Monthly Archives: January 2017
Things are looking up…Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse, the yard, Kennebunk Maine
Sometimes when the birds are very active at the feeder I can not resist getting the camera and, the season, a coat and hat, and stepping out the back deck door. Sometimes the birds will tolerate me there for a half hour at a time. Sometimes they are off at the first crack of the door and will not return while I am out there. I have not figured out what makes the difference. I suppose it might be how desperate they are for sunflower seeds. 🙂
This Tufted Titmouse was one of the few who stuck around long enough to pose for me the other day when I tried the experiment again. It was “we are not desperate” day, and I was only out long enough to see the birds in the treetops moving on to other yards. Still I like this shot. The sunflower feeder is right over his head, but it looks like his aspirations might be even higher. It might make a great inspirational poster (though I don’t actually approve of the genre, in general).
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program mode. 1/250th @ ISO 160 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Winter ducks on the Mousam
Mallards, the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
It has been super cold the past few days (and nights) and the Mousam River has finally frozen up to the rapids at Roger’s Pond Park here in Kennebunk Maine. That is traditionally the edge of the ice in Winter, and is where the ducks gather to feed, and sometimes the Eagles too. This is the largest single flock of Mallards I have seen there this winter so far. Gotta love that iridescent green!
Sony RX10iii at 424mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my iPad Pro.
Common Eider keeps her crab…
Common Eider (female), Back Creek, Kennebunk Maine
I wrote about this female Common Eider a few days ago. I watched her catch crabs just off the bridge near our beach where it crosses Back Creek for half an hour the other day, and watched her repeatedly avoid having her catch taken by a predatory gull. Her technique was simple. She took the crab where the gull could not go…back under water. This sequence catches the action. It reads as text would, left to right and down line by line.
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro, and assembled in Frame Magic.
Female Bluebird. A poem…
Female Bluebird, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
A little bit of a bonus on Sunday. 🙂 Finishing up a thought from yesterday. This is the image that inspired yesterday’s Day Poem.
The female Eastern Bluebird is the more
subtle of the sexes (generally true among
birds), not so gaudy blue and rust red as
the male, and in Winter even paler, washed
by the cold to match the season. Still, if you
look closely, there is a fascination in the
way the bright blue peeks out of the plumage
on the wings and back, teases the eye, and
keeps you looking. I wonder if it has that same
effect on the males come breeding season?
Photographically it has an interesting history. I took it at maximum zoom, 600mm equivalent field of view on the Sony Rx10iii. When processing it in Polarr I really like the composition and the feather detail on the bird, but could not crop in enough without loosing too many pixels to get the bird at the scale I wanted. So I saved it, and reopened it in Big Photo, another app for the iPad. Big Photo allows you to resize images up or down, using a variation, I am assuming, of the “genuine fractals” math that produces very satisfying results when you upscale. This is cropped tighter and upscaled to 16 plus megapixels. The result is a “printable” version of the image. It, of course, has been downscaled again for blog and social media display, but I am satisfied with the results. Isn’t technology grand…when it actually works. 🙂
Beauty everywhere. Happy Sunday!
Cattails, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
“if your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I went to Roger’s Pond Park, as always, in winter, in hope of Eagles. But I went with a gererous eye, willing to see whatever was there. There were no Eagles. I found a small flock of Blue Birds, a White Breasted Nuthatch, and a Downy Woodpecker…all to the good…and then, on the way back to the car, the cattails in the little wetland between the water treatment plant and the park caught my eye. I suppose I was looking for more birds, but I ended up looking at the reeds themselves. Winter reeds, their heads disheveled and fluffy. I zoomed the camera in for a closer look and liked what I saw even more. Now the reeds were an intricate tapestry of textures, a symphony of textures. Beauty is everywhere to the generous eye…everywhere you turn, in every season.
Beauty is an aspect of creation, a reflection of the personality and the spirit of the creator. The beauty we see in nature is testimony to the beauty of the heart, the quality of the love, with which the Creator creates. It is everywhere because God is everywhere at work. And that is what the generous eye sees.
Go out today and find some beauty. Happy Sunday!
Common Eider
Female Common Eider, Back Creek, Kennebunk Maine.
The female Common Eider is not one of the more striking ducks, at least at first glance, and certainly not from a distance. It is a heavy bodied duck with large dark bill, and its brown plumage can look a bit muddy. On closer inspection, that plumage is full of subtle detail, and actually quite beautiful, but you need binoculars, at the very least, to appreciate it. And the duck itself, as it goes about its business, is beautiful as well. I watched this one fish for crabs on the bottom of Back Creek where it flows into the Mosuam River…deep on the bottom where only a dive of nearly a minute could find them. And I watched the Eider defend its crabs from a hungry Heron Gull, repeatedly outwitting the gull by diving under with its catch just at the crucial moment. The Eider might be chunky, but it is fast when fast it what it takes, and quite graceful. 🙂
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program mode. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro and assembled in FrameMagic.
Written in the ice…
Ice patterns along the Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk Maine
It was windy yesterday, and though the temperature was only in the low 30s, it was bitter cold to be out. I only lasted less than an hour on my photoprowl along the Kennebunk Bridle Path, before my hands were hurting enough so it was not fun anymore. Still I found these interesting (to me) patterns in the ice in the little water channels next to path where it passes through the woods behind the marsh. They, and patterns like them, inspired this poem.
Whatever is written in the ice
at the edge of forest pools in
January, is evidently in code,
or some long forgotten Cyrillic
alphabet, all styalized curves,
more drawn than written, as
though by monks illuminating
medieval manuscripts by candle
light. It will take a better mind
than mine to decipher it. But
then, I am pretty certain the
message is not for me anyway…
Sony RX10III @ 77mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f3.5. Processed and cropped for composition in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Feeder Action…
Black-capped Chickadee, our yard. Kennebunk Maine
There is a mixed feeding flock of Titmice and Chickadees, with always a Downy Woodpecker, and sometimes either a White or Red-breasted Nuthatch along for the ride, that comes almost every day just at noon. They might come other times in the morning, but that is the time I am most likely to be in the kitchen to see them. 🙂 This Black-capped Chickadee was appreciating my newly filled sunflower feeder.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/250th @ ISO 250 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Cedar Waxwing berry toss…
Cedar Waxwing, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image zoom). Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Handsome Robin…
American Robin, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
Another shot of the handsome American Robins feeding in the berry bushes at Roger’s Pond Park in Kennebunk Maine. I know, they are only Robins, but in winter we nature photographers can’t be picky! (And it does not help any in summer either.) And Robins are indeed handsome birds. Not beautiful, mind you, but certainly very handsome.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed and cropped for scale in Polarr on my iPad Pro.