Monthly Archives: September 2011
9/10/2011: Give us a leg up…Yellowlegs
A lesser Yellowlegs bringing a foot up to rest (warm?) and caught in action. I cropped the shot for composition but the scale is provided by long reach of the spotting scope in my digiscoping rig. I like the attitude of this bird, with the slightly parted bill.
Nikon Coolpix P300 behind the 15-56x Vario Eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. Equivalent field of view of about a 1250mm lens. 1/640th @ ISO 160. f3.7 effective (limited by the camera).
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness, and cropped from the right and top for composition.
And here is a bonus shot, pushed out to about 3000mm equivalent. 1/400th @ ISO 160. f8 effective (limited by the scope). Again cropped from top and right for composition.
9/9/2011: Ruby Meadowhawk (I think)
I am pretty sure we don’t have any more dragonflies this year than any year…but I am certainly seeing a lot more. It began, suspiciously, when I got my new camera with its 810mm equivalent reach and efficient telephoto close up setting…which enables some very satisfying approaches to dragonflies. Suddenly they are everywhere. We have way more species in Southern Maine than I ever dreamed of, and I have now seen, and photographed, a good number of them. I am even learning their names…with the emphasis on learning. With each new fly, I go to my references and try to name it. I am never completely confident…and matters are not helped by the fact that even at this early stage I can tell that about a quarter of the images on the internet are mislabeled. 🙁
So I think, tentatively, that this is a Ruby Meadowhawk. I think, because if you do a search for images of Ruby Meadowhawk on the internet, at least a third of what turns up are obviously female Blue Dashers. Please, anyone who knows, correct me if I am wrong here.
Whatever this bug is, though, it is a striking contrast to the foliage around it. And you have to love the name: Ruby Meadowhawk…so I am really hoping I am right.
Nikon Coolpix P300 at 499mm equivalent field of view and Close Up mode, f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/8/2011: Once Upon an English Golf Course
We will pop back to England, and my recent visit there, for today. Mallards in the early morning sun on one of the many ponds along the heavily designed water course that passes through Greetham Valley Golf Course were we stay while I am at the British Bird Fair. Mostly I really like the reflections of the greenery around the pond. This is a long zoom shot to isolate the birds. And it is cropped slightly for composition.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 810mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/7/2011: Stretch that wing!
Since action shot possibilities are limited when using a camera behind the eyepiece of a spotting scope for bird images (digiscoping: you are working from a tripod, always, and focus is not quick or reliable enough for flight shots in most situations), the wing shot is, so to speak, the pinnacle of digiscoped action photography. Digiscopers learn to anticipate when a preening bird is about to stretch a wing. Or they try to.
This shot was taken on a dreary, overcast morning, so, while the light was favorable for molding, it was not great for action. Feeding and preening Yellowlegs, ideally, require more light. I did have the advantage of today’s Back-illuminated CMOS sensors, and was able to set the camera for a burst of up to 7 shots at 8 frames per second. This is one of 5 shots…and all show the stretched wing…the first just reaching full stretch and the last just coming off it.
I like the water in these shots as well as the bird.
Nikon P300 behind the 15-56x Vario Eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for the equivalent field of view of about a 2000mm lens, 1/160th @ ISO 160. f5.5 effective. Programmed Auto.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/6/2011: And with Goldenrod all along.
My last several posts have been from the Kennebunk Bridle Path. This accidental water meadow is on the north side of Route 9. It may, in fact, back in the era of salt-farms (decreasing through the early 1800s) have been an intentional water meadow for salt-hay. Hard to tell along the banks of Southern Maine’s tidal rivers. Certainly the meadow/marshes and drainage ditches on the other side of 9 have a very intentional look about them.
I like the way the Goldenrod has colonized the immediate banks of the stream to form a boarder on its twisting path. I have many wide angle shots of this meadow, but here I zoomed in to emphasize the stream and its yellow boarder.
Here it is, the same day, with the sky as a primary interest.
Nikon Coolpix P500. 1) 53mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 2) 23mm equivalent, f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/5/2011: Eastern Phoebe with a Point and Shoot
Generally, when you see digiscoped pics of birds (images captured with a Point and Shoot or one of the new Mirrorless Reflexes, or even a true DSLR, behind the eyepiece of a spotting scope) they impress because they are frame-filling shots of birds…or extreme close-ups of heads of larger birds like herons or egrets. The thing about digiscoping is that it gets you, with relative ease, close…very close. Those who practice conventional long-lens photography with a DSLR have to work a lot harder to fill the frame.
For this shot, digiscoped with a Point and Shoot, I made no attempt to fill the frame. This is an environmental shot showing the bird in habitat, attractive to me because of the posture of the bird…the phoebeality of the portrait. This image also shows that you do not have to fill the frame to get feather detail with a scope. If you click the image and look at it in the larger sizes on my Wide Eyed In Wonder smugmug site (controls are at the top of the window), you will see that there is a lot of detail beyond what a normal view can show.
A few moments later, the bird flew in closer and perched in the shadows of a pine.
This is a much more typical digiscoped shot, and it has a lot of pheobeality too…but the main impression depends on image scale. This is close. The bird as you see on your monitor is at least 3/4s life size, and if you look lager sizes you can see it considerably larger than life.
Nikon Coolpix P300, 15-56x Vario eyepiece and ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. 1) approximately 1150mm equivalent field of view, 1/320th @ ISO 160. f4.7 limited by the camera. 2) about 2000mm equivalent, 1/125th @ ISO 220. f5.5, limited by the scope. Program in both cases.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/4/2011: Question Mark: the Butterfly Bonanza Story continues. Happy Sunday!
Happy Sunday.
Yesterday I started the unexpected Friday Butterfly Bonanza story, and displayed a Mourning Cloak. Now, Mourning Cloaks are certainly spectacularly special, in-and-of themselves, but what made Friday even more special was the presence of two new (to me) butterflies in such numbers. The Question Mark above was the other abundant butterfly around the bush of unknown attraction along the Kennebunk Bridle Path. As I mentioned yesterday, the Question Marks were much more difficult to photograph, since they sit, most of the time, with wings folded. This particular Question Mark was, at least for a moment, fanning slowly, and I managed, by holding the camera one handed at arms length above and well to one side of my head, to get an angle that shows the wings to good advantage.
What follows is a more typical shot of a Question Mark, on the right side of the branch, balanced by a Mourning Cloak on the left. The two white marks on the back of the forewing on the Question Mark, are, by the way, the marks that give the butterfly its name.
Another shot of the QM with wings open, though in more challenging lighting.
And, just because I can not resist celebrating such abundance of beauty, another Mourning Cloak shot.
All with the Nikon Coolpix P500 out near the end of the usable zoom in Close Up Mode. Programmed auto. Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Precise EXIF data can be seen by clicking the image and choosing “Show Details” at the top of the window.
So it is Sunday, and my Sunday thought has to do with such unexpected beauty right in my backyard. I had seen photographs of both these species, but I was not, honestly, even aware that they occurred in Maine, and certainly not in the numbers I saw on Friday, and certainly not in Kennebunk. Blessings abound.
I am also thankful this morning to see that a combination of Federal and Local conservation agencies and organizations have “officially” protected and intend to manage my favorite pocket sanctuary…the little section of the old trolley bed known as the Kennebunk Bridle Path where it passes along and through Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge lands beside the Mousam River near its mouth. There is even a new interpretive sign where the trail crosses Rt. 9. This little stretch has become my go-to place when I want a few moments to an hour (or two) of good things to see and smell and be around…and perhaps a photo op or two thrown in. It rarely disappoints. The place itself is as unexpected and as blessedly unlikely as the butterfly bonanza of Mourning Cloaks and Question Marks I found there on Friday. I do give thanks.
9/3/2011: Mourning Cloak
Yesterday was a bumper day for butterflies. I went out to do some digiscoping (capturing images through my spotting scope with a point and shoot camera. I have a new camera and it takes practice to overcome the limitations). Along the way I came upon a medium sized bush beside the Kennebunk Bridle Path that was the center of attraction for about 15 Mourning Cloaks, and maybe 10 Question Marks…plus a few small woodland moths. Actually I am totally uncertain as to the numbers since
I could never determine if the butterflies were coming back to the bush after leaving…or if they were being replaced by others. I had never seen either butterfly species, so a single specimen would have been a delight…but this was awe inspiring. I spent the better part of an hour observing and photographing…trying, of course, to catch open wing shots of both species. The Mourning Cloaks sit with wings open or fanning, so they were pretty easy, but the Question Marks sit with wings folded, and only occasionally fan, and I spent a lot of time trying to hit the shutter button at just the right second to catch open wings.
It was so much fun!
I plan to stop by that bush today to see if they are still using it as a rest stop (or whatever they were doing).
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode (with the default zoom setting overridden). 1) 669mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. 2) 235mm, f5.1 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/2/2011: Bugs on Stone, Rutland Water UK
In my one all too short walk around to the far side of the Visitor Center lagoon at Rutland Water, I found that the stone of the path seemed to attract a lot of bug life. They were not particularly cooperative. I suspect that the path carried the vibration of my foot falls well ahead of me, and the bugs were up and away while I was still out of zoom range. Eventually I caught on, and stood and waited just out of reach until the bugs rose and settled closer to me. The waiting game.
We have here, if you take the word of a novice at bugs in general and certainly a tourist among British bugs (not a good idea), a Gatekeeper, a Common Blue Damselfly, a Common Darter, and a Speckled Wood. Each image is linked to a larger version on Wide Eyed In Wonder.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode, with the default zoom setting overridden. 1) 403mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. 2) 810mm, f5.7 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. 3) the same. 4) 538mm, f5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. All but 3) cropped for scale.
9/1/2011: Hair by Irene
Okay, so this is not hair, but it always reminds me of a slightly punkish do, combed and coiffed by the tidal currents of the Mousam River in its ebb and flow where it meets the current from a small feeder stream and evidently sets up a swirling eddy. Hurricane Irene brought a storm surge that flooded the marsh at high tide with particular energy, backed up all the feeder streams, and left the grasses extra styled.
I reached out with the tele-range of the Coolpix zoom to frame this small section of the pattern. This is a wider view and you can clearly see where the swirl sits as the tide goes out.
And one more view, near the full reach of the zoom, to isolate the pattern more.
Nikon Coolpix P500. 1) 435mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160. 2) 23mm, f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 3) 723mm, f5.7 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160. Program with aActive D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Some color temperature adjustment on 1) and 3). 3) cropped for composition.