Inquisitive Whitetails....

Yesterday after updating my post I decided to get the camera out and head to Sabattus River. I'm working on a book about the area and I hadn't been there since last winter and I want to include photos from all four seasons so I need to get some spring pictures. As I was walking along the river bank these deer came out of the woods and into the field. A few of them walked about a hundred yards into the field and I think they're happy it's spring because they were running and jumping around and being very playful. You see that in the first photo. Three of them were very curious when they spotted me and actually started to walk closer to me. I guess they wanted to get a better look at the bald dude with the big lens. The second photo shows that. Finally the couple that stayed back decided to run back to the woods so the three that were coming closer to me followed suit and joined their buddies. I wonder how close they would've come if their friends hadn't left? The last photo shows the group of six deer just before they headed back into the forest.

Another Damselfly....

This photo was taken on a different day than the photo I posted a couple of days ago, it wasn't quite as dewy on this particular morning.

Image Stabilization Advantage...

I took the top photograph yesterday in my backyard. The maple leaves are just starting to emerge so I went out with my macro lens to get a few photos. I like how there is a lot of red color in the leaves at this point in their developement. The fly that landed on this leaf is about 3/8 of an inch long and if you look real close you can tell I used my foil fill to add light to the shadowed side. The reflection of the foil shows up in its right eye. The sun is coming from the right side of the photo and I was using the reflector on the left side.

In yesterdays post I mentioned I use a tripod 95% of the time and when I photographed the fly my camera was on a tripod. I also mentioned the Image Stabilization lens that I purchased last year. The second two photos shows the advantage of using image stabilization, I took them using the Canon 18-55 IS zoom and both were taken hand held just to see if I could tell the difference and if paying extra for an IS lens was worth it. Both photos were taken at 1/15th of a second and there was no retouching or sharpening at all. I cropped in to 100% of the image size. It's quite apparent how much the IS improved the image. If you're looking at images at a small size on your computer it's not always obvious how soft a hand held image is. It's when you start enlarging the image for a print that the softness shows up. When you enlarge an image, you're not only enlarging the picture itself you're also enlarging any flaws in the photo. Hope some of you out there found this little lesson helpful.

Delicate Detail.....

Here's another photo that was shot a few years ago on film. I was asked the other day about one of my photos if I used a tripod. I use a tripod 95% of the time, I think it is one of the most important pieces of equipment you can own. The only time I don't use the tripod is when I'm in my kayak, it would be kind of inconvenient trying to set one up while I'm paddling. Last year I purchased an "image stabilizing" lens which comes in handy in the kayak. I do a lot of close ups and it's amost mandatory that a tripod be used, early in the morning the light is low and if you want to get a decent depth of field the shutter speeds can be in the 1/2 second to 1 second range. At those speeds you definitely don't want to be hand holding unless blurry photos are what you want for a result. Yes, in case regular readers are wondering, on the photo above I did use my foil fill lighting technique.

Emerging Fern....

The ferns are coming up and overall things are getting green around here.

Little Whaleboat Island...

Last weekend Mike Brousseau (Maine Through The Lens) posted photos from a kayaking trip we took to Little Whaleboat Island in Harpswell. Today I'm posting some of my photos from the same trip, it's an example of how you can have two photographers taking pictures of the same thing but they come away with different pictures.

More Detail...

This butterfly is called a prarie ringlet and in this photo you can see how it got its name. I've posted photos of this type of butterfly in the past but you couldn't see the ring, they normally just appear a grayish brown when the wings are closed, some people thought it was a moth. When the wings are open, the top is orange and black but you can't tell when they're resting like in this picture. Butterflies usually spend the night clinging to plants waiting for the sun to come up. This one was warming up so it was starting to spread it wings showing off its ring.

Pay Attention to the Details....

Last year in Greene there was a huge field of lupines that I photographed a few times. If you check my post from Nov. 21st 2007 entitled "Another Dreary Day" you'll see a photo of just how many lupines there were. The point of this post is, even though the area was covered in lupines, you need to pay attention to smaller details like this fallen lupine blossom on the dew covered leaf. I think it makes an interesting photograph

Ground Phlox...

I decided to update my profile photo to something more seasonal. Mike and I made it out onto the river for the first time this year on Sunday and the new profile photo is one he took of me paddling across the river. We saw a few nesting geese and also a bald eagle which was kind of exciting for the first trip out. Hopefully they'll be nesting this year, they took a break last year.

Todays photo is from my mothers flower garden from a few years ago. I like the way the single pink phlox stands out from the white and pink ones.

Bearded Iris......

Here's a photo of one of my bearded irises from a couple of years ago. They should be blooming again in about a month. This picture was taken after a night of rain, the droplets of water and the little fly on the iris makes the photo more interesting and it's easy to see how these irises got their name.

No Photo; Just a Link....

I usually don't post on weekends but I want to post this link to an osprey nest webcam. It's not in Maine but it is still interesting to view. Last year this pair of osprey raised two young.
Here's the link: osprey cam

Camouflage....?

This crab spider stuck out like a sore thumb on this vetch. They can actually change color from yellow to white. I've seen them on daiseys where they blend in perfectly in their white form and when they're yellow they blend in on a black eyed susan. I guess this guy was color blind.

The blue pansy photo from yesterday was shot on film.

Pansies....

I drove by the garden center yesterday and I noticed they just put out their pansies to sell. In this area the pansies are usually the first flowers you can actually leave outside and not worry about the frost killing them off. Like the post from a few weeks ago, one of these images is film and the other is digital.

Leftovers.....

Here are a couple of photos leftover from this past winter that I didn't post. Maybe I should've saved them and posted them in July when it is hot and oppressive and we could use something cool to look at.

Early Morning Kayaking...

Here's a shot I took of the kayaks before a morning of paddling. These are my favorite paddling conditions, flat water and no wind and a slight mist hanging over the water. It was taken with my point and shoot and actually appeared on a magazine cover a few years ago.