Posts in Category: rabbit
Colorado! Thumper.
Eastern Cottontail: Centennial, Colorado, USA — I asked my granddaughter Everleigh to help me pick a photo for this morning’s post. I suspect this is the patriarch of the bunny clan that lives in the housing developments around my daughter’s home in Centennial. He was taking is his ease, warming in the morning sun in the middle of a residential street, and was not bothered by us on the sidewalk at all. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 250 and 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th and 1/800th.
Colorado! Bunnies
Wild Rabbits: Centennial, Colorado — The only other wildlife we have seen on our walks around Centennial with our granddaughters are the wild Rabbits that seen to enjoy the lawns of the housing developments and the small parks. I will not say they are everywhere, but there are a surprising number of them, and, as you might imagine with them living in suburbia, they are somewhat tame. This one sat for me for close-ups…though some of that might have been the “freeze” response. (“If I do not move he can’t see me!”…which is a survival technique against airborne and other sight predators, but does not work well against photographers…or other “shooters” for that matter. Fortunately for the rabbits, I am pretty sure shotguns are banned by the local HOAs, if not by the city itself. 🙂 Anyway. The bunnies are a big hit with the granddaughters and look remarkably healthy. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 372mm and 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. (No need to switch to animal mode for animals of this size, I am finding.) Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 1250 and 1600 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.
Black-tailed Jackrabbit
Black-tailed Jackrabbit, Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, Cochiti, New Mexico
We spent the day at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in Cochiti, New Mexico yesterday. We finished the day’s hiking (which is to say my legs had had enough) by about 2:30, and had a dinner appointment in Albuquerque at 5:30 so we had some time. I sat at a picnic table and processed pictures from the day on my tablet. As it was getting time to think about moving on, Carol, who was in the car knitting, leaned out the window and said, “look to your left.” I obeyed, and there was a Black-tailed Jackrabbit sitting not 20 feet away in a patch of sun. By the time I got my camera out, it had moved closer, and it kept coming until it was sitting about 12 feet from my table. I, of course, took way too many pictures. 🙂 The Jackrabbit is actually a hare, the third largest in North America, and is certainly an impressive beast. Compared to a Desert Cottontail, which shares its habitat, it is huge…heavy and dominated by those very large ears and the equally as large eye. Impressive.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Funny Bunny. Happy Sunday
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center, Weslaco TX
“if your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
The morning fog, common in the lower Rio Grande Valley, did not burn off at Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center until about 10 AM yesterday. Dew, as they say, was heavy on the grass. Maybe because of that there were lots of Eastern Cottontail Rabbits out breakfasting on the grasses along the edges of the trails. Lots! Many of them were clearly this year’s young, not fully grown…but even the adults showed a fine disdain of the passing birders…often going about their morning business until we were within 6 feet of them. This young rabbit was at the edge of the tail the whole time I passed, and let me stand there and take photos of him without the slightest alarm. He did not even pause in his chewing. I guess he knew I did not want to eat him, and wished him only good. I would like to think he saw that in my generous eye…but I suspect he simply knew no better…having been born into a sanctuary where humans are, indeed, no threat.
Paradise is often portrayed, based on the Psalms, as a place where the “lion will lay down with the lamb.” That sense that someday we will live in harmony and mutual respect…in peace…with all of creation…that all creatures will consider us friends and we will care for all that lives, because all that lives matters to us as much as we matter to ourselves…that sense is deep within us. I believe it is left over from the Eden days, when we were still caretakers of creation…not out for our own good, but dedicated to the good of all that lives…because that is the way we were made…in the image of God who cares for all creation.
And I thank this little rabbit for giving me a glimpse of what that would be like…for allowing my close approach…for suspending alarm in my presence long enough so see the generosity in his eyes. As I say, I hope he saw it in mine. Happy Sunday!
Close Encounter of the Rabbit Kind
I was taking a turn on the boardwalk behind the Hawk Watch Platform at Cape May Lighthouse State Park when a young man with a digiscoping rig set up motioned me to join him. There in the tall grasses, a few feet from the boardwalk, a rabbit was doing its best to look like “oh nothing…just a shadow in the grass…move along…nothing to see here”. It was so close I do not know how the digiscoper was getting anything more than the eye in frame. This shot is at 1200mm equivalent. You can clearly see both of us humans reflected in the eye. Close encounter of the rabbit kind. 🙂
Canon SX50HS in Program with -1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. f6.5 @ 1/100th @ ISO 800. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Desert Cottontail
I found this specimen at the Bird and Butterfly Garden in the Tijuanna River Open Space Preserve south of San Diego. And what can you say, really, about such an image? The rabbit was there, ideally placed in good light, posing as I approached. I simply had to take the shot. I took my first shot at as soon as the rabbit comfortably filled the frame.
And then I continued walking closer until I got the portrait shot. Easy. Both shots 1200mm equivalent field of view.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. f6.5 @ 1/500th and 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. On a technical note: I am really coming to appreciate the fact that I can just leave the Canon SX50HS on auto ISO, and let it run ISO up as high as is needed when the zoom gets long. Image quality at ISO 800 is as good as ISO 200 was a few years ago. Better, actually. 
5/16/2012: Shy Seaside Rabbit. Cape May NJ
The seaside rabbits of Cape May New Jersey are famous, at least in my mind, for their nonchalance around humans. At Lighthouse State Park, long the trails behind the Hawk Watch, and below the dunes at The Meadows (Cape May Migratory Bird Sanctuary), the rabbits go about their business pretty much without regard for human traffic. If you get too close, say inside 6 feet, they just kind of hop our of sight…no rush…but they don’t want to be stepped on. I have never seen one run.
That makes bunny photography very easy in Cape May. This was late in the day, getting on towards supper time, and on trail behind the Hawk Watch at Lighthouse State Park.
As you see, my rabbit friend was aware of me, but not overly concerned. Just keeping an eye on me out of the corner of his eye. I like the rich detail in the fur in these shots. It makes me what to reach out and touch it, and gives the illusion that I might.
The final shot is my closest approach. After that shot he ambled into the deeper grass.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 3) and 4) 840mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160 and 200. 2) 526mm equivalent. ff.8 @ 1/160th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
6/27/2011: General Woundwort instructs on Eating Thistle
The thistle, as a food source, is problematic. The question, don’t you see, is how to eat it…and I do assure you it is quite tasty…without getting stung on the lip. The proper technique is to roll the lip back and come in from the side. Observe.
You see? Quite delicious really, and quite worth the trouble, what?
Any questions? I thought not.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 403mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto with Active D-Lighting and Vivid Image Optimization. No animals were harmed in the making of this sequence.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.