Blackstone Summit, Shenandoah National Park

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Sometimes I get the bug to go out and look for new locations and take new pictures.  This was the case in early April of this year.  After a blitz of research on the web I decided on a "quick" 5 hour drive down Virginia's famous Skyline Drive.  I threw everything into the car including the photo dog and set off.

I must say, I have never seen more wildlife then I saw wondering the road of Skyline Drive at 3am.  Countless deer, 5 raccoons, and one skunk (luckily no bear, bears scare me.)  I also must say, if you are going to make the drive, make the drive during the daytime; the scenery is much better.  At any rate, I managed to avoid hitting any critters although I did slow down and stuck my head out the window to scare some of the passing deer.

I finally arrived at my chosen destination on milepost 85 at 4:25am.  I hoped out of the car and climbed into the back and took a one hour nap.  My phone alarm went off and we set off in search of the trail.  We crossed the road and started down a fire road.  Turned out this was just a fire road and didn't connect into any trails, I realized there was a problem when this road headed downhill and I was going to a place called "Blackstone Summit".  I scurried back up the hill and back into the parking lot where I spotted in the back corner what appeared to be a trail head.  Me and Sparky head up this trail which a signpost tells me connects with the Appalachian Trail.  We arrive at the top of the trail leaving only a 100 foot scamper up a rock strew field.  Now, Mr. Sparky is quite agile, even more so considering he is a 7 year old herding breed and not a mountain dog, but he was having trouble, I had to help him up to a spot where I could continue on to the top but still see him.  

So now I am at the top and I realize there is a problem.  There are clouds and they do not seem to be clearing.  That and the 30 mile an hour winds.  I tried to take a few low light shots of the mist in the valleys but they did not want to come out sharp with the winds vibrating my tripod.  I ended up having to switch to targets which could be captured with a shorter shutter speed.  I turned by back to the wind to shield the camera and pointed towards the growing glow in the east under the cloud layer.

This shot is a single image taken at 18mm at f/16 for 0.8 seconds.  

Red Bellied Woodpecker

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This is a red bellied woodpecker who lives in my backyard.  I've been chasing him for a couple months now and these are the best two shots of him that I've gotten as of yet.  It is a very shy bird, always peeking out from behind trees.

Birding can be a very rewarding, yet extremely difficult, genre of photography.  You must have one or both of two things...  You must have excellent field skills, able to sneak up and wait for your subject to show up.  Sometimes this involves erecting a blind so your subject cannot see you, other times this involves hunkering down and keeping extremely still.  The other option is a very long lens.  I shoot with a 500mm lens and ALWAYS wish it was longer.  Especially when shooting smallish birds like these woodpeckers or other song birds you can never have a big enough lens.

This is one of the main reasons I prefer larger birds.  Herons and Egrets are often massive, full grown have nearly a six foot wing span.  They also are usually very tolerant of a person sitting in a car taking pictures.  So find a bird, grab a bean bag, roll down the windows, and have yourself a party.  On a side note, the other thing I like about herons and egrets is they will eat anything they think has a vague chance of fitting down its throat.  Frogs, fish, voles, and ducks have all fallen prey to these wading birds.  In short, grab a camera and go outside, there are more targets then you can even imagine!

Turkey Point Lighthouse

Turkey Point Lighthouse, MD

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I always get excited on days when there is a sunny blue sky that is  scattered big puffy clouds.  These are the ingredients for a potential good sunset.  These were the conditions on February 18th, 2011.  So I collected my camera equipment and my dog, Sparky, and hopped in the car.  The destination was Turkey Point out near North East, Maryland.  Why name a town after a direction I don't know, it must lead to a lot of confusion...

I took the back roads from my house to avoid the toll at the Susquehanna River crossing.  When I got to the Conowingo Dam I of course stopped into the lot for a touch of eagle watching.  This time of year there are not too many eagles hanging around Conowingo because they are all paired up and perfecting their nests before the eggs arrive.

I knew there was a lighthouse out on Turkey Point but in reality I was hoping to get some great long exposure shots of the water as it lapped in on a rocky beach.  Turns out Turkey Point is up on a cliff, likely 100 foot cliff.  There were one or two spots where you could probably make it down the hill (getting back up is another matter) but the beach was made up of large rocks, a man made beach to stop erosion.  Not exactly pretty.  So me and Sparky headed back the trail to the lighthouse.  

We saw signs for a spot on the trail called "Hawk Fields".  I readied my 500mm lens and crept out of the woods as to not scare all the hawks.  Of course there were no hawks to be seen.  In fact, that field was strangely empty of any birds.  So on we hiked.  After about a mile we arrived at the lighthouse on the point.  I kept out the 500mm lens hoping for some sailboats to pass by, but again there were none to be seen.  In the end I plopped down on a bench and waited for sunset while keeping an eye out for passing boats.  The only boat to pass was a barge, a big ugly barge.

The clouds started to dissipate as the sun set lower.  Luckily there were still a few around when the sun lit up the western sky.  In the end the only wildlife I saw was a bunch of seagulls and a black rat snake sunning itself.  I got lucky that the clouds were still around at sunset and gave me a real nice show.  It is always wise to go into an area with an idea of what to look for for a great shot.  It is also wise to not force a shot but take what is given.

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Sandy Point State Park At Dawn

On March 17th I woke up early with a desire to chase the sunrise.  I have been wanting a sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay.  I decided to try out a new location and after a bit of 3am research I settled on trying Sandy Point State Park by the base of the bay bridge.  I have been over the bay bridge many times but have never stopped at the park.

So the photo dog and I headed out from my house at 4:45am in order to make the drive and to get breakfast on the run (sometimes I think the only reason I get early is McDonald's breakfast).  We finally arrived at McDonalds after a brief detour to a phantom McDonalds on the grounds of the Naval Academy (my normally infallible GPS let me down).  As we arrived for breakfast the sky was already beginning to lighten in the east.  Luckily we were on the bay side of Annapolis and we were making great time.

We finally arrived at the gates of the park at 6:35am only to find our next problem.  A sign that said the park opened for general use at 7:00am and was only open early for fishermen and boaters.  So a dilemma...  do I wait and miss the beginning of the sunrise or do I go in early and send Sparky into the water after a fish so that I count as a fisherman?  I chose the latter.  I paid my money and crept quietly into the park.  I parked my car right next to another car, a fisherman I supposed.  I grabbed my camera, tripod, and dog and headed across the exposed grounds and made for the beach.  I finally arrived at the beach without drawing any attention.  I sat down on the sand looking out into the water feeling quite uninspired.  I actually thought about just not taking any pictures and simply enjoying being alive as only watching a sunset can make you feel.  But as the sky began to turn colors it sparked my creativity.

I began moving around finding the right scattering of rocks to take the first picture.  I used a 5 second exposure to get the soft water around the rocks while not over exposing the brightening sky.  Next I moved on to a jetty as the sky and water turned a pinkish purple color.  I had to use the Neutral Density Filter to extend my shutter speed to 30 seconds to get the soft effects on the water.  I also had to use the Graduated Neutral Density Filter to keep the sky from burning out.  Believe it or not the pink color is natural, it was not enhanced by the use of any color filters.  Finally the sun broke the horizon and it became time to line up the disk of the sun with the Sandy Point Shoal Lighthouse.  I pulled out the 500mm lens to get this shot of the lighthouse and the sun.  This image was taken with no filters and ended up being 1/3200 second to keep the sun from bleeding into the surrounding pixels and creating a white mess instead of a crisp white circle.

In the course of moving around and lining up the lighthouse I found out who had the other car that I had parked next to.  Turned out I had a fellow photographer shooting the morning!  And I also came to realize that he had already claimed one of the best spots for shooting.  Luckily it was a big beach and there were plenty of things to make interesting foregrounds besides the long narrow rock jetty that arched right at the lighthouse.  I will get that picture next time...

Blue Heron In Winter

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Blue herons are one of the few wading birds to stick around the Mid Atlantic during the winter.  It uses its long, sharp beak to spear all types of prey.  In fact, they are known to choke on food that is too big for them... they have no sense of what can actually fit down their throats.  I have seen them eat huge bullfrogs, and once a mid sized muskrat.  I am not sure if it managed to get the muskrat down, I think it was a young one, but to even try takes a bit of crazy.

I also always think of a story I was told about a Blue Heron that set up shop in someones backyard.  The homeowner had a small pond stocked with koi.  Within a few days this one heron had completely eaten all the koi.  Expensive koi.  The homeowner was understandably slightly afraid of the heron.  The average wing span of an adult can be up to 6.5 feet!  Thats a big bird!  They often tuck themselves into small balls like the one pictured here, so their size is very deceptive. 

Blue herons, like all wading birds have patience that I can only dream about.  They will sit still while standing or slowly walk around with baby steps in a body of water or right on shore waiting for a fish or other prey to wander too close.  Then it strikes.  As for me, I get impatient when my two hot pockets take 4 minutes in a microwave.  And it really makes me irritated when the Taco Bell drive through has more than 2 cars in line.  

Butterfly Wing Art #1

Butterfly Wing Art #1

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Nature produces the most beautiful art.  Photography only hopes to catch a portion of the natural beauty.  This is a close up of a butterfly wing.  Butterflies are some of the most beautiful and graceful animals on the planet.  Their wings are veritable canvases on which nature has painted a masterpiece.

Make sure you take time to look around and notice the art all around you.  Of course it helps if you fill your house with beautiful photography for those times when you are stuck indoors... :) 

Winter Doldrums Ramblings...

Small falls in Patapsco State Park, MD
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I'm posting a picture taken back in late summer / early autumn today to remind us that warm days will soon be back upon us.  Days where we can kick off our shoes and wade into a local creek and play near waterfalls.  Where we can see green plants instead of yellow plants.

Right now we are still deep in the winter doldrums where everyday is either cloudy or perfectly clear.  We seem to be missing those days with big puffy clouds that tend to lead to great sunsets. 

It is often though that sunny days are best for photography, but this just isn't so.  Think about the most dramatic nature and landscape pictures you can think of and what do you see?  Foggy days with trees hidden in the mist?  Epic sunsets with clouds lit up every color imaginable?  I'll tell you what you don't see, you definitely don't see a touristy type attraction shot at midday with a flat blue sky in the background.  Those are called snapshots and they usually fail to set themselves apart from the pack.

The job of the photographer is to get up early and to be out at sunset ("the golden hours") and hike or kayak off the beaten path to show you what you missed when you followed the trails set out by the park service or even worse, paved by the park service.  Next time you find yourself wanting to take a picture that can stand out from everyone else's vacation and weekend pictures try taking a few steps off the beaten path.  Look for a new angle.  If you see a crowd of people in one spot looking and snapping pictures, walk away from them and find a vantage point that is different, not worse, but different.