Posts in Category: close up
Drawn in ice…
Mousam River at Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
While looking for ice bells along the Mousam, I could not ignore the sheet ice at the edge of the river. I should say that the Mousam at Roger’s Pond is a long stretch of rapids…the last long stretch before the long slow slide to the sea. The river freezes right up to Roger’s Pond, and above the rapids and the dam in Kennebunk for miles. It is a popular spot for fly-fishermen year round. So the ice at the edge of the river is sculpted…or drawn in this case…by the rapidly moving water. I always find the forms that frozen water can take fascinating. The regularity, and the symmetry of the patterns speaks of an inherent order in the water that is certainly not evident when it is tumbling down the rapids of the river. (There is a poem in that sentence if I can let it out!).
Sony HX90V at 200mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Ice Bells on the Mousam
Along the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
I told the story of finding these ice bells along the Mousam River in yesterday’s Year Poem. (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+StephenIngraham/posts/Ec4WMeWA9xQ) . This set formed off and existing shelf of ice attached to a log just the right height above the stream. Though I understand the physics of the ice bell, I am not at all sure I understand the physics of this shelf and ice bell formation. ?? It is certainly beautiful with the sun shining through it!
In camera HDR. Sony HX90V at 514mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Buddhist Red
Red Squirrel, The Yard, Kennebunk Maine
The Red Squirrel that lives in our backyard, and visits our deck frequently these days, is clearly a Buddhist monk. He has the pose and the posture down pat. He does not carry a begging bowl so he is evidently a cloistered monk (I think that might be a mixed metaphor, but I am not sure đ A member of a monkestary? Clearly a sage presence.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 140 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. A feeder pole cropped out on the right.
Winter hat
Fungi growing on a birch stump. Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
I have walked right by this rather amazing cap of fungi growing on a birch stump at Laudholm Farms hundreds of times. Of course, in summer, it is somewhat hidden by the brush around the base of the tree…still I am surprised that I did not find it before this. The December light the other day helped. The low angle illuminated things not ordinarily seen. This cap is old enough to have picked up some algae. Unlike its role in lichen, with is a compound organism, I think the algae here is just in symbiotic relationship with the fungus. What caught my eye, and what is still of primary interest to me in the image, is the texture of the fungi. The tiny hair like structures on the surface caught the light and made the fungus glisten. And then there is the form of the thing. I find it fascinating.
Sony HX90V at 24mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: 1/250th @ ISO 80 @ f5.6. (Program shift used to increase depth of field.). Processed in Lightroom.
Red Again
Red Squirrel. the yard in Kennebunk, ME
I can’t resist posting another Red Squirrel pic. (See yesterday’s Generous Eye post.) He was back on the deck yesterday for a half hour or so, entertaining us again. When I open the big glass sliding door out to the deck when there is a Gray Squirrel at the feeders, it scampers as fast as it can go…especially now that my war against feeder raiders is well known among the neighborhood squirrels. Often just looking out the door is enough to send the squirrel flying. The Red is completely different…sort of the chickadee among squirrels. It stops what it is doing to look at me, but then just goes on about its business. This shot was taken with the squirrel on the deck rail about 8 feet from the deck door. I had to open the door, and poke the camera out to take it, but the squirrel just sat there and looked at me while I got into shooting position. I took a dozen shots before he decided to go back to the feeders for one last snack before scampering off the deck and into the yard next door. Talk about bold!
Since the squirrel was well inside the minimum focus on the Nikon P900, I had to run to the bedroom for my P610. This uncropped image was taken at, as I say, about 8 feet…at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 280 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
A First! Red Squirrel in the yard. Happy Sunday!
Red Squirrel, the yard, Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I don’t have a lot of patience with squirrels around my bird feeders. They can finish a block of peanut-butter suet in a morning, depriving the birds of the treat. I do what I can to discourage them. They have learned to keep away from the seed, but they simply can not resist peanut-butter suet blocks. đ We have the common Grey Squirrels in our yard…cute when encountered in the forest…not so cute on our deck with the feeders.
There are Red Squirrels in our corner of southern Maine. I have seen them along the Kennebunk Bridle Path, and in a few spots on the grounds of the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms just south of us in Wells. This summer they were pretty regular…I saw them on at least three separate visits…along the boardwalk through the Maple Swamp there. Even so, compared to the abundant (especially so this year) Grey Squirrels, they are pretty rare. I have never seen one in your yard…until yesterday that is. I came back from a trip to the store to find one gathering left-over seeds from the deck and the rails under the feeders.
I can’t speak for other folks, but I find the Red Squirrel much more attractive than the Grey. They are a size smaller, with little round heads and perky ears, and delicate shock of tail when compared to the dense brush of the Grey. And they seem to have more personality…or squirrelality…or however it needs to be said. They are fearless, curious, and somehow engaging. The Red Squirrel on the deck, even when I got my Nikon P900 and went around outside for some pics, went boldly about his business…but he kept running out to the end of the deck rail nearest me to sit and watch me as he ate his latest seed find. Even when he went for the seed feeders, he did on glom on like a Grey, wrapping the feeder in a squirrel coat and stuffing as many seeds in his cheek as is squirrelly possible…no, he made a lighting, leaping, raid…only touching the feeder long enough to grab a single seed. Just like most birds. And then, again, he would run out to sit up above me on the rail and nibble it until it was gone. After, he would sit, Buddha like on his behind, back feet tucked under, upright, with his front paws just touching above his belly, and contemplate me for a few moments before scampering off in search of another seed.
When he left the deck he did the same thing in the branches of the young maples that edge our yard. Instead of running away, he worked his way out on the branches until he was practically right above me, and sat and enjoyed a few seeds from his cheek pouch…spitting each one out and maneuvering it with his clever paws, so like hands, as he again nibbled it away. We had a good time there, for 20 minutes or so, he posing, and me taking pics…until he scampered away into the neighbor’s yard. (He came back an hour later and repeated the performance for my wife, two daughters, and a partner who had joined us for a Saturday lunch…providing another fifteen minuets of entertainment after the meal.)
I have read that Red Squirrels are actually more of a problem for humans than Greys. Perhaps because of their boldness, they are more likely to damage buildings and ornamental plants than Greys. Some college campuses have imported the Black variant of the Grey Squirrel (a slightly more aggressive variety) specifically to cut down the number of Reds. On the other hand, in the UK, where the invasive Grey Squirrel has lead to a drastic decline in Red Squirrel numbers, there is an active “save the Red Squirrel” campaign pretty much nation wide. Here in Maine, at least for me, a Red Squirrel is still a special treat.
Or, since it is Sunday, a blessing. The Red Squirrel visit filled me with joy…and delighted the family at lunch. Delighted! Filled us with light…or at least topped up our light supply. It was an “all creatures great and small” moment, when we felt generous toward all that lives. And I am still feeling generous this morning. So generous I think I will put out another block of peanut-butter suet for the Grays! God’s creatures, after all. And for that they can thank the Red Squirrel.
Happy Sunday!
December Tapestry
Mix of fallen leaves, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
No December snow yet here in southern Maine, and none in the forecast. The advantage of course is that we are getting to see the oak and other fall leaves weather and begin to decompose. đ For some obscure reason this combination of leaves and grasses…the colors, the textures, the shapes…caught my eye and I circled around it for a few moments finding the angle. Yes, it would make a great jig-saw puzzle, but I find it attractive enough to grace any wall…or to make a wonderful screen saver image.
Sony HX90V in-camera HDR at 90mm equivalent field of view. Nominal exposure: 1/100th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
American Kestrel
American Kestrel, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
Early in the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, my friend and colleague Rich Moncrief, who was working the observation decks in the early morning, got some crackerjack pics of an American Kestrel in great light. I was sooo envious, as the Kestrel is among my favorite North American birds (and photo envy is one of my few remaining faults :). The Kestrel. the smallest of our North American falcons, might even be tied for first with the Green Kingfisher, the smallest of our Kingfishers. There were a lot of Kestrels on the refuge this year, and, of course, I kept an eye out for them. I had several photo ops, and took a lot of frames, but nothing to compare to Rich’s shots. On Friday morning, Sarah (my daughter) as with me for an early round of the tour loops, and she made it her mission to find Kestrels. This one was our second, near the end of our round. We had just photographed another down the road, but we stopped to hike back to the photo blind to see if there were ducks behind it. No. On our way back to the car, this Kestrel flew up into trees along the tail. The light could not have been better, and I pushed the Nikon P900 out into Perfect Image Zoom to fill the frame. Not a perfect shot but enough to cure my photo envy!
Nikon P900 at just under 4000mm equivalent field of view. Handheld at 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron, Bosque del Apache NWR, Socorro NM
The Great Blue Heron is not my favorite bird…and not even my favorite bird at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge…but I have always thought that if you want to turn someone on to birding…there is no better way than to give them a good close up view of a GBH in the field! The combination of feather texture, subtle colors, and the not-subtle-at-all yellow eye, make the GBH a knock-out bird. And they are likely to stand still long enough so anyone can get a good look. This specimen was in one of the water channels between the tour loop and the fields and brought us to an abrupt stop. It waited patiently while we got out and took way too many images, and was still there when we drove on. The low morning angle of the light brings out all the detail.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Female Cardinal!
Female Northern Cardinal. Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, Cape May NJ
There is a slightly funny story about the female Cardinal shot from Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area in Cape May, New Jersey. It was still fairly early in the morning, as you can see by the angle of the light, and I was taking a second turn around the meadows at Higbee. I heard the Cardinal chipping in the brush beside the path, and was busy photographing it, when I heard something crashing through the brush and trees behind me. I turned slightly, and a Sharp-shinned Hawk burst out of the foliage, below my eye-level, and shot up and across the path about a foot from my head…after my Cardinal. I ducked, and the Cardinal apparently did too, because the Sharpy landed in a tree just beyond without any prey. So, of course, I took pictures of it. Fair play. it scared off my subject…it became my subject!
This shot, despite the drama, shows off just how sharp the Nikon P610 is at full zoom in ideal light. 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.