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Backlit robin

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged American robin, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Huntley Meadows Park, robin on March 11, 2013| 3 Comments »

Do you ever take shots that you really like, despite technical flaws, because one aspect of the photo came out really cool?

That was the case with this photo of a robin from this past weekend. It was in the middle of the day and the light was pretty harsh, coming in through the leaves almost directly in front of me. As you can see from the robin’s shoulders, the light bleached out most of the color. However, the light also illuminated the robin’s bill, actually shining through it in a really cool way. I also like the way the background turned out.

I am always willing to look for subjects in all directions, and not just for ones in optimal light. You never know when the light will reward you in unexpected ways.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Red-shouldered Hawks

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged birds in flight, Buteo lineatus, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, hawk, Huntley Meadows Park, Red-Shouldered Hawk on March 11, 2013| 4 Comments »

I’m starting to see hawks—primarily Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) with some regularity, but really good shots of these powerful birds have proven to be elusive so far.

I am happy that I am beginning to capture images of the hawks while they are flying, but virtually all of the time they are flying away from me and not toward me, so the hawks do not fill up much of the frame.

Perhaps when the weather is warmer, there will be more prey for the hawks, thereby giving me more chances to get good shots. At a minimum, I’ll have more hours of daylight in which to make my attempts.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Heron in flight

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Ardea herodias, birds in flight, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park on March 10, 2013| 6 Comments »

I was staring intently at some ducks in a secluded area of the marsh, when suddenly my eyes caught sight of movement in one of the trees overlooking the pond. The next think I knew a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), who had apparently been perched on the tree, was flying through the air.

This is the best of the shots that I was able to take. Most of the times that I have attempted a similar shot in the past, the white in the face has been totally blown out. I still need to work on getting a better exposure, but feel like I am making progress. Now if I can just find a cooperative heron.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Colorful duck

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged birds in flight, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, duck, Huntley Meadows Park, mallard on March 9, 2013| 9 Comments »

After endless gray winter days, the beauty of a sunny day seemed magnified and the vivid colors of this mallard duck looked even brighter. I love the shade of blue of the feathers that show through when the ducks are in flight, especially when they are taking off and landing.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Taking a break

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, cattails, Downy Woodpecker, Huntley Meadows Park, Picoides pubescens on March 9, 2013| 3 Comments »

At the edge of a cattail patch, this male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) was pecking away at the branches of a small tree, moving upward until he had reached the tip of the branch. For a short moment, he took a break from his work and turned his head to the side, which let me take a nice profile shot.

Perhaps he was searching for the next plant to peck, maybe the cattail in the distance.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Cloaked against the cold

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

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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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Flying into the woods

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

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Red-bellied Woodpeckers

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

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Casual robin portrait

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.

robin_blog

Click on the photo to see a higher-resolution view

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Cardinal in the pre-spring

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

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Stopping for a drink

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

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Ducks in flight

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

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Distinctive call

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.

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Motion and focus

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

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Little birds

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

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Changing my focus

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

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Views of a Mourning Dove

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

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Swooping vultures

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

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Skidding to a halt

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

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Transition

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

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Hunched over in the cold

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

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Looking back

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.

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Foretaste of spring

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

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Return to the female Kingfisher

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

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Northerners

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.

pintail_blog

Male Northern Pintail at Huntley Meadows Park

Male Northern Shoveler at Huntley Meadows Park

Male Northern Shoveler at Huntley Meadows Park

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Geese in the mist

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.

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Northern Shoveler takes to the air

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

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Singing blackbird in February

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

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Blackbird silhouette

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

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Big splash

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

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