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Posts Tagged ‘Alexandria VA’

Female (and male) Ring-necked ducks

Posted in Art, Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 11, 2013| 5 Comments »

As I was going through some of my bird photos, I realized that a majority of them feature the male of the species. The males tend to be more loud and flashy, so I guess it’s not surprising that they draw my attention much of the time. The female often has a more delicate beauty and coloration, as is the case with this female Ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris) that I photographed recently.

I added an image of a male Ring-necked duck that I photographed the same day to allow you to make your own comparison and judgments. It may be a cliché, but it is nonetheless true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Taking off together

Posted in Art, Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 9, 2013| 6 Comments »

I was watching some Great White Egrets (Ardea alba) yesterday at Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, a freshwater tidal wetland on the Potomac River, when something startled the birds.

The egrets and some mallard ducks took off from the water en masse in a great explosion of water. I captured some of that noise and confusion in the second photo. The photo I chose to feature shows the birds a short after the take off as they start to lift off a little and fly over a meadow-like area with tall golden grass. The light was especially beautiful on the wings of the egrets, which happily I managed to capture without blowing out the highlights as sometimes I do with these very white birds.

Click on the photos to see some of the beautiful details of the birds in greater resolution.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Playing in a puddle

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 8, 2013| 7 Comments »

Did you enjoy playing in puddles when you were a child? I remember a childhood of rubber boots and yellow slickers and days when my pant legs would be drenched from walking through puddles. Even now, I’ll occasionally kick my feet through a puddle of water and then glance quickly all around, hoping that nobody has seen me give in to my child-like impulses.

When I spotted this White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) in a shallow puddle, I thought he was merely getting a drink of water. However, he stuck his head in the water, splashed around, and seemed to be having a good time. Perhaps he was taking a bath, or maybe he was simply enjoying himself in the cool waters. (In case you are curious about the background, the puddle had formed in a low area adjacent to a speed bump at the entrance to the parking area of my local marsh park—the yellow you can see is the safety paint of the speed bump itself.)

Initially, I was unsure that this sparrow was a White-throated, because the white patch was not really obvious and the eye stripes were not as well defined as in previous photos that I have posted of this species. The yellow coloration above the lore (the area between the eye and the bill) makes it pretty likely that this is a White-throated sparrow, though it may be the brown and tan striped variant, rather than the black and white one that I featured in a posting earlier this week.

I don’t know about you, but I feel inspired to find a puddle to play in today. Have a wonderful Friday.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Heron out of water

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 7, 2013| 12 Comments »

I felt like this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was modeling for me when it climbed out of the water onto a narrow slab of concrete and struck a pose. It was unusual for me to see a stationary heron out of the water—usually when I see them out of the water, they are flying. The blue waters make it look like I shot this in some exotic, tropical location, but I took this photo only a mile or so from where I live, at a small suburban pond surrounded by townhouses on one side and a well-travelled road on the other side.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Fuzzy brown caterpillar

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on November 7, 2013| 6 Comments »

We’re starting to get down to the last insects of the season, and fuzzy brown caterpillars are among the few insects that I still see. Some of these are Banded Wooly Bear caterpillars (Pyrrharctia isabella) that supposedly help tell how severe the winter will be, though I confess that I can never remember how you are supposed to judge, i.e. does a wide middle section mean a short winter or a long one?

When I first took this shot, I thought the subject was a wooly bear caterpillar, but the more I look at it the less certain I feel. There seems to be a black tip on only one end of the caterpillar rather than at both ends. Despite the uncertainty about identification, I really like the shot and the way that I was able to isolate the caterpillar from the background.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Wren in November

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on November 6, 2013| 5 Comments »

Why was this wren perching on the nesting box just prior to entering it? It’s not nesting season, is it? Was it seeking shelter on a cool, windy day? Were there insects inside to eat?

As I noted yesterday, bird activity was low on Monday—we didn’t even have any Canada geese or ducks passing through. I initially noticed this small bird, which I think is a Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus), when it was checking out the underside of this nesting box. The box itself is pretty big and was placed there, I believe, for ducks to use. Eventually the wren perched on the edge of the entrance and peered inside and then looked all around before going inside.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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White-throated sparrow

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 5, 2013| 13 Comments »

It was cold and overcast yesterday and there were not many birds visible, with the notable exception of sparrows. Sparrows were as active as ever, though most of the time I could only hear them and not see them. They seem to like to rot about in the underbrush most of the time.

I was really happy when this White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) popped up for a moment and I was able to get this image. I love the facial pattern and colors of this bird, which seems to have a goatee much like my own. (My goatee started out with salt-and-pepper color, but increasingly has become mostly salt).

When researching this bird, I learned that there is another version (morph) of this bird that has brown and tan head stripes, instead of black and white. I will have to look even more closely at my photos of the White-throated sparrow, which has become more common the past few weeks, and see if I have managed to capture any images of the tan-striped variant.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Fine feathered friends

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2013| 8 Comments »

Who knew that the man-made pond in a nearby suburban neighborhood would be a favorite spot for juvenile birds to hang out together?  That’s what it looked like when I spotted an immature Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) and an immature Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) together, both with their heads turned in profile, probably checking out some cute little female goose.

Actually, I couldn’t immediately identify the cormorant, though it was obvious that it was neither a duck or a goose. The way that it swam with its long neck extended and its bill pointed in the air, however, was distinctive enough to make it easy to find in my identification guide.

I like the way that these two birds posed for me, with the cormorant perched on a narrow concrete slab to compensate for the heron’s greater height and the synchronized head positions. I have seen this young heron hanging around the pond before (it’s the same heron that I featured in the Crouching heron posting this morning), but I don’t think that I have seen a cormorant there before. Usually there are only geese and occasionally some ducks, like the small flock of Ring-necked ducks that are there right now.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Crouching heron

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2013| 6 Comments »

Saturday, I went out with fellow photographer Cindy Dyer to take photographs of the fall foliage and we stopped at a little suburban pond, where I managed to get this close-up shot of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) crouching at the edge of the water. If you want to see some awesome shots of the fall colors in Northern Virginia, check out Cindy’s blog—she was quicker than I was in posting her shots.

I was able to get this downward-looking angle for the image because I was on a small bridge that is part of a walking path around the pond. The heron was focused on trying to catch prey, though he didn’t seem to be having too much success. Judging from its relatively small size and inexperience fishing, I suspect that this might be a juvenile heron.

I took a number of other shots of the heron that I will probably post, including an encounter with what I think is a juvenile cormorant. Stay tuned.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Autumn geese landing

Posted in Art, Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 3, 2013| 11 Comments »

Standing at the end of a small pond, I heard the sounds of an approaching flock of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis). I looked all around as I prepared to track them and couldn’t help noticing areas of beautiful autumn foliage.

Wouldn’t it be cool  if I could capture the geese landing with the colorful leaves as a background? I put that idea in the back of my mind, remembering that it was going to be tough enough to capture decent shots of the geese without worrying about the background.

It’s a noisy crazy couple of moments when the geese come in for a landing—they come in waves and there is so much activity that it’s hard to figure out what to focus on. Usually, as I did here, I will try to concentrate on a single bird as it approaches and to keep it in focus.

I captured this image at the moment when the geese were slowing down just prior to entry into the water. My main subject is in a pretty good focus and the other geese are in interesting positions. I was surprised that I was able to get the orange background—it had been a hope, but certainly not an expectation. The result is an image that I really like, an image that combines two of the iconic elements of the autumn.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Duck straggler

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on November 1, 2013| 6 Comments »

Most of the time when I try to photograph ducks in flight, I end up with shadows and muted colors. Last weekend, though, the light was right and I was able to capture a small group of mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in full color. They were pretty far away, but I like the formation that I was able to capture. There are four males and one female, and one of the males is a straggler who seems to have trouble keeping up with the group.

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Click on the photo to see it in higher resolution.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Beautiful spider for Halloween

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on October 31, 2013| 3 Comments »

Some spiders can be creepy, but others are quite beautiful, like this one that I photographed earlier this month at my local marshland park. I am catching up a bit on posting photos from this month that I really liked and thought it might be good to post a spider image on Halloween night. I have not yet been able to identify this spider, but noted that it did not have a web and seemed to be lying in wait for prey on the long leaf of this plant. I’d welcome assistance in identifying the species of spider,

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Web art for Halloween

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on October 31, 2013| 6 Comments »

On Halloween night, it somehow feels appropriate to post this photograph of a spider web that I took earlier this month. Some people find spider webs (and spiders) to be creepy, but I find them to be fascinating.  I look at spider webs as a form of beautiful natural art, filled with wonderful geometric shapes and designs and always marvel at the ability of spiders to weave them.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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The natives are friendly

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on October 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Turnabout is fair play. In one of my earlier posts entitled “Dragonflies mating on a calf” I featured Walter Sanford, a fellow photographer and blogger. Today, in a posting called “The natives are friendly.” he featured my arm and finger as I tried to charm a couple of different dragonflies to perch on my index finger.

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Most dragonflies are skittish. Some dragonflies are “friendly,” such as Blue Corporal dragonflies (Ladona deplanata). Autumn Meadowhawk dragonflies (Sympetrum vicinum) are friendly; sometimes very friendly!

Mike Powell and I visited Huntley Meadows Park recently. We stopped to “charm” dragonflies a couple of times during our photowalk. The following gallery shows two different male Autumn Meadowhawk dragonflies perching on Mike: Photos 1-2 show Mike coaxing a dragonfly onto his finger; Photos 3-4 show another dragonfly perching on Mike’s arm.

Tech Tip: Either mouse-over or tap photos to see captions.

Copyright © 2013 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.

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Heron fishing in the Potomac River

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 31, 2013| 18 Comments »

If you are a heron, how do you get  a fish down your throat and into your stomach after you have caught it? Some animals and birds of prey might tear off a bite-size piece of the fish using claws or talons. Herons don’t have that option. They have to somehow maneuver their catch within their bills until they are in a position to swallow it whole, all the time at risk of dropping their catch back into the water and losing it.

I enjoy watching Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) fish. They seem to be extremely focused, but patient as they wait for the optimal moment for a strike. This past weekend, I observed this heron in the waters of the Potomac River, just south of the city of Alexandria, Virginia. I watched and waited with my camera focused and ready until the heron struck and pulled a modest fish out of the water.

The heron made several adjustments to the fish’s position by making small movements with his head until it was in the ready position shown in the second photo. He them gave a little flip of his head, launching the fish into the air, and opened his mouth wider, as you can see in the first image. In a split-second the fish was gone and the heron was swallowing.

Every time I see a heron fishing, I am hoping that I will see him pull a really big fish out of the water, as I have seen in photos on other blogs.  So far I have seen the herons catch only small fish and an occasional crayfish or frog, but I hope to be ready when a heron catches a “big one,” so that I won’t have to be the one who tells stories of “the one that got away.”

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heron_fish1_blog© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Lady blackbird

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 30, 2013| 7 Comments »

The first time I saw a bird that looked like this, I thought it was a sparrow of some sort. When I saw this one, last week, I knew immediately that it was a female Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus).

I have learned a lot about birds and photography this past year.  Along the way I also have learned more about myself as I seek to express myself in my words and in my images.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Autumn bluebird

Posted in Art, Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 29, 2013| 16 Comments »

My eyes caught a flash of bright blue yesterday as I was walking through Huntley Meadows Park, my local marsh, and I pointed my telephoto lens at the tree in the distance.

As I composed this shot, I was initially a little confused by what I saw. The reddish-brown color of the breast and the fact that there were some blue feathers made me think that it was an Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), but the bird’s body didn’t seem blue enough. After doing a little research when I got home, I realized that most of the bluebirds that I had seen previously must have been adult males—as is the case with many other birds, the female Eastern Bluebird is more subdued in color than the male.

I didn’t have a lot of time to frame this shot, so I was happy that I managed to center the bird on the dark spot in the background and to surround it with some colorful fall foliage. All of the orange color in the image really helps the blue on the wing to pop, which is not too surprising since, if I remember color theory correctly, orange and blue are complementary colors.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Afternoon glory

Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged , , , , , on October 27, 2013| 4 Comments »

Despite the frost that we’ve had the last few mornings, the gorgeous Morning Glory flowers of my neighbors continue to flourish. I photographed one of the flowers yesterday afternoon—does that make it an afternoon glory?

When you look at the photo it looks like I used flash, which caused the background to go black. However, if you look carefully at the way the light falls, with some of it coming from the back, you realize I would have had to use an elaborate multi-light setup to get this kind of lighting. I took this shot in the early afternoon, with the light mostly coming from the side and back of the flower.

My fellow photographer and blogger CIndy Dyer says that the shadow in the bottom area of the white part of the flower looks like a photographer (possibly with a bald head) with a camera and long telephoto lens and she initially thought I had somehow managed to get a reflection of myself onto the flower. We may have spent too many hours yesterday out in the sun with our cameras!

Glory Photographer blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Autumn heron reflection

Posted in Art, Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on October 25, 2013| 6 Comments »

The bright fall colors of the trees at the pond’s edge were reflected beautifully in the water and I waited until the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) moved into those reflections to capture this shot.

The effects of the light on the water remind me a little of some of the paintings of Monet, one of my favorite artists. Normally when I am photographing birds, I do my best to fill the frame with them, but in this case the context was actually more important to me than the apparent subject.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Ring-necked Duck

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 24, 2013| 7 Comments »

Migrating birds are starting to arrive in my area, including a few Ring-necked ducks (Aythya collaris) that I observed last week in a man-made pond in a nearby suburban housing area. The water in my local marsh tends to be too shallow for these diving ducks, but this pond seems to suit them pretty well.

The ducks tend to stay near the center of the pond, which makes them a little challenging to photograph. These shots were taken from a distance, but they let you see some of the beautiful details of the male Ring-necked duck, including the pattern on his bill and his beautiful golden eyes.

If I have the good luck that I had last year, I look forward to seeing and photographing another half-dozen species of ducks in the coming months.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Praying grasshopper

Posted in Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on October 23, 2013| 10 Comments »

When this praying mantis began to straddle a hapless grasshopper, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but suspect that the grasshopper may have been the one that began to pray.

Was the mantis looking at the grasshopper as a potential mate or a potential meal? With praying mantises, the question of mate or meal is a little complicated, because some females reportedly bite off the heads of the males after mating.

As it turned out, the praying mantis ignored the grasshopper and simply climbed over him and the grasshopper’s prayer undoubtedly turned into one of giving thanks.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Fall foot fad

Posted in Dragonflies, Humor, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on October 22, 2013| 7 Comments »

When this bright red male Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly landed briefly on my fellow photographer’s white sneaker yesterday, it suddenly struck me that we might have hit on a potential fall fashion fad. Why not accessorize plain shoes with colorful dragonflies in seasonal colors? We could start with the Autumn Meadowhawk for fall and perhaps move on to the Common Whitetail as the snow begins to fall. Spring could bring on the Green Darner and summer could feature the Blue Dasher.

Of course, we couldn’t use real dragonflies, but they could serve as models for pin-on or clip-on dragonflies. Size-wise, it looks like this Autumn Meadowhawk is about the right size.

Now that I have a marketing idea, all I need is investors.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Dragonflies mating on a calf

Posted in Dragonflies, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 22, 2013| 14 Comments »

There is something a little wistful about searching for the last dragonfly of the year. Most of the familiar dragonflies from the summer have disappeared and it looks like the sole remaining dragonfly in our area is the Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum vicinum).

Yesterday I spent some time trying to photograph this dragonfly along with fellow photographer and blogger Walter Sanford, who has an amazing collection of photographs of dragonflies on his blog site, including a world-class series on the Blue-faced Meadowhawk. I was willing to try to capture photos of any dragonfly that I could spot, but Walter noted that he had taken enough photos of the male Autumn Meadowhawk and was really interested in photographing females or, even better, mating pairs.

The mating pairs tended to elude him most of the day, until suddenly a pair in the “wheel” position circled around us and landed on his bare calf—talk about unprotected sex. There was no way that he could twist himself around to get a good photo, but I manage to get this shot of the two dragonflies in action.

Temperatures are supposed to continue to drop this week, so there is always a chance that these will be the last dragonflies that I see this year, though I will be out searching for them for weeks to come before I bid my final adieu to them.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Seeing spots

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2013| 3 Comments »

As the outside temperatures continue to drop, I am seeing fewer and fewer spiders. This is one of my favorite recent shots of what I think is a barn spider. I really like the way that the spots in the background mirror the spots on the spider’s abdomen.

I think that this may be a Neoscona crucifera spider, though it may be an Araneus cavaticus spider. Strangely enough, both of them are sometimes known as barn spiders.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Grasshopper encounter

Posted in Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , on October 21, 2013| 5 Comments »

Perhaps the old adage that “opposites attract” applies to grasshoppers too. When I photographed this intimate moment on a leaf, I couldn’t figure out for sure what was going on.

Perhaps the grasshopper was attracted by the bright colors of the Handsome Meadow Katydid and was trying to start a conversation.  Maybe this was a blind date set up by some well-intentioned friends. Is it possible they matched on a lot of points in the insect version of Match.com?

I have photographed grasshoppers and katydids separately, but this is the first time I have them both in a single image. It is fascinating to be able to compare the bodies of the two species and note the differences in the eyes, the legs, and many other parts.

The striking colors of the Handsome Meadow Katydid have always drawn my attention, but I am left with one question to ponder. Do grasshoppers even see in color or only in shades of gray?

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Surrounded by leaves

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 20, 2013| 7 Comments »

Although I have been seeing a lot of cardinals recently, most of them seem very skittish and fly off as I approach. This Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) flew away a short distance and observed me from a tree where he was almost surrounded by the foliage.

With that bright red coloration, though, it’s a little hard to conceal yourself entirely.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spider games

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on October 19, 2013| 11 Comments »

I am not really sure what these spiders were doing, but it looked to me like they were engaged in a game that I played as a child called “King of the Hill.” The objective of the game was to climb to the top first and then to repel the efforts of the others trying to unseat you and take your place.

The two spiders seemed to be racing to the top of this plant’s stalk in the first photo and the second image shows that the one on the left was the winner. Somehow that second image reminds me of the iconic shot of King Kong on the Empire State Building, clutching the spire of the building.

It was a challenge trying to track moving subjects like this with a macro lens and my need for a higher shutter speed caused me to sacrifice some depth of field. I do like the simple, uncluttered composition that I was able to achieve and the fact that I was able to capture these little spiders in action.

spider_games2aspider_games1a© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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American Coot in the marsh

Posted in Art, Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 18, 2013| 8 Comments »

Have you ever watched a coot swim? When I first spotted this American Coot (Fulica americana) earlier this week at my local marsh, I thought it might be a duck. Once it started swimming, I could tell immediately that it was a coot.

Coots have a really clumsy way of swimming. They thrust their necks forward and then back, as if to generate momentum to propel themselves forward. The two photos show two different positions that the coot assumes while swimming. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology that coots, unlike ducks, don’t have webbed feet, but instead each one of the coot’s long toes has broad lobes of skin that help it kick through the water. In fact, they are closer relatives to Sandhill Cranes than to Mallards.

This coot was by itself and may be migrating through this area or may become a resident here for the winter. I was happy that I saw the coot in a relatively open area of the marsh. A short time later, the coot swam into the cattails and disappeared from sight.

Given the popular use of the term “coot,” I wonder if I am old enough to qualify as an American coot too.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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House Sparrow

Posted in Birds, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 17, 2013| 14 Comments »

When I first saw this bird, I knew that it was a sparrow, but couldn’t identify it. I was baffled when I went to my Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, because I couldn’t find the sparrow. I went back and forth through the 14 pages covering sparrows, examining carefully the text and illustrations, but none of the species looked like this bird.

I was beginning to doubt my identification skills, so I kept looking through the field guide, desperately hoping to find the bird. On the very last page of the section of the guide with information on bird species, just before all of the range maps, I stumbled across a small section called Old World Sparrows and found the bird—it’s a House Sparrow (Passer domesticus).

Apparently Old World sparrows are non-native (as their name suggests) and are of a different family from all of the other sparrows that I have observed. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology website indicates that House Sparrows were introduced from Europe in 1851 and that they are common in places with houses, because the birds seem to prefer to nest in manmade structures, like the eaves of buildings, more than natural nesting sites. I took these photos at a little manmade lake that is partially surrounded by houses, rather than at the marsh where I do a lot of my shooting, which may explain why I have never noticed this type of sparrow before.

little_bird1_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spider and sky

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on October 16, 2013| 4 Comments »

Here’s another shot of one of the numerous spiders that I observed yesterday at my local marsh, which I have not yet been able to identify.

This one was pretty big and seemed to be putting out a lot of silk, one strand at a time. If you look closely, you can spot numerous eyes and a cool orange racing stripe down the middle of its face. I took this shot from a low angle so that I could capture the spider with the sky as the partial backdrop.spider_sky_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Contemplative sparrow

Posted in Birds, Landscape, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on October 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

Perched on the end of a railing at the marsh, this sparrow seems lost in thought as it surveys the surrounding area.

Most of the time I try to get as close to my subject as possible, either with a telephoto or macro lens, but in this case I liked this image the moment that I pulled it up on my computer screen. I struggled to find words to explain why I like this particular shot, but the lines, the colors, and lighting somehow combined in a way that I find interesting and pleasing.

sparrow_light_blog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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