Posts in Category: afternoon light
Hoping for Kinglets. Happy Sunday!
Golden Crowned Kinglet
I do not generally go out.to photograph a.particular bird. On a trip to.a.bird place.like.Cape.May I set myself to photograph whatever will sit still long enough to get the camera on it. I come back with a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers because.that is what is there,and.I am happy with that. That does not mean that I do not hope for more. In fact with every new Yellow-rump the hope creeps up on me. This trip it was: Yes, but a kinglet in good light would be nice. 🙂
There weren’t many kinglets this year compared to some. Sometimes, in Cape May, they are dripping from bushes and littering lawns. Not this year. I had only seen a very few Ruby-crowned until yesterday when I walked up on a group of Golden-crowned avidly working around the base of some saplings way out behind the Hawk Watch at the State Park. I photographed them on the ground in the shadows, but again I was really hoping to catch one in a tree in good light. They just would not perch long enough. Until, of course, one.did 🙂
Such a blessing! Hope rewarded. And of course I walked on full of gratitude. I mean, really, a Golden-crowned Kinglet perched just below eye-level in the late afternoon sun. It does not get any better than that.
I made a point of telling the next 6 birders I met that the kinglets were there. Share the blessing! And I am doing it again right here. Happy Sunday.
Palm Warbler working the grass.
Palm Warbler
Although 95 out of every 100 passerines passing through Cape May yesterday were Yellow-rumped Warblers, there were a few other species. This Palm Warbler was one of three feeding with a large flock of 50 or more YRWs, just behind the Hawk Watch Platform at Cape May Point, Lighthouse State Park. There is a picnic shelter there, with tables, and this time of year I like to sit at the end of a table nearest the brush beyond the little bit of grassy area and pick off warblers and sparrows as they glean seed from the grasses and bugs from the brush. Like all the birds backed up against Deleware Bay in Cape May during migration, the birds by the picnic shelter are so busy feeding up for the crossing that they pay little to no attention to humans. We had about 45 minutes of sun yesterday afternoon, and I spent most of it at the picnic shelter. Believe me when I say, I was just as busy as the birds!
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Wide on the Little for Wednesday
Sweep panorama near the mouth of the Little River on Laudholm Beach
On Sunday my photoprowl featured heavy skies over the October landscape. This is a sweep panorama taken just back from the mouth of the Little River where it crosses Laudholm Beach. I like these tall/wide shots, taken with the camera in portrait orientation. Of course this shot is all about the lowering sky, the sweep of the sand, and the curve of the water. The hint of color in the distant trees is an added highlight.
Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
October Marsh
Little River Marsh, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
When October sends a gloomy day…you take gloomy day pictures. There is still a beauty to be had. The sky broods. The colors burn like late embers. I seem to be stuck in cliche mode, but you get the gist. This is from the observation deck on the boradwalk trail at the Well National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm in Wells, Maine.
Sony HX400V in-camera HDR. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
October Sky, Laudholm Farm
Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
This is not the first time I have shot this view, and it almost certainly will not be the last. 🙂 It is such a classic that the University of New Hampshire Panorama Project has put a panorama post on the spot, though this shot is from nearer ground level.
It is an in-camera HDR, and I used Program Shift to get a smaller aperture and greater depth of field, even on this day of subdued October light. Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent. ISO 80 @ 1/500th @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom on Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Seattle!
view from the roof of my hotel 🙂
I am in Seattle for a few days, working on a digital imaging project for a client. They put me up at the Mediterranean Inn just up the hill from the Space Needle. They have a roof garden/observation deck on the roof that offers this classic view of downtown Seattle. It rained all day, until about 4PM, and I got back to the hotel just in time to catch the low afternoon sun across the bay lighting up the city.
In-camera HDR with the Sony HX400V. 24mm equivalent. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Intimacy thy name is Chipmunk! Happy Sunday.
Chipmunk. Kennebunk Bridle Trail.
The prediction yesterday was for clouds pretty much all day, and it was indeed a dark and gloomy fall day in Southern Maine, and chilly with it…until it started to rain. They had not predicted the rain. But then, about 3PM, the rain stopped and the clouds broke and the low afternoon sun of an October day in Maine lit up the wet foliage in the back yard, and I grabbed the camera and headed for the Kennebunk Bridle Path. And it was glorious. There were birds…not only the abundant Yellow-rumped Warblers that are passing through on their way south, but a Great Egret relatively close, feeding and striking striking pose after striking pose. Such a treat. And the Chipmunks in the wooded area along the Bridle Path beyond the marsh on the east side of Route 9 were apparently making up for lost time. Like kids finally let out after a rainy inside day, they were everywhere, scampering, filling the woods with their sharp challenge calls. I caught this one fully exposed, in good light, with the interesting colors of fall behind it, out on a limb and determined to drive me away before he abandoned his perch. I took well over 100 exposures, from all angles, of this fellow as I slowly worked my way closer. 🙂 I even took a break to photograph a challenging Grey Squirrel across the Path, high up in a tree, also, as it happened, in a spot of sun…and the chipmunk was still there when I turned back. That is cooperative! I finally walked on and left him to his perch in peace. There were other chipmunks to photograph, warblers, and the whole wet marsh and fall foliage ambiance under an interesting sky in the late afternoon October light. It was glorious!
I felt like a chipmunk, let out after a long day of rain…making up for lost time!
Now I am certain, the Chipmunks and Egrets and Warblers felt the same elation…the undeniable positive energy of the afternoon…I do not think I am reading too much into their behavior…but I suspect they did not feel the thanksgiving that flooded me. Maybe they did? I know I did. It was so good to be alive for such an hour…and so good to be aware of how good it was. What do people do with such thankfulness if they do not believe in God…the creator God who loves, who loved such a glorious afternoon into being? I sometimes think that is our part…our particular notes in the symphony of the day…we are the instrument of praise…our voice proclaims the good…highlights the grace…exalts the giver…gives thanks for all that lives…for all that enjoys the intimate pleasure, the raw exhilaration, of being alive in Southern Maine on an October afternoon after rain.
Can you see that in the Chipmunk’s eye?
Happy Sunday!
Sony HX400V at 2400mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 640 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
A river runs through Maine too…
Mousam River at Roger’s Pond
Several, of course, but if you get the movie reference, this is one of the more popular fly fishing rivers and fly fishing spots in Southern Maine. It is the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond. There are fly fishermen here while the river is a narrow channel running through sheet ice, and they will be here until the snow blocks access to the stream. This shot combines the best of what the river and autumn in Maine have to offer.
It was not an easy shot. The sun on the water behind the fisherman made a conventional exposure impossible, and the motion of the fishermen made HDR problematic. I tried several shots to get this one in-camera HDR treatment. Even then it took more than my standard Lightroom processing.  55mm equivalent flied of view. Sony HX400V. Pretty much a classic: right off the cover of the Orvis catalog. 🙂
The way fall is supposed to be…
Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River
“Maine: the way life is supposed to be.” State motto. 🙂 Or at least what it says on the welcome sign on I95 when you cross the Kittery Bridge from New Hampshire. I have been waiting all fall so far for a sky like this over the foliage. Sky the way it is supposed to be. Fall the way it is supposed to be. I stood by this lake, Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River, for over an hour waiting for a spot of sunlight to break through and light the foliage, but I had to settle, in the end, for indirect light. Still, pretty good! And the sky is not devoid of interest. 😉
Sony HX400V at 24mm equivalent. In-camera HDR with the level set to 6 EV and -2/3rd EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Sunflowers in the Sun
These giant Sunflowers are from the garden at Laudholm Farm a few days ago. As I mentioned earlier this week, sunflowers in Maine rarely get the chance to go to seed. Our growing season is just too shot. If the frost holds off another month, these might make it. 🙂
Sony HX400V at 565mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/640th @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 2 tablet.