I Didn't Take These Today....

I've decided to take a break today from posting winter photos. The frog in the top photo could be the parent of the one in the bottom pic. They were taken in the same area but a couple of months apart.

Color...?

These two photos look like they're black and white but they are color, I didn't do any color manipulation in Photoshop.

Flowing Abstracts...

I was at the river again Sunday evening where I took these photos. With the cold weather we've been having the flowing water has been freezing into some nice abstracts. To get to the point where I took these photos I had to make my way through thick brush and deep snow; it was quite a workout and the camera and tripod kept getting caught up in the branches but I didn't swear that much.

Check out this link: http://www.naturesbestmagazine.com/index.php once there, click on the "picture of the week" icon. I have a photo that will be posted until Thursday.

A Little Color...

It may be January but the buds on the maple trees are already starting to get ready for spring. I was standing on the ice when I took the close up and luckily I didn't go through. The out of focus snow bank makes for a nice white background.

It's Frigid Again....

This is what happens when you have a cold night with no wind, especially by the river where there is more moisture in the air to create frost. It's going to be another cold weekend so hopefully I'll get out there with the camera to get some photos to post next week.

Another Frosty Sunrise...

This was taken on the cold morning the other day after I photographed the otter. There was just enough open water to create a litte bit of mist over the river to make the shot a little bit more interesting.

Moonset.....

Last night was a full moon and it was nice and clear this morning so I went out to get some photos of the setting moon. I used my telephoto lens for the second photo, the rising sun was lighting up the trees just as the moon was setting behind them.

Pre Sunrise....

I took this photo right after the otter left, I just put on a wider angle lens and laid in the snow to get the sky along with those frosted reeds in the foreground. You can see the hole the otter was sticking its head out of in the background on the other side of the river.

They're Back....

I went back to where I saw the otters last week and lo and behold they were back. They didn't hang around as long this time but I did manage to get a few photos before they left. After they left I saw them about a hundred yards up river but I didn't bother pursuing them because there was a nice sunrise coming up and I wanted to get some photographs of that; which I did and I'll be posting those later this week. You can see in the photos this otter has a fish which I'm pretty sure is a yellow perch because of the orange fins. It was 8 degrees that morning and its amazing how these otters can go into the cold water then into the cold air and not even be phased by it.

It's Snowing Again...

We had fourteen inches of snow on Monday and we're getting dumped on again today. It's supposed to turn over to rain later, we'll see. This bunch of trees are the same ones where I photographed the blue jay earlier in the week.

More Weekend Photos...

Here are a couple more photos I took last weekend. The tree is loaded with these cherries, I'm surprised the birds haven't eaten them; especially with all the snow we've had this winter.

Turkey Flock.....

Sunday was a pretty good day; I took this photo on the drive home from photographing the otters. I think this is the same group of turkeys I mentioned last month but they're not in the same area. They're hanging out about a mile away; that's why I hadn't seen them in a while. The group was larger than what you see here but they were spread out.

Blue on Blue....

After photographing the otters I had my camera gear packed up and was heading back to the vehicle when this blue jay landed in the tree top and started calling. It just goes to show; you don't always have to be real close to wildlife to get an interesting photo.

A First For Everything.....

I went out at sunrise yesterday because everything was heavily frosted so I figured I'd get some nice landscape photos. Instead I photographed these otters, it was a first for me, it's the first time I've ever seen wild otters in Maine and obviously they are the first photographs I've ever taken of an otter. There were three in all and in the first photo you can see two of them but when I got closer two of them went under the ice but one was kind of curious as you can see in the second photo, I thought he was going to walk right over and check me out, instead he went under the ice too. I was waiting for him to come back up when I heard a crunching sound behind me. The third photograph is what I saw when I turned around, it was crunching on the ice to make the hole bigger so it could check me out; I'd say it was less than ten feet away. It went under a few times and came back up and it seemed it wanted to come out of the hole but it wouldn't fit so it ended up disapearing and I'm sure it joined its two buddies and went up river. Before they left it was fun watching them slip under the ice and come back up with fish and have breakfast.

Rain Drops Keep Falling......

It's raining out there right now and I was going to post some photos from the past but I looked out the window and saw how the rain drops were hanging on the branches. I wrapped my camera up in a Wal-Mart bag to keep it dry (high tech huh?) and went out to do some close ups. Posted is one of the photos I took, its not even 15 minutes old.