Monthly Archives: February 2012
2/29/2012: Purple Gallinule, Happy Leap Day!
I am in San Diego this morning, so I am all out of sync with my posts…besides which it is leap day…a day that only exists once every 4 years. You would think they would make it an automatic holiday. I mean, I did not have to work on February 29th last year, so why should I have to work on February 29th this year? Let’s start a movement 🙂
But seriously, I have at least one more bird to add from my trip to Florida last month. On my final morning, before my drive back to Orlando and the airport and the flights home, I stopped for a few hours at Blue Heron Wetlands, which was actually about 400 yards from my hotel the whole time. Blue Heron is another settlement pond complex that has been converted to marsh and opened for birding. Unlike the more famous and popular Viera Wetlands, the ponds at Blue Heron are full of vegetation. Reeds are tall, and brush lines most of the dyke roads, so it is much more challenging to observe the wildlife. And, there is not, apparently, as much of it. Birds, other than the Common Gallinule (Moorehen) were pretty scarce. Rumor had it though that a Purple Gallinule was being seen there most days, so I drove the dykes twice. On my first trip around I found a group of birders looking for the Purple where it had been seen, scoping the far reaches of the reed line, but the bird was not visible. On my second pass there was only a single car at the spot, but I got out anyway. I set up the scope and started scanning before the two nice birder ladies walked up and said, “There is a bird right here in the reeds we have been watching and we think it is a female Purple Gallinule.”
So, where? The bird was literally right there in the reeds, only maybe 30 feet from the road, going about its (her) business, walking and climbing on the downed reeds. And indeed it was a female Purple Gallinule. It was too close for the digiscoping rig, so I took a lot of shots with the Canon SX40HS in digital tel-extender mode.
The shot above shows the wonderful green feet, with toes made for walking on water vegetation, as well as the tricolor beak. It was a dull bird, with very little purple showing, but unmistakably as Purple Gallinule.
Here is a full-on view of the tricolored beak.
And an even better view of the feet.
So, a fitting last bird for my trip to Florida for the Space Coast Birding Festival…and see less then 400 yards from my hotel.
No if we could only do something about getting leap day made a holiday.
2/28/2012: Finger Paintings (PhotoArt?)
This image of a young raccoon began life as a digiscoped capture taken in Acadia National Park on a bird walk. I have been playing with art apps on my Xoom Tablet, which runs Android. There are now 400,000 apps in the Android Market, and quite a few art apps, specifically designed to do almost anything you might want to do to a photograph. PicsArt Studio is one, and it has some interesting painterly effects: oil, pastel, watercolor, hdr…as well as the more usual adjustments to contrast, sharpness, saturation, etc. The thing about working on a touch screen device like the Xoom Tablet is that you can quickly and easily finger paint the effects over exactly the portions of the image you want, leaving other portions untouched, or painting a completely different effect over other areas. In PicsArt you can also control the intensity of the effect, the size of the brush, the hardness of the brush, etc. so you have very fine control. It is all very experiential…very trial and error (mostly error of course), and very direct and immediate because of the touch interface. It is hard to predict what will happen when you apply an effect, but since it is all digital, experimentation is quick and easy to undo. You learn as you go. And it is, honestly, as much fun as finger painting!
This image used a combination of Pastel effect for the background, watercolor for the raccoon, which was then over-painted with the sharpen effect. It gives it the look of an ink drawing.
For this second image, also from Acadia National Park, I used PicsArt Studio to selectively apply (finger paint) watercolor, pastel, contour, and sharpen effects. I added a Mask effect to create the boarder. That image was saved as a jpeg. I then opened it in PS Touch (PS=PhotoShop) and created an empty layer set to overlay. I then chose Add Camera Fill and took a close up of a canvas bag with the Xoom’s back camera. I applied sharpening to that overlay and adjusted the Opacity to taste, so that the pattern of the cloth appears as the surface of the image, as though it were painted on canvas. (The effect is subtle. You may need to click the image and open it full sized to see it. Finally I exported the finished image as another jpeg.
This whole process, because of the very tactile nature of the Xoom touch interface, and the freedom of the digital media, is very like doodling. Is it art? Is it painting? It certainly is no longer photography, but I am having fun with it.
One last example. A Texas Hill Country Sunset. Finger painted in PicsArt Studio and finished in PS Touch on the Xoom Tablet. Here the canvas texture is more pronounced.
2/27/2012: Reddish on the Hunt. Merritt Island NWR
There is nothing in this world quite like a Reddish Egret hunting. There is a certain crazed intensity…an apparent randomness…it is almost like watching a demonstration of Brownian Motion, but with only one visible molecule. And the shapes the egret gets itself into…quite astonishing. But always the overriding impression is one of intensity!
Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) and 2) 1240mm equivalent (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function), f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. 3) 1240mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. 4) 1640mm equivalent (2x digital tel-converter function), f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And here is the video.
2/26/2012: Redbuds, Swamp Maple. Happy Sunday!
The Eastern Redbud Tree is common in Virginia around our offices there, and it is a truly beautiful tree in bloom. This is not it. The Redbud blooms purple. In early spring Redbuds look like purple smoke in the understory of Virginia forests and the margins of Virginia lawns.
This is the humble Swamp Maple, which really does have red buds, growing in an untended area along the catchment ponds of our industrial park. It was taken in the soft light of dusk, barely enough light for the camera to focus, at the long end of the zoom, from about 5 feet, which accounts for the interesting bokeh, and the slightly magenta cast to the reds. In fact, the light was low enough already to push the ISO to 800, which puts this shot in the “not possible a year ago with a Point & Shoot” category. It is great when the technology catches up to your vision, even by tiny steps.
Canon SX40HS at 840mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/40th @ ISO 800. Program with iContrast and –!/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought. I love Maple blossoms. They appear on the branches well before the leaves, taping the last of last summer’s store of energy, braving late frost and spring winds, to stain the Maples with a tinge of the red they will carry in abundance at season’s end. They are always such a hopeful sign of the coming spring, among the first. And, close up, they are delicately beautiful…tight scaled buds, almost like tiny red pine cones, that open to miniature roses with long lacy filaments of red or yellow (depending on the species)…so small you have to be within inches to realize they are flowers at all. And of course, these tiny blooms are, most often, at the branch tips of massive maple trees, 4 stores high, and spreading over whole yards…or, in mass, shading acres of forest. The contrast could not be sharper.
They are brief…having seen these open in Virginia I can now see them, since I am looking, already formed on the branch tips of the Maple outside my window here in Maine, but they will not open here for several weeks yet. They will open, bloom a day, or a week at most, and be gone, as the leaves push right in behind them. (You will probably see more shots of them before long.)
I like them too, because, at winter’s end, they match the little blooming of my spirit. While we are here on Earth we are as much seasonal creatures, and creatures of the season, as is the rest of life around us…and this is true in the spirit as well. There is a spirit of winter, a spirit of spring…a spirit of each season. No, not that kind of “spirit of spring”…some kind of green leafy lady with a flower face…in the pagan sense. There is only one spirit…but that spirit is, in my experience, colored by the season. The hue of spring is hope. The hue of spring is quickening. The hue of spring is awakening. I feel it in my spirit as the days lengthen and the sun climbs…as the Maples bloom. Early and brave, despite the fact that winter storms are yet due, the Maples bloom. And so do I.
2/25/2012: Head Shots, Great Egret
I am late posting today because difficult connections and delayed flights got me into Portland airport at mid-night and home at 1 AM this morning. I slept in. 🙂
A few days ago I ran a series of Great Blue Heron head shots. Today’s offering is another head shot series, this time of Great Egrets. Egrets and Herons, of course, are closely related, and display the same photogenic tendencies. They pose a lot in the course of their normal activities, and, at places like Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Viera Wetlans in Florida, they allow relatively close approach.
The first two shots are, clearly, of the same bird at Viera Wetlans. The bird was on the bank of the dyke and I pulled up next to it and shot it at 840mm equivalent out the window of the car. I love the delicacy of the back-lighted bird. The next shot is at Merritt Island and the bird was a little further away. This took the 1.5x digital tel-extender function on the Canon SX40HS for 1240mm equivalent. The final shot, again at Merritt, was even further away, and I used the Canon SD100HS behind the eyepiece of my ZEISS DiaScope for a 1600mm equivalent. The last two are cropped for composition.
All shots in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) and 2) f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100/125. 3) f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 200. 4) 1/500th @ ISO 160. f4.3 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
2/24/2012: Crab Apples in Bloom, Virginia
I arrived in Virginia in a mini-blizzard, and spent my first morning trying to keep my feet dry and still get out to see a bit of the snow shrouded landscape. Of course the snow was mostly gone by the end of the day, and by Thursday, yesterday, the temperatures were in the more seasonable upper 60s. When I left work at the sun was still a half hour from setting, birds were calling, and the pansies in the industrial park plantings were bright. I had to take a little photo-prowl.
I am pretty sure these are ornamental Crab Apple blossoms. There are many of these trees in the industrial park, and, since the park is about 30 years old now, the trees are well grown and put on a brave show every spring. This is one of those industrial parks with landscaping. There are lawns and hedges, pine groves, a whole series of catchment ponds with fountains, rock walls, gazebos, ornamental reed beds, etc. And I would love to have the pansy concession! Here is another view of the Crab Apple blooms.
The difference between the shots is that the first was taken at the long end of the zoom, at 840mm equivalent from about 4.5 feet, for a telephoto macro effect…with the subject well isolated against a soft background. The second shot is a wide-angle macro, taken from less than a quarter inch, and I had to find a clump of flowers that I could catch sharp against the mass of flowers above and behind.
Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) f5.8 @ 1/125th @ ISO 800. As you see, the light had already about gone by the time I got to the trees. 2) f4 @ 1/50th @ ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
2/23/2012: Head Shots. (Great Blue Heron)
Steve Creek is doing a series of posts over at Steve Creek Outdoors on why the Great Blue Heron is his favorite bird to photograph. I can identify with the sentiment! Great Blues are certainly photogenic, and, since they are relatively abundant, we generally end up taking a lot of pictures of them. Who could resist?
This series of head shots is from Viera Wetlands (1) and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. I took a lot more GBH shots that this but the GBH head shot is a genre unto itself. For one thing, it is a big head, and you can get relatively close to the birds, so it is easy to fill the frame. For another, that look of alert tension is unique to herons and egrets, and the GBH sets the standard. Finally there is interest in the play of textures and colors, from bold beak to the fine features of the cheeks and neck…and the yellow eye is always riveting.
1) Canon SX40HS at 1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-extender function). f5.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. 2) Same camera and zoom, f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 3) Canon SD100HS behind the 30x eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for the equivalent of 2565mm. 1/500th @ ISO 200. f6.9 effective.
In all cases, Program with iContrast and –!/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
2/22/2012: Brown Anole, Merritt Island NWR
In honor of Wild Life Wednesday, instead of just another bird, I will offer up this little Brown Anole, captured at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I have taken pics of the native Florida Green Anole on these very same rocks, near the rest stop half way around Black Point Wildlife Drive, but that was in the spring. On this January day, the only lizard present was this little guy, certainly descended from illegal immigrants (or at least escapees) from Cuba or the Bahamas, but now well naturalized in most of Florida.
Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 1680mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 2x digital tel-extender). f5.8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 100. 2) 840mm equivalent (cropped slightly) f5.8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 125. 3) same as #2.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
2/21/2012: Three Birds on a Snowy Day in VA
So, I had planned this trip to Virginia for a week of meetings and face-time at the office. Flights on Monday were prohibitively expensive, so, I thought, I will just fly down on Sunday. We don’t have any children who actually go to school (we home-school) so we are not as attuned to the vacation and holiday schedule as some households, which is why it never occurred to me that the office would be closed on Monday. President’s Day! By the time I realized, less than 30 minutes before my flight, it was too late.
And then, of course, I flew from relatively spring like Maine into a raging blizzard in Richmond. They got 6 inches at the airport and I woke to snow shrouded trees, white lawns, and inches of wet slush in the parking lots of Chester. I did not pack my winter boots.
Still, in light of Sunday’s revelation about keeping more current with my photography, I got out for an hour to Henricus City Park and Dutch Gap Conservation Area to see what could be seen. I was dependent on finding bare paths and ground, as my dress crocs are in no way suitable for snow.
There were lots of Ring-necked Ducks on the big marsh (pretty much a lake after the storm) as you drive into Henricus City Park. There were also a few Northern-shovelers, Mallards, Coots, and Canada Geese. The Veery and Red-bellied Woodpecker were down near the boat ramp. And yes, I made it back to the hotel with relatively dry feet. My socks dried in less than an hour. 🙂
Of these three birds, I have always thought both the Ring-necked Duck and the Red-bellied Woodpecker were woefully miss-named. Who has ever seen the neck ring on the Ring-neck Duck?…while the ring on the bill is so obvious. What’s wrong with Ring-billed Duck? And the woodpecker? I guess there is some excuse. If you called every red-headed woodpecker “Red-headed Woodpecker” then where would we be… Still. Red-bellied does not leap right out at you when looking at this bird. Okay…I get the Veery. It is an ear thing, and I am okay with that.
All three shots with the Canon SX40HS at 1680mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 2x digital tel-extender function) handheld. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) f5.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. 2) f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 200. 3) f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
2/20/2012: Reddish Egret in a Bush, Merritt Island NWR
Misty morning light at Merritt Island. A classic pose and a classic exposure problem. I love the cup of the mangrove supporting the bird.
Canon SX40HS at 1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm x 1.5 digital tel-extender function). Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation (thou that was certainly not needed in this shot…I keep it set because of the 40HS’ habit of over-exposing the highlights…and I forgot to turn it off).
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. A fair amount of fill light and some exposure adjustment as well.