Photographs by Frank

31 July 2011

Robberfly with Prey

Filed under: Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 12:24 PM

One never knows when opportunity will come knocking.

This morning, I was inside paying the bills and Joan was outside weeding and watering her flower bed. At about 10:15, I heard Joan call and given past experience, I came running camera in hand!

I surmised correctly! My wildlife-spotter-in-chief had discovered a robberfly with a bee! The insect took a couple of minutes after my arrival to settle down in a rhododendron right next to our deck and begin to eat.

Once it did, I could approach to the close focus distance of the ode rig and I began to work the angles in order to get a good (i.e. uncluttered) background. I took 94 frames in just over a half hour looking for variety in the background (via changes in angle and aperture) and in behavior.

Here are three images including another one those random events that occur in nature. The second bee in the last image could not have been in the area for more than 10 seconds; I have two frames (including this one) that include it. The first two images are cropped to about half of the original frame; the third image is about two-thirds of the original frame.

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Around the Yard

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Yesterday morning, I spent a couple of hours roaming the yard with camera (rigged for odes)  in hand.

I was amazed at the variety of odes (and other insects) to be found. I captured images of ten different species including a twelve-spotted skimmer, a dragonfly that I had not seen before.

All-in-all a successful morning!

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14 July 2011

Sunday Morning

Filed under: Odontates,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 12:13 PM

I spent last Sunday morning wandering the yard with the camera. I began, as usual, stalking dragonflies and got a couple of nice photos of “Sunday Morning Odes”:

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At some point, I noticed the brightly colored petunias that Joan has growing in some of the planters around the yard. Thus, I took the extension tube off of the odonate rig and allowed myself to be distracted by the petunias.

Then I remembered the bouquet of flowers (cut from their garden) that our neighbors had brought over with an invitation to chat the previous day. I brought those out to the picnic table to photograph using a Strobist approach (i.e. put the camera in manual mode and use the shutter speed to “dial in” the desired ambient exposure (i.e. the background); then use the aperture (and flash power) to get the proper exposure on the subject).

Here are the “Sunday Morning Florals”:

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The first two images are more-or-less straight photos. The remaining images were processed using the Topaz Adjust set of filters and certainly represent an “altered reality”. My intent (other than just having fun) with these  images was to emphasize the texture of the flowers rather than their extremely bright colors. Note that the sixth and seventh images are actually the same frame just processed differently.

Comments appreciated!

9 July 2011

Swamp Romp

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Yesterday was a cool gray (heavy overcast) day which usually means low activity for odonates. Nevertheless, I donned my green wellies, added a layer of woodsman’s cologne and  headed down to the beaver swamp behind the house about 3:30 PM.

When I arrived a spent some time at the edge of the woods watching both the small patch of open water and the large patch of wet grassy marsh without seeing any activity. Eventually, I spied a dragonfly patrolling the open water. Deciding to brave the swamp proper, I headed off into the grassed and sedges lying between me and the open water.

As I moved though the waist- to chest-high grasses, I stirred up all sorts of insects that must have been just “hanging out” conserving energy. There were at least three species of damselflies present. I also stirred up two teneral meadow hawks (I only got photos of one though).

Lesson learned… observation form a distance tells only a small part of the story; one needs to immerse  oneself in the environment to get the “complete” story.

There were also two different type of moths present —  a small orange one and an even smaller cream colored one — no photos of the latter as they pretty much stayed down near the ground where the tangle of vegetation makes it impossible to get a clear line of sight.

After photographing critters among the grasses, I finally arrived at the edge of the open water where I spent some time watching two or three dragonflies (all the same species I think, but exactly which one, I can not say!) patrolling and hunting. Not once did I see any of them perch so there was no possibility of photographs.

As the afternoon wore on, the ode activity diminished. It was about six o’clock when I called it quits.

So here are the “keepers”:

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The first image is one of those “accidents” where I pushed the shutter release just as the critter took off… most of the time I get a frame containing a wonderful study of a twig or blade of grass (which I promptly delete)! This time my timing luck was better. What do folks think? Is it interesting enough to keep?

16 May 2011

Apple Blossom Time

Filed under: Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: — Frank @ 8:04 PM

Even though it was a cool damp weekend, spring is clearly here and progressing… the black flies are out in full force and the apple trees are beginning their show.

I spent a bit of time on Sunday morning between the showers photographing one of our two apple trees.

Here are the results:

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9 May 2011

Fiddleheads (again) and Trillium

Filed under: Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs,wildflowers — Tags: — Frank @ 9:08 PM

Warning… photo talk ahead!

I was not particularly satisfied with the photos of fiddleheads that I got last week; the light was too harsh. Ferns tend to grow in sunny spots and thus fiddleheads are thereby often in lots of bright direct sunlight.

I knew the light was harsh yet I photographed anyway — a failure of my “patience filter”. I should have come back when the light was softer or made a trip back to the house for a diffuser and stand!

Resolving to do better this week, I headed out in search of fiddleheads again.

There were broken clouds aloft so all I needed to do for “good light” was to carefully operate the “patience filter” and wait for the sun to go behind a cloud. A bit of flash (with a small plastic dome diffuser) off to one side allowed me to stop down the lens for the depth-of-field needed when shooting these small objects. I think that these photographs are better… what do you think?

While “out and about” in the woods, I noticed that the trillium were in bloom so they had to be captured as well! Trillium tend to grow in heavy shade so here I switched to “Strobist mode”: put the camera in full manual for exposure, use the shutter speed to “dial in” an appropriate level of  background illumination, set the needed the aperture (dictated by required depth-of-field) and control the exposure of the subject by adjusting the flash power.

Here are the weekend’s “keepers”:

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2 May 2011

Spring Progression

Filed under: Birds,Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , — Frank @ 7:49 PM

One of the nice things about spring is the constant change. New birds arrive in the area, new shoots and blossoms appear every few days and, the beech leaves finally fall to the ground!

I filled the feeder on Friday evening with sunflower seeds and we awoke the next morning to feeder covered in bright yellow. A posse of gold finches had found it! At one point a pair (one male and one female) of purple finches was mixed among the gold.

Photographing gold finches was impossible. They were either on the feeder (which does not make for nice photographs) or buried deep among the branches of  hemlock which neighbors the feeder; chickadees are the same. I may have to try adding a bare branch perch nearby or moving the feeder to another spot.

In addition to the finches, there seemed to be more chipping sparrows that the week before and the white-throated sparrows arrived. There were still numerous chickadees and juncos around as I expect there will be all summer.

During our walk on Saturday (in which we circumnavigated the beaver swamp that abuts our property) we noticed the appearance of fiddle-head ferns in a boggy area. The light was not great for photographs but I headed out the next morning with macro lens on the camera in search of more fiddle-heads and possibly other emergent ferns; the fiddle-heads were most common, by far.

Both days, I kept careful watch for the first odonates while I wandered, but none were yet to be found. Soon!

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25 April 2011

Great Brook / Late April Snow

Filed under: Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs — Frank @ 10:37 PM

Last Friday was a nice Spring day with temperatures up near 60 degrees. I spent a bit of time in the late afternoon photographing Great Brook as it runs past Joan’s cousin Margie’s  house.

Back in the 19th century, Great Brook, the outlet of Gregg Lake, performed much work along its short run to the Contoocoock River. It was lined with many water-powered mills which are, alas, no more.

The brook still flows high in the spring and dependably all year even though its power goes untapped.

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What a difference a day makes! We awoke on Saturday to a bit of snow in the air! A couple of inches accumulated before it turned to rain but the temperature was in the 30’s all day.

Joan had turned over the garden the previous weekend. But, as all northern New Englander’s know, we are still weeks away from safe planting time as the first photo below clearly shows! The apple trees in the yard are flirting with emergence and ended up with a cold, wet blanket for their trouble.

As the day wore on patchy fog developed. I headed up Meeting House Hill on my way back from doing some chores in town. I (correctly) figured that it would be foggy up there and that would set the mood for a few photographs of  the cemetery.

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We went to bed on Saturday with snow still covering most of the ground but awoke early on Sunday to 50 degrees and no snow. The New England Spring is never dull!

 

20 April 2011

Mid-April Backyard Wildlife

Filed under: Birds,Mammals,Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 4:58 AM

Well, spring has finally really arrived in our neck of the NH woods. There is no snow left in the yard, although there are still small patches here-and-there in the woods.

On Saturday morning, I filled a bird-feeder with black sunflower seed and hung it by the deck in the back of the house just to see what we could attract. I was amazed at how quickly the “word” spread. Within a couple of hours there were chickadees and nuthatches present as well as the perennial feeder nemesis, the gray squirrel! Within a day, the juncos and sparrows had found the feeder as well as the red squirrels and the chipmunks.

I, as you might have expected, spent some quality time with the camera set up near the feeder!

Here are the resulting “keepers”:

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On Sunday, we watched a female turkey amble though the yard as she picked over the remnants of last year’s acorn crop which were newly emerged from under the snow. In the afternoon on Sunday, Joan and I took a spontaneous break from the yard work  and walked down to the beaver swamp at the back of our property. Eagle-eyed Joan spotted a porcupine sitting way up in a tree right at the edge of the woods. No photos though, too high and too well hidden… maybe next time!

As I knew from the beginning, the environs of the new house were going to be great for wildlife (and photography). Our short time here has certainly proved that true and odonate season has not yet begun… although Joan did attract a few early blackflies as she worked turning over the vegetable garden on Monday!

 

10 April 2011

Nesting Geese and the Return of the Great Blue Heron – Signs of Spring

Filed under: Birds,Early Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , — Frank @ 8:15 PM

Although the main part of Gregg Lake is still frozen, the area around the bridge has been thawing slowly for the past few weeks. The shallow, swampy part to the north of the road is now completely ice free.

For at least a couple of weeks now, there have been a number of pairs of hooded mergansers feeding at the ice’s edge.  The mergansers won’t nest here. They are just passing thorough on their way to breeding grounds in Canada.

This morning, I headed down to the bridge with camera, tripod and long lens to see if I could photograph the mergansers. Two pairs were around but the warm weather had pushed the ice back far enough that they were too far away for good photographs; they were pretty much back lit as well.

Instead, I turned my attention to a pair of Canada geese on the other side of the road. I had noticed them in pretty much the same spot for the past few days and assume that they are nesting there. The light was pretty good and I got a few nice shots.

I was about to leave when I noticed a great blue heron, the first of this year). She (he?) was some distance back… certainly too far away for good photographs. However, I decided to stay put and see what developed. (My  friend, Joe Kennedy, says that one’s “patience filter” is the most important piece of equipment a photographer has!)

My luck was good and after about forty minutes the heron flew right over to, and just behind, the geese. He (she?) waded around in front of the geese and started hunting along the shore. Another twenty or so minutes later,  the heron landed a large fish! After swallowing the prey, he made a U-turn and began prowling the same stretch of shore again.

The heron took off a few minutes later when another fellow intent on fishing off the bridge drove up and got out of his truck. I took a cue from the heron and headed back home for a second cup of coffee… it was almost 1o AM and the light was getting harsh anyway.

Here are the morning’s photos:

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