Posts in Category: Sony RX10iv
Pileated Surprise!
Pileated Woodpecker: Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I have determined to walk 2-3 miles a day between now and my photo trip to Costa Rica the end of the month…hoping to rebuild the stamina I lost due to my broken wrist over the summer. I will need it during my two weeks in the rainforests and mountains of Costa Rica. Yesterday I walked to Roger’s Pond, hoping to find the flock of Cedar Waxwings in the ornamental cherry trees, or perhaps the flock of Bluebirds that is assembling and has been seen various places around Kennebunk in the past week. I did not see either. I did get to see this Pileated Woodpecker! A nice bright male in all his glory. I heard him calling as he flew in and landed right overhead…high overhead, but still. I got off a series of shots as he climbed higher up the trunk, and then he paused to call right at the top, against the sky, and I just held the shutter button down and hoped for the best. These are the best I got. I would have like him closer, but, with today’s post-processing tools, you can stretch your lens and shrink the distance by using artificial intelligence or machine learning routines to enlarge the image, then crop for the equivalent of, in this case, maybe a 2400mm lens field of view. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent optical zoom. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. +.3 EV to balance the sky. Processed in Polarr, Pixelmator Pro Photo, and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Autumn Meadowhawk, living up to its name…
Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly: Kennebunk and Wells, Maine, USA — The Autumn Meadowhawk is the only dragonfly flying this first week in November here in southern Maine, but there are still fair numbers to be seen, almost anywhere where there is water nearby. The top one was along the Kennebunk Bridle Path where it crosses a more or less fresh water marsh beside the Mousam River. There are always dragonflies there and it is one of my favorite places to look for them. The bottom one was taken in the deep woods at Laudholm Farms, with only a little stream nearby, not a place I would particularly look for any kind of dragonfly. And not only are they still flying, I had a mating pair land on my chest (I was wearing a bight yellow hoodie for hunting season safety and perhaps the color attracted them). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 100 @ f4.5 and f4 @ 1/1000th and 1/500th.
Pretty Garter Snake
Garter Snake, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I am always happy to see a snake on one of my hikes. I have a friend who literally always sees a snake wherever he is…but that is him, and I am me. I rarely see one. And, at least in Maine, if I do see one it is almost certainly a Garter Snake…the most common snake in Maine, and probably in the USA. Still, always delighted! This was a particularly large and pretty Garter. It must have been three feet long, and corresponding robust, and so brightly patterned that I suspect it has recently shed its skin. Or maybe it was just well polished from sliding through the undergrowth still wet from rains overnight. When it came to a ditch full of water about 5 feet across, flooded from said rains, it just skimmed over the surface. It did sink a bit as it cruised up the bank looking for a place it could slither out, but it kept its head high and dry. I was happy just to get a few photos. Sony Rx10iv. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. 1) at 184mm equivalent @ ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/400th, and 2) at 554mm equivalent @ ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Cheating on Red
Red-Squirrel, Alwive Pond Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — So this is totally cheating. This is the same Red Squirrel I posted twice already (different pose in a different section of the tree, but still from the same encounter). The problem was that the background was totally washed out…I mean so white that I could not recover any detail in it. Still, I like the pose so I thought, lets have a little fun with it. I took it into Pixomatic for some MagicCut work, refined the results, and pasted in another forest photo, taken with the iPhone at Laudholm Farms. Adjusted the brightness and contrast to make it fit better. Took the result back into Polarr and worked on it some more. Finished it off in Apple Photos. It is not perfect, but I put as much time into it as I was willing to give this morning, and it makes for an interesting image (and an interesting exercise). I think 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed as above. Just for fun.
Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs: Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells, Maine, USA — I was walking the trail at the Rachel Carson Headquarters, standing on the deck actually, overlooking Branch Brook before it becomes the Little River, taking a landscape of the fall colors up the stream, when this odd row of white spots way out in the marsh, running down a bank cut on a far loop of the stream, caught my eye. At full zoom on my camera they resolved into a small flock of shore birds, though at that distance I could not be sure which ones. Still I took a couple of shots at 600mm equivalent just because the arrangement of the birds on the bank was so interesting. I knew that to get any detail at that distance I would have to use Pixomator Pro’s ML Super-resolution (and again, was tankful to have that tool in my arsenal). What you see here is the same shot twice. Once showing the whole group, staggered down the cut, and then just the 4 center birds…cropped and run through MLSR in Pixomator Pro Photo. I count 9 Greater Yellowlegs and one possible Lesser (far left in the wider version). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr, Pixelmator Pro Photo and Apple Photos, and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Another of the Alwive Red Squirrel
Red Squirrel: Alwive Pond Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Another shot of the Red Squirrel I encountered on my way out from Alwive Pond the other day. In processing this one I noticed that he has all four paws off the tree…so mid leap. I really like the out of focus branch in the background of this series. Also notice the back patch in his tail. Red Squirrel are highly variable in color and color pattern, but i have not seen this back spot in the tail before. A very handsome squirrel. Sony Rx10iv at 400mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Another low light shot. ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/400th.
Entertaining Red
Red Squirrel: Alwive Pond Preserve, Kennebunk Land Trust, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — When I visit Alwive Pond I am always hoping for a moose. I saw on there in early 90s. 🙂 Now days I have to be mostly satisfied with a Red Squirrel, and some visits I don’t even see one of those. I caught this one gathering leaves, probably as nest lining, and, as Red Squirrels will, he decided to contest the trail with me, facing off a daring me to come any closer. Very entertaining. He was all over the tree trunk, striking aggressive poses in hopes that I would back away. I particularly like this apparent handstand on the twiggy branch. It was overcast by the time I was headed out, October mid-afternoon, but there was not a lot of light under the heavy canopy of pines, so this shot is testing the image quality limits of the Sony Rx10iv at high ISO. 400mm equivalent (that’s how close I was). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr using my Sony High ISO preset, so some noise suppression involved, and finished off in Apple Photos. ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/400th.
Vesper Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Most range maps for Vesper Sparrow do not show it as present in Southern Maine, but we do have a population on the Kennebunk Plains not far from me. It is a grassland bird, and the Plains are as close to grasslands as we have in Maine. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr, Pixelmator Pro Photo, and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker: Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine, USA — I am always delighted when we have a Red-bellied Woodpecker at our feeders, which we do several times a year, so imagine my delight when I caught one “in the wild.” I was photographing the foliage along the Batson River at Emmon’s Preserve when I heard the raucous call of the RBW up the hill from me. And there it was. A bit too far away, of course, even for my 600mm equivalent lens, but needs-must. I gave the shots the Pixelmator Pro Photo machine learning maximum resolution treatment and cropped to fill the frame. The orange foliage behind makes for an attractive setting. Sony Rx10iv, as above, at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr, Pixelmator Pro Photo, and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Turkey!
Wild Turkey: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — We had to go to Kennebunkport on an errand yesterday about noon, and saw these two tom turkeys (you can tell by the well developed breast beards) feeding by what will be the new headquarters of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge when they get around to renovating the existing buildings. The Wildlife Refuge bought (or perhaps was given) a large stone mansion and extensive grounds that already occupied an enclave in Refuge lands just down the street from us. I was not thinking about the turkeys when I decided to take a walk down that way…just out for exercise and maybe a bit of fall color on what was turning out to be an increasingly overcast day…but they were still there, now well out in the lawn, slowly trolling for bugs in the grass. And who can resist a turkey shot when it is on offer? There is not much color on a turkey, but the richness of the feather pattern and the variety of textures in the plumage always strikes me as quite beautiful. Sony Rx10iv. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. 517mm equivalent and ISO 400. 534mm equivalent and ISO 500. Both at f4 and 1/500th. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic.