Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, cloak, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern cardinal on March 8, 2013| 11 Comments »
On a cool and windy day, this bright scarlet male Northern Cardinal looks like he chose to wrap himself in an old-fashioned cloak for protection from the elements.
I really was struck today by the sharp distinction between the coloration of the head and the rest of the body of this cardinal.
Do cardinals change colors in the spring?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, hawk, Huntley Meadows Park on March 7, 2013| 6 Comments »
I stood and waited, camera at the ready, as I stared at a hawk in a tree overlooking a field, hoping that he would fly toward me when he spotted a prey.
I waited and waited and finally he took off from the branch. Unfortunately, he flew up in the air and away from me, rather than down and toward me. I tried to track him and snapped off a couple of photos.
I managed to capture him with his wings fully extended as he headed into the woods and was struck by the degree to which he blends in with his surroundings.
I am sure that I will soon find myself in a similar situation, watching and waiting—it’s the fate of those of us who choose to photograph wildlife.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, Melanerpes carolinus, Red-bellied Woodpecker, woodpecker on March 6, 2013| 16 Comments »
Walking through the woods on Monday, I heard the sound of a woodpecker and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus).
Most of the woodpeckers that I see are Downy Woodpeckers, which are cute in their own way, but I had been longing to see some of the bigger woodpeckers. Although the woodpecker was fairly high in the tree, I was happy that I managed to get some recognizable shots in different poses.
I stopped in the visitor center as I was leaving the park and happened to glance through the window at the bird feeders. The birds at the feeders tend to be fairly small, including nuthatches, chickadees and tufted titmice. Imagine my surprise when a big woodpecker showed up at the suet feeder—it was another Red-Bellied Woodpecker.
Although I was indoors, I decided to take a few shots of the woodpecker. I think I ended up with a pretty cool image, in which the shadow of the wire cage imparted a striped pattern to the bird’s bill. When you first look at the image, you may not even realize that the stripes are added.
Now that I have photographed a medium-sized woodpecker, I will be in search of a Pileated Woodpecker—the superstar of woodpeckers.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, tagged American robin, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, robin, snow, Turdus migratorius on March 6, 2013| 2 Comments »
A flock of robins was really active in my neighborhood this morning, busily pecking the ground as the freezing rain gradually turned into snow. This American Robin (Turdus migratorius) didn’t even have time to clean up before I took his portrait.
Click on the photo to see a higher-resolution view
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern cardinal on March 6, 2013| 5 Comments »
The sky was a spectacular shade of blue on Monday, providing a beautiful backdrop to this shot of a female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).
I’ve posted quite a number of photos of cardinals, primarily of male cardinals, but one of my fellow bloggers commented that you can never have too many photos of these beautiful birds.
I agree.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, Melospiza melodia, song sparrow, sparrow on March 3, 2013| 6 Comments »
Although it is enjoyable and challenging to try to photograph large, colorful birds, I often find myself returning to photographing smaller, more ordinary birds. It’s a different kind of challenge capturing images of these little birds, who seem to be in constant motion.
This afternoon I was able to photograph this Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) when he stopped for a moment to get a drink of water.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged birds in flight, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, ducks, Huntley Meadows Park, mallard ducks on March 3, 2013| 5 Comments »
Capturing images of ducks in flight has been a lot more difficult for me that photographing geese. Geese are larger, fly more slowly, and are more predictable than their skittish duck counterparts.
My camera also seems to have a problem grabbing the focus of these smaller birds when they are moving. Nonetheless, I still spring into action whenever ducks take to the air and occasionally I manage to get shots that are pretty much in focus. Here are a few such images of mallard ducks from this past Friday.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged blackbird, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cattails, Huntley Meadows Park, red-winged blackbird on March 2, 2013| 3 Comments »
Red-winged Blackbirds are one of the few birds that I can identify by their call. Yesterday I could tell that there were several blackbirds in the cattails at my local marsh long before I actually saw them, thanks to their very distinctive call. I tried several times to photograph the blackbirds while they were calling out and this was my favorite image.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Branta canadensis, Canada Geese, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, focus, Huntley Meadows Park, motion, panning on March 2, 2013| 9 Comments »
What is the best way to capture motion and have the subject in focus? Recently I have been experimenting with different camera settings and shooting techniques in trying to photograph birds in flight.
Yesterday I concentrated a large part of my efforts on Canada Geese (Branta canadensis). They make good test subjects because they are large and relatively slow-flying birds (and there are lots of them). I have done a number of postings of geese taking off and landing and in those cases I usually try to freeze the action. Getting the photo in focus is not always easy, but the action is usually taking place in a small geographic space and that helps a little with getting the focus locked in.
Capturing the geese before they being the landing process or after they are in flight has always been tough for me, but I think my skills are improving with practice. Generally I will try to focus on a single goose to make things easier. Yesterday, though, I decided to try to capture a group of geese flying together and had some success using a panning technique. The background blurred nicely, the necks of the geese are in focus, the wings have a bit of motion blur, and the geese themselves have assumed interesting poses. As I recall, I had my focusing point on one of the geese in the center. Some of the photographers I see with really long telephoto lenses have special mounts on their tripods that let the lenses swing freely as they track the birds, but for the most part I have been taking these shots hand-held.
I used a slightly different technique with a couple of geese that were closer. Using one of the first rules I learned about photographing people and animals, I tried to focus on the nearest eye of one of the geese. Well, actually I probably was trying to keep my focusing point on the goose’s head in reality, but I was thinking of the eye. As you can see, there was not a lot of depth of field, but things worked out well with the face of the nearest goose in pretty sharp focus. The blurry wings provide a nice contrast with the sharper elements and my eyes are drawn to the goose’s eyes and open bill.
For me, experimentation is one of the best ways to learn new things and I am definitely learning more and more about my camera and my techniques, which will help me when I try to photograph subjects, like hawks, that are less cooperative than the Canada Geese.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Baeolophus bicolor, Black-capped Chickadee, chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Hidden Pond Nature Center, Nikon 80-400mm lens, Nikon D300, Picoides pubescens, Poecile atricapillus, Springfield VA, Tufted Titmouse on February 28, 2013| 10 Comments »
Borrowing a longer telephoto lens earlier this week, I was able to get some shots of the tiny birds that I often see, but rarely am able to photograph.
On Monday, my photography mentor, Cindy Dyer, lent me a Nikon D300 with a Nikon 80-400mm lens. It was a lot of fun to experiment with a much longer telephoto than I am accustomed to using. We spent only a limited time at a local nature center, so I did not have a chance to photograph anything too exotic, but I did get some shots of a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), a Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), and a Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor).
The background in the first image really grabbed my attention when I pulled up the image on the computer—the tree branches look an awful lot like a suspension bridge.
I included the blurry final image of the chickadee flying away just for fun. I get this kind of image on a regular basis, although usually the bird is out of the frame. The Nikon I was using has a much higher frame rate (up to 7 images a second) than my Canon (a more modest three frames a second), so the chickadee is still in the frame.
I am pretty sure that I will stick with Canon and not switch to Nikon, but, as fellow blogger Lyle Krahn predicted, I am starting to hear the siren call of a longer lens.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged autofocus, birds in flight, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park on February 27, 2013| 15 Comments »
Lately I have been playing around with the auto-focus settings on my camera, trying to figure out how they work and deciding when it is appropriate to use each of the modes.
After doing some reading and watching some videos on the internet, I decided to remap one of the buttons on my camera. As a result, I no longer engage the autofocus by pushing down halfway on the shutter release—I engage it by pushing on the * button with my thumb. If you are interested in the reasoning behind this process, you can Google “back-button autofocus.”
Next I decided to experiment with AI Servo mode, which is supposed to be the best mode for moving subjects. Previously, I had been shooting in One Shot mode or AI Focus (which is a hybrid mode). Most of the time, that meant I had to achieve focus separately for each image. I am still having some difficulties with the Servo mode, in part because it’s hard to know for sure if the focus has locked on the subject, since, unlike the other modes, the camera will shoot even if nothing is in focus.
The way that it is supposed to work is that you focus on the subject with the center focus point for 1-2 seconds and then the camera will follow that subject as it moves. In the situation below, I focused on the front goose that looked like he was about to take off. When he took off, I took a sequence of six photos, only two of which were in focus. They were the second and fifth in the sequence and they came out pretty sharp.
I may be overtaxing my ancient Canon Rebel XT by shooting in RAW, shooting bursts, and having the autofocus engaged continuously. Still, it’s fascinating to experiment with the different settings and see what works best for me.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, tagged dove, Hidden Pond Nature Center, mourning dove, Nikon 80-400mm lens, Nikon D300, Springfield, VA, Zenaida macroura on February 26, 2013| 8 Comments »
Using a borrowed Nikon D300 camera with an 80-400mm lens, I was able to get a lot closer to birds than I am used to, permitting me to to get shots like these ones of a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura).
Yesterday was a mostly sunny, spring-like day and Cindy Dyer, my photography mentor, and I made a brief visit to a local nature center to shoot some photos. She was excited to photograph the purple crocuses (or is that croci) that were in bloom. (Be sure to check out her blog regularly as we move into spring for lots of gorgeous flower images.)
I, on the other hand, was eager to play around with the camera that she had lent me. Most often I shoot with a Canon Rebel XT and a 55-250mm zoom lens. It is a lightweight combination that has served me well, but it has some limitations. Cindy shoots with Nikon gear and is a self-professed “gadget girl,” so she had more than enough gear to share.
It took a while to get used to the settings on the Nikon, but the real challenge was learning to shoot with the large lens. My hands and arms were not used to the weight of such a lens and I definitely would need a lot more practice to take fuller advantage of its capabilities (and I probably should have put aside my male ego and followed Cindy’s recommendation to put the camera on a tripod).
Here are two images of a Mourning Dove that I photographed. Cindy tweaked the first one in Photoshop and it is striking to see how she was able to bring out the details in the dove. I produced the second image, working in Photoshop Elements. The starting images may have been of equal quality, but it is clear to me that Cindy’s greater experience in Photoshop helped her produce a superior final image in a shorter period of time.
What did I learn? Well, I think that the most important lesson to me is the value of constant practice, whether it be in using camera equipment or in using photo software. There are always new things to learn—and that helps to keep me energized about my photography.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged C&O Canal path, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Cathartes aura, turkey vulture, vulture, Washington DC on February 22, 2013| 8 Comments »
When they were soaring through the sky, the vultures were beautiful, even majestic, but when they started to swoop down toward a nearby location, I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy.
This past weekend, I was walking along the C&O Canal path, approaching Washington D.C., when a number of large black birds started swooping down in my direction. I could tell immediately that they were Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura), because of their red heads and distinctive feather pattern. As they got closer, they veered off toward the road that parallels the path—perhaps there was a recent bit of road kill that attracted their attention.
I don’t know why, but everywhere that I go, I seem to see vultures. In this case it was an urban setting, but I see them often when I am in the wild too. I’m trying not to develop a complex about this, but I do make sure that I take a shower before I go shooting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, ice, landing, landing on ice on February 20, 2013| 6 Comments »
Continuing the theme of transitions from this morning, I thought I’d post a photo of several geese transitioning from rapid flight through the air to a complete halt on a frozen pond.
I love to watch geese coming in for a landing as they noisily announce their arrival, which is often accompanied with a big splash and energetic flapping of wings.
The situation is a bit more problematic when the ice is solid and any miscalculation could lead to physical injury. It appears to me that the geese flap their wings as hard as they can to decelerate and attempt to carefully place their webbed feet. That is what the goose on the left appears to be doing. If that doesn’t work, as a last resort the goose can lower his tail to slow down his forward momentum, as the goose on the right is doing.
Judging from my observations, some geese are much more adept at this type of landings than others, who slip and slide and skid for a while until they finally stop moving forward.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, commentary, Inspiration, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, ice, transition on February 20, 2013| 4 Comments »
Can you figure out what is going on in this photo of a goose posing in an unusual position?
The pre-spring season is a often a period of transitions, as winter gradually looses its hold and gives way to spring. The old lingers, but is gradually replaced with the new.
In the first photo, the goose is transitioning from the ice, which still covers much of the pond, into a small pool of open water. I captured him at the moment when he took the plunge and gradually eased his body into the icy water.
I watched him as he approached this area slowly and cautiously, staring intently at the ice, as shown in the second photo. He seemed to hesitated, uncertain about whether to continue to move forward.
I know that I approach transitions in much the same way as this goose, hesitating and cautious, frozen in uncertainty. He had the courage to move forward and embrace the change. Will I be able to do the same when these moments arrive?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Ardea herodias, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park on February 19, 2013| 3 Comments »
How do Great Blue Herons manage to stay warm when it’s bitterly cold outside?
Yesterday morning was cold and windy and the beaver pond was iced over again. As I scanned the area, looking for activity, I noticed this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) perched on the limbs of a fallen tree in a back area surrounded with undergrowth. He was hunched over with his wings wrapped tightly around himself and he seemed to be doing his best to maintain his body heat.
When I moved a little, he lifted his head slightly from his chest to look in my direction. Eventually he decided I was not a threat and he placed his bill back on his chest, between the feathers, and resumed his rest. Perhaps he was sleeping, though it seemed to me that the perch was a bit precarious for serious sleeping.
A few hours later, after it had warmed a bit, I saw a heron flying in the distance. Perhaps it was this blue heron, who had decided that it was time to begin his day’s activities, which I am sure included finding some unfrozen water where he might be able to locate something to eat.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Birds, Photography, Portraits, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, dove, Huntley Meadows Park, mourning dove, Zenaida macroura on February 16, 2013| 12 Comments »
I love the way this Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) turned its head to look back at me yesterday and how the soft background complements and enhances its beauty.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged American robin, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Potomac Heritage Trail, robin, Turdus migratorius on February 16, 2013| 4 Comments »
Spring is not here yet, but we had a foretaste of its pleasures yesterday, when the skies were sunny and the temperature rose to 60 degrees (15.5 degrees C). As I was walking along the Potomac River, I encountered a group of American Robins (Turdus migratorius), a traditional harbinger of spring, and got these shots.
Today is about twenty degrees colder and there’s a possibility of snow showers later in the day. Spring has not yet arrived, but we are moving inexorably toward the moment when winter finally gives way to spring.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Belted Kingfisher, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, kingfisher, Lake Cook, Megaceryle alcyon on February 14, 2013| 5 Comments »
Although I was excited to discover a male Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) in an industrial setting, later that day I returned to my first love, a female kingfisher in a more natural environment.
Previously I posted photos of the male kingfisher and female kingfisher as I continue in my quest to get some really good photos of these amazing birds. If you compare the male and the female, you can see that the chestnut stripe really makes the female stand out (and the Belted Kingfisher is one of the few birds in which the female is more colorful than the male).
I continue to get interesting photos (and I am posting some new ones here), but I still am trying to get some better ones (these are grainy and a bit soft). By the way, can anyone figure out what she has in her bill in the last photo?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Winter, tagged Anas acuta, Anas clypeata, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, northern, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler on February 13, 2013| 3 Comments »
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, I have an affinity for things from the north and was amused to find that two of my favorite birds from this past weekend are called “Northern”—the Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) and the Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata).
Sometimes it seems that I shoot subjects in cycles. At one point this past summer, I felt like I was shooting a lot of new and interesting subjects that turned out to have “Common” in their names. In addition to the two Northerners that I am featuring today, this winter I have also photographed Northern Cardinals, Northern Flickers, and Northern Mockingbirds.
The day that I took these photos was gray, misty, and overcast, which gave the water an interesting gray tinge. Fortunately there was enough light to cast interesting reflections onto the water’s surface.
I like the contrast between the body shapes and colors of these two ducks. The elegance of the long neck and understated, conservative colors of the pintail are quite different from the bold colors and the counter-culture look of the shoveler’s bill. In some ways, they seem to represent the establishment, on the one hand, and the rebel, on the other.
Male Northern Pintail at Huntley Meadows Park
Male Northern Shoveler at Huntley Meadows Park
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged birds in flight, Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park on February 12, 2013| 5 Comments »
I love the dreamy look of the morning mist that provided such a beautiful backdrop for the flight of these two Canada Geese this past weekend.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Anas acuta, Anas clypeata, birds in flight, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, shoveler on February 12, 2013| 6 Comments »
As I was focusing on some ducks yesterday on a misty, gray morning, one of them suddenly decided to take to the air and I managed to capture him just as he was starting to come out of the water.
The ducks were a little closer to the shore of a little pond at my local marshland park than is usually the case and I was squinting through the viewfinder trying to identify their types. The bright white neck of one of them made me pretty sure that it was a Northern Pintail (Anas acuta), but I wasn’t quite so sure about the pair of ducks that sort of looked like mallards, but turned out to be Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata).
I was trying to be as quiet as I could as I took some photos, when the male Northern Shoveler somehow detected me and took off. I managed to snap a photo at a really interesting moment as the male is just starting to flap his wings. The female and the pintail aren’t paying much attention to the male’s actions and eventually just swam away.
I tried to follow the male Northern Shoveler in flight as he headed off into the distance. Most of my shots were pretty blurry, but I got a couple that I really like. The first one is just after take off and I like the splash and the fact that his reflection is still visible. In the second one,the background is a soft blur, providing a nice backdrop for the vivid colors of the shoveler. He is in a photogenic position as he flies away and I like the fact that a portion of his head and one of his yellow eyes are still visible.
I’ll probably post some separate photos of the Northern Shoveler and the Northern Pintail a bit later, but wanted to share my good fortune in capturing this moment.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, blackbird, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cattails, Huntley Meadows Park, red-winged blackbird on February 11, 2013| 6 Comments »
This past weekend I had a chance to observe the singing techniques of a newly arrived Red-winged Blackbird in my local marshland park.
I was curious to watch the blackbird as he was singing and see if I could determine how he is able to achieve such amazing volume and duration in his calls. As a singer, I have been taught to concentrate on breathing from my diaphragm when I am singing, which fills up the lungs more completely than the shallow chest breathing that most people do. In practice, what this means is that you throw out your abdomen to allow more air in and then gently squeeze with the abdominal muscles to slowly expel the air.
It looks to me that the blackbird uses similar singing techniques. I could actually see his abdomen expand as he was getting ready to sing and he engaged his entire body when he was singing.
I have some images of blackbirds simply sitting on cattails from this weekend, but I thought it would be more interesting to share a couple of the ones in which the blackbird is singing.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, tagged Agelaius phoeniceus, blackbird, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, red-winged blackbird, silhouette on February 10, 2013| 5 Comments »
My ears told me before my eyed did that some Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) had returned to my local marshland park. I heard the very distinctive song of the blackbird last summer and fall often enough that it’s embedded in my brain. I am working on a couple of photos of blackbirds on cattails, but thought I’d share this image first.
It’s sort of a silhouette, but the red and yellow portion of the wing are very visible, so it’s probably not a true silhouette. There is something simple and graphic about the image that I like, even though normally important details like the eyes are not visible.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, goose, landing, splash, water landing on February 10, 2013| 8 Comments »
I usually think of Canada Geese as extroverts. They are loud and gregarious and announce their presence when they arrive. I captured this one making a big splash, literally.
Looking at the photo, I think that I must have had my focusing point on an area between the wings, because there are a lot of beautiful details in the feathers. In some ways I am using these geese as test subjects as I learn to track birds in flight (and landing) and try to time my exposures for maximum effect. They don’t seem to mind (though I am waiting for one to ask me for copies of the photos to show to his friends).
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Winter, tagged Ardea herodias, bad hair, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park on February 9, 2013| 8 Comments »
If you think that you are having a bad hair day today, check out the windblown hair of this Great Blue Heron.
It was cold and really windy today and it seemed like the small birds had sought shelter somewhere, because there were relatively few around. The bigger birds could handle the wind better and I saw lots of crows and geese and a number of vultures.
I also saw one Great Blue Heron, who was pretty far away from me. I watched him for quite some time as he stared down at the waters at the far edge of the beaver pond and I wondered if it would be possible for him to find anything to eat.
When I looked at some of my photos of the heron, I was struck by his hair. It looks like he is suffering from male pattern baldness and has grown his hair long in a vain attempt to hide that reality. Perhaps he has an artistically arranged comb over most of the time, but the wind caused his hair to go in all directions.
Do you think that they have a Hair Club for herons?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Winter, tagged Belted Kingfisher, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Holmes Run, kingfisher, Megaceryle alcyon on February 9, 2013| 7 Comments »
Walking alongside a stream yesterday, I heard the unmistakable call of a Belted Kingfisher, a call that is usually described as a “piercing rattle.” Here is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which has sound clips that you might find interesting if you have never heard a Kingfisher’s call in person.
A previous post chronicled my quest for an elusive female Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) at a little suburban lake that is stocked with trout. I made multiple attempts on different days to photograph that Kingfisher as she perched on tree branches overlooking the water.
Although the stream along which I was walking yesterday is only a half mile or so from the female Kingfisher’s fishing spot, I was surprised to hear a Kingfisher’s call, because there are no trees on the banks of the stream at that location. When I heard its call again, I turned my head in the direction of the sound and was surprised to see a male Kingfisher perched on a power line above the stream. (It’s really easy to distinguish a male Belted Kingfisher from a female, because the male has only a blue stripe on is chest and a female has blue and chestnut stripes.)
When I moved a little closer to him, he flew a short distance downstream and I located him again, this time perched on the railing of a railroad bridge over the stream. Over the course of an hour or so, he and I played a little game in which he would pose for a few minutes on the railing and then fly downstream. A short while later he would be back on the suspended power line. I would walk slowly in the direction of the power line and once I arrived there, the Kingfisher would return to the railroad bridge.
Although I was not able to get really close to the Kingfisher, I managed to get some pretty cool pictures, including several in-flight shots. I really like the industrial-looking setting of the railroad bridge, with its simple geometric structure and beautiful angular lines. In many ways, the bridge is a much a subject in the photos as the bird.
I confessed in a previous post that I was a stalker of Kingfishers, but maybe it’s time to elevate my status—perhaps from now on I will refer to myself as a member of the Kingfisher paparazzi.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged bird in flight, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, hawk, Huntley Meadows Park, woods on February 7, 2013| 3 Comments »
I continue to try to photograph every hawk that I see. This past weekend I encountered a hawk that was perched relatively low in a tree that was pretty far away. I got a couple of shots of the hawk in the tree that had a surprisingly large number of leaves still on it.
As I was setting up my tripod to try to get a steadier shot, the hawk took off. Instead of flying up, he flew down low across a field with trees in the background. Although I didn’t really think I would be able to get a decent shot, I kept shooting and got the shot below. I like the position of the hawk and the contrast between its light brown color and the darker tones of the tree. It not often that I get a chance to take a photo of a hawk in flight at that angle.
I am also including one of the shots of the hawk in the tree in the hope that someone will be able to help me identify his type.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Branta canadensis, Canada Goose, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, geese, Huntley Meadows Park, loud on February 4, 2013| 8 Comments »
I really like to show contrasts, like the difference in the expressions and body positions of these two Canada Geese.
What prompted the one on the right to get so vocal and in the face of the other? Is this the kind of taunting that I see so often in professional sports? Is it some kind of marital misunderstanding? Is the one on the right playing the role of a drill sergeant dealing with a recruit?
Whatever the cause, one I know for sure—at close range the honking was earsplittingly loud. I can only imagine the goose on the right reprising the line from a television commercial for a phone company, “Can you hear me now?”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Winter, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, duck, Huntley Meadows Park, mallard, mallard duck on February 3, 2013| 4 Comments »
It was cold and windy on Friday, but the sun was shining, permitting me to take this portrait of a resting male mallard. The subject is ordinary, but the lighting was wonderful and the bright colors of his head and bill really pop, including in his reflection in the brown waters of the beaver pond. I even managed to capture a little catch light in his eye.
It’s exciting to take photos of extraordinary subjects, but most often I am content to try to reveal some of the beauty in the ordinary things that I encounter every day.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Shooting the ordinary well
Posted in Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, tagged beauty, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, Melospiza melodia, ordinary, song sparrow on March 8, 2013| 4 Comments »
Do you aspire to photograph extraordinary subjects in exotic locations or are you content to shoot ordinary subjects in nearby locales?
This past winter (well, it’s almost past), I have really enjoyed photographing birds. At times, I have longed to be able to capture awe-inspiring images of hawks and eagles, of ospreys and owls and have thought about the travel and equipment that might be required to do so. Does that make me an adrenaline junkie, always searching for more, someone who requires increasing amounts of excitement to be content?
For the moment at least, I know that the answer is “no.” My pulse still quickens when I see a robin or a cardinal. I will take shot after shot of geese and ducks flying and landing. I am willing to kneel in the mud to try to get yet another shot of a sparrow. Here is one such shot of a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) from earlier this week that I really like.
I am content with the ordinary and strive to capture and display its beauty. Cristian Mihai, a wonderful, easy-t0-read blogger, wrote a posting yesterday on beauty, entitled Beauty will save the world that I really recommend. It caused me to think more deeply about my photography, about my goals and motivations. What is is about beauty that prompts a desire to respond, to share it with others?
I started this posting with a false dichotomy, with alternatives that are not mutually exclusive to stimulate thought, the kind of inner examination that I have been conducting. There is no simple answer—sometimes it is sufficient to simply think about the question.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
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