Monthly Archives: August 2020
Pink Water Lily
Besides being Eastern Amberwing season at Roger’s Pond Park here in Kennebunk, Maine (see yesterday’s post), it is also Water Lily season. The pond has both white and pink lilies. This is an HDR shot, processed in Polarr and Apple Photos for the best balance of light and shadow. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Nominal exposure ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th. -1EV. (I say nominal since the camera took three exposures and combined them into this one HDR.)
Eastern Amberwing
My only reliable spot for Eastern Amberwings is Roger’s Pond along the Mousam River here in Kennebunk, Maine. I am sure they are elsewhere in the area but I have never found them. This seems to be the season for them in Southern Maine. This week the ones close to shore where I could photograph them were all males…vigorously defending territory from each other and attempting to avoid the larger dragons, Widow and Twelve-spotted Skimmers, on patrol. It is not an easy life when you are among the smallest of dragonflies 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Something different…
This is a different kind of photo than I normally post…or take for that matter, but I could not resist this purple pepper from our garden. We have a very short growing season here on Brown Street, due to the effects of the tide coming up the river on our micro-climate, but we did manage to grow this somewhat magnificent pepper this year. Carol brought it in when it began to pull the pepper plant over. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at about 80mm equivalent. HDR mode. Nominal exposure: ISO 2500 @ f8 @ 1/30th. -1 EV to hold the highlights as much as possible. Program shift for maximum depth of field. Hand held.
Abstact in marsh grass
This is a somewhat awkward season in Southern Maine for photography…and, as it happens, I am rarely in Maine in August. The bird life is kind of quiet, dragonflies and not in flight as much, and we often have blue sky days…not my favorite for landscapes. I generally attend the Tucson Birding Festival the first part of the month and for the past two years have been in Africa late in the month. This year, of course, I am home. 🙂 So, here is a somewhat random abstract shot from along the Bridle Path in Kennebunk. I love what the water and wind does with the salt grass, and what the weather and the years have done to the posts. Sony Rx10iv at about 170mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Bee Fly
This is, according to iNaturalist’s iSeek, another Bee Fly, the second species I have found on the Kennebunk Plains. The Bee Flies are not called “bee flies” because they look like bees…though they do a bit…but because they are bee parasites, laying their eggs in ground bee nests where the larva eat, first the food the bees have stored, and then the bee larva when they hatch. Unsavory 🙂 Still it is an interesting creature. This one is quite a bit bigger than the white-furred one I found previously, and has more patten on the wings. There are many species of Bee Flies, and iSeek and its AI engine could come no closer. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Coy
I enjoy the symmetry and the flow of the pattern on this resting chipmunk’s back. And the rich browns in contrast to the blue green and grey wood. And I suppose the contrast in textures, wood and fur. And that’s it. That is all there is to this photo. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Taken at Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine.
Laudholm Chipper
The chipmunks are everywhere abundant this year. We see them every day around the yard. They have made repeated attempts to undermine our rose bush. They like to play hide and seek among the marigolds in the planters on the back deck. Carol rescued one from drowning in a water bucket yesterday, and I suspect, from the nighttime noises in the walls, that they have gotten into the house. This one was on the boardwalk at Laudholm Farms, and let me walk right up to it. The shot is cropped only on the long axis, full frame otherwise…so I as close indeed. I have to admit, I have a lot more time for chipmunks than for squirrels, which this year, is a good thing. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Calico Skimmer on Blazing Star
We have been having one of our southern Maine spells of hot summer weather and I have not, honestly, been inspired to push through the heat to do much photography. It is all I can do to get my exercise bike ride in. 🙂 I was determined to get out yesterday and, as I got my camera ready and got myself on the bike, I was thinking that a dragonfly or a butterfly on Blazing Star would make the trip worth-while, and was perhaps a reasonable expectation out on the Kennebunk Plains these early days of August. The Blazing Star was not as far along as I had though it might be, based on early blooms in late July, but I was still rewarded with my shot…just as I had foreseen it. The Calico Pennants are getting smaller and darker as the season progresses, but still put on a good show, and the Blazing Star is just barely beginning to open, but still…it is undeniably a dragonfly on Blazing Star. 🙂 High, gusty, winds keep the Calico Pennant in constant motion. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Another shot of the Jakes
Wild Turkey, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, USA — As further evidence of the strangeness of turkeys. 🙂 Nice light though! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Turkeys are so strange!
Wild Turkey, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, USA — At the risk of offending turkey lovers everywhere I am going to come right out and say it: Turkeys are so strange! This is one of a small rafter of jake turkeys (“rafter” is one of two collective nouns for Wild Turkeys, the other being “gang”, and a “jake” is young “Tom”…or male turkey. If it was a female it would not have the chest beard, and, if young, would be called a “jenny”…if an adult, a “hen”. I say again, Turkeys are so strange, or maybe it is just that they bring out the strangeness in us). I saw this rafter of jakes along the entrance road at Laudholm and they were not really all that bothered when I got off my bike to take some pictures. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.