Loon Pair....

Here's another loon photo I took last Monday from the kayak.

Prarie Ringlet....

This picture was taken a few years ago and was shot on film. Butterflies don't fly at night because it is cool so they spend it clinging to grass and flowers waiting for the sun to come up. When the conditions are right they become covered in dew like this and you have to be out there before the sun comes up and warms them up and they fly off.

Chickadee in Nestbox.....

Yesterday I had a few questions on how I knew the difference between the male and female chickadee. I can't tell by looking at them, I was just able to figure out which was which by their actions. Here's a photo of the female in the nestbox, while she was in there the male came and fed her a caterpillar and I snapped his picture when he landed on a branch afterward. I actually have a photo of him holding the caterpillar which I may post at another time. The female flew out of the box after a while and the second photo from yesterday is what I took.

Mr. and Mrs. Chickadee....

I mentioned a few weeks back that some chickadees would probably be nesting in my nest box. This past weekend I finally noticed them preparing the nest. The two pictures were taken Sunday morning and as you can see these chickadees were backlit so I used my flash set at - 2/3 exposure compensation to add a little light and put a catchlight in the eye. They're used to seeing me around so I was able to get pretty close. The top photo is the male and the bottom one is the female.

Memorial Day Loons At Sunrise....

I was out in my kayak first thing this morning to photograph loons. This is the same pond I took pictures last year and I wasn't disappointed this year, I saw 9 in all. The first picture is of a loon that was fishing, they submerge their heads and cruise along looking for fish. I snapped the photo just as it lifted its head and I was able to capture the water droplets falling off the beak. Both photos are straight from the camera, no color correcting or adjustments. I like photographing loons, they're black and white and the camera meter practically gives you a perfect exposure every time, no compensation needed ,which makes it a lot easier in Photoshop.

A Flashback and a Thank You.....

This photo was taken last spring on a drive to Camden, Mike and I were going to scout a location for a wedding that we were photographing the next week. It was a dreary day and it was raining off and on. The apple tree in the foreground looked kind of interesting in the fog so we decided to stop and take some photos. Sometimes you get lucky, what started as a gray flat sky turned into what you see above, the clouds thinned out a little and the sun brightened the area just above the trees and made for a more interesting photograph. It only lasted for a few minutes and then it got dreary again.

I'd like thank Klaus over at Virtua Gallery and Helen at Wings n Things for passing on the award "5 Blogs That Make My Day." When I started this blog it was just a way for me to share my photos with others but knowing that people look forward to viewing my blog everyday is quite an honor. Thanks to everyone for the nice comments each day and I look forward to viewing your blogs also.

Backyard Blooms....

These bluet shots are from the back yard, this is pretty close to where I took the photo of the white violet. It was kinda cool so the bug in the second picture was moving in slow motion.

Columbine Close-Up....

I noticed yesterday that my columbines are almost ready to bloom so I think I should have blossoms by next week. I took this photo last year, of course I'll be posting new photos once the flowers are out this season.

The Scourge of Gardeners...

The scourge of gardeners everywhere but you have to admit the red and green metallic is pretty on this Japanese Beatle. I photographed this guy on my honeysuckle bush last year right after a rain storm.

Turkeys, Geese and Deer....

These two photos were taken on the same morning I photographed the deer a week and a half ago. It was a productive morning, within half an hour I photographed the deer, the turkeys and these geese all in the same area. I couldn't get any closer to the turkeys because they were on the far edge of the field and they have eyesight like a hawk so I just hid behind a tree where I was and grabbed a few shots. After 5 or 6 pictures I left to let them do what turkeys do.

Sweet White Violet....

I have a damp area in my backyard and these white violets grow there every year. I took this photo yesterday morning, the blossom itself is less than half an inch from top to bottom. I had to lie right on the ground so I could see into my viewfinder because of the low angle and I had a plastic tarp underneathe me so I wouldn't get wet. My foil fill was propped up to the right of the camera bouncing extra light into the little blossom.

Maine State Bird....

I took a little walk in the neighborhood on Tuesday morning and photographed this chickadee searching for insects among the branches of the alder trees.

Thinking Pink....

About a month and a half ago I posted some photos like these that I took last year. I went back to the same spot this morning at 5:30 before the sun came up and took some more. I like the way the pink stands out against the purple azaleas.

Here's Looking at You....

Here's a photo I took on Saturday of one of two sparrows that have been hanging around my yard, I think they're building a nest. This shot was taken about seven feet from the road and I think I could've gotten even closer but a car went by and scared it off.

Wood Frog in the Woods...

The wood frogs are finished breeding and have moved back into the woods. I was exploring a little bit yesterday when this guy hopped by my feet. I think frogs have real interesting eyes, this one looks like it has gold metallic flake around its pupil.

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.