Some days, I'll visit the park and find almost nothing to photograph, and the next day have an abundance of photo opportunities. That is part of what keeps me going back to the walk the nature trails. Even then, there are days with plenty of opportunities, and no "keeper" photos. Once in awhile, though, I'll have a day where, though I may not have an abundance of opportunities, I somehow end up with quite a few shots I'm happy with. That was the case the past few days. Both Thursday and Saturday, I had almost no opportunities for photos. Friday made up for those two days, though, with a Great Blue Heron that gave me a lot of different looks, a Belted Kingfisher, sitting closer than I had ever seen before, a pair of Baby Owls, that were bobbing around in the tree that wasn't as close as I would like, but not too far, either, and a butterfly to end the day. I wish there were more days like Friday, but it is days like Friday that get me out for my walks on the Thursdays and Saturdays. Hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.
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I shoot so many photos in a month, and some days I might shoot hundreds of the same subject. Often I come home from shooting and end up uploading whole sequences of one bird or a deer, where the differences between several photos might be rather subtle. So, I've decided to add a feature to my site, and create a monthly favorites gallery. Mostly, these will probably include the photos that I think are my best work, though I may sometimes think that an average photo of a rarely sighted bird or a first encounter with a particular critter could be considered a favorite, too. These galleries will be updated through the month, and some early month favorites might not still be favorites by the end of the month. Comments are always welcome, and as usual, if you like what you see and want to share with friends, please click the appropriate Social sharing button.
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Over the past few weeks, most of my attention has been focused on photographing the Barred Owls at one of the nests in Blacklick Woods Metro Park. Although I have walked up and down a stretch of the trail to get photos of one of the Adult Owls out hunting, I've spent many hours staking out the nest, trying to get photos either of the Adults going in or out of the hole in the tree where the nest was, or hoping to get a shot of the babies peeking out, which I succeeded in doing a couple of times. Within a few feet of the best lace to view the nesting tree is a dead tree that a pair of House Wrens have used for their nest. So, often while waiting for owl sightings, I've taken photos of the Wrens in their comings and goings, along with an occasional Cardinal or Titmouse, etc. When I started going through my photos today, I found that I had more Wren shots than I had realized. Here is a sampling of the past couple of weeks in the lives of a pair of wrens.
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One way to get a dose of humility is to enter a contest. After hours of laborious decision making, I selected to enter these photos into the Birds As Art Photo Contest. The contest has now closed, and the winning entries are beginning to be displayed on the contest website. Since I have not been contacted to validate my entries with the submission of the original RAW files, as well as the circumstances of the photos, I assume I didn't even make the final cut from 5,500 photos submitted to the 165 or so that were sent to the Finals Judges for their votes. I had at least one photo here which I really thought would make it at least to that point, but it looks like the competition was really strong. Well, after just a couple of years of chasing birds, I suppose its not unrealistic that I still have a lot to learn. I still think I entered some pretty good photos, so I'm waiting anxiously to see the winning entries.
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I had spent several hours on the Nature Trail at the park, hoping to see something special - the fledgling Barred Owls out in the trees with one or both of their parents. I had walked around the loop a couple of times, and back and forth along the part of the trail where I had usually seen the male howl over the past few weeks, and seen no sign of any owls. As I was heading out of the park to go home, near the end of the trail I spotted this pair of White tailed deer, which I think is probably a Yearling Doe and her mother, grazing back a little way in the woods. I stopped and set put my tripod and started shooting, when I saw the younger dow walk up and snuggle with its mother. I kept shooting until they wandered out of sight in the brush, then walked around to where I expected them to come out into the open, arriving just as they did. It wasn't the Owls, but it was a special experience of its own.
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Last year, I first saw the Barred Owls just as the babies were fledging and for a few days after they fledged. I didn't see them again until this Spring, and have been following and photographing them since. The first few shots are from last year. The rest are from this year, and I hope to have the good fortune to see the babies out of the nest and in the trees again soon, if I haven't already missed them fledging.
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I've been following and photographing this Barred Owl for a few weeks now. I've been amazed at how tolerant he is of me and my camera, but even more amazed that he is just as tolerant of groups of photographers and admirers. You can see more photos of him, as well as a few of his babies peeking out his nest by clicking the "My Photographs" link at the top of the page, then pull down to "Featured", where you will find the Owl gallery. When I first started photographing the Owls, the leaves had just started to appear on the trees, and even two weeks ago, when I took this shot, the forest canopy had not filled in, leaving plenty of light for photographing the birds, even in flight, as you can see in the gallery. Now, the canopy has filled in and occasional shafts of light appear through the leaves, but most of the forest is in the shade, which not only makes it more difficult to get shots like this one, but also makes it sometimes difficult to even find the Owls, not to mention smaller birds. Fortunately, this particular owl seems to like to perch near the trail, and though I may sometimes have to wait several hours before he makes his appearance, most days I been able to find him and add to my Owl gallery. Once the owlets have fledged, I hope to have the good fortune to be able to follow them for awhile before they take off on their own.
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For the past few weeks I've been hoping to get some photos of Barred Owls. I've returned to the same park where I've seen the owls at a distance, but never close enough to get any good photos. Finally, this past week I've had several opportunities to photograph owls in good locations and been happy with the results. The day I shot this, I had walked the path to the area I knew the owls were nesting and had not seen one, so I sat down on a nearby bench to rest and wait awhile before moving on. After just a few minutes, this bird appeared out of nowhere and landed on a branch thirty or forty feet away, directly in front of me. I was able to get just a few shots before he flew again, this time landing on a limb within three or four feet of the trail. I was able to get dozens of photos of him from various angles and perspectives over a period of about half an hour before he flew off again. I've seen him almost every day since then, though at a bit more of a distance. My next challenge is to catch a flight series or two.]]>
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I spent about two hours on the trail yesterday, hoping to get some bird photos, with very little success. After a long rest on a bench, again without getting any shots, I started down the trail to the car. As I got a hundred yards or so down the trail, I heard a Downy Woodpecker drumming. I was able to spot him very quickly because he was working on a small tree just off the trail. I was already closer to him than I have ever gotten to one of these birds without startling them away, so I stopped and took a couple of shots. He acted like he hadn't even noticed me, so I began creeping in closer and repositiong myself for a better angle. I was able to get a couple dozen shots of him at quite a close range as he hopped from one tree to another over a period of several minutes, allowing me each time to get into a position with the sun to my back for the best light. I say patience and luck because if I had not had the patience to stay on the trail as long as I did, I would not have gotten these shots, probably my favorite woodpecker shots yet. Luck because I almost never see this birds at or below eye level so close to the trail, and the few times that I have, they are fly off almost as soon as I see them.
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After yesterday's walk in the woods, I spent some time going through my photo galleries, trying to create a Portfolio gallery of my favorite shots. It was more difficult than I expected. The problem is that there are some subjects that I have so many similar photos of that it is difficult to choose a few favorites. For some reason, though I found it a bit easier to choose from my flower photos, partly because of the greater variety of flowers I have photographed, but partly because of time. I haven't photographed flowers much over the past couple of years, and I have always found that I start out liking almost everything I shoot on a given day, but start narrowing down my favorites over time. This was shot several years ago, and remains one of my favorites.
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A couple of weeks age I started walking almost every day in Blacklick Woods Metro Park. Beautiful trails through old growth forest, lots of birds and benches place at just the right distances apart, which is good for both rest and waiting for the birds to land nearby. Today's walk was a bit chilly and cloudy, and the birds were not as plentiful as usual. I did see a couple of Barred Owls, too far away and with too many branches in the way to get a decent photo. Also saw a Pileated Woodpeck, but too high in the tree, and a chickadee and a couple of cowbirds. This was what really caught my eye, though. I wish I had taken my macro lens on my walk, but I did the best I could with my zoom. I didn't know what this was, but learned from seeing a beautiful shot by photographer Yvonne Horn that they are the flowers of the Paw Paw tree.
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It amazes me when I'm out walking the trails through the woods in the park when I see a hiker with earphones is his or her ears. I don't know what kind of music they may be listening to, but to me it just diminishes the experience of walking through the woods and hearing the music of the songbirds. Of course, I know that with earphones on I would miss most of the birds I photograph, because it is usually their song or call that directs my eyes, then my camera toward them. I spent several hours in the woods yesterday, and this is my personal favorite shot from the day.]]>
Most of my family and friends know the story about this photo, so the short version is that I lived and worked on Aspen Mountain for three winters in the mid to late 1970's. I shot this one full-moon night from the top of Bell Mountain (part of Aspen Mountain). If you want a print of this hanging on your wall, a mouse pad for your computer, or a coffee mug or t-shirt with this photo on it, look inside the Old 35mm photos gallery where you can find this as well as a lot of sunrises and sunsets from the top of Aspen Mountain. Prints in a variety of sizes and other products are available for purchase, shipped directly to you from the printer.]]>
This is one of my all-time favorite photographs. I have spent untold hours watching and photographing Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets over the past two years, watching their behavior for signals that they might be getting ready to fly. The evening this photo was taken, I had watched this Heron stand mostly in one spot for over two hours when he finally started moving around. By that time, the sun was very low in the sky and the water was perfectly still, creating the beautiful pastel colors reflected from the evening sky and a near perfect reflection of the bird. I knew he was going to fly, but not exactly when nor which direction, so I started watching through the viewfinder, with my camera set on a tripod. It wasn't long before he started flying direct toward me. I immediately pressed and held the shutter release, following his flight path. As he got close to me, he turned. I must have shot ten or twelve exposures of the bird as he flew, and had only a couple that were at all useful, but this one was the best. ]]>