Monthly Archives: May 2013
A Little Flicker Action: Magee Marsh
As much as Magee Marsh is about warblers, warblers, and more warblers…there are other birds along the boardwalk. The Woodcocks were a big hit this year, and there are always a few owls. For a day, a Common Nighthawk challenged the best eyes on the boardwalk, though for at least one day they had about 6 spotting scopes trained on it.
This Northern Flicker of the Yellow-shafted race was making its usual racket. It was easy to see…much harder to photograph…as it was very mobile and very agile. I never did catch the whole bird in the frame. 🙂 I like the “mid-call” pose here. It makes the bird look very alive.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Emerging Green. Rachel Carson NWR
I went to Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, primarily to practice with my new Panasonic HX-A100 head mounted action camera, but also to see where spring has gotten to along the loop trail. Trillium are still blooming in small numbers, and I found a few Two Bead Lilies open, and many more in bud. There were more visible Lady Slipper plants, but none near blooming. Still a very late spring.
The emerging spruce needle bunchs caught my eye. The contrast of color and texture and form demanded a close up.
Canon SX50HS in Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm macro with 2x digital tel-converter. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Rachel Carson NWR Vista: via phone. Happy Sunday!
This is one of my favorite views at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, along the short headquarter’s loop of trial. It overlooks the Merriland River, which becomes the Little River for the rest of it’s run t the sea, just beyond those ponds where Branch Brook joins it on the left. The view is exceptional in every season. If you pursue my back trail of posts, you will find many views of this scene over the years. Here the new, emerging foliage of spring gives the trees and forest a delicate look. The sun penetrates deeper and brings out textures in the wood, and in the scene overall. The wide, 6×9 ratio of the image makes it a real vista shot. I like it as well as any shot from this spot I have ever taken!
And now I have to tell you it was taken with my phone. I have new Samsung Galaxy S4, my first Galaxy and my first Samsung, but not my first phone with a camera. I had, a few phones ago, the iPhone 4, which had an excellent camera. Its range was extended in all kinds of useful and interesting ways by clever software from the vast iPhone ecosystem. I was impressed. My first HDR photos were, in fact, taken with the iPhone and the HDR Photo app. Still, it was a phone camera, and not quite good enough to tempt me chose it in any situation over my Canon P&Ss.
I don’t know how much Apple managed to improve the camera in the later generations of iPhones, as I lost my enchantment with all things Apple when my iPhone 4 died a way too early death, and the good folks at the Apple store wanted to charge me $140 to replace it with a reconditioned unit. I went Android. The camera in my first Andriod phone was certainly no temptation, as a photographic tool.
However, I do, already, find myself putting out the Galaxy S4, with its high resolution sensor; fast, wide lens: and built in software for all kinds of special effects (including an excellent HDR) even when I am carrying my Canon SX50HS. Take this shot. The Samsung HDR software (which appears to work off a single exposure), did as well with the range of light as I could have done with a full fledged 3 exposure HDR from my Canon, and way better than the in-camera HDR on the SX50HS. With my standard tweaking in Lightroom, or even processed in Snapseed right on the phone, the results are very satisfying. And, embarrassed as I am to be seen by anyone actually using my phone to take a picture, I can not, and do not, argue with the results. My Galaxy S4 pictures get uploaded to my WideEyedInWonder albums right along side my Canon shots.
Embarrassed? Well, yes. I mean, it’s a phone. And it is a thing. I mean the “everyone with a smart phone is photographer” thing. A “teen-girls snapping everything and mostly each other and posting every shot to Facebook” thing. It is, maybe, a “generational” thing. I am too old, and much too experienced as photographer, to be taking pictures with my smartphone. Aren’t I?
Apparently not.
So, it is Sunday, and somewhere in this story there has to be a spiritual truth, or at least segue to the spiritual. The spirit, of course, neither ages or gains experience. The spirit in us is always young. It is that inner child thing. The spirit in us is always looking for and fining new ways to experience and to share the wonder that is life…to express itself and to impress itself on the world of time and matter. The spirit in me is just simply delighted with the new toy/tool that that the wizards at Samsung have put in my hands. Any embarrassment is purely in the flesh (of matter and time), and, therefore irrelevant.
So, in obedience to the spirit, I will continue to joyfully enjoy taking pictures with my smartphone. I may have to vigorously suppress a twinge of embarrassment when the guy with the Canon D7000, a bag of lenses, and a tripod sets up beside me for an HDR session, but I can do that. It is only the flesh. And I will, of course, resist the temptation to turn and show him the pic I just took, processed, and posted to my social net on the brilliant high resolution screen of my smartphone. That would flesh too. Wouldn’t it? (It might be fun though…and my theory is that fun (good clean, non-malicious, fun) is always a segue to the spirit!)
🙂
Blackburnian Warblers: Magee Marsh
There are few warblers that are as striking as the Blackburnian. If they were a rare bird, they would be much sought after, even at warbler-central, Magee Marsh, during spring migration. As it is they are very common at Magee, and are one of the boldest and most closest warblers present. They often feed on the underside of the canopy, and even in the taller undergrowth, and, like Chestnut-sided and Black-throated Green, will sometimes work a branch within a foot or two of birders’ heads on the boardwalk. And, with their flaming orange breast and throat, they are pretty hard to miss, even in denser foliage.
That is not to say they are easy to photograph. They are fast, highly mobile, and rarely (at least at Magee Marsh in the spring) perch. They are not singing at Magee so they do not just pop up on a branch in the sun and sit for their portrait. No, close as they often are, photographing them is an exercise in dexterity, determination, and what some might call luck…but which I call persistence. If you try for enough Blackburnians at Magee, where they are plentiful, then it just stands to reason that you will eventually catch one (or two, or three 🙂
Canon SX50HS in Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm and 1200mm equivalent fields of view. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Wildflowers in the Yard: Spring at Last!
I still have lots of birds to share from my trip to The Biggest Week in American Birding, but I feel compelled to celebrate the late but inevitable arrival of spring in Southern Maine. My wife has been working in the yard, planting and transplanting flowers, but I was mostly interested in the volunteers…the wildflowers of my mossy yard. Spring Beauty is always there, but the clumps this year seem bigger. And I caught a bonus Hoverfly at work in this clump.
The Dog-tooth Violets are blooming in every woodlot, and are even more lush in our sunny yard.
Then you have the Wild Strawberry, another widely abundant plant in Southern Maine, that has made a home in the margin of our lawn.
And finally Cinquefoil, which might be new this year, creeping in from the woods across the road. Both this, and the Strawberry image are littered with fallen petals from our Ornamental Plum.
So, pretty tame by true wild-land standards, but not bad for a yard at the edge of town. And, just so you don’t feel deprived of wild, I will finish with a true wildflower, a Painted Trillium from a lunch-time walk around the trail loop at Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters yesterday noon.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. A mix of tel-macros at 1200mm and wide-macros at 24mm plus 1.5x digital tel-converter. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Blue-grey Natcatcher : Magee Marsh
They are, of course, seeing Kirtland’s Warbler at Magee Marsh this week, after the official Biggest Week in American Birding is all over, and while I am long back in Maine.
Still I was delighted to catch this much more common Blue-grey Natcatcher near the boardwalk at Magee. I don’t see them often and they are certainly hard to catch. 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. – 1/3 ev exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and brightness.
Magee Marsh Wide with Clouds
Taking a break from birds for a day, here is the scene on the way into Magee Marsh on Sunday Morning. This is a sweep panorama using the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone camera. I have experimented with sweep panoramas on Sony cameras a few generations ago, and found the results disappointing, but the technology, at least as implemented by Samsung, has come a long way. I did this with the phone in vertical position, to capture maximum pixels. The full shot is 10840×2776 (cropped slightly when straightening the horizon) and covers, as you see by the road, close to 180 degrees. You can see the image at your full screen resolution by clicking HERE.
But of course, it is more than a technical exercise. I love the clouds, the blue of the water, the sweep of the early sun across the marsh. And the phone has captured it all very well. And in one long slow steady sweep. Not about the technology, but the technology is amazing just the same.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Cape May Warbler: Magee Marsh
Sunday morning at Magee Marsh was cold, but we had intermittent sun, and therefore pretty good light for photography. There was one tree, just beyond the west entrance to the boardwalk, right over the parking lot with the sun on it, that had at least 10 species of warblers actively feeding. The long lens crew made a solid semi-circle around it…tripod city.
This Cape May Warbler was among the birds, and it was putting on quite a show. The Cape May was named for spot where it was first observed, but it actually only passes through Cape May, New Jersey during migration to it’s breeding grounds, which, except for Northern Maine and the extreme upper Mid-West, is all in Canada. That did not keep this handsome fellow from singing in Ohio!
I like this composition, with the bird at the powerpoint of the rule of thirds, and the rich bokeh behind. And the morning sun certainly brought out the color of the bird!
Canon SX50HS at 1800mm equivalent field of view. (It was a tall tree.) Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Yellow Warbler Wow! Magee Marsh
Yesterday, the final day of the Biggest Week in American Birding, was one of those amazing days that only happen at Magee Marsh. The warblers were passing through in great numbers, and they were feeding low in the undergrowth and lower branches of the sheltering trees, and very close to the boardwalk. Saturday was actually as good for warblers…but Saturday was overcast, and on Sunday we had intermittent sun… adequate light makes a huge difference when photographing birds.
This Yellow Warbler was just within the 4.5 foot focus range of the Canon SX50HS. In fact, I had to back off on full zoom to get this much of the bird in the frame. I was using the 1.5x digital tel-converter so this is still at over 1600mm equivalent field of view. It is almost a tel-macro of the bird. Certainly the feather detail is amazing. If you want to pixel peep, a larger version can be seen here.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1672mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/200th @ ISO 80. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Wood Thrush Sings: Magee Marsh. Happy Sunday!
It is not often that you see a Wood Thrush, let alone see one singing out in plain sight. This one was no more than 20 feet from the boardwalk yesterday at Magee Marsh and delighted a small group of birders at the Biggest Week in American Birding for a good 20 minutes before moving on. It was a one of those moments that will be remembered, and treasured, by all who shared it (with the possible exception of the Wood Thrush).
I even remembered to shoot some video so you can hear the song.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Video was handheld.
And for the Sunday thought. Despite threatening rain, poor light, and low temperatures, yesterday was as good as I have ever seen Magee Marsh. There were warblers, sparrows, natcatchers, flycatchers, thrushes, tanagers, orioles, grosbeaks, egrets…everywhere. They were down low and close in to the boardwalk. It was very special. Among the huge crowd of birders, there was a hush. Gone were the mobs gathered to see a single good bird that clogged the boardwalk during the past week (as well as the shouted instructions of the professional guides). There were clumps of birders where there were clumps of birds, but never such a crush that you could not pass…and never such a crush that you could not see. Twice I had warblers working and feeding within arm’s reach. You could stand in one place and watch 10 warblers of 3 species glean the fresh leaves for bugs. I came back after a 90 minute loop once around the boardwalk feeling satisfyingly full of birds, full of delight…content…deeply happy. What a gift!
And it was not a feeling you had to be a birder to appreciate. Many, maybe a majority, of the people on the boardwalk yesterday were civilians…folks for whom birding is not a major preoccupation or recreation…just plain folks drawn by the rumor (and the media accounts) of something special happening at Magee Marsh on International Migration Day. And they were in the zone! They were just as delighted and just as amazed as those of us who could actually identify the birds we were seeing. You didn’t even really need binoculars or any skill with them. The birds were that close! A treat, a blessing, anyone with eyes and ears could appreciate.
Hence the hush. The happy low current of laughter. The occasional quiet cry of outright delight. Surrounded by bird song and birds in motion, the humans just naturally fell into an attitude of true worship. Souls opened. Delight flowed in and out with every breath. People smiled at each other…smiled at the birds…smiled at the songs…smiled in themselves. And we knew, every one of us, that we were in the presence of a miracle…in the zone of the holy…caught in a flow of love that can only be called divine.
I, for one, wish church could be like that more than it is. That is all it would take, really, to put faith back at the center of lives. Just a regular dose of deep delight in the presence of wonder!