Great Egret in a tree
Great Egret: Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2025 — What a treat! One of my favorite clusters of trees out in the marsh…and two Great Egrets busy preening in the branches. The top one was difficult to photograph, against the sky and among the twigs, but the lower one posed so nicely. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 @ 600mm equivalent. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Highlight metering to hold feather detail. Processed in Photomator.
Arrowleaf
Arrowleaf. Mousam River at Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk, Maine, August 2025 — I am embarrassed to say that for years I have had the plant confused in my mind with Arrowroot. Only this morning did I discover the error of my ways. I love the bristly balls and the delicate flower, which the rare and endangered Brown-banded Bumblebee seems to be enjoying. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Aperture Program with my macro modifications. Highlight metering. Processed in Photomator.
Jewelweed
Jewelweed: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2025 — I can not tell you how often over the years I have tried to photograph Jewelweed. It is so tempting. So intense. So textured and so sculpted. And what it does to sunlight, or in sunlight is miraculous. Always. And yet, it is very hard to photograph. Not only is it almost always blowing about in the least of breezes, but there just does not seem to be any way to catch more than a single angle, and managing exposure to bring out the translucent splendor is difficult at best. So, this is perhaps my 10th attempt this year 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 114mm equivalent. My macro mode modifications to Aperture Program. Processed in Photomator.
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.