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Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category

Peek-a-boo bird

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 11, 2013| 9 Comments »

This week we are caught in a weather system with constant gray skies and rain, so I need a splash of color to lift my spirits, like this immature male Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) that was hiding in the lower levels of the cattails last week.

The little yellow bird was in almost constant motion and was often obscured by the stems of the underbrush, but I did manage to get a few relatively unobstructed shots when the bird poked its head into an open area. As is often the case, I also managed to get a shot as the bird flew away. Normally that means that the bird is partially out of the frame, but this time the bird flew almost straight down and I got a fun little final image.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Not stopping motion

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 10, 2013| 4 Comments »

Sometimes I don’t want to freeze motion entirely in the way that I did in a photo of a Canada Goose landing in the water that I posted earlier today.

Here is another shot of a Canada Goose in which I panned the camera, helping to blur the background, and the slower shutter speed left a certain amount of motion blur in the wings, helping to enhance the impression of speed. My camera was in aperture-priority mode and the shutter speed dropped when the goose that I was tracking flew against the darker background of the trees.

I really like the overall feel of the image, the sense that the goose is straining to slow down as it prepares for landing, but is still moving forward at a fast speed. Is the image “tack sharp?” No, it’s not, but I am happy that it is not—it’s a creative choice. Check out a recent posting entitled “Chasing the tack sharp mirage” by Lyle Krahn, one of my favorite photographers, for a provocative  discussion about this topic.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Autumn web

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on October 10, 2013| 2 Comments »

I haven’t seen many big spiders this fall, but I did come across this spiderless web early one morning recently. The morning was damp and foggy and the droplets of water on the web made it easier to spot in the cattails of the marsh. Using manual focusing, which is still a challenge for me with my DSLR, I was able to capture this image of the web. If you click on the image, you can see the beads of water that look like tiny strands of transparent pearls.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Arrival of a Canada goose

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 10, 2013| 13 Comments »

One of the first waves of migrating Canada geese (Branta canadensis) loudly announced its arrival and landed right in front of me in the beaver pond of my local marsh yesterday.

Last year we seemed to have geese arriving and departing so frequently that I felt like I was at a major geese transit airport. I kept expecting to hear departure announcements on a loudspeaker.

Several areas of the marsh had dried up in the last few months, because of a lack of rain, and I had been fearful that the migrating birds would not stop over. The rain storms this week have partially filled those areas, so my concerns have been partially assuaged.

When I looked at this photo, it seemed like it was mostly black and white already (except for the pink tongue), so I played around a little and converted it to black-and-white. For me, the second version really draws my eye to the texture of the feathers, but I can’t decide whether I like it more than the color version.

What do you think about the black-and-white version?

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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The big catch

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2013| 9 Comments »

This Great Blue Heron, which I think was a juvenile, was clearly not experienced at hunting for food. Unlike his more patient elders, he seemed unable to stay in one spot for more than a few minutes and his success rate when he made a strike was not very high. He was persistent, however, and I kept hoping that he would pull a frog or some other tasty morsel out of the waters of the beaver pond.

I readied myself as he prepared for another strike and fired away as he triumphantly pulled his catch out of the water. The photo confirmed my initial impression—the big catch was just a leaf that had been floating on the surface of the water.

With more practice, this heron’s fishing skills are sure to improve or it is going to be a long, cold autumn and winter for him.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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After sunset

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , on October 9, 2013| 6 Comments »

I watched the sun go down yesterday evening at my local marsh and was initially disappointed as the sun dropped lower and lower on the horizon without any real displays of color. Eventually, though, my patience was rewarded, when for a few minutes  the sky turned a beautiful shade of red.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Blue-faced Meadowhawk

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 8, 2013| 9 Comments »

I don’t expect to see new species of dragonflies at this time of the year, but one of my fellow photographers, Walter Sanford, has been stalking the Blue-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum ambiguum) almost daily and I joined him for a few hours one late September day and got this shot.

I learned quickly that these dragonflies are hard to spot, despite their conspicuous coloration. They seem to like to remain perched down low in the vegetation and wait for their prey, rather than fly around when they are hunting.

I love the combination of colors on the Blue-faced Meadowhawk and I was happy to get a decent shot that shows its blue face. If you want to see more shots of this beautiful dragonfly, check out Walter’s blog posting from yesterday.

I am now in search of the Autumn Meadowhawk, the last dragonfly that I observed last fall. Normally they should be here already, but none of my fellow dragonfly followers has observed any of them yeat.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Patient snake

Posted in Nature, Photography, Portraits, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 7, 2013| 5 Comments »

In the shallow water of the marsh, this Northern Water snake (Nerodia sipedon) patiently waits for its unwary prey, probably a frog. At one point its body began to vibrate violently and I thought it was getting ready to strike, but it turned out to be a false alarm. In the end, the snake turned out to be more patient than I was and I left without observing the snake capture its next meal.

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Click on the photo to see a higher resolution view of the snake.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

 

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Wasp nest

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography on October 7, 2013| 3 Comments »

” Do you want to get some shots of a wasp nest?” I was at a loss for words when a fellow photographer excitedly posed that question to me this past weekend. I had visions of an enormous cluster of very large and angry insects and I hesitated for a long moment before finally agreeing.

What had I gotten myself into? It turns out that my fears were greatly exaggerated and the nest was a very modest one, not much bigger than the wasps themselves. My fellow photographer had been told that they are paper wasps and it looks to me like they may be brown paper wasps, judging from some of the photos that I have seen on-line.

I am hoping that the nest doesn’t get too big, because it is near a path that I regularly use. There were not a lot of wasps present yet, but they looked pretty fierce and I kept my distance and used my telephoto zoom at the far end of its range.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Deer at dawn

Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 7, 2013| 10 Comments »

In the faint light and fog of the pre-dawn hour, I watched the shadowy forms of a small group of deer move slowly across an open area at my local marsh, heading for the treeline. My attempts to photograph them while they were moving were not successful. Once they reached the edge of the trees, however, this male White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) stopped for a moment and looked back at me. A moment later, he was gone.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Pre-dawn blackbirds

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 6, 2013| 4 Comments »

I arrived at the marsh before dawn, hoping to photograph a beautiful sunrise. I stumbled around in the fog and the dark as it gradually got lighter and captured this shot of a flock of blackbirds flying over a field of cattails. If you click on the photo, you can get a better look at all of the different flying positions of the blackbirds.

As it turned out, there were virtually no colors in the sky as the sun rose. I’m sure that I will be back again soon for another attempt.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Dark green tree frog

Posted in Amphibians, Art, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , on October 6, 2013| 12 Comments »

Most of the tree frogs that I have seen until now have been lime green, but the one that I saw on Friday was a much darker shade of green. I am pretty sure, though, that he is a Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea) and he was in a very familiar pose, comfortably napping during the heat of the day.

He was a pretty good distance away, perched on a small tree (or maybe a bush) in the partial shade, but luck was with me, because the sunlight was shining on him. I had a telephoto lens on my camera and managed to get a pretty good shot without scaring him away.

I left the frog thinking that he probably had the right approach—a nap sounded like a good idea.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Autumn cardinal

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 5, 2013| 7 Comments »

I love to photograph cardinals throughout the year, but I was really excited when I saw this male Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) land on a tree with colorful fall foliage in the background. There were a lot of branches, but I somehow managed to get a facial shot with an interesting expression.

The cardinal seemed to be staring at me, silently criticizing my behavior. It reminded me of the expression that parents sometimes adopt when they want to publicly communicate their displeasure to their offspring without uttering a single word.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Slender Spreadwing Damselfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 5, 2013| 7 Comments »

I featured this Slender Spreadwing damselfly (Lestes rectangularis) in an earlier posting in a series of action shots, but thought this more formal portrait deserved a posting of its own.

As I stalked this beautiful little dragonfly, it moved to a number of different perches and it is interesting to see how the background shifted in terms of color palette and clutteredness (I think I may have just created a new word). In the gymnastics shots of this damselfly, the background was bright and colorful and a little busy, whereas the background here is darker and a bit more moody, with just a hint of colors. Be sure to click on the image to see a higher resolution view of this little damselfly that was probably less than 2 inches ( 50 mm) long.

Those of you who like to observe damselflies know that this species is an exception to the general rule that damselflies, unlike dragonflies, hold their wing close into and parallel to their bodies when at rest. My fellow photographer and blogger, Walter Sanford, an expert on dragonflies, was the one who first spotted this damselfly and you should check out his blog for lots of wonderful wildlife photos, including a recent image of a perched Wandering Glider dragonfly, a species that never seems to land.damsel_spread_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Damselfly gymnastics

Posted in Dragonflies, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Sports, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 4, 2013| 9 Comments »

As I was observing this Slender Spreadwing damselfly (Lestes rectangularis) earlier this week, it suddenly launched into a series of acrobatic maneuvers worthy of an Olympic gymnast on the high bar. I captured several action shots of the routine, possibly related to laying eggs, although I managed my clearest shot when the damselfly returned to its starting position and waited for the scores from the judges.

Pointing the toes for maximum extension

Pointing the toes for maximum extension

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Swinging back to generate greater velocity for the next trick

Finishing up the routine

Finishing up the routine

Waiting for the scores from the judges

Waiting for the scores from the judges

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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No red wings

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 4, 2013| 3 Comments »

I remember well my confusion the first time that someone identified a bird like this one as a female Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). “How can it be a Red-winged Blackbird, when it’s not black and doesn’t have red wings?” I naively asked.

I have learned a lot since that moment and have resigned myself to the reality that the names of birds and insects are often not descriptive (or apply only to one gender of the species).

Female Red-winged Blackbirds seem to forage for food in the underbrush most of the time and I have found it to be harder to get a good shot of females than the males, which seem to like to perch and pose prominently on the cattails. This female lifted her head for a brief moment, permitting me to get this shot, and then quickly returned to work.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Camouflaged spider

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 3, 2013| 6 Comments »

This long-jawed spider is not really camouflaged, of course, but it positioned itself in such an artistic way that its elongated body and legs seem to be an extension of the plant, especially from a distance. The plant was growing at the edge of a small pond at my local marsh and the brown background color is the water of the pond.

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Click on the image to get a higher resolution view of it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Egret overhead

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 3, 2013| 13 Comments »

Out of the corner of my eye, I detected some movement and, glancing upward, caught sight of this Great White Egret (Ardea alba) flying almost directly overhead. Normally I see egrets in flight only when I spook them and prompt them to fly away from me.

The early morning light helped to illuminate the underside of this gorgeous bird, which is usually in the shadows, revealing some of the details of the feathers. It is always tricky for me to get the proper exposure with these very white birds and I was happy that I managed to avoid blowing out too many of the highlights.

As I recall, I was pointing the camera almost straight up for these shots and that provides an unusual perspective. In the second shot, for example, it almost looks like the egret is imitating a fighter jet and is flight straight up into the air.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Zen frog

Posted in Amphibians, Art, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 2, 2013| 17 Comments »

The pose of this bullfrog seemed almost Zen-like, as he contemplated the early morning sun in a calm, meditative state of mind and body.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Red-eyed Vireo

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 2, 2013| 4 Comments »

There seemed to be a lot of small birds in the trees this past weekend, mostly hidden in the foliage. I did manage to get a shot of this pretty little bird, which I think is a Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus). The eye does not look as bright red as in some of the images that I see on-line of this bird, but most of the other characteristics seem to match pretty well.

We seem to be moving into the prime season for birds and my bird identification guide (I was given a Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America by a dear friend) now has a prominent spot on my desk. Unlike some of the birders that I encounter, I don’t carry around a field guide when I am shooting—I don’t like to have my head buried in a book and potentially miss some action shots.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Immature Common Yellowthroat

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 1, 2013| 9 Comments »

Glancing into the cattails, I caught sight of a flash of color and then gradually a bright yellow bird came into view. The tail was partially concealed by the cattails, accentuating the bird’s circular body shape (and everyone knows that the camera adds pounds to subjects).

I have done some internet searches and concluded that this is probably an immature male Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas). Adult male Yellowthroats are really easy to identify, because they have a prominent black mask. Like many bird species, however, young male Yellowthroats look a lot like the females, but gradually develop the mask. It looks to me that this bird may have the first traces of such a mask.

The lighting and camera settings combined to produce images that I really like, with colors that are beautifully saturated. I need to figure out how to replicate this look.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2013| 13 Comments »

When a scope-toting birder told me that there was a cuckoo in a tree in the distance, I had not idea what to look for. My parents had a German cuckoo clock when I was growing up and somehow I thought the cuckoo would look like the little bird that popped out of the clock each hour.

I could see the white breast of the bird, so I pointed my telephoto lens at the tree and focused as well as I could. I had to crop quite a bit, but the bird I photographed is definitely identifiable as a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus). What shocked me the most was the length of the bird’s tail. According to my birding guide, this cuckoo is about 12 inches (30 cm) in length.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, these birds like to eat large quantities of hairy caterpillars. Those readers who follow my blog know well that there have been lots of hairy caterpillars recently at my local marsh, so it makes a lot of sense that these birds would be present.

The background in the image is cluttered, but I like the bright colors of the autumn leaves, so I am not bothered by it, particularly because they do not conceal very much of the cuckoo.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Soaring eagle

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 30, 2013| 4 Comments »

Whenever I see large birds soaring in the sky, I will try to get photos of them. Often the birds turn out to be vultures, but this weekend I managed to get this shot of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Any day when I can get a shot of an eagle is a successful day of photography.

The bald eagle was far away and my zoom lens maxed out at 300mm, but the resulting image is still recognizable, especially if you  look at it in higher resolution. As I get more experienced with birds, I am starting to look at features like the position of the wings, which, in this case, immediately make this bird recognizable as a bald eagle. I am very much in awe of experienced birders who can identify a bird quickly and accurately from the shape of its bill, the markings on its wings, or even its call. I am pretty confident that I will never reach those levels of expertise.

There are lots of signs of the changing season—for me, it’s the switchover from a macro lens to a telephoto as the default lens on my camera when walking around in a natural environment and birds start to replace insects as my primary subjects.

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Autumn cardinal

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 29, 2013| 13 Comments »

The early morning light from the side illuminated the bright fall leaves and the equally bright red male Northern Cardinal at my local marsh this past weekend.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Change of perspective

Posted in Art, Butterflies, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on September 29, 2013| 6 Comments »

A familiar subject can look quite different when viewed from an unusual angle. It’s a lesson that every photographer is taught early on, but I need constant reminders to vary my approach.

I took this shot of a Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) yesterday while lying on the ground and pointing my telephoto lens up toward the sky. The perspective caused the shape of the wings to be different and permitted me to see the butterfly’s legs in a way that was completely new.

Not all such experiments are successful, of course, but I think that this one worked out pretty well.

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Click on the photo to see a higher resolution view.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Migrating blackbird

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 29, 2013| 12 Comments »

Yesterday I noticed several small flocks of blackbirds swooping in and out of the cattails at my local marsh and suspect that they are migrating birds. The marshland park seems to be favorite stopping-off spot for all kinds of birds as they move south.

I managed to get his shot of one of a male Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) in a rather typical pose on a cattail stalk. Unlike in the spring, when males seem to spend a lot of time calling out to potential, the blackbirds yesterday seemed to be much more focused on foraging for food.

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Blue Heron on the Potomac

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 28, 2013| 11 Comments »

Yesterday I went shooting on Theodore Roosevelt Island, a small nature preserve in the Potomac River, just opposite Washington D.C.  that is accessible by a small bridge from the Virginia side and got this shot of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). The heron took off when I got a little too close to it.

One of the interesting problems of shooting in an urban environment is that it is hard to control the background. The long shape behind the heron is a one-man crew scull. If I hadn’t cropped the image, you would have been able to see the brightly clothed rower.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Quick takeoff

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , on September 28, 2013| 3 Comments »

No matter how quickly I try to focus on a bird, they often are quicker than I am. Often I am left with merely an image of an empty branch, but every now and then I’ll get a cool image of the bird taking off.

That was the case yesterday, when I tried to get a shot of this small, dark-colored bird. I really like the position of the tail and the detail of the wings, which help to form an almost abstract portrait of the unidentified bird.

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Egrets still with us

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 27, 2013| 9 Comments »

Before long, the White Egrets (Ardea alba) will leave this area for more temperate locations, so I was happy to get a few shots this past weekend of one of them at Cameron Run, a tributary of the Potomac River.

The egrets like to roost in trees that overlook this stream and the first shot shows an egret relaxing in a tree after I inadvertently flushed him. I am deliberately underexposing the image in an effort to keep from totally blowing out the highlights of this very white bird, but it is still very hard to capture any details on the body.

The second shot shows the egret out of the water and its pose reminds me of a dancer, with its slim body and long elegant neck.

If things follow last year’s course, the blue herons will remain in my local area for most of the winter, but the egrets and green herons will soon depart. I’ll be looking for more photo opportunities with them before they leave.

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Baby snapping turtle

Posted in Nature, Photography, Portraits, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 26, 2013| 12 Comments »

Far away from any adult supervision, this baby snapping turtle seemed to be having trouble figuring out how to forage for food on his own.  He stretched out his neck as far as it would go, but was still not within reach of the plants that he was eying. The realization had not yet struck him that was going to have to move his body closer. Just above him you can see a little fish that was monitoring his progress, but staying beyond the reach of those jaws, in case the turtle decides he needs a little protein in his diet.

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Adopted turtle

Posted in Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 26, 2013| 8 Comments »

When the family of Red-eared Slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) adopted an orphaned turtle, they had no idea that the baby would grow so big. Despite his disproportionate size, the larger turtle, an Eastern Snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina serpentina), likes to participate in all family activities and doesn’t seem to realize that he is different from the other members of his adopted family.

I chose a natural setting for this family portrait and managed to catch almost everyone in a good pose—unfortunately, one of them had an attitude and refused to look directly at the camera and smile. Most of us have similar informal family portraits with the same problem. I don’t know how professional portrait photographers get everyone to cooperate.

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