30 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography
Tags
This cardinal likes to come early in the morning for breakfast at our bird feeder, and a bright sun ray illuminated him like a stage light.
Cardinal at sunrise
In the following image, I am guessing he is saying: “Sunflower seeds again! The same, yesterday, today, and forever!”
Cardinal: “Sunflower seeds, again!”
29 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in EBF Refuge, Photography
I have gone at least half a dozen times to the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge in late afternoon to try and capture a good sunset. Until now, nothing worked. Either the clouds were not there, or the colors unimpressive, or the sun simply kept itself hidden.
Yesterday, I finally managed to take the following shots. Please let me know which one you like. As usual, please click on each image to view it in full size.
EBF sunset #1. The partial disk you see is the setting sun.
EBF sunset #2
EBF sunset #3
EBF sunset #4
28 Saturday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge
This challenge immediately reminded me of the following image of a cranberry bog taken last fall during harvest season in South Jersey. The contrast between red cranberries and blue water is vivid.
Cranberry bog
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/contrasts/
26 Thursday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography
I took the following photo from a plane as we were preparing to land in Newark, NJ this past April. The white mass was a frozen lake behind a dam somewhere in Connecticut or New York state.
Frozen lake
This is my submission for this challenge:
24 Tuesday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography
Tags
becky, echinacea, photography, postaday, shasta daisy, white swan
The “White Swan” echinacea from last Thursday has grown larger and prettier, as you can see in the following photo.
White Swan, at f/32 and 2 secs
As you probably know, macro photos usually have a very shallow depth of field, especially when the aperture is set wide to produce a nice bokeh background. For the above photo, I tried to make most of the flower as sharp as possible by using an aperture of 32, which violates all kinds of photographic rules. I also had to use a tripod, and the shot took 2 seconds. Are the results worth it? You be the judge.
Here’s another shot at an aperture of 16 and a speed of .5 second.
White Swan, at f/16 and 0.5 sec
Which of the above two photos do you prefer?
The Shasta daisies also increased their sizes, and these two look like two sisters next to each other.
Shasta Daidy, “Becky”
21 Saturday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography
Tags
I went to the county park today to look for birds to photograph. After about half an hour, I noticed a pair of grackles (and not purple martins as I wrote previously) in the midst of a courtship ritual. The male, shiny and bluish purple, was placing some food into the open beak of the brown female. This is what some male birds do to convince a potential mate that they are up to the task of taking care of her and their future brood.
Male grackle feeding female in courtship ritual
This may be the same couple a few minutes later.
Grackle couple
Last week, I also saw the same behavior with our backyard cardinals. A female cardinal kept fluttering her wings while perched over a bowl of sunflower seeds that I had put out on our deck. At first I thought she was sick or in distress, as she would not eat anything. Then a red male cardinal swooped in, picked a seed and placed it in her beak. He did it twice again. I ran to get my camera, but by the time I came back the pair had flown away.
19 Thursday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography
Tags
To replace some of the azaleas that could not withstand this past winter, I recently planted some Shasta Daisy and Echinacea. They are starting to bloom and here are some of the first photos I took of them.
Shasta Daisy “Becky”
Daisy
Echinacea “White Swan”
The White Swan is still quite young. I’ll wait a few more days and take another shot when it is in full bloom.
14 Saturday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography
In addition to cardinals and blue jays, smaller birds inhabit our backyard and the woods behind us. These birds are colorful, but somewhat shy and not easy to photograph as they never stay still for very long. A bird feeder and seeds spread around do help in attracting them.
Nuthatch
Goldfinch
Woodpecker
Male house finch
Male and female house finches
08 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge
To answer this challenge, here’s a photo of the view from my favorite room in our house:
Room with a view
with a cup of tea:
Cup of tea
06 Friday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography
Tags
There is at least one family of cardinals living in the woods near our house. They come to the bird feeder often, and since they are larger than other birds, I put out some seeds on the deck to make it easier for them, and also for me to photograph them.
Female cardinal
Female cardinal inspecting sunflower seeds
Male cardinal
Male cardinal
03 Tuesday Jun 2014
Posted in Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge
My answers to Cee’s floral macro challenge:
Magnolia macro
Columbine macro
Columbine macro, closer
Peony macro
http://ceenphotography.com/2014/06/03/cees-fun-foto-challenge-floral-macros/
neihtn 