Posts in Category: close up
Cedar Waxwing among berries…
Cedar Waxwing, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
As I have mentioned, I got a lot of good shots of Cedar Waxwings in the ornamental berry tree at Roger’s Pond Park in Kennebunk Maine last week. I have already shared one. This is another 🙂 I love the pose and the color. The image did take some massaging, however. There was an out-of-focus twig running right up through it in the foreground, right at the tip of the birds beak. It did not destroy the image, but it was distracting. The image was originally processed in Snapseed. I was then able to remove the twig in Handy Photo which has a magic touch-retouch feature that is like PhotoShop’s healing brush, only better. I did some final clean up using a brush mask in Polarr. That is much more processing than I normally do on any image. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). Processed as above. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f4.
Happiness!
Eastern Bluebird, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
It is the Bluebird of happiness, always! Not the Crow, or even the Cedar Waxwing, or the Great Blue Heron. Can you see it…the Great Blue Heron of happiness? No, it is the Bluebird of happiness. I know I am always happy to see one, or several as the case usually is. This specimen was part of a flock of a dozen or so feeding in and around Roger’s Pond Park in Kennebunk Maine early this week. It was there on the roof of the picnic shelter drinking melt water from the snow.
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet.
And may this truly be your Bluebird of Happiness for today!
Blue and white…
Blue Spruce, Brown Street, Kennebunk Maine
We had another of those snowed all day and then turned to rain days in Southern Maine yesterday, but for a while there we had a nice white frosting over everything. This is just a Blue Spruce in the yard of a house down the street. I like the delicacy of the blue/green against the white, and the contrast in texture between the needles and the snow.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program mode. 1/250th @ ISO 250 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my Android Tablet.
Winter Finch
House Finch, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine.
I misread the thermometer getting ready to go out yesterday and was considerably underdressed for the 17 degree temperatures at Roger’s Pond on the Mousam River in Kennebunk Maine. But there was a flock of feeding birds there, visiting the ornamental berry tree, and they kept me out until I was way too cold. House Finches and Goldfinches, Eastern Bluebirds (all around but not in the berry tree), Cedar Waxwings, Blue Jays, and both Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers. It was quite a show, and I got enough good pics to make freezing bearable 🙂
This House Finch has clearly been eating too many of those red berries already…it is rare to see one so intensely colored, especially in winter. Of course the winter light helps. I have closer shots, but I like the berries in this shot almost as much as the bird.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Cropped for scale and composition and processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet.
Crabapples in winter…
Crabapples, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk Maine
I found these Crabapples still hanging in a tree along the Kennebunk Bridle Path down by the lower reaches of the Mousam River, a half mile in from the sea. They, and the red berries of Winterberry (Bog Holly) and the few remaining Beach Rose hips, inspired yesterday’s Day Poem.
Down by the Mousam River in its last
mile run to the sea, on a cold, snowless,
December day (snow in the forecast
after mid-night), ice in the drainage, ice
smooth on the marsh pools, the world
done in browns and grays…mostly
texture in the slanting winter light…
the red of winterberries (bog holly),
beach plums, withered crab apples,
startles the eye, arrests the attention,
forms the color axis around which the
winter landscape and the dull sky turns.
In this image, I like the apples, of course…the delicate shadings of the red…but it would not be the image it is without the background…the bokeh. I played with angles until I got the effect I wanted. I have a slightly closer view, but I like the context the bare branches give this image.
Sony RX10iii at 407mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/60th @ ISO 125 @ f8 (program shift). Processed in Polarr on my Android tablet.
Frosted Oak
Frost on oak leaves. My yard, Kennebunk Maine
Yesterday’s Day Poem was about waking to a heavy frost. What I did not say is that I got dressed and went out into the yard to capture the event in photos, just as the sun was rising. These four images catch some of the feeling of the frost on the oak leaves and grass.
Sony RX10iii in-camera HDR. Processed in Snapseed to bring out the frost effect, and assembled in PicStich on my Android tablet.
And the poem:
Under the street lights this morning
before dawn, it looked like it had
snowed in the night…the lawn was
white, and the cars looked covered.
I had to go to the back deck and
turn on the light to see that it was
only heavy frost. I have been fooled
before. I am ready for snow…oh
I know, once it comes I will remember
it is always, at best, a mixed blessing.
I could be out there right now with
the snowblower in all my winter gear
clearing the drive. No, I guess I won’t
hurry the season. And there is much to
be admired, after all, in a heavy frost.
November forest floor
Fungi, Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells, Maine
My wife and I took a walk around the loop trail at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge near our home in Maine yesterday. The day was overcast, a real late November fall day…no snow yet here in Southern Maine (like most of the nation). The forest was largely bare. Even the oak leaves were all off. The fungi on fallen birches and maples showed easily with all the undergrowth died back. This found still-life was just off the trail. I like the mix of textures here, the way the wintergreen pokes out beneath the fungi, the way the small maple leaf rests, and the richness of the damp colors.
Sony RX10iii in-camera HDR. 200mm equivalent field of view. Nominal exposure: f4 @ 1/200th @ ISO 800. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet. Cropped for composition.
Snow Geese Rising
Snow and Ross” Geese, Bosque del Apache NWR near Socorro New Mexico
After my morning workshop at Bosque del Apache’s Festival of the Cranes (Intro to Point and Shoot Nature Photography) I went out for a quick drive around the Refuge Tour Loop. There are not a lot of Snow and Ross’ Geese in yet (too warm still north of here), but what there were were all on the main Flight Deck Pond near the entrance station. I pulled over to get a few pics. I was isolating a Snow Goose with 1200mms (using Clear Image Zom) when the Geese suddenly rose and took flight. I swung the camera up and caught this close up of the rise. The circled long enough so I got many more shots of them in the air, but this one catches the sheer energy better than most. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Passerini’s TanagerÂ
Passerini’s Tanager. Snyder Canal, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Before we got to Swan Island and the Red-billed Tropicbirds yesterday, we spent most of the day motoring quietly along Snyder’s Canal… the first Panama Canal…built to move bananas from Plantation to port. It was only used for about 5 years before the United Fruit Company built a railroad that was much more efficient. Along the shores of the old canal today you can get close views of many of the lowland and forest species. This Passerini’s Tanager came right out to the edge to take a look at us as we floated a dozen feet off-shore.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. Processed and cropped slightly in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
God’s Dog
Coyote, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
I am up early tomorrow and headed for the airport for the first leg of my flights to Panama…I will get to Panama City by 7:30PM tomorrow, to the hotel by 8:30, and then we have a 5AM pickup for the flight to Bocas del Toro. My posting schedule will be off for the next 9 days…but I will attempt to post at least to my Facebook and Google+ Pic for todays. This post is for tomorrow, 8/20.
God’s Dog is what the native Americans of Southern Arizona called the Coyote, and in this pose it is easy to see why. Such a beautiful animal. Again, I don’t post zoo shots that are obviously zoo…but who can resist the Coyote in its natural setting?
Sony RX10iii at 534mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.