Female Common Merganser

1/2500 | f/2.8 | ISO 100

I just returned from a fantastic 10 day trip to the East Coast with my family, where we spent 7 days hiking and exploring Acadia National Park. While I was hoping to do more photography than I actually did, I still came away with a few images which I will share in the next few posts. While in Acadia, I concentrated mainly on detailed landscape images as we were a bit early to catch the peak color. On one of our hikes around Eagle Lake, I found this female Common Merganser chilling out on a large rock about 5 yards off shore. I didn't have my new 400 5.6 lens with me or my flash, so I had to make due with the less than ideal light and lack of reach and grabbed the Canon Rebel T2i which had a 70-200 f/2.8 mounted on it and crept as close as I could and thankfully I had just enough reach to get some decent images. Stay tuned for more images from Acadia!

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Some Success With A Hummingbird

 1/3200 | f/8 | ISO 800

1/2000 | f/8 | ISO 800

Yesterday morning I spent some time, as I had hoped, photographing the hummingbirds that are in my yard right now. A month or so ago, I attached this lichen covered stick to the top of the feeder pole hoping that the hummingbirds would see it as a good place to stand watch over the feeder as they rested. Sure enough this female Ruby-throated has been coming to my garden for a few weeks now and I think claimed it as her own! She will stand guard on this stick and chase away any other hummingbirds that come along. I am hoping that the male will show up tomorrow morning as I really want some images of him. I will be working to get some good landing shots also as the one I posted here is the best one I was able to get yesterday. So stay tuned for more, I hope you like these images!

Both images were taken with a tripod mounted Canon 7D and 400 f/5.6 lens. 

Minor adjustments and Topaz DeNoise applied to background only on both images.

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Long Time No Post - Great Egret

1/800 | f/8 | ISO 160

It has been a very long time since my last post here, it seems like Summer is always keeping me away from photography. The Summer months are always busy leaving me little time to go out in search of new or familiar subjects to photograph and whenever I did find myself with a free day or afternoon, the 100 plus degree weather would keep me from wanting to spend any time outdoors. Thankfully the Summer is over, September is here and surprisingly the weather in Texas has already cooled off significantly and an upcoming family vacation to Acadia National Park has me very excited about the Fall season. Here is a image that is not unique or original by far, but it is basically the first decent image I have captured since about June. Since then, I have switched from my Canon 100-400 lens to using a Canon 400 5.6 lens. I am excited to be using this lens which has much better Auto Focus capabilities than my 100-400 (though I already miss having IS) and am looking forward to putting it to the test this fall. Hummingbird migration is in full swing now and I have 2 female Ruby-throats and one male visiting my yard right now, previously I had a male and female Black-chinned as well, but they seem to have moved on. The hummingbirds have been very uncooperative thus far, but I am going to try them again tomorrow morning. 

Wish me luck and I promise that I will try to update this blog more often!

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White-winged Dove : Juvenile

1/320 | f/8 | ISO 800

Here is another image of a White-winged Dove taken from the backyard several weeks ago. I believe this is a juvenile and there were two of them feeding at the same time as two adults. This was a setup with the perch attached to a tripod above a ground feeder tray. Photographed under overcast conditions. I still have not had any time to get new photographs, I have been very busy with work and family visiting. Hopefully I can brave the 100+ degree heat get out again soon.

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Painted Bunting Again

1/200 | f/8 | ISO 250 | Fill Flash

Since I haven't had any time for photography lately due to family in town for the past 2 weeks, I thought I would post another image of the Painted Bunting photographed earlier this month. Photographed under cloudy skies, so fill flash was used on this image. 

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Some Backyard Regulars

 1/160 | f/8 | ISO 800

1/200 | f/8 | ISO 800

Here are some shots from my backyard of a couple common visitors that come to my feeders daily. It was raining most of the day yesterday, which I always love for photography, so I set up this perch above a ground feeder filled with seed and peanuts and quickly had 2 Blue Jays come followed by several White-winged Dove, who loved to perch above the feeder before dropping down. Both photos were taken with the tripod mounted Canon 7D and 100-400 lens. I have a specific set up in mind for the doves that I will try to work on this weekend. I love doing backyard set ups!

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Another Painted Bunting

1/320 | f/8 | ISO 640 | Fill Flash

Another image from the fantastic outing I had photographing this beautiful bird last week. I am hoping to get out again sometime this week and work on the Indigo Buntings (the are so tough to photograph!) and maybe one or two more photos of the Painted that I have in mind, so stay tuned!

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