Photographs by Frank

24 June 2013

The Easy, The Hard and The Different

Filed under: Odontates,The "New" Yard & Environs,wildflowers — Tags: , , — Frank @ 10:00 PM

If you want to try your hand at photographing odonates, I recommend starting with four-spotted skimmers. This medium sized (2-3″) dragonfly often returns to the same perch again and again after each hunting foray. It also generally chooses perch at the tops (ends) of branches or other stalks. Lastly, it is not particularly skittish and thus is relatively easy to approach closely. All of this makes four-spotted skimmers easy… to photograph.

If you want to increase your levels of frustration, I recommend trying to photograph the sedge sprite (and a number of other small damselflies). These critters are small (about 1- 1.5″ long) and slender.  They spend most of  their time low down in the vegetation and seem to flit about at random.  All of this makes sedge sprites (and their ilk) hard… to photograph.

Every once in a while I find myself on the wrong side of an ode in terms of the light. Sometimes when this happens, the silhouette neuron in my brain goes off. This allows me to make something different… photographically.

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I made the photograph of the iris as I headed back towards home. The sun, which by 6:30 was relatively low in the sky, had gone behind the clouds making for some nice light. The irises are nearing the end of their season so I doubt that there will be too many more chances to photograph them… until next summer.

16 June 2013

Two Days of Ode-ing

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 11:00 PM

Today was not a particular good day for ode-ing… it was overcast and cool.

Not that I minded… I spent four or five hours over the previous two days swamp stomping  in my new summer-weight (i.e. non-neoprene) waders. Previously, I had made do with “green wellies” which often got flooded if I ventured a little too deep or if I squatted down in the water. Chest-waders have neither problem and therefore make the life of a swamp stomper much nicer!

Here are the results (including a few “non-ode” species):

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31 August 2012

Another Afternoon at the Beaver Swamp

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates,Other Insects,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 6:00 PM

As summer draws rapidly to a close, I feel the urge to wander in wetlands more strongly than earlier in the season. Yesterday Joan and I both headed down to the beaver swamp. She to work on her skills at identifying and documenting wildflowers and I to do my usual thing!

Joan is on a hunt for New England Asters… don’t ask why! Thus far I have lead her to White Wood Asters (a few days ago) and New York Asters (yesterday)… so the hunt continues!

We headed out a bit earlier that I usually do (around 2:30 instead of more toward 4:00). I was hoping that maybe there would be a bit more activity earlier in the afternoon than there had been on my previous excursions. I was willing to sacrifice good light for photographic opportunity. I was not disappointed! Of course we’ll never know if it was the hour or the luck of the draw!

The green frog was sitting in the middle of the beaver pond maybe five or six feet from where I sat on the bank when I noticed it; I had been sitting in the same spot for five or ten minutes when I noticed it. I do not know if had been there all of the time or if had appeared just before I saw it…. so much for the observant nature photographer! Any way, wWe watched each other for fifteen or twenty minutes. It was very unconcerned about my presence.

Presumably, it was hoping to catch a passing insect. Of course, I was hoping to photograph it catching an insect. It was much more patient that I as it was still sitting there when I arose and moved on.

The toad on the other hand was rather jumpy! It is quite amazing that a 1.5 inch long creature can end up two or three feet away in a single bound. I stalked this “fellow” for a couple of leaps, at which point it must have decided to try relying on its camouflage. When I finally found it again, it kept still and I was able to shoot a number of frames.

The highlight of the afternoon was a very brief glimpse  of a large darner ovipositing. Dragonflies are very wary when laying eggs. After I spied this individual, I turned slowly and carefully to get the two frames I did. As soon as I made a larger movement in an attempt to get a better angle off she went! The same was true for the tandem pair of meadow hawks… I made just two exposures before they were off again.

Hunting meadowhawks are another story… both of these females kept making brief hunting forays returning to the same perch after each foray. As usual they were very unconcerned by my presence and I was able to slowly move closer and get the best angle possible. Whatever they were hunting must have been small as I never either of them with prey… or maybe they were not very successful hunters!

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30 August 2012

A Quick Visit to the Beaver Swamp

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Yesterday, I spent about 90 minutes in the late afternoon down in the swamp at the back of our property. I went specifically to look for the male spreadwings that would “match” the females which have been common in the woods for the past few weeks.

Often, the males of a species will head back to the water (where mating and ovipositing will take place) earlier than the females. Thus, having seen only females in the woods, I thought that maybe the males would be at the pond in the swamp. I  thought incorrectly since there were no spreadwings at all and essentially no damsels of any kind. I photographed one male damsel and caught a glimpse of a second; that was it.

There were small numbers of large dragonflies (darners of some sort) cruising their territories above the pond and the meadow. However, as usual, I saw none perched.

Along the margins of the swamp (where meadow meets woods) I found a number (may a dozen total) of  autumn meadowhawks of both sexes.

In between odes, I discovered (and photographed) two different types of grasshoppers.

Lastly, I found two groups of asters in bloom… a sure sign that fall is on the way.

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30 June 2012

Odes and Wildflowers at Rye Pond

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,wildflowers — Tags: , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Late yesterday (Friday) afternoon Joan and I put the kayaks in at Rye Pond in Stoddard. This small, shallow pond is part of a Harris Center parcel. It has a well-traveled (for this part of the world anyway) road along one edge but is still quite pleasant.

The weather was sunny and rather warm. There was a very gusty breeze blowing. The breeze probably limited the numbers of odes that were out and about and it certainly made for difficult photography. It is rather difficult to frame and focus while being blown about in ones boat! That said, we still had a pretty successful outing.

One area of the pond has extensive floating bogs and, as is typical,  there were many interesting plants to be found in this ecological niche.

We stayed out until there was no more direct sunlight on the water and it was 8:30 PM by the time we got the boats back on the truck.

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28 May 2012

Lady Slippers

Filed under: Monadnock Region,The "New" Yard & Environs,wildflowers — Tags: , — Frank @ 8:00 PM

The lady slippers are in full bloom around here.

On Saturday, Joan’s cousin Suzy called and said that they had one blooming right at the side of their driveway. I, of course, headed down there the first chance I got and took a bunch of photographs, playing with the lighting, angles, background, etc.

This morning, I was out back by our shed and noticed a lady slipper right between the shed and the outhouse (now used as a tool shed). Upon further exploration we discovered close to a dozen under the pines and hemlocks right behind the house. Of course,  I spent another interval photographing them.

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Warning… photo-geek talk below coming next!

Both these photos were taken in full “Strobist-mode”. Both the camera and the flash were set to full manual mode. I set the aperture to get a nice out of focus background and the shutter speed to get the exposure I wanted on the background (under exposing it dramatically). Finally, I set the flash power to get the desired exposure on the flower.

In the first photo the flash was bare and about 18 inches away. I used a collapsible diffuser to place the flower in essentially open shade.

In the second photo the flash was about a foot way and was equipped with a “softbox”. Again, I used the diffuser to place the flower in “open shade”.

I thought that I had left the softbox at home for the first photo and had to make a choice between using the diffuser in front of the flash or to provide shade.  It turns out that the diffuser was in my backpack all of the time… I just hadn’t looked hard enough… heavy sigh!

1 October 2011

A Stroll Up The Road

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

Yesterday afternoon, I took a stroll up Brimstone Corner Rd. and Knight’s Road just to see what was out. I planned to stop at some of the logged out areas since I expected to find some darners out and about taking advantage of the sunny afternoon.

The clouds began to gather shortly after I headed out and I only saw a handful of odes (a couple of darners and a couple of Autumn Meadowhawks in the first clearing I investigated; after that, nothing.

There were plenty of other things to keep me occupied… chipmunks abounded in the stone walls on both sides of the road. Turning leaves and other vegetation also made for interesting subjects as did the old skidder near the fork in Knight’s Road.

At said fork in road, I encountered a hawk of some kind. It came around the bend in the road only ten or twelve feet off the ground. When it saw me it made a very sharp turn into the woods and was gone; way too fast to get a photo. I could not decide if it was just cruising the road or if I had scared it up off the ground. A quick search of the area revealed no remnants of prey on the ground.

On the way back down Knight’s Road, I stopped to inspect the a tent platform in the woods. I sat down on the edge of the platform, laid the camera down and doffed my backpack. I had been sitting in quiet contemplation for no more than five minutes when I sensed a presence nearby.

Looking up, I saw a black bear with its front paws atop a stone wall maybe a hundred feet away. I am not sure who was more surprised! We sat looking at each other for some seconds, each of us contemplating our next move! As I reached for my camera, she/he turned around and headed off into the woods making a huffing sound as she/he went. At one point she/he turned around to see what I was doing but she/he kept going.

At this point I realized that there would be no more quiet contemplation given my level of serum adrenaline, so I packed up and headed on my way!

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28 August 2011

Carpenter’s Marsh WMA

Filed under: Birds,Odontates,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Thursday was Eva’s Marsh WMA. On Friday we plopped the kayaks in at  Carpenter’s Marsh WMA.

Both parcels are quite near each other (about a mile apart “as the crow flies”)  in Hancock and are similar in many ways; although Carpenter’s is quite a bit larger. Both parcels are “enhanced” wetlands… that is they both have a man-made dam to raise the water level. Both are also managed as water fowl habitat.

The weather on Friday afternoon was warm and sunny. Thus the odes were out in force.

There were large darners everywhere patrolling at grass/sedge top level and occasionally dipping down into the vegetation after prey. I did not see one perched all afternoon!

There were also many meadowhawks and spreadwings about with a few other species in the mix in smaller numbers.

The vegetation at the two sites is quite different. Eva’s Marsh has large areas of pickerel weed and there were many water lilies and much eastern purple bladderwort; spatterdock is absent.  At Carpenter’s pickerel weed along with grasses and sedges dominate. Rushes are also present and the main flowering plant we saw was spatterdock. The arrowhead was also in bloom at Carpenter’s.

As for birds, we spent a bit of time with a group of eastern kingbirds both coming and going. They were perched in a patch of snags and we enjoyed watching their swooping forays for insects.

Our second pass by the kingbirds was just as the sun was going behind the ridge which encloses the wetland. Thus the really warm color in the last photo is not enhanced at all and less that thirty seconds after snapping that photo the light was the dull, flat and blue light of evening.

On the way back to the put in, we also had fun watching a riled up beaver. He/she kept swimming away from us and slapping its tail. I think that it was leading us away from a juvenile. A one point while my eye was on the beaver ahead,  I heard a loud plop of something dropping into the water just behind my right shoulder.

Halfheartedly, I took a few photos knowing that a small brown lump in the water was not going to make for great images but hoping that I might catch an interesting pose during a tail slap; none are worth showing.

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25 August 2011

Eva’s Marsh

Filed under: Amphibians,Birds,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Yesterday afternoon we loaded the kayaks on the truck and headed to Eva’s Marsh WMA in Hancock. We spend a few hours there and only explored the “front” (i.e. before the first beaver dam) of this ninety eight acre plot. I guess that we’ll have to go back again sometime.

There were not many odes about on this cool afternoon with a high overcast… good light for photography! However,  the water lilies and the eastern purple (or spotted) bladderwort were both in bloom and kept me entertained!

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We also saw a numbers of animals… birds, frogs and painted turtles. (No turtle photos worth showing from this trip though.)

I also spent quality time with a solitary sandpiper twice… going and coming.  He/she was much more concerned about the hunting than about the nearby human in the bright orange kayak. I was able to approach quite closely… good thing since all I had was my 300 mm lens!

We also had fun watching a group of barn swallows… at one point there were five individuals in the tree in the photos below. We also saw a kingfisher and a raptor (probably a hawk) both at a distance so no photos this time… oh well!

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21 August 2011

Hummers, Odes and Flowers

Filed under: Birds,Odontates,The "New" Yard & Environs,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 12:15 PM

Hummingbirds are hard… to photograph, that is!

About a month ago, we set out some hummingbird feeders. (Thanks, Kevin!)

Yesterday afternoon, I succumbed to the urge to try and photograph the critters. I set up the tripod, mounted the 50-500 mm lens on the camera, mated the two and waited… and waited… and waited!

Waiting is the first difficulty… humming birds show up in the vicinity of the feeder sporadically and then don’t hang around for very long.

Photographically, I was looking to avoid the usual cliches… you know, “the bird on a feeder”. See the first photo for an example… I can shoot cliches with the best of them! Thus, I initially set up the camera for a “loose” framing so that I could easily crop out any bit of feeder in the frame; see the second and third photos.

I also noted that the females especially would often perch in the nearby pine trees after visiting feeders. They were usually perched too high to get a good photo…  a photo of a bird belly is not particularly interesting; the eye-to-eye perspective makes for much stronger photos. However, every once in a while one would land on the lowest branch and tempt me into taking a frame.

Finally, I decided that the most interesting photos would be those of these critters maneuvering around the area and challenging one another; see the last two frames.  This is a low probability shot… one needs to frame the bird, acquire focus and hit the shutter all in what seems like milliseconds… these birds hover but are never really still!

What did I learn spending four hours in the back yard? Humming birds are hard!

These photos are OK… just OK. They are sharp enough for display as small images but they are fairly drastic crops (roughly half a frame) of frames taken at ISO 800 or 1600. I would not try to make even modest sized prints from them.

My conclusion… more practice is needed! This of course, is a key to good photography and life in general, now that I think about it!

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During the long interludes between the appearances of the hummingbirds, I entertained myself by putting the 70-300 mm lens and the 32 mm extension tube on one of my old D70 bodies and shooting the odes which appeared nearby.

I missed only one or two visits of  the hummingbirds while engaged with the odes. You can hear the hummingbirds as they approach and it was usually easy enough to get back behind the tripod.

Towards the end of the afternoon, my attention (to hummingbirds)  began wane and I began to wander further from the tripod. It was then I noticed the black-eyed susans.

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All in all, ’twas an enjoyable fours hours spent!

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