The National Zoo in Washington D.C. is a wonderful place to explore and has the added bonus of having no admission fee. On Monday I wandered around the zoo for several hours, visiting some of my favorite animals and taking a lot of photos.
Here are some of my initial favorite images: a lioness, a cheetah, a beaver, and an elephant.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in animals, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, zoo | Tagged Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, Castor canadensis, cheetah, elephant, lion, lioness, National Zoo, North American Beaver, Tamron 150-600mm, Washington D.C. | 2 Comments »
I have been hearing the cries of Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) frequently at my local marshland park, but I have had a lot of trouble spotting them. At this time in the autumn there are still lots of leaves on the trees that obscure my view. Gradually some of the leaves are starting to change colors and fall from the trees, but that process takes place a bit later here in Northern Virginia than in more northern areas of the United States.
As I was walking along the boardwalk at Huntley Meadows Park on Saturday morning, I saw a brightly colored object at the top of a tree. Looking through my telephoto lens, I was thrilled to see that it was a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk that was out on a limb, giving me an almost unobstructed line of sight for a shot. In most of my shots, the hawk was looking away, but I was thrilled to be able to get a few shots in which one of the hawk’s eyes is visible. The bright blue sky and the red leaves surrounding the hawk were a nice bonus.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, autumn hawk, Buteo lineatus, Canon 50D, hawk, Huntley Meadows Park, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto | 3 Comments »
Some birds seem to explode out of the water when they are taking off, but Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) often seem to gently lift off with almost no splash at all. The Great Blue Heron at Huntley Meadows Park were really active early yesterday morning, frequently flying from one location to another. They seemed to be more intent on socializing with each other than with finding food. In a future post, I’ll look more closely at that behavior, which might be related to courting, but today I’m focusing on one heron’s gentle liftoff.
I’ve watched herons take off hundreds of times, but this is one of the first times that I have been able to capture the moment of liftoff from the water. In this little sequence of three images, you can see the heron rising up, leaving the water, and gradually gaining altitude. The stillness of the early morning helped create some wonderful reflections, a nice bonus that adds some additional visual interest to the images.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, qu, Tamron 150-600mm | 22 Comments »
Is it distracting to have a man-made object in an otherwise natural landscape? The ocean really inspired me during my recent short trip to Maine. I am amazed at the number of beautiful images that I was able to capture. I particularly like the colors and simple composition of a shot I took of a small river that rises and falls with the tide.
As I was working on the image, I noticed that there was a solitary warning sign in the upper left-hand corner that alerts folks to the dangers of the tides. I actually like the juxtaposition of this hard vertical line with the gentle curves of the image and the hazy coastline in the background. I began to wonder, however, if others would see the sign as a discordant element in the image, so I created a second version of the image without the sign.
Which image do you prefer, the one with the sign or the one without it?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Inspiration, Landscape, Nature, Travel | Tagged beach, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, Maine, Ocean Park Maine, Old Orchard Beach, seascape | 28 Comments »
One of my favorite places in Ocean Park, Maine is a small covered bridge that leads into a grove of beautiful trees. The bride crosses a stream and is barely wide enough for two people to walk through side-by-side. It was dedicated in 1944 as a war memorial.
Ocean Park is a special place for my family. My parents went on their honeymoon there and eventually retired to the small community. Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I was recently in Maine. Unfortunately it was not for pleasure, but was in connection with what proved to be a fatal heart attack for one of my younger brothers.
The final image of these three is my favorite, because it serves as a kind of visual metaphor for me of the passing of my brother Patrick.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Architecture, Autumn, Inspiration, Landscape, Photography, Travel | Tagged bridge, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, covered bridge, Maine, Ocean Park, Ocean Park Maine | 18 Comments »
The sky was mostly clouded over as I made my way toward the beach in the early morning, but the dawn’s early light helped me to see the wooden pathway through the dune grass at Old Orchard Beach in Maine. Although I couldn’t see the sun itself, a reddish glow was reflected on the clouds and sometimes onto the water.
It was a fun challenge to try to capture the beautiful light in different ways, from the very realistic to the almost abstract.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Inspiration, Landscape, Nature, Photography | Tagged Canon 24, Canon 50D, dawn, Maine, Old Orchard Beach, sunrise | 4 Comments »
Do you like clams? I don’t care for them much, but this Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) really seemed to be enjoying the one it found when I spotted it this past weekend on the shore at Old Orchard Beach in Maine. As the tide was going out there seemed to be quite a few partially opened clams on which the gulls were feasting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, clams, Great Black-backed Gull, gull, Larus marinus, Maine, Old Orchard Beach | 5 Comments »
I don’t often shoot landscapes (or seascapes), but the beauty of the ocean and the waves crashing on the shore inspired me to give it a shot. Normally I take photos with a macro lens or a telephoto zoom, but I was fortunate to have brought along a 24-105mm lens. Here are a few favorite images that I captured yesterday at Old Orchard Beach, Maine.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Inspiration, Landscape, Nature, Photography | Tagged Atlantic Oc, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, Maine, Old Orchard Beach, seascape | 1 Comment »
A walk along the beach early Halloween morning in Ocean Park, Maine helped to refresh my mind, my body, and my spirit. I had made a quick trip to Maine for a family emergency and was feeling really stressed. The peace and power of the ocean had an amazing therapeutic effect on me.
The tourists are now almost gone from this vacation area south of Portland and the beach was mostly deserted except for me, some shore birds and an occasional dog walker.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography | Tagged Atlantic Ocean, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, dawn, gull, Maine, Old Orchard Beach, shorebirds | 5 Comments »
I grew up in the suburbs and have never lived in the country, but somehow I love the beauty of old tractors. During my recent visit to a local produce center that I have featured the last few day, my eyes were inexorably drawn to the a green tractor and its ghoulish driver. Oh, Deere. The scene was staged at the edge of the property, so it was hard to get a shot that did not include barbed wire and chain link fence. Here are a few shots from different angles to give you an overall view (yes, the driver is wearing overalls) as well as a wide-angle view.
Happy Halloween!
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Halloween, Humor, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, Halloween, John Deere, Nalls Produce Center, tractor | 2 Comments »
Some very creative people must work at the local pumpkin patch at Nalls Produce Center in Alexandria, Virginia. As I wandered about, I encountered numerous mini-scenes celebrating farm life and/or Halloween.
One of my favorites featured a crazed–looking cat in overalls conversing with a cow. I also really liked the jack-o-lantern made with all natural materials. I can’t recall ever before seeing a jack-o-lantern with hair.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in animals, Autumn, Cat, Halloween, Humor, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, autumn, autumn still life, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, Halloween, Nalls Produce Center | 1 Comment »
I love the way that the folks at Nalls Produce Center chose to display their wide variety of autumn produce—it is almost like a work of art. It was a challenge to photograph the wall of produce and I never did get the angles quite right. so all my photos were crooked to one degree or another. I thought about trying to photograph individual boxes, but decided to photograph them in multiples of varying numbers.
As I look overt the images I continue to marvel at the differences in size, shape, color, and texture of the fruits and vegetables on display.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Autumn, Gardening, Nature, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, autumn produce, Canon 50D, Nalls Produce Center | 9 Comments »
Nothing quite says autumn like a visit to a pumpkin patch. In this case it was a brief excursion to Nalls Produce Center, a nearby establishment that has an amazing assortment of produce and plants. Normally I think of pumpkins as being orange and there are plenty of orange pumpkins there of all shapes and sizes. They also have an incredible variety of pumpkins of different colors, including the multi-colored ones in the final photo. They are known by a number of different names including Turk’s Turban and Mexican Hat.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Gardening, Halloween, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, Cucurbita maxima, Mexican Hat pumpkin, Nalls Produce Center, pumpkin, pumpkin patch, Turk's Turban | 1 Comment »
I never get tired of watching the Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) at Huntley Meadows Park. Quite often they ignore me and focus intently on catching a fish. I marvel at their patience and persistence.
During one recent encounter, though, I had eye-to-eye contact with a heron. The heron looked right at me and seemed to be sending a distinct warning message that it was not going to share the small fish that it had just caught.
I backed off and let the heron enjoy his fish appetizer in peace. It was gone in a quick gulp and the heron went back to work and I moved on in search of more subjects.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm | 5 Comments »
I grew up in the suburbs and don’t know much about domestic fowl, but it seems to me that this colorful bird must be some kind of funky chicken. I love the colors and the patterns in the feathers of this chicken.
I spotted this chicken during a visit to Nalls Produce Center, a wonderful location in our area to see all kinds of colorful produce and plant. While there, I also took some shots of pumpkins that I will probably feature in a posting later this week.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 50D, chicken, funky chicken, Nalls Produce Center | 3 Comments »
How do you capture the beauty of autumn? If you live in a location where there are broad expanses of trees full of brightly colored leaves, it would be pretty easy, I think. In Northern Virginia where I live, the colors tend to be muted and isolated. There are patches of colors here and there, but it seems like many of the leaves go straight from green to brown.
On some recent trips to Huntley Meadows Park, my favorite shooting location, I tried to capture some glimpses of the changing season using my telephoto zoom lens. The colors and patterns of the fall foliage turned into abstract patterns when viewed through a telephoto lens.
Here are some of my favorite shots as I focused in on the autumn foliage. I am also including a final image that attempts to capture the feeling of walking down a trail in the crisp morning air with fallen leaves crunching underfoot.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Landscape, Nature, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, autumn, autumn colors, Canon 50D, fall foliage, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm | 5 Comments »
Common subjects like this Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) have a special appeal and challenge for me. Can I photograph them in an unusual way?
The foreground and background in this image almost blend together and highlight the beauty and personality of the mockingbird. The background makes it look a bit like it was taken in a studio setting. Only the chipped paint gives away the fact that the curious bird was perched on the man-made railing of a boardwalk. I also really like the way that the color and pattern of the weathered wood almost perfectly match the bird’s feathers.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, Mimus polyglottos, mockingbird, Northern Mockingbird, Tamron 150-600mm | 10 Comments »
As I was exploring yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park, I came upon this Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus) stretched out in the thorns at the edge of one of the fields. My first instinct was to move in close, but I actually remembered to take a shot of the entire snake before doing so. The “wide-angle” shot was taken with my 150-600mm telephoto zoom lens, which gave me a slightly wider view than the 180mm macro lens that I used for the close-up shot.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife | 7 Comments »
Generally it’s best to have the sun behind you when taking photos, but sometimes you are forced to shoot almost directly into the sun. When the conditions are right you can sometimes get wonderful silhouettes, like these images of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) that I spotted on the Potomac River near Dyke Marsh in Alexandria, Virginia this past Monday.
The shot of the perched cormorant was a conscious composition—I assessed the light and knew that I was shooting a silhouette. In the case of the flying cormorant, however, I was reacting to the movement of a bird taking off from the water and trying so hard to hard to capture focus and keep the bird in focus that I was not paying much conscious attention to the lighting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, birds in flight, Canon 50D, cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, Phalacrocorax auritus, Tamron 150-600mm | 3 Comments »
Periodically I’d catch a glimpse of a warbler in the trees of Huntley Meadows Park last Friday, but they mostly remained hidden deep within the branches. This Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata), however, ventured out of the shadows just enough that I was able to get this long-distance shot of it.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Setophaga coronata, Tamron 150-600mm, warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler | Leave a Comment »
I am not about to make a sign proclaiming that “The End is Near,” but I couldn’t help feeling a slight sense of impending doom when I spotted an Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum vicinum) this past weekend. In our area, Autumn Meadowhawks are the ultimate survivors of the dragonfly season and they can usually be found well into December and occasionally into January.
This pretty red and brown dragonfly is a harbinger of doom—inexorably winter is approaching and dragonflies will eventually cease to fly until the spring. For now, though, I’ll continue to search for these spectacular aerial acrobats and enjoy their beauty and skill when I am lucky enough to find one.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Photography | Tagged Autumn Meadowhawk, Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly, Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetlands Refuge, Sympetrum vicinum, Tamron 180mm | 3 Comments »
Yesterday I spotted this beautiful Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the vegetation along the shore of the Potomac River as I explored Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve in Alexandria, Virginia. Although “heavy-boned” is a euphemism sometimes used for large people, it is literally true for cormorants and is one of the reasons why they ride so low in the water. Additionally, their feathers don’t shed water like those of ducks and can get waterlogged, which makes it easier to dive deeper, but requires them to dry them out periodically.
I hoped to catch a cormorant with its wings extended for drying, but none of the cormorants I saw were accommodating in that regard yesterday. I’m no psychic, but I foresee a return trip to that area in the near future.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Dyke Marsh, Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, Phalacrocorax auritus, Potomac River, Tamron 150-600mm | 9 Comments »
At first glance I thought that this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was getting ready to swallow a flying bird, but then I realized it was “only” a small, freshly caught fish that the heron had tossed into the air last week at Huntley Meadows Park.
A split-second later, the fish had disappeared.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm | 8 Comments »
I am not sure if it is the cooler autumn weather or the impending winter, but all of the sudden the trees are alive with the sounds of woodpeckers. I can hear them pecking away and calling out to each other high in the trees. Unfortunately there are still a lot of leaves on the trees, making it hard to spot these busy birds.
On Friday at Huntley Meadows Park, I did manage to get a clear view of a beautiful little Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) feverishly foraging in a tree. Suddenly the woodpecker turned its head in my direction as though it wanted to proudly show me the bright red fruit that it had discovered. With the fruit firmly in its bill and a slight smile on its face, the woodpecker flew away, perhaps to cache its find for another day.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Melanerpes carolinus, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tamron 150-600mm | 9 Comments »
Bluebirds are often considered to be a symbol of happiness and I was definitely happy to spot this beautiful Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park. I saw bluebirds a number of times during my walk around the park on a sunny autumn day, but this was one of the only ones that was within range of my camera.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, bluebird, Canon 50D, Eastern Bluebird, happiness, Huntley Meadows Park, Sialia sialis, Tamron 150-600mm | 2 Comments »
Many dragonflies are very skittish and will fly away as you get close. Blue-faced Meadowhawks (Sympetrum ambiguum), however, appear to be unusually inquisitive, like this one that perched on my knee Monday at Huntley Meadows Park as I was trying to photograph another dragonfly.
He seemed to want to check me out at close range and I returned the favor.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Dragonflies, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, Blue-faced Meadowhawk, Blue-faced Meadowhawk dragonfly, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Sympetrum ambiguum, Tamron 180mm | 13 Comments »
Have you ever tried to shoot a group portrait? You get everyone lined up and facing the camera, but there is always one uncooperative subject. That was certainly the case with these Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) at a little suburban pond on Monday. The gaggle of geese was preening and cleaning themselves all in a row on a on a concrete bar sticking out of the water.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Branta canadensis, Canada Geese, Canon 50D, Kingstowne, Tamron 150-600mm | 3 Comments »
Last Friday about 5:30 pm I was in the Georgetown area of Washington D.C. right at the time when a small group of protesters caused M Street to be closed by sitting in middle of the lane heading toward Key Bridge, one of only a few bridges linking the capital city with Virginia. Here are a few shots of the protesters and the police.
Readers who follow my blog know that I am not used to this kind of photography and I wasn’t really sure how to approach the subject. Roads and intersections were blocked off with yellow tape, preventing me from getting good angles for the shots. It was a small group of protesters and they looked to be of college age, prompting me to wonder if they were from nearby Georgetown University. All varieties of policemen were present to control the crowd and direct traffic onto side streets—there were bicycle cops and motorcycle cops in addition to the expected police squad cars.
I was happy that I happened to have my Canon SX50 superzoom with me, because the zoomed allowed me to frame some shots differently without having to move around a lot. In the end I chose three shots to post that captured different aspects of protest, mostly focusing on the human element.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in people, Photography, Urban | Tagged Black Lives Matter, Canon SX50, Georgetown, Georgetown University, police, protest, Washington D.C. | 8 Comments »
As we move deeper into fall we will be seeing more and more migrating birds in Northern Virginia, where I live . Some will just be passing through the area, but others will probably overwinter here, like these Ring-necked ducks (Aythya collaris) that I spotted yesterday at a small suburban pond less than a mile from my townhouse.
Unlike most of the ducks that I see, Ring-necked ducks are diving ducks, not dabbling ducks. As a consequence, they spend most of the time in the middle of the pond, making them a bit tough to photograph. Fortunately the sun was shining brightly yesterday, so that I was able to capture the ducks’ golden eyes even when shooting at a distance.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Aythya collaris, Canon 50D, diving ducks, Kingstowne, Ring-necked duck, Tamron 150-600mm | 4 Comments »
The beautiful orange and brown colors of this Eastern Comma butterfly (Polygonia comma) that I recently spotted at Huntley Meadows Park make it a perfect symbol of this autumn season. This species seems to like to perch on trees, sometimes facing downward, as was the case this time.
Not long ago I did a posting that featured a Question Mark butterfly, a species that closely resembles this one, but the relatively clear white marking on the hind wing make me think this is an Eastern Comma butterfly. My recent record in correctly identifying butterflies has not been great, however, so I welcome a correction if my identification is incorrect.
It is not immediately apparent from this image, but Eastern Comma butterflies blend in really well with the bark of the trees. The sun was shining through the wings from behind, making the orange color of the inner wings much more prominent than usual, allowing us to see both the colors and the shape of this beautiful butterfly.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Comma, Eastern Comma butterfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Polygonia comma, Tamron 180mm | 4 Comments »
Mike Powell 
Expressing our differences
November 8, 2016 by Mike Powell
Why were the Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) prancing about on Saturday with their heads tilted upward and their wings displayed? Surely this was some kind of elaborate courting ritual.
As Tina Turner famously sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” Apparently this is how these herons defend their feeding territories. Really? According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, one of my favorite sources of information on birds, “Great Blue Herons defend feeding territories from other herons with dramatic displays in which the birds approach intruders with their head thrown back, wings outstretched, and bill pointing skyward.”
If only we could be so dignified in expressing our differences instead of squawking loudly and aggressively at each other.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
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Posted in Birds, commentary, Nature, Photography, wildlife | Tagged Alexandria VA, Ardea herodias, Canon 50D, Great Blue Heron, herons, Huntley Meadows Park, Tamron 150-600mm | 5 Comments »