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Posts Tagged ‘Runnymeade’

First iris of the spring

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , on April 2, 2024| 3 Comments »

As I was preparing to go out to lunch yesterday with my dear friend and photography mentor Cindy Dyer, she glanced down at her garden and noticed that an iris was already in bloom, the first one of the spring. I suspect that this is some kind of dwarf iris, because it was nestled low in the vegetation and was only about six inches (15 cm) tall.

I thought about cropping the photo a little tighter, but wanted to retain the bug that is in the upper left corner of the image. As you might guess, I did not notice the little insect when I captured the photo with my iPhone. Cindy likes to call these “bonus bugs”—it is amazing how often I discover these “bonus bugs” in my photos when reviewing them on my computer.

Cindy has planted a wide variety of irises in her garden, so this is a sneak preview of the amazing beauty that is yet to come. I don’t know the name of this iris variety, but love the lavender color of its “beard.”

iris

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Raindrops on tulips

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 23, 2024| 8 Comments »

Raindrops on tulips are one of my favorite things. I photographed these different varieties of colorful tulips today in the garden of my dear friend and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer during a break in the rain.

I love spring flowers.

tulip

Lady Jane tulip

tulip

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Grape Hyacinth

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2024| 7 Comments »

I love the shape of Grape Hyacinths (g. Muscari), one of the early-appearing flowers that I look forward to each spring. The names of species sometimes do not match their appearances, but in this case the name fits perfectly—the little flowers do indeed look like a bunch of grapes.

Our recent weather has been windy, which makes it challenging to go out hunting for wildlife to photograph, because most of my potential subjects use common sense and seek shelter from the wind. As a result, I have resorted to visiting the garden of my dear friend Cindy Dyer and photographing her flowers, like this Grape Hyacinth that I spotted earlier this week.

I used a macro lens to get really close to the tiny flower to capture details, but the wind made it tough to get a sharp shot—as you get closer to a subject, the effect of any movement of the camera or the subject is magnified. On the whole, though, I like this modest portrait of one of my favorite spring flower.

Grape Hyacinth

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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First tulip of the spring

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, spring, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 20, 2024| 1 Comment »

As many of you know, I do not have a garden of my own. My dear friend and photography mentor Cindy Dyer, however, lives close to me and loves to plant photogenic flowers. At this time of the year I really enjoy passing by her garden to see what has popped up.

I was delighted yesterday to see a beautiful red tulip in bloom in the middle of the garden in front of her townhouse. There was only a single tulip blooming in the midst of some hellebore plants, but it was not hard to spot. I don’t know much about tulip varieties, but think that this might be a Lady Jane tulip (Tulipa clusiana var. ‘Lady Jane‘)—I recall Cindy mentioning this variety in previous years.

I thought I would be photographing flowers close up, so I had a 60mm macro lens on my camera. This tulip, alas, was farther away than I would have liked and I did not want to step on any vegetation to get closer or to get a better angle.

I contented myself with a few shots to record this beautiful flower, my first tulip of this spring (with many more to come).

UPDATE: My memory failed me. Cindy let me know that the Lady Jane tulip is pink and white and not red like this one. I should probably have checked with her before I posted the images.

tulip

tulip

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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First crocus of 2024

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , , on March 3, 2024| 4 Comments »

When does spring begin? Many of us in the Northern Hemisphere measure the seasons using the astronomical calendar and this year spring begins on the 19th of March, i.e. the vernal equinox. For those who use the meteorological calendar, however, spring began on the 1st of March.

I generally use something other than a calendar when I measure the change of seasons. I feel the beginning of spring when the weather starts to warm up and the daylight begins to linger a bit longer. I can feel nature stirring, preparing for new life in the animal and plant kingdoms.

One of the signs of spring that I look for is the emergence of early spring flowers. This weekend I am cat sitting for my friend Cindy and her husband Michael, who are out of town on a trip to Texas. Cindy, my photography mentor and fellow photographer, has a wonderful garden that I have featured in this blog numerous times. The last couple of weeks I have checked out her garden, waiting patiently for the first flowers to appear.

I was delighted on Thursday to see that a tiny purple crocus was blooming amid all of the leaf clutter. It was only a single bloom, but it somehow filled my heart with joy and excitement. For me, spring has begun.

crocus

crocus

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Cardinals in the snow

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2024| 9 Comments »

There is something iconic about a photo of a Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in the snow and every time that we have a snow storm I try to capture images of these bright red birds. Fortunately I did not have to travel far to find some cardinals—I captured all three of these images in the suburban townhouse community in which I live.

Given the bright color their plumage, it is not hard to spot male cardinals, but they tend to be pretty active and don’t sit still for very long, so I had to react quickly when I managed to get an unobstructed view of one. I tried to frame my photos so there was at least a little bit of snow visible in the shot and more or less succeeded in doing so.

The weather forecasters predict that we will have some more snow tomorrow, so I will probably spend a little more time getting acquainted with my neighborhood birds this weekend.

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Junco in the snow

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, snow, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on January 17, 2024| 12 Comments »

We ended up getting 4-5 inches (10-13 cm) of snow in the storm that concluded yesterday. That may not sound like a lot of snow, but it was enough for the federal government and all of the school districts in the Washington D.C. area to be closed for the day. The roads were icy in my neighborhood, so I played it safe and did not venture out in my car at all.

However, I did go for a walk in my townhouse community in search of birds. It felt a little strange to be carrying a long telephoto zoom lens in such a heavily populated area and I alternately between feeling like a Peeping Tom and a member of the paparazzi.

I was happy to find a few birds in a strip of woods in our community, including this Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). It was initially foraging on the ground when I spotted it, as you can see in the first photo, and then flew into some trees when I took a few steps closer.

It is sunny out today and the roads are mostly clear, but that is a bit deceptive, because the temperature was only 14 degrees (-10 degrees C), the last time I checked. Yikes! I have not reviewed all of my photos from yesterday, so I probably will stay inside and finish that review, rather than venture out with my camera today.

Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Outside my front door

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on November 6, 2023| 7 Comments »

As I was preparing to lock the front door of my townhouse in Northern Virginia one day last week, I glanced over at a bush about 10 feet (3 meters) away where a bird was perched. I pivoted my body, turned on the camera, and focused on the little bird, which I noted was a Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)—I going out out on a photo adventure, so my camera was slung over my shoulder.

Fearing that I might scare off the wren, I snapped off a few shots without paying too much attention to my camera settings. It felt a little strange to photograph a bird at such close range. In most cases I photograph birds with my 150-600mm lens zoomed out to 600mm, but in this instance I took the shot at 309mm and probably should have zoomed back a bit more.

When I was reviewing the images on my computer,  I checked the camera settings I had used and found out my camera was set at ISO 800, f/6.3, and 1/100. I am a little shocked that I was able to get a relatively sharp shot at such a low shutter setting, but the lens does have some built-in image stabilization and I am used to holding the lens pretty steady.

Some photographers travel great distances to capture wildlife images. This shot is definitely award worthy, but it does show that you may not have to travel far from home to see and photograph nature and wildlife. Beauty is everywhere.

Carolina Wren

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Raindrops on irises

Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , on April 30, 2023| 10 Comments »

The rain has stopped for now, but some raindrops remain, sparkling like tiny jewels this morning on the bearded irises in the garden of my neighbor and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. I tried to get creative with the framing of the first shot, with a blurred iris in the background of an unopened bud.

In the second shot, I was so close to the bearded iris that you almost can’t tell that the primary subject is a flower—I love my macro lenses. There third and fourth shows show a couple more varieties of irises that are currently in bloom in Cindy’s garden, with lots more still to come.

Iris

Iris

Iris

Iris

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Coming attractions

Posted in Art, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , on April 9, 2023| 6 Comments »

Yesterday I stopped by the garden of my neighbor and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. Her early-season tulips were well beyond their prime, but more tulips are getting ready to bloom. I was a little surprised to see that some of her irises are already starting to bloom too. I love to photograph flowers when they are at this stage of growth—they are already beautiful and give hints of the additional beauty that is to come.

Happy Easter to all of you who are celebrating this holy day. Christ is risen!

tulip

tulip

iris

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Springtime in Cindy’s Garden

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2023| 4 Comments »

Flowers are starting to bloom in the garden of my dear friend and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. Yesterday I photographed several varieties of tulips and some cute little grape hyacinths.

As many of you know, I do not have my own garden. However, my photography mentor Cindy Dyer lives nearby and she has amazing gardens in her front, side, and back yards. She generally plants flowers that she knows are photogenic and I know that during the growing season that there will almost always be something to photograph.

Earlier this spring, I was able to photograph a few crocuses and a tiny red tulip, but now a whole lot more flowers are starting to appear. The multi-colored tulip in the first photo, I believe, is a variety known as the Lady Jane tulip (Tulipa clusiana var. ‘Lady Jane’). In the past, this tulip stood much taller—this one was growing close to the ground.

The red tulip in the second photo is a more traditional variety. I deliberately set my camera to have a shallow depth of field to blur out the background that at this time of the year is somewhat patchy and cluttered. As I processed the photos on my computer I noticed that I had inadvertently captured a shot of my first insect of the season, what Cindy likes to call a “bonus bug.” The weather yesterday was cloudy, so I did not have to worry about harsh shadows, which meant that the colors seemed especially vibrant and saturated.

The final photo shows a tiny grape hyacinth (g. Muscari), one of many that have popped up in Cindy’s garden. These colorful little flowers grow really close to the ground, so I was sprawled out a bit to get this low-angle shot that isolated the flower from the background.

 

Lady Jane tulip

tulip

grape hyacinth

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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First crocuses

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , on March 6, 2023| 12 Comments »

Spring is almost here. This past weekend I spotted the first spring flowers—blooming in the garden of my friend and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. Longtime readers of this blog are well aware that I am not a gardener, but often visit the Cindy’s garden during the flower season—Cindy deliberately plants flowers that are fun to photograph.

The first crocuses that I spotted were some purplish ones that in Cindy’s front garden. These are the type of crocuses that I encounter most frequently and I associate them with the arrival of spring. When I posted a photo of one on Facebook, Cindy alerted me to the fact that several yellow ones were blooming in her backyard garden.

I don’t recall ever having seem yellow crocuses before, so I was delighted to see them. I was really awkward trying to get a shot of them, so I resorted to getting a relatively close-up shot with my 60mm macro lens.

I have also noticed clusters of cheery yellow daffodils in bloom throughout my neighborhood. Our weather is still variable, but spring is on the way. On a side note, next Sunday we begin Daylight Savings Time, yet another sign of the changing seasons. If I am not mistaken, Europeans do not change their clocks until the last Sunday in March, which is 26 March in 2023.

crocus

crocus

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Lilies in June

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , on June 16, 2022| 10 Comments »

Lilies are now blooming in the garden of my neighbor, Cindy Dyer, who is also my photography mentor and muse. There are all kind of lilies there, including daylilies, Asiatic lilies, and giant white ones. Cindy deliberately likes to plant flowers that she knows will be photogenic.

I always feel overwhelmed when trying to photograph groups of anything, so I naturally gravitate to close-ups of individual flowers, focusing in on details that grab my eyes. Sometimes it is shapes, while at other times it may be colors or textures. Here are a few photos from my visit on Tuesday to Cindy’s garden, my impressions of some of the beautiful lilies that I encountered.

lily

lily

lily

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Prime time for bearded irises

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, iris, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , on May 7, 2022| 3 Comments »

It is prime time for the bearded irises in the garden of my dear friend and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. There are several dozen irises in bloom now in multiple colors, including these beauties, and it looks like even more flowers will be blooming soon.

Beauty is everywhere.

bearded irises

Bearded Iris

Bearded Iris

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Pseudo studio iris photos

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, studio photography, tagged , , , , , , on April 27, 2022| 19 Comments »

It is now the season for irises. All kinds of irises are starting to pop open in the garden of my dear friend and photography mentor Cindy Dyer. We are neighbors in a townhouse community in Northern Virginia, which means there is relatively little space for gardening, but Cindy manages to pack an amazing amount of flower power into her limited area. Fortunately, she and her husband, who is also a Michael, live in an end-unit, so they have a bit more space than the interior units.

Cindy likes to select flowers to grow that she knows will be photogenic and love to pore over the flower catalogues on line. Our challenge is to figure out how to capture the  beauty of these carefully selected flowers in the crowed garden. One of Cindy’s techniques is to use a small artificial background to help to isolate the flower. Often she uses a white foam core board to which she has attached a piece of black velvet-like material. She can then create studio-like images with a black or white background, depending on the flower.

This technique requires two people, because it is almost impossible to hold the background in place and frame a shot at the same time. I took these iris photos yesterday while Cindy held the background in place for me and then we reversed positions. In some of the images it looks like I was using some kind of studio lighting, but it was all natural night on a somewhat cloudy day that diffused the light nicely.

You don’t really need any special equipment to create this effect—you could use almost anything for a background. The day before, our improvised background was a collapsible black storage cube from IKEA that Cindy had just given me. The final photo, taken by Cindy with her iPhone, shows me holding that black cube and gives you a sense of the garden environment and how the technique is used.

bearded iris

bearded iris

bearded iris

iris

background

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A few more tulips

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography, spring, tulip, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2022| 9 Comments »

As we move deeper into spring, more and more flowers are popping up in the garden of my neighbor, fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. It is a fun adventure to walk over to the garden every few days to see what new bits of beauty have sprung forth out of the earth.

One of my favorites that I look forward to seeing each spring is the Lady Jane tulip (Tulipa clusiana var. ‘Lady Jane’), featured in the first photo below. It is a small tulip with pointed petals and a delicate pink and white coloration.

The red tulips are a bit more traditional in terms of their shape and coloration. I love to explore them from all angles and their bright, cheery color is a joy to behold.

Some more tulip buds are beginning to mature and it looks like there may be yellow tulips next. Spring is such a beautiful season.

Lady Jane tulip

tulip

tulip

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Coming attractions

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2022| 5 Comments »

In the springtime we often watch and wait in the garden, anticipating the beauty that is to come. Sometimes, as was the case with these tulip buds, we have a sneak preview of the coming colors, but often the blooms take us by surprise. I love those kinds of surprises.

As many of you know, I do not have my own garden. However, fellow photographer Cindy Dyer is one of my neighbors and she has an amazing garden, full of fun flowers to photograph.

tulip

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Grape Hyacinths

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , on March 27, 2022| 9 Comments »

One of the early signs of spring is the emergency of the tiny stalks of Grape Hyacinths (g. Muscari). As their name suggest, these spiky little flowers look a bit like bunches of grapes. Most of the time grape hyacinths are bluish in color, but they come in other colors too and sometimes, as you can see in the second photo, there may be multiple colors on the same flower stalk.

I captured these images in the garden of my dear friend and neighbor Cindy Dyer. Cindy is used to seeing me skulking about in her garden and I usually am able to keep her informed about what is blooming in her own garden.

Using my short macro lens, I was able to capture some of the interesting patterns of these grape hyacinths. In the first image you can see how the little “grapes” grow in a spiral pattern. The second image shows how the “grapes” open up at their ends as they mature. I really like the way that both images feature the raised three-petalled impression on so many of the grapes—the shape looks almost like it was embossed.

Grape Hyacinth

Grape Hyacinth

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Ladybug in March

Posted in Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2022| 10 Comments »

As I was scanning my neighbor’s garden for new growth yesterday, a small bit of bright orange caught my eye. I moved closer to see what it was and was shocked to find a tiny ladybug crawling around one of the plants.

The ladybug was pretty active, moving up and down the leaf, so it was challenging to get a shot of it. Eventually, though, my patience paid off and I was able to capture this image. Later in the year photos like this will become more commonplace, but during the month of March I am overjoyed whenever I have a chance to photograph an insect.

I did not get a good look at the face of this insect, so I cannot tell if it is an Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis) or one of the native ladybugs, which are less common in most areas. Whatever the case, there is something whimsical about ladybugs that makes me smile, so I was happy to spot this one.

ladybug

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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First tulip of the year

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , on March 19, 2022| 16 Comments »

I spotted this tiny red tulip yesterday morning in the garden of my dear friend and photography mentor Cindy Dyer, my first tulip sighting of the year. One of Cindy’s passions is gardening and she deliberately plants a lot of flowers that she believes will be photogenic.

Last fall she planted bulbs for some large, frilly, multi-colored tulips that she hopes will bloom later this year. (See my posting from last spring entitled Fire-breathing dragon to see an example of one of those crazy-looking parrot tulips.) I will be looking for those exotic flowers, but I have to say that am often drawn more to the simple, spare elegance of a single bloom, like today’s tulip.

When I first started to get serious about my photography almost ten years ago, I imitated the type of photographs that Cindy was taking, with a lot of emphasis on macro shots of flowers. Cindy taught me a lot about photography during those early days, lessons that have stuck with me as I have ventured into other areas of photography.

One of those lessons was about the value of a well-composed, graphic image, like today’s simple shot. Anyone, in theory, could have taken this shot, but they would have had to be willing to get on their hands and knees in the dirt to do so, another one of Cindy’s lessons. (If you want to see more of Cindy’s tips, check out her article How to Grow Your Garden Photography Skills that was featured several years ago on the NikonUSA.com website.)

tulip

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Last gasp of winter

Posted in Art, dragonfly, Flowers, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on March 16, 2022| 16 Comments »

My thoughts have already turned to spring, with visions of colorful flowers and dragonflies dancing in my head. However, it turns out that winter was not quite done and last weekend we had a couple of inches of snow, a final hurrah for the season of winter.

Here are a couple of shots of my “winter dragonfly,” a metal sprinkler in my front yard that I featured in a previous post that showed the intricate detail of the dragonfly. I am also including a shot of some of the green shoots in the garden of my neighbor and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. I think some of these might be tulips, but must confess that I am pretty clueless when it comes to plants.

Many of you know that I am somewhat obsessed with dragonflies. In 2020 I saw my first dragonflies of spring on the 3rd of April, the earliest I have ever seen dragonflies—see my 6 April 2020 posting First dragonflies of the season. I will probably go out and search for them in earnest during the final week of March. There are a couple of early emerging local species that I will be searching for along with migrant species like the Common Green Darner that might be passing through our area.


dragonfly

dragonfly

plant

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Crocuses

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, spring, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on March 9, 2022| 6 Comments »

Pushing out of the still dormant winter earth, several crocuses in the garden of my dear friend Cindy Dyer were shining brightly yesterday, a hopeful sign of the spring beauty that is yet to come.

For the first image, I shielded the sun with my body to avoid the harsh highlights that the sunlight was creating. I then changed my shooting position so that the sunlight was streaming from another angle, which caused the yellow parts of the flower to glow.

Please continue to pray for the people of Ukraine and for all those affected by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Crocus

crocus

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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First daffodils

Posted in Flowers, Nature, Photography, spring, Winter, tagged , , , , , on March 6, 2022| 9 Comments »

As I was walking through my neighborhood yesterday, I was delighted to spot some daffodils (g. Narcissus) that were already in bloom. The ground is still brown and bare and not very photogenic, so it is hard to take a “pretty” picture of these beautiful little flowers.

I used a short macro lens capture these images of the early daffodils, the advance guard for a multitude of spring flowers that will arrive before long. I am ready for the spring.

daffodil

daffodil

daffodil

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Winter dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , , on February 6, 2022| 21 Comments »

It has been several months since I last saw a dragonfly and I will have to wait for a couple more months before they reappear in my area. As many of you know, dragonflies are one of my favorite subjects to photograph—there is something almost magical about these beautiful aerial acrobats.

As I was shoveling snow after a recent storm, I glanced over at the front yard of my townhouse and was struck by the beautiful patina of the dragonflies that are part of a lawn sprinkler.

The metal dragonflies reminded me of the beauty that is to come, of the new life that will burst forth when spring arrives. Those thoughts filled me with hope and happiness and help to sustain me through the often bleak days of the winter.

dragonfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Mourning Doves in the snow

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on January 7, 2022| 15 Comments »

There is something really soft and gentle about Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura), and we seem to have quite a few of them in my neighborhood, as I discovered while walking about on Tuesday after our snowstorm the previous day. Some of the ones that I saw were by themselves, like the dove in the first and second photo, while others were in pairs, like the two in the final photo.

Mourning Doves always seem long and angular to me. In these shots, the birds seem to have puffed up their feathers a bit in an effort to stay warm. I am always amazed that birds and other wildlife manage to survive when conditions get this harsh and inhospitable. On this day, at least, there was some sunshine, which allowed the birds to warm up a bit.

mourning dove

mourning dove

mourning dove

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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White-throated Sparrow in the snow

Posted in Birds, tagged , , , , , , , on January 6, 2022| 7 Comments »

It was delightful on Tuesday to photograph cardinals with a brilliant blue sky as a backdrop, but many of the birds that I try to photograph do not perch high up in the trees. Birds like this White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) spent most of the time near the ground, poking about in the undergrowth. If I am lucky enough to get a clear view of one of these birds, the background is likely to be cluttered and distracting.

Snow has a way of decluttering the image, obscuring some of the pesky background branches. This was the case in the first image when I was able to capture the intensity of the sparrow in mid-cry. His little white “beard” is a perfect for the match for the snow and I was happy to be able to capture his little yellow eye stripe.

The second image has a much more gentle feel to it. The blurred snowy background allows us to focus on the puffed-up sparrow perched on the tiny branch protruding from the snow. The sparrow seemed to be taking a break, resting and recovering as it contemplated its next moves. As is usually the case, the sparrow did not sit still for very long and resumed its foraging a short time later.

White-throated Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Cardinals in the snow

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , on January 5, 2022| 18 Comments »

Yesterday afternoon I trudged through the snow in the wooded areas of my townhouse community and was thrilled to spot a few birds. The sun was shining brightly and the skies were blue, but the temperatures never really rose above the freezing level.

It felt invigorating to be outdoors, though I must admit that I felt a little self-conscious skulking about behind my neighbors’ houses with a camera with a long lens. However, nobody called the police to report a peeping Tom, so I guess that I was ok.

When it comes to iconic shots of birds in the snow, nothing beats the impact of a bright red Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). The only problem was that I could not find one. Fortunately I was able to spot an equally stunning female cardinal that appeared to be basking in the warmth of the sunlight. I had to maneuver about quite a bit to get a clear shot of her, but am pretty happy with the composition that I was able to get, especially in the first photo that captured some of her personality.

Eventually I did find a male cardinal, but he was not very cooperative. I could see his color clearly—it is impossible to hide when you are that brightly colored—but branches kept me from getting a clean shot. The final image shows the only unobstructed view I could get of the cardinal when I was almost directly below him as he steadfastly ignored me and refused to look down at me. Still, I really like the shot, which has an abstract feel to it that I find really appealing.

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Cindy’s cats

Posted in animals, Cat, Photography, Portraits, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 26, 2021| 21 Comments »

I am helping this weekend to take care of three cats that belong to my friend Cindy Dyer and her husband. I mention Cindy fairly often on this blog because she is a constant sources of encouragement and inspiration in my photography and has mentored me over the years—she is a freelance photographer and graphic designer. She is also an amazing gardener and most of the times when I feature flower photos, I have taken the shots in her garden.

Cindy works from home, so her three cats are used to having someone around during most of the day. Over the years I have taken care of the cats multiple times and they are relatively comfortable with my presence in the hours. That being said, each of the three cats has his own personality and shows me varying degrees of attention and affection.

I took these shots of Lobo, Pixel, and Queso yesterday afternoon when I stopped in to check on them. All three cats seemed to be evaluating me and I like the way that I was able some of their personality in these informal little portraits.

Lobo

Pixel

Queso

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Crazy tiger lily

Posted in Art, Flowers, Photography, tagged , , , , , on July 11, 2021| 4 Comments »

My dear friend and neighbor Cindy Dyer has some crazy-looking colorful flowers in her garden, like this one, which I think is some kind of double Tiger Lily. The not-yet-opened petals in the center of the flower at this stage of development remind me of the tentacles of an octopus. I love the way the fence in the background turned out, with all of the colorful bokeh balls in parallel columns.

tiger lily

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Bee and daisy

Posted in Bees, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 20, 2021| 17 Comments »

How do you draw attention to the main subject in your photograph? One effective way is to choose a camera setting that will give you a shallow depth of field, so that only the subject is in sharp focus and the rest of the image is blurred. Another way is to ensure that the colors and texture of the background contrast with those of the subject.

I used both of these techniques yesterday morning when I spotted this metallic green sweat bee (g. Agapostemon) on one of the Shasta daisies growing in the garden of my neighbor and photography mentor Cindy Dyer. I love these little bees with their large speckled eyes and shiny green bodies and got as close to this one as I dared with my Canon 60mm macro lens.

I opened the aperture of the lens all the way to f/2.8 to let in lots of light and to achieve the narrowest possible depth of field. That is why the center of the daisy falls so quickly out of focus. As I was composing the shot, the flower reminded me of an egg that had been fried “sunny-side up” and I chose an angle that emphasized that look. (In case you are curious about the other camera settings, the ISO was 800 and the shutter speed was 1/800 sec.)

There is nothing super special about this image, but it is a fun little photo taken close to home that reminds me that beauty is everywhere. A series of creative choices in camera settings and composition by the photographer can often help to draw a viewer’s attention to that beauty. (I encourage you to click on the image to get a better view of the beautiful details of the little green bee.)

green sweat bee

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Asiatic lilies

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged , , , , , , , on June 12, 2021| 12 Comments »

I love the spectacular colors of the Asiatic lilies that are now blooming in the garden of my dear friend and neighbor Cindy Dyer. These brilliant colors, which look almost neon in their intensity, were especially welcome yesterday, when it was gray and rainy the entire day.

Asiatic lily

Asiatic lily

Asiatic lily

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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