Daily image - Feb '21 Archive

25 Feb 21 Since I spent the entire day with Affinity after being snubbed by Adobe, what I'm sharing for today is a file from the trip to Iceland I worked up about the storm and never shared. You may recall that our second day out we were racing to reach Vik, with a couple stops along the way, before the storm reached full force. That's a storm I won't soon forget and as I write this I can hear it roaring in my head. The photo you are seeing was taken about 1500, about 90 minutes prior to sunset had there been one visible. The photographer is about 100 feet from me doing her best to remain upright. Winds were only about 60 knots at the time. Only three of us got out to shoot in that storm but it was fun to do and would have been even better had not another van with tourists gotten in the way of getting the desired shots of the white church disappearing/reappearing in the blowing snow. This is straight from the camera. As It Was Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

22 Feb 21 As I write this we are having a pretty good wind storm so don't know if it will get out tonight. I believe we left off a couple weeks back with a morning of dense fog in Yellowstone so I think that's where we'll pick back up. I had made it to Artists' Paintpots and was walking around this lovely thermal area in the fog. The clouds (fog) were blowing around close to the ground and slowly rising so it made for some interesting photo ops. This is a relatively small thermal area and most of it is at ground level although there is some bubbling mud on the hilltop beside the primary viewing area. One very nice thing about this thermal area is that you can meander some off the boardwalk and get somewhat more original stuff meaning not just the typical shots from the boardwalk. You can see the sloping hillside in this composition as well as one of the streams that carry the runoff. This view is a section of the thermal area where I seldom ever see folks taking photos and I find it somewhat amusing because when you position yourself lower than just standing ( on your belly to kneeling) the area looks very different and to my eye MUCH more interesting. This view was taken from a kneeling position and it presents the grasses and stream as the leading actors. It also makes the fog a lot more interesting as it blows past and over you. When you visit this place in the park remember to do more than just walk around it. You'll be glad you did. This is what the camera captured. Shrouded in Low Lying Clouds Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 640; 1/800 sec @ f / 9.

23 Feb 21 The loop trail that takes you around the Artists' Paintpots thermal area provides for two ways of viewing the area, obviously clockwise and counter-clockwise. I have no idea why, but most everyone takes the clockwise approach and if you do this little hot spring is what you see first although there is another closer to you on the walk that is much more colorful being blue but not as attention getting as its eruption is much smaller. This little guy puts out about as much gas as it does water and is especially challenging to shoot from above at the top of the hillside at who's base it sits. From the top the gasses tend to obscure it for the most part except on a windy day when the wind direction is right. I've been there just once when that was occurring although I'm rather certain there are many such days mid-summer. Shooting from boardwalk level your chances of getting a nice capture of the spout are greatly improved but again, if you are there with wind, it is a challenge. The morning with the fog provided for a very different look as everything was to a certain degree equally subdued, kinda like looking at things through steamed up glasses which resulted in the colors looking much more pastel. The red color is from iron deposits in the ground and all the yellow grasses are just adorning their autumn attire. This is what the camera captured. Spouting Off Nikon D500; Aperture Priority; ISO 640; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

24 Feb 21 Our first bear kill in Yellowstone was one we didn't get to see. We heard about it, went to the location, parked along the road - you still could back then - and joined about another 50 vehicles of photographers waiting for the bear to come and munch on its kill. The site was on the side of the Lamar river just a few yards from the bridge that passes over the river. Darn bear never did make an appearance that evening but we got to meet some nice folks from around the world, one couple in particular from the UK who visit annually, along with a lot of American tourists. Now every time we cross that bridge I look for another instance of a kill with some critter having a meal. No success so far. On the western end of the bridge is a great open area where the bison are frequently present in large numbers. With or without bison, in the fall it is a lovely setting with the aspens bedecked in gold and the grasses equally resplendent in shades of yellow. Scattered around the lower section of the hillside are some magnificent boulders ranging in size from 3 to 10 feet in diameter generally covered with some form of life. On top of all this, if you happen to time it perfectly you may see a wolf or two. Easy hiking area as well so if you are up to it you can leave almost all the rest of two legged beasties behind and just escape for as long as you desire or . . . . your supplies run out. You can tell from the top of the shot that the smoke that had been absent for about 4 days was returning. Other than a small amount of dodging and burning this is what the camera captured. Rock Solid Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

01 Feb 21 You may recall that we tried to visit Fir Island about three weeks ago but got our trip cancelled due to a logging truck dumping its load at the other ferry terminal in Edmonds and as such didn't make the trip. Well, Saturday last we had another window and decided to give it another go. Good choice as the weather was perfect, the critters did their part, and the gendarmes were polite and let us shoot roadside like they used to do several years back. Maybe chasing off those who were visiting and spending their $$$$$ in the community wasn't so smart. Those of you who have been with me since we returned from MD may recall that we used to visit a specific site on Fir Island called Wiley Slough. It was one of two locations on the island where you could find lots of birds, and in both locations, owls. This was where we saw our very first Great Horned Owl in the wild. It was also a location that had been formed via a dike and was full of water fowl and a favorite place for duck and other water fowl hunters. One can still hunt there but the restrictions for such are now substantially greater and verging on the ridiculous from my perspective and I'm not even a hunter. During the roughly 45 minutes we were visiting we saw three vultures. That's it. The once rather pristine location has now be "restored" to make it as it supposedly was before the nasty farmers converted some of the land for food crops . If you have saved the photos I've sent from way back then you can compare with what I'm sharing for today. Instead of a very nice reedy shoreline, sloping banks allowing for access into/onto the water, you now get this. It's pretty disgusting to see how "saving" the environment renders it; this is the new shoreline. Maybe in another 50 years it will be something of the previous beauty. Other than a little straitening this is what the camera saw. Looking West Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1600 sec @ f / 9.

02 Feb 21 Leaving Wiley Slough we took a slow drive around the perimeter road of Fir Island. It changes names as you go around the circle but it isn't a big road and on a mid-summer's day, with a supply of snacks and water, plus a good pair of walking shoes, you could walk it's entire length in a day. As you drive around it there are two things of primary interest from my perspective, the first of which is scouting for several types of birds including swans and many raptors plus wild turkeys, and second, looking to locate the huge flock of Snow Geese which generally show up as either a huge blotch of white on the ground or flights of MANY birds coming in from elsewhere. After taking this shot we were shortly to see both of these geese sightings. But before that we spent about 10 minutes trying to get a good shot of this striking individual. A fellow photographer mentioned that he had been watching the bird in the tree for two hours and that during that time it had made no effort to go anywhere. Now I would love to have one of these as a trained hunter that I could launch over the top of the flock of geese whenever I desired to get them (the geese) to do one of their spectacular launches although if I were to do so I'm rather certain someone would complain. Short of that I always try to find a location with both geese and eagles in close association because whenever the eagles take flight the flock generally does it's launch and fly show. On our trip last week we never had the flock launch when the eagles flew but it was a great photography day none the less. This shot is a very tight crop of the original as the whole shot was mostly just tree. This is a portion of what the camera saw. Sentinel Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f /11.

03 Feb 21 Concluding the shoot of the eagle in the tree we had gone maybe a quarter mile when we spotted a big blotch of white and a flight of geese heading towards it or so it seemed from our position. We drove about a mile and we were adjacent the fields where the flock was feeding. The total flock numbers in the range of 25K birds, and when they are all in one location they spread out over a vast number of acres. Before the reclamation project they tended to settle on a single farmer's land which he planted with winter crops for their feeding. One had access to the area via a county road that had ample parking and a fence the keep birds and humans separated. It was the perfect setup for birds and birders be they the notebook takers or photographers. That area has now been "reclaimed" and is now sort of tidal land. Never seen a goose in these waters since the reclamation. Now the birds settle on the farms on the other side of the road with no parking available and nothing separating the birds from the people other than the farm land being posted "private property" which it is.Today's shot shows jut a small portion of the flock, the leading edge for lack of a better term, the farmland on which they now winter over, and the snowiest mountain in the world, Mt Baker, a phenomenon for which I have yet been able to get a satisfactory explanation. We'll pick this story up as I share more photos. For today you get to see just a few hundred birds. This is what the camera saw. Overview ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f /11.

09 Feb 21 Those of you who fly often or are aviators yourself are well aware of the spacing required between aircraft landing on a runway and the myriad of reasons for same. Imagine a "runway" with a thousand bodies landing at the same time on an already crowded landing field without any collisions. Not unlike trying to recover an aircraft on an aircraft carrier with a fouled deck. Except that with the birds it is done routinely several times a day without any mishaps. Every time I watch a group of the birds land among several others without ever colliding I am just amazed!!! It's one thing to read what I'm writing, it is quite another to actually watch it happen in real time. I've probably witnessed over 100 of these MANY bird landing and have yet to see a single bird impact another. It is hard to count them, but in this shot there are at least 50 birds landing at the same time and what's even more interesting, those already on the ground pay absolutely no attention to those landing apparently knowing that they will pick a spot with sufficient room for them to safely land. To date I've never heard a sufficiently good explanation as to how they do it. But they do and without our "help." This is what the camera saw. Runway Congestion Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f /11.

11 Feb 21 At least for now this will be the last of the geese in flight images. As I was working up the set of images for today, one of the creative ones made me stop and think about the issue of how the geese are able to fly in such tight formations without ever colliding. Perhaps maybe better said as I've never seen a collision but I've seen a lot of these formations and so far no one has collided with another. The image that got my attention was one that had lines outlining a small space around each bird. It's a bit of a stretch perhaps but when I saw that I immediately thought of the vortices that are created off aircraft wings as well as those behind from the entire craft. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the birds create these types of vortices, obviously MUCH smaller than those of an aircraft, but there just the same. Now all that would be needed is for a sensor in the head of the bird that measures these and allows for the birds to keep a space between them. If some of the geese family members, Canada Geese for example, can extract oxygen at both sea level and at heights of 25K feet, a feat that seems impossible when you think about humans, then I don't see why others might not be able to measure the pressure changes caused by a vortex. I don't have the lab I would need to prove this hypothesis, but I do think it one worth pursuing, a task I would really enjoy. With that behind us here is a shot of the birds making a move from point to point much like you see when a raptor passes overhead. Only difference is that when the entire flock does it the birds are considerably more densely packed. This is what the camera saw. In Their Individual Space Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/640 sec @ f /11.

08 Feb 21 Today we are taking a look at a small flight of geese arriving to join the main flock already on the ground. They always land by approaching the feeding group on the ground from one end, pass over the entire group descending the entire time, and once past over the opposite end make a 180 turn and land at the edge of the group. These guys are about to make the 180 and circle back to land. The birds leave the feeding fields in late morning and come back again in the afternoon. They never leave all at once nor return all at once but in dozens and dozens of small flights. We generally go up in the early afternoon and stay with them till dusk as with arriving flights, departing flights, swarming when a raptor overflies, and just the feeding and honking, it is an all day show. Even better, it is a 5 month (Nov - Mar) 7 day a week show, which I like best in late January - early February as this is the best chance of seeing the Snow Geese in snow. MANY more geese tomorrow. This is what the camera captured. Coming Aboard Nikon D500; 18-200 aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/3200 sec @ f / 9.

10 Feb 21 For those of you who enjoy working picture puzzles, this one is for you. This is what it looks like when a portion of the geese decide to shift position, this time due to a group of three family dogs running out among the flock to do their duty. The dogs spent perhaps 30 minutes out in the field with the flock resulting in a shift of the geese only once. Guessing that the flock is familiar with the dogs and for the most part pay them no mind. This was our fist visit watching dogs in the flock and it was quite a surprise but apparently only for us. While you can't see the local residence in the photo you can see a small portion of their private gravel drive. While it may not be obvious, you are looking at maybe 1,000 geese. This is what the camera recorded. Picture Puzzle Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/1,600 sec @ f / 9.

04 Feb 21 Standing in the same location where I took the image I shared yesterday, but a bit later in the day, the geese had made their way quite a distance westward. Mt Baker is off to the left of this capture by several degrees. You are looking at perhaps half of the flock. When we first arrived there they were bunched up fairly tight off to the right. As the day progressed they would lift off in flights of maybe a thousand geese at a time, make maybe one half circle over the flock, and then land westward ahead of the edge of the group. They did this for us 4 times while we watched but never gave us a full response. When we arrived there was a solo eagle in the tree just out of sight on the right. Later a second individual arrived and the two just sat in the tree together for perhaps 45 minutes before they both left about 15 minutes apart. Neither departure resulted in the full flock responding, in fact, none of the geese responded to these two eagles at all. Most unusual, but you get what you get. At the far right of the image where there is some bright green grass you can see a private road leading to the farm house - a very nice dwelling - whose owners have this magnificent view year round. You can see lines of geese as you look deeper and deeper into the photo. The lines are really large fields full of geese but they look more and more like lines the further away you get. There are a number of geese in the air albeit very small much like the Cascade peaks near the left hand side of the image. Next week we'll take a look at the birds in flight and feeding up close. Other than some cropping to give the original capture a panoramic look, this is what the camera recorded. Fields of Geese Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/2000 sec @ f / 9.

12 Feb 21 After waiting all year we finally got our promised snowfall. Not sure but I think is around 1mm so we are sure to have plenty of accidents from all the folks who don't know how to drive in snow. At least they put down deicer a couple days back so that should help with the slippery roads. 😁 Once again we look to the skies for today's image. As we often do we went for a drive after church Sunday with blue skies and pretty clouds just beckoning us to see something new. So we did. Second - and last - stop was to do a bit of shopping before we headed out but the relatively short time shopping made us realize that the next stop should be back home. While Jan shopped I shot the skies and watched as a great show was being played out right before my eyes. This is how the sky looked for a minute or so as the clouds were rapidly moving in all directions providing for a constantly changing view. A few birds were enjoying the show real time as well as they drifted on the winds making their way circling up and down across the horizon. Look closely and you can see two of them doing just that; one, a seagull is quite obvious; the other, I believe to be a raptor, not so much. I've removed a small tree that was just an annoyance drawing your eye out of the frame and done a small amount of dodging and burning, otherwise this is what the camera saw. Two Birds Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/1,600 sec @ f /11.

15 Feb 21 Two birds on Friday past; more than a dozen for today. After all my whining we finally got our one annual snowfall Friday night/Saturday morning of roughly 6". The very, very tiny super dry stuff the skiers love and the kind that doesn't break tree limbs or cause heart attacks when shoveling. All that was missing was the beautiful blue skies and white puffy clouds you get elsewhere; we just get the constant grey skies that so totally distract from all the beauty of a fresh winter's snow. A little tough on the birdies as well but we had a fix - not a plan - 😂 for that. Since we moved in here Jan has had a set of bird feeder thingies to feed the birds - well, mostly squirrels - that were on the railing of the deck outside the bedroom. Convenient for watching the critters but not so good when we had four legged nuisances coming in the middle of the night and not so good for photography as the background was very cluttered. Fortunately, earlier in the week, she moved everything to the other end of the deck where now we can watch the critters during the day from the dining room, can't hear the trouble makers in the night, and the backdrop for photography is MUCH improved. Saturday morning, with the snow fresh and still falling, word got out that we were providing a smorgasbord and the cost was free. Saw more birds at one time than I think we've ever had feeding prior - an exception may be hummingbirds when they are migrating through here - and it was fun to try and capture it on "film". This is one of the shots from that morning. If you have nothing better to do try and give them a count. Other than a tiny bit of cropping off a half bird and doing a bit of straightening, this is what the camera recorded. A Dozen + Birds Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/40 sec hand held through the window @ f /11.

18 Feb 21 Keeping with the snow theme today we take a gander at one of Jan's favorite bushes along our road. It sits at the entrance to my favorite piece of property, Maggie's as well, or at least the approach to it. The long drive has a beautiful green - of course - moss center that perfectly sets off the evergreens that line it for as far as the eye can see. Every day as we pass by walking her highness I get to enjoy it, both directions. This shrub, that sits at the end of the drive, has red berries on it year round, but they are never so pretty as when they are encased in snow. Ice would be even better, but I seriously doubt I'll be granted an ice storm where we live. The black diagonal line on the right is part of the gravel drive where the snow has melted. Fortunately the snow wasn't with us for long as you can see a few leaves already budding that didn't need to get frozen. Temps now around low 40s to mid 50s so it is unlikely that we'll have any damage. Much luckier than those in Texas. This is what the camera saw save for some small amount of cropping. Over Arching Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 400; 1/250 sec @ f / 9.

17 Feb 21 Another image from our weekend snowfall. This one just a bit whimsical. In our once vegetable garden, now mostly flower garden, Jan neatly arranged three tires to serve as the beds for a variety of squashes. She did grow a very few squashes but in the process got some really nice vines sprawling across a large section of the plot. Both the flowers and the leaves offered some nice photographic opportunities. So did the three tires this weekend with a coating of freshly fallen powder snow. I completely missed the opportunity until Jan pointed them out to me whereupon I immediately saw some great potential and today's submission is one result. The original composition had a lot of stuff in it I didn't want but couldn't keep out of the shot due to the confines of the garden so I removed everything I didn't want during editing. What I'm sharing is the picture the eye/brain saw but the camera is so talented so I had to help a bit. Other than that removal of material mentioned above, this is what the camera captured. Three Sugar Coated Donuts Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.

16 Feb 21 By Monday morning the snow was already about 1/2 gone, and that on the deck rail that was so obvious in yesterday's shot totally gone; this evening the snow is rapidly melting and I'll wager in the morning it will be close to gone. So one really nice day of fresh white clean snow (Saturday), one day of so-so snow with traffic really messing it up (Sunday) and then on its way out (Monday). Suspecting such would happen, I took some time on Saturday to do some shooting along a minimalist line since the snow wasn't all that deep and got several shots that I thought might work well, mostly with ferns, but also with some grasses and believe it or not, tires. Today I tried working with a lovely arching fern but it proved to be more challenging than I was up for so switched to an easier composition that I liked equally well. Enough so that I made 8 versions of it of which Jan likes today's submission the best. This one fern is a bit unusual in that one doesn't normally see the fronds in a circular pattern but rather randomly fanned out so something both unusual and minimal. Other than the creative application this is what the camera recorded. Sketched Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/125 sec @ f / 9.

19 Feb 21 For today's macro/close-up Friday we are taking a close look at a Christmas cactus blossom that I shot in the studio using a remote flash. Connecting the flash to a long cord that was then attached to the camera allowed for placing the dominate (flash) light anywhere I wanted while allowing for the ambient light to just softly bath the entire flower. Using this approach you can come up with a multitude of different looks based on where the light from the flash is directed or you can stack a group of the shots and then mask out anything you don't need to get just the exact effect you want. Either way it can be a lot of fun and doesn't require any degree of skill in the taking other than keeping the camera tightly locked down on the tripod and not hitting it with the flash cord. The stacking of the images in your software is simple and with masking the final effect is a breeze. If you haven't tried something like this I highly recommend you give it a go. Perfect way to wile away a bad weather / stay at home day. Other than some cropping and removing a blemish this is what the camera recorded. Up Close Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/60 sec @ f / 20 with supplemental flash.