Posts Tagged "photography"

This osprey was hovering above the Yellowstone River in southern Montana, looking for something to catch. Although the picture isn't perfectly focused, I like the bird's pose.

This is probably North America's most common chipmunk species, the least chipmunk, though I'm no expert.

Taken in Yellowstone National Park.

This bald eagle is in the classic pose of an overheated bird. Plumage is a great insulator, but in hot weather it works against you.

I caught some Brewer's blackbirds taking baths in the Yellowstone River.

This one is so plump and comfy as it cools off near the rocks.

I like that they were all looking in the same direction (more or less). Right after this picture, the one on the right derped himself into birdbath mode, looking much less dignified.

Meet Mister Fuzzy, a vole I spotted while hiking in Montana. He's either a long-tailed vole or a montane vole.

Although this photo is imperfect, the important details are clear enough: I caught this acorn woodpecker triumphantly storing yet another acorn in a granary tree.

On July 22nd this summer, my mom, my sister, and I were all in the garden, inspecting the flowers and looking around for animal visitors.

My sister had keen eyes that day. First she spotted a shy grasshopper; then, a few minutes later, she noticed this praying mantis hiding in a flower bush.

It's not a perfect photo, but not bad considering I don't own a macro lens. I gave you the close-up instead of the full picture first because, as you'll see below, the best picture I got was taken at an unfortunate time.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen: he prays, and he poops.

Bolsa Chica Wetlands has blessed me with many a joyous bird sighting. This great horned owl lives there, and some other birdwatchers and I were fortunate enough to catch it in broad daylight: these pictures were taken around 8:30 AM on September 1st.

This green heron had just caught a meal.

This golden-crowned sparrow had a huge appetite.

Taken at Neary Lagoon in Santa Cruz, CA.

Bewick's wrens have a distinctive, trilling song. The version I've heard most often is "WHEE-ooh-WHEE-EE-EE-EE," but there are many patterns.

In Santa Cruz, where I became a birdwatcher and photographer, I heard Bewick's wrens sing almost daily from the redwood outside my bedroom, and from the willows and oaks of Neary Lagoon, where I took walks to think or birdwatch. However, like all wrens, they are somewhat shy, and they flit about, never staying put for long. Despite my best efforts, for a long time I only got to appreciate these wrens through their song, and could scarcely catch one in my binoculars, let alone take one's picture.

A female Anna's hummingbird, by far the most common hummingbird here in California.

Acorn woodpeckers make pleasant photo subjects. For bird photography, you generally want to focus on the bird's eye. Many birds have dark pupils and irises, so unless the lighting is just right, it can be a challenge to catch their eye colors in a picture. As you can see, acorn woodpeckers have black-and-white eyes reminiscent of cartoon characters; these are much more forgiving to the photographer, and everyone finds them cute.

Here, our subject turns her head to the side, obligingly giving us a view of her species' distinctive red crown/hat/yarmulke. We know this is a female because the black of her head, chest, and back continues unbroken around the forehead, forming a barrier between the white face and the crown. On males, there's no such extension of the black area: instead, the white face coloration travels farther up and directly touches the crown.

This black-crowned night heron stayed motionless in this position for I don't know how many minutes, waiting to spot a fish.

Then a snowy egret flew up. As the night heron shrank away awkwardly, the snowy egret nabbed a fish almost immediately.

The night heron seemed irritated at being outclassed.

A Swinhoe's white-eye, caught in a silly vertical pose. It gazes intently at ... something.

This is the luckiest photo I got in my first year of photography: a bald eagle in flight!

Taken at Upper Newport Bay Nature Reserve.

This is a downy woodpecker, shot at Neary Lagoon in Santa Cruz, California. I probably spent half an hour trying to get a good shot of it through all the leaves and branches in the way. Victory was sweet.

I've spent the last two and a half years birdwatching. After wishing several times that I could show people the birds that I've seen, I took up photography. That was about a year ago, almost to the day, in which time I've taken well over 20,000 photos.

This one is in my top 3. It's a white-faced ibis at sunset, in Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.