Monthly Archives: December 2010
12/21/2010: Great Tailed Grackle
A close relation of the Common Grackle and even closer to the Boat-tailed Grackle of the Southeast, this Great-tailed Grackle is abundant in the Southwest…here in the Rio Grande Valley, right along the Mexican boarder. They gather in night flocks in the trees by the hotels in Harlingen Texas and their jungle noise is, after the blast of wind and humidity, the first thing that tells me I am back in the Valley. They are voracious around feeders. This one is after the orange undoubtedly put out for the Orioles.
Digiscoped with a Canon SD4000IS behind the new Vario Eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. About the field of view of an 1100mm lens on a full frame DSLR. 1/80th @ ISO 200. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
12/20/2010: Cranes and mountains
I find myself without a mammal for Monday, so it will have to be “mountains for Monday”…and we will throw in the Cranes for free! One of the wonders of Bosque del Apache is that the thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese are set against the backdrop of desert mountains on all sides. When the shadows get long in the afternoon, and the sun low to light the underside of the birds, it can be breath-taking. Photos do not do it justice. Still…
Canon SX20IS, 560mm equivalent, f5.7 @ 1/800th @ ISO 400. Sports mode.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
12/19/2010:
Happy Sunday!
A classic layered landscape for Sunday…peaceful, but with enough going on to draw you in (imho:)). A homage to the quiet places and the quiet times in our lives…all too few these days. I have to make myself take the time to find the places, or find the time to find the places, but it is always worth it. I always come back refreshed and restored. Not a very original thought, or a particularly original experience…but then that is one of the things that affirms for me the fact that we are all children of the same creative spirit…the fact that there are few of us so dead that we can not be refreshed and restored by a peace we have not made…that in fact we can only break and not better…makes me more aware of the family I am part of, of the heritage we share. This is a good thing. And, given the befinits of the experience of peace itself, it comes as an extra bonus too. What a deal!
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. f4 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
12/18/2010: Back Creek (scenery for Saturday)
I must have hundreds of photos of of Back Creek where it crosses the road by Parson’s Beach. In every season it has a beauty of its own. This is somewhat stark, but even here the textures of the grasses and the play of the light carries the image.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. f4 @ 1/320th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom (see page link above).
12/17/2010: Little Things 4
Sometimes the background is as important as the subject…even if the background is totally out of focus. This furry little plant (or what was left of it by late fall) and black berries were isolated against a patch of ice, with some crystals on the surface that were catching the light. I could not resist :).
Canon SX20IS at 360mm, f5 @ 1/200th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and clarity.
12/16/2010: Little Things 3
Frost on ice, with a few random leaves on the surface (and many more underneath). This is another shot mostly about textures and subtle colors…and another long range macro (or at least close up) using the macro tele feature on the Canon SX20IS. Of course, carful composition comes into too. 🙂
220mm equivalent @ f5 @ 1/100th @ ISO 400. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
12/15/2010: Little things 2
Continuing my series of shots of the small stuff along the way, this lonely feather lying in the path beside an oak leaf caught my eye. Feather texture is always interesting to me and the juxtaposition here, with the contrast between the sandy surface, and the smooth cellular oak leaf, drew my eye in. When you add the range of subtle color, it has me caught. What you might call a found still life.
I can only guess at the species of the bird…something fairly large from the size, and something that would be prey to a bigger bird or maybe a fox, from the look of it. Possibly a Blue Jay. [Srdjan Cuturilov on Facebook thinks it is a Morning Dove feather…which, all things considered, it very likely! Thanks Srdjan!]
Canon SX20IS @ 375mm equivalent and macro, f5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 400. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom (see page link above).
12/14/2010: Little things 1
On my photo walk last Saturday, the lack of grand landscape and towering skies turned my focus close, to look at the little things…small details of the landscape that have their own story to tell. Ice formed at the high tide mark by a mixture of sea and fresh water, half a mile up a small tidal creek, surrounds your typical Southern Maine gravel mix for some interesting textures, patterns, and subtle colors.
Canon SX20IS at about 230mm equivalent and macro. F5 @ 1/320 @ ISO 127. Programmed auto. I love the tele macro feature on the SX20IS. No stooping for macros anymore for my old knees. 🙂
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
12/13/2010: wading deer (mammals on Monday)
Deer in the water wading among the ducks is a slightly incongruous sight. As usual at Bosque del Apache, at least during the Festival of the Cranes in November, someone was already stopped and taking pictures of this group of Mule Deer crossing one of the irrigation channels. I pulled up behind and grabbed these shots with the Canon SX20IS out the window. As the deer came up on the dyke between enpondments, they showed so little concern for the gathering crowd on the road (for, of course, two stopped cars attracts a third, and three a forth, etc.) that I got out and digiscoped them (see Mule Deer).
Canon SX20IS at 560mm equivalent, f5.7 @ 1/200th and 1/400th @ ISO 200. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom (see page link above). Both are cropped form the full frame.
12/12/2010: Wide-eyed
Happy Sunday!
I went out yesterday morning, while waiting for my new laptop to arrive, looking for some images…without a lot of hope. It is the nothing season, long this year, between fall foliage and snow. The trees are bare. Even the oak leaves are down. The grasses are brown. The air is cold. There is a sense of waiting: waiting for something to happen to move the season along.
And yet, there were things of interest out there. The light on this little patch of frozen marsh, and the texture of the frost. The contrasts of white birch and evergreen. The hint of red in the brush on the left.Delicate, but, I think, beautiful.
And, of course, the lesson here is that every season has its beauty…if you have the eyes to see it. One of my favorite scriptures is Luke 11:34, here from the Message Bible: Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.”
And that is my ambition. To live wide-eyed in wonder and belief. To fill up with light. And that’s a good Sunday thought, and enough to go on with any day.
Canon SX20IS @ 45mm equivalent, f4 @ 1/320 @ ISO 80. Landscape mode.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.