Posts in Category: marsh
Maine! Snowy Egret
Snowy Egret: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — Along the reaches of the lower Mousam River, way out in the marsh. This Snowy Egret was leap hunting along the edge of a pool. Two shots going up, and two coming down 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 200 @ f8 @ 1/1250th. -1EV to save the highlights.
India! Grey Heron and Great Egret with lots of ducks and others at Saltanpur
Grey Heron, Great Egret: Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Despite being often shrouded in the mirk of greater Delhi, the wetlands at Saltanpur are a vital resource for ducks, waterfowl, waders and other water birds, and home to a large herd of Nilgai antelope. I am always amazed at the resilience of nature. In this one image you can see three large waders, Black-necked Stilt, Painted Crane, Swamp-hen, and at least a few species of ducks. And the back end of a Nilgai. I had to work on it to draw the content out of the haze, but it certainly demonstrates how rich an area Saltanpur is for birds. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Great Egret views
Great Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2022 — While I have been sharing my photos from Uganda, of course life here in Maine has been going on. The other day I rode my eTrike on one of my loops and took a detour down to our local beach. There were a dozen or more Great Egrets in the marshes behind the dunes…this one quite close to the road. While I watched, it flew from one side of the road out over the tidal creek and back to the other side, even closer. These shots were taken without getting off my trike. 🙂 There was also a constant stream of Monarch Butterflies and Green Darner Dragonflies coming through headed south. I have a feeling that if I had time to sit and count them I would have totaled in the thousands for both for the day. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5, f5, and f5.6 @ 1000th.
Beach Roses in the view
The beach roses (Rugosa Rose) are in bloom in southern Maine. Beach Rose is an invasive species, originally from the Asia, that was imported and planted to stabilize dunes all along the Atlantic coast. You see it everywhere through most of the summer here in Maine. The flowers develop into Rose Hips…and are made, not so much in Maine, but in other Atlantic states, into a jam or jelly. They do make a great foreground for the skies of June…or this June at any rate. We have had a lot of these days lately. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm lens. Auto with intelligent HDR turned on. Processed in Apple Photos.
Little River Marsh
This is looking across from the Little River Marsh overlook at Laudholm Farms toward the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, on a late fall day. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Autumn over marsh
If you stand on the bench at the Webhannet Marsh overlook at Laudholm Farms, in the fall, you can see over the reeds to the border of trees in their full autumn splendor. Add a spectacular October sky and there you go! iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
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.
Looking into Autumn
Looking into Autumn, and into the sun, down another long alley of marsh, this time just over the hill from the Kennebunk town line on Rt. 9. I really like the perspective of the Sirui 18mm ultra-wide for this kind of of shot, especially since it is wide both ways…vertically as well as horizontally. It gives the scene a very natural look. At least to my eye. The high contrast light picks out every detail, and the Apple Camera app’s Smart HDR renders the range of light effectively, producing another memorable image of fall. Or that is what I think. Processed in Apple Photos.
Best of autumn in Kennebunk
Of course, this time of year, I have my eye out for great autumn shots…places where the color is at its best and well displayed. I was in the passenger seat of our car (a rare position for me to be) when we crossed the marsh at the edge of Kennebunk Lower Village, in leaf-peeper traffic at its best (or worst), and glimpsed this scene out the widow as we passed. It was overcast with a dull grey sky, so I could let the scene pass, but I would remember. I immediately began to plot how to get there safely on Indigenous People/Columbus Day Monday, when better skies were predicted, on my eTrike, without getting myself run over by a leaf peeper. By 11am the next morning the sky was promising and I got the trike out and took my chances…going the long way around to approach from the right side of the road, and avoid as much traffic as I could…as well as the stretch of horrible trike road on Rt. 9 coming into Lower Village. When I got there I found that there was enough of a shoulder on the bridge over the marsh so I could safely park my trike for the photos. I took many views of this with slightly different compositions, and picked this one as the best of the non-panoramic set. I might post the panorama another day. Anyway. This is a classic southern Maine autumn landscape. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Great! Egret
Great Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I almost rode right by this Great Egret feeding in the marsh along the access road to our local beach. I was at the end of my eTrike ride, headed for home, just checking the marsh for anything spectacular. So I guess it is safe to say I did not consider the Great Egret, well out in the marsh, spectacular. 🙂 Still, my theory is that if you do not take the easy shots when they are on offer, you might not get the chance of the “special” shots when they happen. And, with a bit of post processing magic to bring the Egret in closer, I managed satisfying, if not spectacular. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr, then enlarged in Pixelmator Pro Photo and recropped for the equivalent of at least a 2000mm field of view. Finished off in Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th. Assembled in FrameMagic.