Green
Green Heron: Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. August 2025 — It was over a week ago now that I walked up on this Green Heron tucked up under the bank on my side of the river, only to spook it and have it fly across. I have been back a few time since to see it might be making the river there part of its territory but I have not found it again. It is a long river. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 @ 600mm equivalent. Program mode with birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Greater Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2025 — The shore birds are beginning to come back trough on their way south already here in southern Maine. This is not the first Yellowlegs I have seen, but it was standing nicely along the edge of the stream where it flows out to the river. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
cones
Drying conifer cones: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2025 — I am taking a course in Mindfulness and Photography, which it turns out is pretty much superficial mindfulness techniques with little or no direct connection to photography…but hay, they tried. The one thing it has reminded me to do is to look more attentively for the images that are there waiting for me to see them. I am good at doing that with birds and wildlife…but I forget sometimes to look down at the ground, or out at the landscape. I have a vague feeling that images like this one are just slightly pretentious…like making a sows ear into a silk purse. Still, I like the image. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 102mm equivalent. My macro mods. F13 for depth of field. Processed in Photomator.
Story of the hawk and the mockingbird
Red-tailed Hawk and Northern Mockingbird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2025 — This big Red-tailed Hawk flew over the road ahead of me while I was on my trike, chased by a Mockingbird. By the time I got off the trike and my camera up the hawk had settled in a tall conifer. I could not see the Mockingbird with my naked eye but I knew it was in there somewhere too. I took some shots with the hawk off-center in hopes of catching the Mockingbird, and managed to get both in the shot. The Hawk was still obviously feeling harassed and did not sit for long. And the Mockingbird was still on its tail when it flew. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent (and cropped). Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Sky says it all…
Kennebunk, Maine, USA — sometimes the sky says it all. Sony a5100. Sony 10-18 f4 wide angle zoom. Superior Auto selecting Landscape Mode. Processed in Photomator.
White-tail doe
White-tailed Deer, doe: Rachel Carson NWR, Headlands Trail, Wells, Maine, USA, August 2025 — dropping back a few days to visit the White-tail doe that I encountered at Rachel Carson last week. Her she is finally crossing the path in the open. One of the fawns was right behind her. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 222mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
caterpillar
I am not certain which caterpillar this is. It was hanging, as they do, from a single tread from a branch overhead, along the Kennebunk Bridle Path, and doing its caterpillar dance. I snuck up on it with my Sony a6700 and Tamron 50-400 at 133mm equivalent. Program with my insect modifications and highlight metering to preserve detail in the caterpillar in the sun against the dark background. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
there she blows!
Humpback Whales: Off Kennebunk/Kennebunkport, Maine, USA, August 2025 — We went looking for Whales with FirstChance Whale Watching yesterday. A glorious day on the water but we did not find whales until we had already turned back and were almost out of time. Whale watches from Kennebunk/port do not get as far as Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and rely on the few whales that feed closer to shore. We were blessed to find this mother Humpback and her calf within sight of the boat, and were able to turn and approach. Humpbacks do not play with boats as some whales do, but we got to see both mother and calf breach many times as they came up to breathe. I needed another day at least to get my hand in for whale photos, but these are a few of the more memorable. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at various focal lengths for framing. Program mode with my action modifications. Processed in Photomator. In the second photo you can see both mother and calf as the breached together. 🙂
Going away
White-tailed Deer fawn: Rachel Carson NWR, headquarters headland trail, Wells, Maine, USA, August 2025 — another shot from my White-tail encounter on Friday. Going away shot. My friend Paul would find this point of view amusing, but I say take what you can get. It is all about the eyes anyway. I think she might have been looking for her twin, not at me, but it makes a good shot anyway. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 340mm equivalent (they were not far away). Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Fawn
White-tailed Deer Fawn: Rachel Carson NWR, Headquarter’s Trail, Wells, Maine, USA, August 2025 — I had the most amazing and wonderful encounter with a mother White-tailed Deer and her two twin fawns yesterday at the Rachel Carson Headquarters. I was only 50 yards down the trail around the headland, before even where the loop begins and ends…kind of in the angle between the entrance and the loop. There were already a few people standing there looking into the woods with their phones up, obviously taking photos of something. And there they were. mom and two fawns, not 30 feet back in the woods, but in thick brush. I angled around looking for clear shots. Neither mother or fawns were at all concerned with the humans so close, nor by the passing (thankfully all leashed) dogs. What was more amazing to me is that the dogs seemed totally unaware the deer were there. Or maybe they were all just overstuffed and too domesticated to care. Eventually the mom and one fawn leisurely if cautiously walked across the trail and went down over the slope to the river below. I expected the other fawn to follow soon, but it stayed where it was, peacefully grazing on something close to the ground for the full 40 minutes or so I stood and watched, and worked for photos. At least a dozen people passed, adults and kids, and I pointed out the fawn to all of them. They were each as awestruck as I was, though they might not have realized how rare, what a privilege, such a moment is. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at various focal lengths for framing. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.