This is Jake, my neighbor’s dog and he is my buddy. He is a great Australian Shepard and smart as a whip. I took this yesterday as I was back in the backyard shooting just to keep up my photography activity. We have not had weather worth taking long trips for lately. Too many middle of the night storms with doubts about clearing before sunrise. I just can’t afford to drive 100 miles to be stuck in a storm. Happy Father’s Day to all, Mark.
Since my last post I have been out in the field only twice. Once to Meramec Conservation Area that yielded nothing of consequence. I did see a couple of great blue heron, but did not get close enough for good shots before a jet boat scared them away. The second trip was a drive through Meramec State Park and the wildlife seemed to be in hiding. I guess that is to be expected since the summer campers and the increased human activity really gets the critters either moving or in hiding during the daylight hours. I did get the benefit of being out in nature at sunrise both trips and a nice leisurely hike on the first one, so all was not a loss, but hopefully I will get to do some traveling soon to some prime nature areas. The plans are in the works, but details are being ironed out. Hopefully I will get some good shots of eagles, bison and a broad assortment of wildlife where I am going. Only time will tell. Happy shooting, Mark.
I spent this morning on the Nianga River in Dallas County specifically looking for eagles and I saw several. I took a few hundred shots, so I have a lot to go through in post-production, but I just had to do these few right away. I am happy with the results even though the “grab” shot was not 100% in focus. It was about 45 minutes of waiting while he perched in a sycamore tree just watching the water (and me) until finally he made the dive and it was an EXPLOSIVE minute or so. I got about six frames but only three were focused and in frame correctly. The others were just the cost of trying to pan the camera with his motion and that was hard to synchronize with. Still some pretty nice results for me. I got shots of several types of birds as well. Just need a day with several hours of uninterrupted editing time. Thanks for viewing, Mark.
With several rainy days in a row and all of the flooding in areas I like to shoot, I decided to go back to some of my photos from last year and rework them with my more advanced editing skills. I have come a long way with learning GIMP, an open source software tool like Photo Shop and was curious if I could improve on these older shots. It seems that some are much better. Anyways, here are several of them and I am sure that more will come unless I get busy taking new photos. Thanks for stopping by, Mark.
Well I finally got out to see what was happening at one of my favorite locations. Eagle Bluffs has been very productive for me over the past year and I hope to spend some serious time there before it closes for hunting this fall. This area is managed for ducks and geese in the Mississippi Flyway (Missouri River Branch) and is mostly built as replacement for other wetlands that must be damaged or destroyed by bridge construction and other projects that hurt the wetlands. What ever the reason, this area has helped so many types of wildlife I could not list it all. Yesterday I saw a bald eagle fly over me, but he was too high to get good pics. I also saw a river otter but he too was camera shy. So many different wading birds, song birds, and deer were seen but often on the wrong side of the light. In the past I have seen osprey, mink, muskrat, and others. This place just fills my soul with great blessings. Thank you for stopping by, Mark.
Still working in the backyard with the hummingbirds. This is from attempts to get closer to the feeder. I was about six foot away and using my EF 100-400mm lens. I still cropped and interpolated to enlarge the bird to fill the frame. While the hummingbirds might not mind me getting closer, the minimum focusing distance limits me on this. I guess the next test is to see if they mind a tripod as this was hand held. It looks like our weather will be breaking soon, so hopefully a real photo trip is possible sometime this week. Will it be eagles, hawks or wading birds??? Decisions, decisions!!! Thanks for looking in, Mark.
Once more in the backyard, but trying to capture the hummingbirds hovering. Many tests as to shutter speed and amount of light. Lots of noise reduction in post-processing. Basically back to school since we are talking shutter speeds of 1/1000 or faster on a Canon XSi. Thanks for stopping by, Mark.
Another day in the backyard since gas prices are so high. This is really curbing my travels around the state. So today we have another hummingbird at the feeder. Oh well, it is still good practice with GIMP and editing. Hopefully I will get back to the eagles soon. They might have a young one flying with them by now. And I need to check on the Hawks soon also. They should be getting up on the edge of the nest and stretching their wings soon. Pray that gas prices come down soon.
Today I left early on the way to a doctor’s appointment so that I could check on the Red Tail Hawk’s nest along Hwy 8 near Maramec Springs. While I was watching the nest, this young doe just moseyed out of the woods and into the clearing. She did not notice me at first, but then stared right into the lens as I was ready to shoot. No hawk action this morning but still not a wasted day!!! Thanks for looking, Mark.
PS: I am thinking about writing a few tutorials on GIMP and how the functions relate to Photo Shop. If I decide to start on that, I will set up a new page just for tutorials so keep an eye out if you are interested. For those who don’t know, GIMP is an open source, free image editor that is very powerful and is nearly as powerful as PS. I like “free” in both senses; free of ownership and restrictions that proprietary software has and also the price is free!!! Just download it!!! While there are many PS tutorials on the web, GIMP tutorials are slim pickings. I have learned a lot from trial and error so my thoughts are to save some of you the effort of trying to fumble through on your own. One of the first lessons would be about the really important add on filters that I use. I have tried many, but only kept a few since there is much duplication and many of them don’t help much for photography purposes. Just a thought. We will see how it goes.
Actually before sunrise!!! Got an early start today and went near Maramec Springs Park and Woodson K Woods Conservation Area along Hwy 8 between Steelville and St. James, MO. Got there just as the sun was climbing over the eastern horizon. Checking on the Red Tail Hawk nest I found a while back. Both parents were seen on the nest and a few shots added to collection. Cannot wait until the young ones get up on the edge of the nest where I can see them. On the way back from there on Hwy 19 just south of Cuba, I spotted this other Red Tail working a field pretty low and hovering on about a 25 mph wind out of the south. This shot was between hovers. Hope you enjoy this one.
It was a beautiful morning to be out. On the drive down I was worried as it was very cloudy at first glimpse of light but by the time I got to the valley I was driving to it cleared off into clear blue sky. Just a light breeze; enough to need a hoody with the windows down on the car but that increased as the morning wore on. By the time I headed home the wind was about 25 mph with occasional gusts. The light was great from about 6:30 to 9:30 am and the wildlife was moving about. I saw an owl on a post first thing and several hawks. Every kind of song bird that is native here in Missouri seemed to be singing. Just a great morning all in all. Sometimes I wonder if I am obsessed with photography or just being out in the wild. Either way I am having fun, so I guess it just does not matter. Thank you for stopping by, Mark.
