Last Practice

(July 18th) Today was my last day that I could photograph before heading to Alberta. I need all the practice I can kept so that I'll be as sharp as possible there. I headed again to Furstenberg Park - the place was becoming like home to me in the mornings and evenings. Right near the parking lot I ran into an American Goldfinch in great light. Surprisingly enough the male even tolerated my presence at a reasonable distance.

As I was walking the trails, I heard a real surprise. At around 7am there was the sound of a low-flying propeller plane. When I looked up there were 4 planes getting some formation practice for an air show, and they were flying nearly straight at me! I had a few second to take some shots before they flew past.

Birds Again

(July 13th) With all the macro work I've been doing lately, I haven't really been taking many pictures of birds or mammals. This morning I resisted all the flowers and focused on birds. Early on I ran into a Black-capped Chickadee making this cool display.

When I find a Mourning Dove in good light it almost always leads to a picture that I like. Today was no exception.

Simplicity

(July 12th) I wonder if the critters at Furstenberg Park are recognizing me considering how frequently I've been coming lately. Today I worked mostly on very simple compositions. This Carpenter Bee was one of the animal macros that I liked the most.

I also took this photo of a Queen Anne's Lace flower with the intention of making a black and white photo from it. I'm not that great at black and white conversion yet. It's not a type of photo that I do very frequently, surely to my detriment. For those of you who don't know, this common flower is actually what a carrot looks like in the wild (the root is edible too although it isn't as big or as orange as the one you normally eat).

Lazy Mornings

(July 10th) This morning as I was walking around Furstenberg Park there was dew everywhere. While this means that I ended up with wet pants and shoes, it also meant the dew was all over the flowers and plants. I took this shot to try and capture the look on a flower, but I don't think the light is good enough for the mood I was trying to relate.

Mornings are a lazy time for both people and animals. Well most animals aren't that lazy in the morning, but this Fox Squirrel sure was. I was pretty surprised when organizing my photos to notice that I had no photos of the species before. If you've been to Ann Arbor, you will notice them everywhere. A classic case of ignoring the thing right under your nose.

A Bug-Day Afternoon

(July 9th) After so many shots of pretty flowers, it was time to shoot something a little different. Today was all about the bugs of all shapes and sizes. I started off working the Red Milkweed Beetles. Their red color is so vibrant. Here I feel like I'm invading a private moment between these two.

The Red Milkweed Beetles are actually quite shy. If they see you approaching they just drop to the ground. So you have to pretty careful sneaking up on them to get close. Here is a face from one that I found to be funny.

Yellow Jackets are a wasp that I'm quite familiar with. I'm pretty sure they've stung me more times than all other bees and wasps. I can't really hold it against them - they were just trying to defend themselves or their nest. Compared to the soft, fuzzy look of honeybees, they seem quite scary.

I also found this fat beetle on a blade of grass. I'm not sure what species it is, but it's somewhere in the Chrysomelid family. Just what you wanted to hear I bet... The curve of the grass and the expression of the beetle drew me to taking this shot.

In Michigan, this bee is one of the most common ones you'll encounter. Most people think they're looking at a bumblebee, but it's a Carpenter Bee. They tunnel through wood for their nests so sometimes they cause problems for houses.

As American As...

(July 7th) Fourth of July is a great holiday. It's a time to celebrate a great country, the fun of summer, friends and family, and of course food. Pie is one of my favorite desserts and it ranks up there as some of the most American food. I spent Fourth of July with some good friends and with their help cooked a beautiful pie made with Michigan cherries. But the affair was wrought with tragedy... I dropped the pie when taking it out of the oven after it was finished. The pain that filled our hearts was unimaginable - so much work, so much expectations, all ruined. We agreed to remake the pie a few days later and here it is - not quite as beautiful as the first, but it came out delicious. For food you have to be creative with the pictures. Taking a wide-angle and going close is one of my favorite ways - it really makes you want to reach out and dig in. I hope your Fourth of July was filled with fun, food, friends, and family - hopefully no pie tragedies!

Macro Work

(July 5th) I had another fun early evening shooting some macro stuff. It's rewarding to be able get some frames of a subject that doesn't care at all if you come close. The flowers were completely stunning today. These are all wildflowers - at one time these flowers were everywhere in the great prairies that covered much of the midwest.

Flowers rely on their pollinators to reproduce, and the pollinators need the flowers for food. Here you can see a Honeybee on a Butterfly Weed. This image has some nice contrast of colors, shapes and textures between the bee and the flower.

After a few days of macro shooting, I'm starting to notice significant improvement in my macro skills. I'm getting a lot better at focusing and composing these kinds of shots and starting to reach the point where I can inject some new creativity into the process. Here I went for a shot of the flower with the majority of the image out-of-focus and I'm satisfied with the look.

This photo of a honeybee and milkweed shows a little bit of the perspective that the pollinator sees when it comes in to land at a flower.

I found a few mushrooms that had recently sprung up not far from the flowers. With the late sun, I went for a shot with a bit more contrast than the soft flower shots.

Families and Ducks

(June 29th) Today I was surrounded by families everywhere I went. First it was some Canada Geese, then a Baltimore Oriole feeding its just-fledged offspring, then a few Red-Winged Blackbird families. Some of these photos were good, but I like the pictures I took of the ducks today the most. Run-of-the-mill Mallards, but the lighting was good and in some shots like of this juvenile, the water had some nice reflections.

The father of the family seemed to be in the middle of a molt. Since the breeding season is winding down, he's getting out of his garish green colors into a drab brown plumage that resembles the female and juveniles. At the end of my morning I ran into another family. Here you can see the mother leading her children across a small pond.

Flowers

(June 28th) I took another evening of macro shots. I decided to focus on the flowers after emphasizing the bees and butterflies last time. This time I tried a bunch of creative shots. They had some interesting ideas, but I made a few mistakes on the execution so I'll have to try it again another time. A couple of the more traditional shots came out decently. Here is some Aster - this flower is quite common at this time of year.

I found a place where some shafts of light were playing with some of the flowers. Of course the wind is changing the highlights and shadows of this effect non-stop (in addition to messing with the focus). I think this light adds a lot to these yellow flowers.

Pandora's Box

(June 27th) Pandora's Box is a great Greco-Roman myth. In the story, Pandora opens up this forbidden box unleasing all the evil things into the world. But the best part is that after all of that, there is one thing remaing in the box - hope. Today was one of those days where the photography just didn't work. I saw some great things - a really cool woodchuck who has become so old his hair has turned mostly gray (I've watched this woodchuck for a couple of years now) - also saw a female snapping turtle lay her eggs right in the middle of the trail and cover them up (I hope they make it). But the shots didn't come out as I intended. However hope remained. I did manage to get a good shot of one of those common but shy birds that has been stymieing me for some time. It's not perfect but a lot better than the other shots I have of Blue Jays so far. Next Blue Jay I can be pickier.

It's a Small World

(June 26th) I got a chance to go out shooting in the early evening. It's hard to beat a day where I get to go shooting twice. Since I have a trip planned to Canada in July I'm going to be missing the height of flowers and butterflies in Ann Arbor, so it was a good chance to go out and try and see what I could find. This meant macro time. I love the way macro photography brings people into a world of detail that they never see, but it is a type of photography that I don't have much experience with. My first subject was this pretty skipper feeding on a flower. These are cool little butterflies with tones of energy. One of those shoots that my favorite shot comes at the beginning.

From the last time I shot macro, I learned a bit about macro depth-of-field. So I was shooting at f8/f11 most of the time. I might have gone even deeper, but light and speed is an issue. Normally getting a sharp shot is a matter of keeping the shutter speed slow. With macro there is a whole new world of problems. Wind is one of the biggest. When you're getting this close, wind causes so much movement relative to the subject's size that the littlest bit will spoil a shot. Speaking of wind, these seeds are waiting for a gust to scatter them.

There were quite a few flowers around. I still need to work out a few kinks with how to shoot flowers. I'm not as bad with them as landscapes, but still plenty of room for improvement. This small yellow flower was one of the better ones.

When you shoot insects, not only do you have the wind to deal with, but they move. To be honest, they rarely sit still. I forgot to mention, that I'm not using any auto-focus with macro shots, it's all manual. So that means that the wind is constantly moving the subject closer or further, the insects don't stop moving on the flowers either, and you're trying like mad to adjust the focus precisely at this shallow depth-of-field to all of these changes. So when you hit the shutter you're hoping for an image to come out sharp. My keeper percentage is maybe a third of non-macro shots if I'm lucky. So any nicely composed, sharp shot like this Honeybee feels like an accomplishment. In an ideal world there would be no shadow on the milkweed flowers, but I'll take it.

Common, But Still Special

(June 26th) I've realized that the last few weeks I haven't added any new species to my photographs. On the other hand, I really did get a chance to flesh out of some of the common species and fill in some gaps. It can be quite relaxing to photograph the more common species because you don't feel the pressure of 'you'll never get a shot at one of these again.' I started off the morning with a few pictures of the most common bird in North America, the Red-winged Blackbird. Here the male is giving a territorial call.

I ran into one of my favorites birds that just sums up relaxing to me. From their look, to their songs, to their overall demeanor, Mourning Doves are about as peaceful as an animal comes. Usually I don't like background that have anything man-made in them (like this fence), but the clean background, powerful light, and relaxing pose made up for it in my eyes.

I've been trying to get a decent picutre of an American Goldfinch for probably a year. It's been one of those missions where I am not singly focused on it, but if I seen an individual I will give it a try. They tend to be quite shy or in messy backgrounds a lot, but they are striking birds. They small size makes getting them large enough in the frame difficult. Here I was quite happy with the male perched atop some pretty teasel.

I took a bunch of shots of chipmunks again today, but I've posted so many lately that I'll give you a break from them. Instead I'll show another shot of the ubiquitous American Robin. I'm not a fan of the side lighting, but the pose he was giving me was fantastic. It's good to appreciate the wonderful critters we see around us every day.

The Cuteness Factor

(June 23rd) There are a lot of things that can draw people to photos. Sometimes you have the choose one of the sappier ones - the cuteness factor. I had a couple of cute subjects today and had no qualms about exploiting it. My first subject was this Eastern Chipmunk who I saw at just about the earliest possible direct light. It was busy burying something and occasionally looked up with the evidence on its nose.

While watching the chipmunks, several birds visited me. Several orioles of both species, a few starlings, grackles, and others all made their way nearby. I got some great looks at this American Robin who seeemed to wonder just why I was lying on my belly with this huge camera pointed at a tiny chipmunk.

If you need cute, you can't fail with babies. I found a pair of Mallard ducklings resting on the grass near one of the ponds and went to work. They seem so happy that a nice bright image seemed called for.

I wish I had used a tiny bit of fill on these pictures, but they still came out alright. The Mallards just sat resting for a while, but eventually they got up to waddle to the water. This picture was just as they were getting ready to stand up.

At this time of year, babies are on nearly every animal's mind. Further down a ways from the pond's edge, I ran across a Painted Turtle. Odds are it was out of the water to lay its eggs. At first it seemed not to mind me much as it took its head out of the shell right away. So I got ready to take a shot and wait for it to take its legs out and start walking back to the pond. I figured I had enough patience. Wrong as usual! 45 minutes later I gave up and headed to work while the turtle never came out fully. I'm sure it started walking just when I got out of sight.

Once in a While Nature Comes to You

(June 22nd) Usually I have to go out searching hard for wildlife, but every once in a while it comes when you least expect it. For some reason while doing laundry today, I happened to look out on of the basement windows. This window is sunk beneath ground and has a small area (4 or 5 square feet) dug out just for it. Don't know why I looked - I have maybe looked out this window twice since I've been at the house. Trapped in the area was a very young Eastern Cottontail rabbit. This poor little guy had a tangle with something nasty - my guess would be a cat. He was in terrible shape, with one of his ears torn and a large bloody path on one of his sides where some fur and flesh was missing. To top things off, he was trapped down with no ready source of food or water. When I first spotted him, he looked like a wreck.

After I took a few pictures of him, my roommate and I set about freeing him while causing minimal stress to him (i.e. not directly touching him, etc.). After being freed he immediately seemed happier. He also was pretty oblivious to our presence - perhaps he was so hungry and thirsty that he didn't care. I took this shot shortly after his release. Normally I try for a nice clean subject, but here I like the look of him peeping out through the plants in the soft light.

As soon as he got his bearings, he proceeded to chow down. Almost any plant he could find was fair game. The area around our house doesn't get much sun late in the day, so most of the time he was in the shade. Good thing my flash usage is getting better, otherwise this shot would have been too flat.

After poking around in the shade, he finally found some of the few shafts of late sun we have. This shot is my favorite of him with its fantastic light. I like the bee flying in the image too - makes the suburban setting seem a bit more natural. As he went on his way, we hoped he makes it! It's a tough world out there for a little guy like him.