Monthly Archives: June 2019
Wild Iris
Another shot of Wild Iris (Flag Iris) to go with yesterday’s For the the Love of Landscape shot…from the same field. The distortions of this ultra wide lens close up produce a interesting background and composition. Sony a6500 with 18mm equivalent ultra wide lens. In-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr.
Back to Lupines
It is only fair to warn you that I still have a lot of Lupine photos from this year, and the season is not quite over. I am still hoping to find another patch. This shot uses the farm machinery as contrast to the masses of lupine blossoms. Since there were 3 other photographers working this field, I had to wait patiently for this shot without one of them in it. I shot from a distance, using the equivalent of a 200mm telephoto to isolate the flowers and machinery, and then cropped relatively tight at the top to make it more about the flowers. Sony RX10iv in-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr.
Ebony Jewelwing
These might be the earliest Ebony Jewelwings I have ever seen in Maine…and I saw them far from the streams where I have seen them in the past. These were along the Eastern Trail…a bicycle and walking trail that will eventually run the length of Maine…and, as part of the Atlantic Greenway, from Florida north. The section from Kennebunk to Biddeford runs along over an existing natural gas pipeline so all they had to do was build a bike and pedestrian bridge over I95. It has been done for several years now. The Jewelwings were fluttering over the trail as I rode my ebike along, and I got stopped in time to track them into the nearby forest for these photos. I find Ebony Jewelwings fascinating…not in the least because of how the color of the metallic body parts changes so radically as the light changes. These, in this light, were showing almost no green. They were an electric blue. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Lupines with a touch of yellow
I am not, of course, done with Lupines yet. They only bloom but briefly, once a year, and they are so spectacular, at least to my eye. You will have to put up with my momentary indulgence…just as in August, if the season is good, you will have to put up with a flood of Wood Lilies. You can never have, in my opinion, too many photos of such wildflowers! Here the Buttercups provide the yellow grace note among the blues and purples. In-camera HDR with the Sony a6500. 16mm f2.8 plus UWA converter for an 18mm ultra wide equivalent field of view. Processed in HandyPhoto, Polarr, and TouchRetouch.
Lupines
I went back to the best field of Lupines I know of within ebike range of home to see how it was developing. The field is back in between the inland fringes of Kennebunkport and Arundel, about a 20 mile round trip ride. I visited a week ago and wondered if it was still a bit early or if the bloom was weak this year. No worries! The field is now in full bloom and spectacular. There is, as in any extensive stand of lupin in Maine, a variety of shades of lupin…from this pure white specimen to deep indigo, to the more reddish-purple than blues. There are a few well grown maple trees in the foreground of the field, and the dappled light only adds to the beauty of the display. Sony RX10iv at 580mm equivalent. In-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr. Of course, I had to work around the 3 other photographers who had discovered the field and were visiting at exactly the same moment I was…one couple was from Ontario Canada. Popular field! Popular flowers.
Chipper at the pond
Chipmunks are always cute, but they are cuter out in the wild, well away from my bird-feeders. 🙂 This one was teasing me from the shelter of the brush around the base of a big tree on the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area in West Kennebunk. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
The Generous Eye. Happy Father’s Day.
“if your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
As it happens, yesterday we celebrated a new baby to be in the family at Erin and Paulo’s baby shower for Everleigh (they already know the baby will be a girl). And, today, of course, is Father’s Day. Certainly cause for reflection, and, yes, celebration (if I do say so myself). I have 7 wonderful daughters, enough to make any man proud. Each one is enough to make me proud. I have not always been the best of fathers, and that is not just false modesty…love is the hardest thing to do well, and I have often failed. Still, my heart tells me that Our Father, who dwells in us, has worked it all for good, and that, over all, love has won the day. That, honestly, is all any father can hope for…and it is my prayer for all father’s today, and that includes Paulo, as he sets out on this journey. It does not take a generous eye to see he has made a good start already. Happy Father’s Day to all of us today.
Giant Jack-in-the-pulpits
Near the bike-rack, right where I see them every time I go to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters in Wells Maine, there are a few stands of giant Jack-in-the-pulpits growing…the largest plants of their kind I have ever seen. This is one of them. The tallest blossom is about two and half feet off the ground. Giant! Sony RX10iv at about 150mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Gold Finch
We put up a new feeder pole on the other corner of the deck this week, along with a branch I saved from pruning the cherry tree last fall. The birds started using it immediately. I also added one of those metal screen thistle feeders to replace the thistle sock, which never, in the past three years, attracted a single Finch. That too was a success. The Goldfinches, which came to the Black-oil Sunflower Seed feeders even if they did not come to the thistle sock, started using the screen thistle feeder on the second day. They also like the cherry tree branch, which is straight in line with the deck door and easily visible from the breakfast table…if I am careful I can get the door open a crack before the birds fly, hence this shot of a Gold Finch at close range. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Red-winged Acrobatics
More shots of the acrobatic Red-winged Blackbird from a few days ago at the drainage pond at Southern Maine Medical Center in Kennebunk. Endlessly entertaining…unless they are at your feeder :). (And maybe even then, depending on your tolerance.) Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr. Assembled in Framemagic.