Monthly Archives: July 2023
India! Indian Scopes Owl
Indian Scopes Owl: Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — This Indian Scopes Owl was roosting, literally, right outside my room at our hotel in Sawai Madhopur while we were visiting Rathambore National Park. It was an old British Colonial hotel will expensive grounds and well shaded verandas all around. And owls! I photographed it from the ground one day and, here, from the second floor veranda at close range. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th. +.7EV.
Maine! Little Green Metallic Bee visits Wood Lily
Green Metallic Bee on Wood Lily: Two of my favorites in one shot (well, two shots for variety). A tiny Green Metallic Bee visiting one of the few blooming Wood Lilies I have found so far this year…out on the Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy. It was only about 5 years ago that I saw my first Green Metallic Bee in our front yard, but I am on the lookout for them now, and see them often. You have to look close! And of course I look for the Wood Lilies every year in July. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 770mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.
India! Sambar Deer
Sambar Deer: Rathambore Tiger Reserve, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Again, Rathambore National Park is home to a wide variety of wildlife besides the tigers. These are the large forest deer of India and southeast Asia…the Sambar. We came on this small group late in the afternoon at the end of our third unsuccessful tiger drive. They almost made up for it 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 469 and 390mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th to 1/800th.
Maine! Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing: York County, Maine, USA, July 2023 — It has been one of the strangest springs and early summers that I can remember. I had begun to think I was not going to see a Cedar Waxwing. Places where I always see them, are barren of them this year. And then, of course, I saw two in a place I was not looking for them 🙂 Still, I am not seeing the numbers I expect. This bird was perched higher in the tree than I would have liked, but I will take what I can get. Cedar Waxwings are among my favorite birds…simply elegant. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/800th.
Maine! Wood Lilies
I am not sure what is happening with the Wood Lilies this year? I found only 2 plants in bloom where there are generally hundreds out on the Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy. I will check again this week but I am not hopeful…as the plants I found were in full bloom already. Wood Lilies are particularly hard to photograph as there is so much dimension to them, and every part is interesting and deserving of correct focus. This is an 8 deep focus stack, and again, hand held. (For those who do not know…when focus stacking the camera takes however many exposures you tell it to, varying the focus for each one, and then combines them in-camera so that every part of your subject looks in focus. It is particularly effective on close-ups. This produces a image that is much closer to what your eye sees…but it might look a bit strange in a photograph, as we expect to see the narrow plane of focus of the camera. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 246mm equivalent. Program mode. Nominal ISO 200 @ f5.6 @ 1/640th.
Maine! Snowy Egret fun
Snowy Egret: York County, Maine, USA, July 2023 — Just for fun. There were at least a dozen Egrets, Snowy and Great, on a sand bar where a tidal creek comes into our local river just inland from the mouth. These two were apparently trying to decide whether to go airborne or not for a short hop down the sandbar. The photos were taken from across the river with my OM Systems OM-1 and the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/800th.
Maine! Grass-pink Orchid (focus stack)
Grass-pink Orchid: Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, USA — I always go check for the Grass-pink Orchids too early…before they bloom…and then, sometimes miss them…getting to the little remnant bog at Laudholm Farms too late. This year I caught them (though there were no Rose Pagonias, the other orchid of that bog). The OM Systems OM-1 does in-camera focus stacking, and the 100-400mm zoom focuses to just over 4 feet at 800mm equivalent…making the system pretty amazing for flower macros (or close-ups at any rate.) I know from past experiences with other cameras (I have been photographing these Grass-pinks for many years now) that it is very difficult to get a close up of the flower with every part in focus in the same image. The flower is just too three-dimensional. Focus stacking (hand held here…and a tripod would not have helped as there was breeze and the flowers were moving) gives us the depth of filed needed. It took a couple of tries because of the breeze, but it is hard to fault the results. 770mm equivalent (to frame the flower from closest focus). Equivalent exposure ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.
Maine! Snowy Egret in the noonday sun.
Snowy Egret: Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells, York County, Maine, USA — It was high noon by the time I got to the overlook on the back side of the Little River marsh, and the light was really too bright for white birds! This Snowy Egret with a nice plume was busy feeding in the pool close in. Such a handsome bird! OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 250 @ f7.1 @ 1/640th and ISO 320 @ f7.1 @ 1/800th.
Maine! Great Egret
Great Egret: York County, Maine, USA, July 2023 — Great Egret banking into a turn as it flew in from far out in the marsh. Not ideal lighting for a white bird…mid-day sun on our first sunny day in more than a week here in southern Maine. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 2000 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th. +.7EV (because I was expecting flight shots to be against the sky 🙂
India! More Nilgai
Nilgai: Rathambore Tiger Reserve, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Nilgai seem to be doing just fine in all the reserves of the part of India we visited, and we saw them pretty much everywhere we went. This is a “blue-buck”, apparently a relatively young male, and a female for comparison. They seemed much bigger at the marsh reserves than they were at Rathambore in the forest, but maybe that is just a matter of perspective. Sony Rx10iv at 91, 256, and 400mm. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/250th and ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.