Posted in Autumn, Nature, Photography, tagged autumn colors, autumn foliage, Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on October 6, 2018| 12 Comments »
Shining brightly from behind the leaves, the sun revealed their autumnal beauty.
This is completely different from my “normal” photography, but when I stumbled upon this blaze of color while exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I couldn’t help but try to capture a sense of the moment.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Autumn, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, autumn, autumn foliage, Autumn Meadowhawk, Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, Sympetrum vicinum, Tamron 180mm macro lens on October 28, 2014| 12 Comments »
Many of the other dragonflies are gone for the season, but the Autumn Meadowhawks (Sympetrum vicinum) will be around for quite some time, possibly even into December. Autumn Meadowhawks like to perch on the ground much of the time, but yesterday I was happy to capture one in what I consider to be its natural environment, perched among the colorful leaves of the autumn foliage.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Art, Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, autumn foliage, birds in flight, Branta canadensis, Canada Geese, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens, geese, geese landing, Huntley Meadows Park, orange 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.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
