 6 Comments »
The large yellow-and-black spiders (Argiope aurantia) that I have observed throughout the summer seem to have disappeared. I was hoping to see the egg sacs that they produce in the fall, but I guess I’ll have to wait until next year.
However, there must be spiders still around, because early yesterday morning there were quite a few dew-covered spider webs. Last month I did a couple of postings about webs at the same location at Huntley Meadows Park (see Amazing Spider Webs and More Spider Art), but I am so fascinated by the individuality of the webs that I thought I’d post one from yesterday (and I think there might be a few more shots coming). I do not know how the spiders figure out the designs of the webs, but it seems that there is creativity involved in fitting a web into a specific spot, even if there is a “standard” pattern for different varieties of spiders.
This web was located behind the railing of a little bridge that crosses part of the marsh land and joins two sections of a boardwalk. I was shooting into the sun that was still very low in the sky. The sunlight reflecting on one side of the railing suggests that I was not facing directly east. but was angled a little. Behind the web is a field of cattails, though you can’t really see any details.
Spider webs are like snowflakes for me (and it won’t be too long before we see them again). At first they all may seem to be the same, but when you take the time to look more closely at them, you realize each is unique. People are like that too.
Early morning spider web
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged Ardea herodias, blue heron, Cameron Run, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Great Blue Heron, heron, shadow, silhouette on October 9, 2012| 1 Comment »
It was early in the morning and I was walking almost directly east along a stream. The sun had already risen and was in my eyes, but I spotted a Great Blue Heron in the water. I was able to get a shot that I knew would turn out as a silhouette, but the heron was standing in such a way that I was pretty confident that his silhouette would be immediately recognizable. The glare caused the color to wash out almost entirely and there are all kinds of artifacts from the light, but I like the overall effect.
Great Blue Heron Silhouette
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, odd duck, Rock Creek, Washington DC, wood duck on September 30, 2012| 4 Comments »
Walking along Rock Creek in Washington, D.C. on my way to the National Zoo yesterday, I came upon some ducks in a area of the creek where the water was still. I knew that they were ducks, but when I zoomed in on them I was surprised. One of them was the most unusually colored duck that I have ever seen, with a strangely shaped head, brightly colored feathers, and red eyes.
Male wood duck in Rock Creek
I did some research and discovered that this is a male wood duck. If you had asked me yesterday about wood ducks, I would have thought you were talking about those hand-painted decoys.
I managed to get a shot of the male wood duck swimming along with a female wood duck. The photo is not quite as clear as the first one, but it shows the difference in coloration between the male and the female. The female is more delicately beautiful than the male, who is really ostentatious in appearance.
Female and male wood ducks in Rock Creek
I seem to have a knack in discovering brightly colored creatures, whether they be grasshoppers or duck. I hope my good fortune continues.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Photo finish
Posted in Art, Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, tagged Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, geese, Huntley Meadows Park, photo finish on December 17, 2012| 22 Comments »
Do you ever find yourself really liking some of your photos that are full of technical flaws?
As a non-professional, I have had more than my fair share of blurry images, missed subjects, out-of-kilter compositions, and poor exposures. Many of them are deleted as soon as I view them on the back of the camera. Sometimes, though, the mistakes yield such interesting results that I can’t bear to delete them.
I arrived at the beaver lodge at my local marshland before the sun had fully risen one morning this past weekend, hoping to see the beavers in action. I had my camera set on ISO 400 and it was wide open at F4, with the mode set for aperture priority. I hadn’t yet set up my tripod, which I was hoping to use, because I anticipated relatively slow shutter speeds.
All of the sudden I hear the sound of geese approaching and it quickly became clear that they were coming in for a landing in the beaver pond. Without really thinking, I panned the camera and started shooting as I tried to follow the geese as they approached the water. Most of the photos were totally unusable. There was so little light that my camera chose a shutter speed of 1/6 of a second. Even with image stabilization, that’s too slow for handheld photos.
There was one image, however, that I really liked. The head of one goose is relatively in focus and another goose is visible (although out of focus) in the foreground. The background is blurred from my panning action. Somehow it reminds me of the photos they used to show of the finishes of races in which photos had to be developed to determine who crossed the finish line first. In this case, the geese seem to be leaning forward towards an invisible finish line in the same way that sprinters do.
Clearly this is not a great (or even good) photo, but I like it, and maybe others will find it interesting too.
Photo finish
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
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