Daily Image - Apr 2017 Archive

All the Daily Image mailings for the month of April 2017

03 Apr 17 It is getting very near that time of year when the Snow Geese depart Fir Island and return back north to raise their broods before joining us again in the December time frame. While we lived in Seattle we made multiple trips annually up to photograph them as it was just an easy hour drive from our home to the farms where they fed. Since that time the "authorities" have made it harder and harder to photograph them by placing more and more restrictions on how and where you can photograph them. I guess the noise from the cameras must be harmful to them. When I first began photographing them I wanted to share with you what it is like to have them all launch up at one time and fly overhead and I've written about that several times. Around the beginning of 2010 I decided to sell the camera I had (D300) and buy another version of it (D300s) that allowed for recording movies and began to do just that, record their flights. Embarrassingly, I'm just now getting around to sharing such with you for the first time. As I've mentioned many times, when startled, generally by a predator (note the fake bald eagle in the grass at the right edge that was installed to keep the birds away - it didn't work), all the birds launch up at the same exact moment and begin flying back and forth criss crossing themselves such that one is reminded of a Moire Pattern. Since there is no way in which I can fully illustrate this in a still, I've uploaded a video for you to watch. Today's image is just a small version of what I want to share, so please go out to this location and watch the video "flying geese." If you forgo the video you will miss the intent of what I'm trying to illustrate today. Do have your speakers turned up. There will be some traffic noise as the camera isn't sufficiently sophisticated to record sound unidirectional. I'll be curious to know what you think of this behavior of the Snow Geese. The flock is roughly 10,000 strong. Count them if you want to. The base image was given a tiny amount of horizon correction and that's about it. D200; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1000 sec @ f / 7.1.
04 Apr 17 It's getting to that time of year when my mind starts pondering what might lie in store for our annual spring visit to Yellowstone. During my visit last fall I watched, somewhat in envy, the many fly fisherman wetting their lines in the Firehole and Madison Rivers. The Firehole eventually joins a couple other smaller rivers to form the Madison but it really doesn't seem to matter where you cast that line. Just off to the right of this frame is a fisherman working the far bank of an area just beyond this reminder of a former tree but from what I could see he wasn't having much luck. I watched him for perhaps 15 minutes while I was taking photos a courteous distance to his left but he either apparently was having no luck and was ready to quit or just didn't appreciate sharing the real estate as he reeled in his line and left the area. I never did see any fish but then I wasn't trying all that hard either. But he did make me want to get into the water to see if I could get a better perspective for a few photos but I didn't have the waders with me and stayed dry on the shore. This is an area of the park where I could just get out of the vehicle, put on the waders, and start moseying my way up stream stopping to shoot whatever caught my lens and if it took me all day to make it just a few miles it would be just fine! This is basically straight from the camera save for a bit of burning in of the log. Nikon D300s; 18 - 00; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/160 sec @ f / 8.
05 Apr 17 Just a short drive from our abode can be found a lovely nursery with an interesting history. Heronswood Botanical Garden was started by Dan Hinkley, a well know botanist, for the collection of rare plants, then sold to the Burpee Seed Co. who let it go to weeds claiming there was no call for such plants, and subsequently purchased by the local Port Gamble Skallam Tribe who have begun to fully restore it. It is open for visitation by appointment only except for special occasions like the annual plant sale when it is available to the general public. We visited it last weekend for this years plant sale and brought home a few nice small but not rare plants. As Jan was wandering around the many display tables searching for just the right plants, I was attempting to shoot some close ups without the distracting and annoying humans getting in the way and in the photos. This shot of a bleeding heart had some of that in the background that I had to remove before converting it into something interesting. I made the normal rendition first and then set out to see what I could come up with. Settled on 5 different versions before quitting but I know there are a few more left in me. Sitting on one shelf of a bookcase in the studio are several volumes of clip art, perhaps close to 2,000,000 pieces of the stuff, plus several volumes of old drawings that I was going to convert to clip art but may never have to do as others in the field are doing just that and it is being sold very cheaply, so much so that my time is more valuable for doing other things. Downloaded a new set of such today, a fair amount of which can be found in two of my yet to be scanned volumes, for just $15. Hard to beat that kind of pricing. In the stuff I downloaded today are illustrations that look very much like what I'm sharing with you although most, but not all, of it is in B&W. Those of you who love B&W should consider removing all the color in this image to see how it looks in monochrome. The base image had all the distractions removed, cropped some, and then converted using Topaz's Glow 2 Color Etching plug-in. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 7.1.