Macro Monday

Can you guess what this one is?

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

..and More Back Yard Birds

We've been fortunate to have a good supply of woodpeckers in our yard over the last few years including regular visits from Pileated and even a visit from the Red-headed Woodpecker. The Downy Woodpecker is also a regular at our suet feeder and deserves some recognition for being a part of our birding lives.

Downy Woodpecker:

More Back Yard Birds

Interestingly enough, I realized the other day that I really didn't have a decent shot of a Black-capped Chickadee. These birds are always in our yard and at the feeders. They are dependable that way and I appreciate that. :)

Black-capped Chickadee:

Back Yard Birds

It was such a nice day out today compared to the recent weather we have had I decided to just sit in the backyard and take a few shots of the birds in my yard and on my feeders. I had the "usuals" that visit my feeders which are Downy's, Chickadees, and Nuthatches. I was kind of hoping to see the Pileated since I could hear him not to far away but he decided not to show today so I'll have try again another day.

White-breasted Nuthatch:

Macro Monday

Sitting and Landing Swans

I still find it hard to believe that the cold water and ice doesn't bother the birds. They seemed quite content even though we were all freezing!

Macro Monday

I've been working more on my macro photography so I thought I would start doing a Macro Monday shot. Here's the first one! :)

White Sea Shell:

Flight of the Swans

Here's one more flight shot:

Swans in Flight

There were a lot of opportunities to shoot pictures of the swans in flight, and I was somewhat successful. Swans make for good practice on shooting birds in flight mainly because they are big enough to make focusing on them easy and are slow enough that you can keep up with them as the pass in front of you. I think birds in flight is going to be an area of focus for me this year, although, given the opportunity to photograph a sitting bird I'm pretty sure I'll take the photo. :)

Swans in the Mist

Due to the cold, there was a bit of mist/steam coming off of the water which made for a very pretty seen, but it also made for a bit of trouble when taking shots. Sometimes the mist was thick enough where it somewhat obscured the birds. Either way it was still pretty cool to see.

Sleepy Swans

Did I mention that it was about 0 degrees when we went and that there was a pretty good breeze which made it quite chilly to be holding my camera? My first battery didn't last very long, so it was nice to have a second battery which was a gift from my wife for Christmas.

Monticello Swans

Hey All,

I hope that the holidays treated you all well and that you've had a chance to spend time with family and friends. I certainly did!
I started out the new year of birding (the first birding I've done in a while as many of you know) by going up to Monticello, MN to see the Trumpeter Swans with my parents. It's quite a spectacle, with a phenomenal amount of birds, mainly Mallards, Canada Geese, and of course Trumpeter Swans. We also saw a some Common Goldeneye, although they were at quite a distance.
Here are a couple shots of the swans to start with. I'll be posting a few more over the coming days.

Gone for a bit . . . but not forever . . .

Hey All,

It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog. I really don't have an excuse other than life leads you in other directions at times. I haven't been out birding much at all over the last months mainly because of other things in my life. I've got many things going on right now and birding has fallen to the wayside (for now). However, I'm planning on heading out over the holidays to try my luck at getting some owl shots up north. I've still never seen a Great Grey or Snowy Owl, so those are going to be the main focus. My father also found out some information about Swans near Monticello so I'll heading up there soon to hopefully get some shots.
I enjoy posting to the blog and communicating with all of you so I just wanted to let everyone know that even though I may not be posting much right now, I'll be posting again in the near future. I hope everyone is well and has a wonderful holiday.
With all of that said, I have been spending some time shooting black and white in a studio setting trying to learn more about lighting as of late. It has been a great learning experience for me and definitely applies to both my personal and professional life. Here is one of my latest experiments:

Stillwater Gulls

I was recently down in Stillwater walking along the river and snapped a few shots of the gulls. They were so close I decided to get a few head shots. I liked these two, although they turned out a little darker than I would have liked.

South Dakota Sunset

Well, it was a great trip and I've had a lot of fun going through the photos, editing, organizing, and of course sharing them with all of you. Here is the last shot from the trip that I'll be posting and I thought it quite a fitting shot for a conclusion to the trip.

Sunset on the grasses of the Badlands:

Black Hills Landscapes

A friend of mine has an Infrared converted Canon D60 and she was kind enough to let me borrow it for the trip. Thanks MG! I didn't take a lot of photos with it mainly because I didn't always have it with me when hiking so most of the shots were taken with in walking distance of the vehicle. Here are the two best shots of the bunch with processing done in Lightroom for conversion to full grayscale and the addition of just a bit of Sepia in Shadows.





If you're interested in learning more about infrared conversions, here is the company that converted her camera and a page of sample images. Life Pixel

South Dakota Mountain Goat

The day we arrived, we pretty much went straight to Mt. Rushmore. I had seen it as a young child, but my memory of it was not that great. It really is a spectacular monument both to the people portrayed and to those who carved it. What a collosal effort. Just outside of the park on the road was this Moutain Goat. The only one we saw the whole trip. It was a bit dark and overcast but I think the picture turned out all right. I had never seen one before!

Custer State Park Pronghorn

Well, I can't leave out the Pronghorn! They were much more abundant than I would have expected. We saw them all over, but this shot with the wild flowers just seemed to be the right one to post.