Tag Archives: Photography

Photos, Troy's Blog, wildlife

Egrets

This summer has provided some great opportunities to observe egrets and take a few pictures along the way. They are challenging to photograph in the blaring sun due to their pure white feathers but I still enjoyed the experience.

Got one!

For most of the time they were looking for food which brought entertainment as they strolled through the shallow water. It was interesting to listen to their calls and see their actions towards other egrets, heron, and ducks. Unfortunately I was unable to get a good picture of most of these interactions. They really didn’t seem to care about the ducks but herons and other egrets seemed to bring more aggression.

Looking for lunch

When not looking for food they would find a stump or branch to rest in and preen for several minutes. They didn’t seem to stay in one place very long requiring me to stay on top of the camera settings if I wanted decent shots along the way.

Taking in the sun

On occasion there would be multiple egrets together but that usually ended in squawking with one or more birds leaving that spot in search of a bit more solitude. The fishing must have been pretty good to bring several together. Did they realize there were multiple birds there or were they distracted by the search for food and then realized they weren’t alone?

Too many birds in one spot

As they day neared the end, egrets continued to hunt for every bit of food they could find before nightfall. Slowly stalking whatever moves under the surface of the calm, warm water. I enjoyed being able to watch as they went about their prowl and snap a few pictures here and there.

Looking for an evening snack

 

Photos, Troy's Blog

Dragonflies

Early this summer, the opportunity to get some close up photographs of dragonflies presented itself and fortunately I had the camera along. This first one was quite a surprise as I was at the edge of a lake photographing the occasional duck but really wanting to take pictures of a pair of beavers that frequented the area. At one point I was casually looking around when I saw a dragonfly just hanging on a tree motionless. Further inspection showed it had just emerged from it water insect body transformed into a flying insect. If you look closely you can kind of make out the shell which it had previously hosted.

A dragonfly emerging from it previous form

Dragonflies are unable to take flight for some time after emerging from the water as they need time for the wings to expand and dry which is why this particular one was still for awhile. If I had noticed it climbing up the tree initially there may have been some interesting pictures of it’s emergence and change of form. Something to look for in the future.

Drying its wings before the first flight

After some time had passed it unfolding the new wings in an effort to continue drying them in preparation for it’s first flight. Thankfully there wasn’t much else happening so I was able to practice my photography with close ups trying different lenses to see what I like best and which angles seem to be more interesting. The sun was illuminating the dragonfly quite brightly so light was not an issue making it a little easier. I’m sure this insect was wondering at which point I was going to cause it harm believing everything I was doing was in preparation of a meal. Must have been a huge relief when I left as there wasn’t anything the dragonfly could do except walk a little on the tree.

Waiting to fly in the warming sun

A short time later there was another opportunity with a dragonfly clinging to one of the orchids decorating my front door. At first I just admired it waiting for it to take flight on it’s pursuit of dinner. After a few minutes I decided to fetch the camera and once again practice dragonfly photography especially after noticing some of the beautiful colors in the abdomen which are more visible in the large picture at the top. This insect also allowed me several minutes of picture taking and then decided it was time to move on before something undesirable happened. In the upper Midwest it is a very unlikely situation to see a dragonfly enjoying the bloom of a moth orchid (phaleanopsis) which are tropical plants.

Taking in an orchid flower

 

Adventure, Photos, Troy's Blog

Young Bald Eagles

I’ve been fortunate this year to watch bald eagles as they maintained their nest and are currently raising young eaglets. I don’t visit frequently as I prefer to allow them to continue without being disturbed too frequently risking their departure earlier than they should. I’ve only been close enough to see the nest a couple of times.

Stretching their wings

The first was in March before there were any leaves on the trees making it easier to find. They could also see me easily and were not happy about me being in their territory. It was at that time that I learned exactly what bald eagles sound like and have been able to identify their calls since. There have been several times I’ve been in the area and heard their calls telling me they’re still occupying the nest and raising the young without going near the nest. Being able to recognize their calls have directed me to other nests now that I know what I’m listening and looking for.

Being Spotted

My second visit to their nest was later in the spring after all of the trees grew leaves hiding the nest from most spots on the ground. Fortunately I found an area to observe and photograph the eagles for a short time. During that time the adults fed their eaglets and the young eagles danced around the nest before and after eating.

While photographing I didn’t realize that one of the adults was searching for the sounds my camera was making until it was looking directly at me. Once spotted the eagle began screeching and flew a short distance away while the eaglets hid inside their huge nest built from large sticks.

A little while later the young eagles began peering over the sides at me again and I decided it was time to leave them so they could continue on with life. Soon I expect they will be flying and difficult to find near the nest but it was fun and educational to watch them for a few hours.

Unhappy adult Bald Eagle

 

Exploring, Photos, Troy's Blog

Spring is a Time for New Life

While out and about recently I’ve been privileged to see life emerging to grow and flourish in the abundance of spring. Some has been persistently pursued while others have been fortunate surprises while exploring local lakes and forests during the beautiful days of May. I feel so lucky to have been a part of life in the greening woods and warming waters to share in the lives of animals as they begin to experience the world around them.

A pair of wood ducks enjoying an evening meal together

My goal is to go unnoticed by the animals around me so they will continue about their daily routines naturally. Usually I’m unsuccessful in this goal at first but eventually I become a part of the forest over time and the life around me goes on about their business as if everything is normal. At least that’s what I attempt to do and it’s a great feeling when I’m successful at it. Usually animals begin to notice I’m there as I move the camera to get pictures of their activity but I try to be as stealth as possible.

A Trumpeter Swan persistently incubating her eggs in her large nest

This becomes more challenging because of equipment limitations. Often to get the best pictures, wildlife need to be within 20 feet of me as my zoom lens is limited to this distance currently. I struggle with acquiring more equipment at a considerable cost in many cases and accepting the limitations of what I am fortunate to have. As other photographers will often say, there is always another piece of equipment to get and another lens they would like to get to make certain pictures easier.

Sandhill Cranes protecting and teaching their young

Going through the progression of these photos, the first picture is a pair of wood ducks paired up ready to nest and lay eggs. Next is a trumpeter swan sitting on the nest for the long process of incubating eggs. Third is a pair of sandhill cranes teaching their young what to eat and how to stay safe by watching and avoiding threats. Below is a group of baby ducklings skirting across the lake grabbing food along the way. The larger photograph above is of a baby coyote exploring the forest around it’s den while mom is sleeping in the den.

Ducklings speeding across the lake

 

Photos, Troy's Blog, Twin Cities Adventures

Turning a City Purple

It’s been several weeks now since the passing of Prince and many of the tributes are now over. Over the past several weeks I’ve talked to a number of people and listened to their stories regarding interactions with him. Some who’ve met him on a more personal level, others who’ve been to some of his more intimate shows in the area, and those who’ve gone to full scale concerts. Many in his home town of Minneapolis have been affected by Prince. How many people in the world have such an effect as to be able to turn symbols around the world purple? Very few that I can think of.

The setting sun behind Minneapolis

While I didn’t take in those paying tribute at his recording studio Paisley Park or the well known night club First Avenue, I wanted to photograph the city he grew up in at night and what better opportunity than while it was lit up in purple? After work one evening I heading out in search of a great place to capture it all. While I didn’t fully succeed in capturing it all, I think I got some interesting pictures of Minneapolis.

Purple lights becoming more visible in the darkening sky

The first goal was to photograph the city as the sun set behind it so I headed to a spot east and set up waiting for dark to begin falling. I was surprised to find I was not the only one taking advantage of this situation and specific location. In fact much of the night I came across others doing the same thing in the same places. Sure the opportunity for a unique picture was decreased but it was somewhat comforting to know others thought taking these night photos was a good idea also.

The rebuilt 35W bridge reflecting purple in the Mississippi River

As the sun continued its trek below the horizon, more and more purple lights became visible in the darkening sky. Blackness continued to fill the sky over this busy city making these colorful lights stand out in places I didn’t expect. There were stories of a few buildings in downtown, and the 35W bridge, being lit up in purple but many other buildings had joined in on this night bringing an even larger tribute to Prince’s place.

Minneapolis from the north side of the city

After photographing in this location for a couple of hours while the last light from the sun dipped below the city I decided to try a different perspective to see if more of these colored buildings could be spotted so I drove to the north side of Minneapolis. Not much time was spent here as I couldn’t find a composition that brought out these purple accented buildings in a way I wanted so after a few pictures it was off to the west side of the city. From there, more buildings lit up in Prince’s color appeared and provided some nice opportunities with the rising moon in the background. After photographing this night cityscape for over an hour from this location, I decided it was time to call it a night and head for home and a soft pillow.

Minneapolis with the moon rising behind it

 

Photos, Troy's Blog

Spring is Coming

The snow is quickly melting and warmer temperatures are moving in bringing with it an increased desire to go outside and leave our winter dens in Minnesota. People are smiling more and generally in a better mood. Geese are taking advantage of more open water and making their annual trek north in search of places for food and the perfect nesting grounds.

Geese migrating north

Ducks are following suite as there are numerous different types that we don’t usually see except for their migrations. As water becomes more accessible there are more and more flying through. Even though the ice is retreating it is very likely these ducks will be dealing with a spring snow storm or two yet.

Ducks taking a break from their long flight

It’s nice to be able to spend more time outdoors with lighter coats and not be cold after awhile. It won’t be long before the trees will begin showing signs of life confirming winter is in months past. This year spring seems to be a few weeks early which many people seem to agree is perfectly ok. Only a few that are passionate for winter activities are morning the loss of snow and ice.

The receding ice

Even though there appears to be no sign of life in the trees there is one that is taking advantage of this early part of spring – pussy willows. They are quickly extending their buds and preparing to flower. An event many miss as this happens while there may be a few spots of snow and ice still visible. Amazing to me that these plants can grow so quickly with temperatures cooling off to below freezing at night.

Pussywillows beginning to bloom

As these pussy willows progress you see these bright yellow pollen shedding anthers basking in the brighter sunlight inviting any insect nearby. Watching for a short time reveals a multitude of bugs stirring and consuming this abundance of food that never appeared to be alive a few moments before. Yes, spring has begun and so has the re-appearance of life after surviving in the cold, barren landscape for so many months.

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Photos, Troy's Blog

Snowflakes Age

Sparkling like diamonds

My last post on snowflakes showed some of the attempts at photographing a snowflake. While playing around with the camera and trying to get close ups of snowflakes I realized how interesting light reflecting off of them can be so I wanted to photograph snowflakes in the sunlight and see how sunlight reflecting off of these little crystals would look especially after seeing a fresh snow and all of the little sparkling diamonds and their range of colors in the sunlight.

Still some of the original snowflakes form visiable

What I found was a little disappointing but still fascinating. On a recent snowfall I went out about 6 hours after it was done and the sun began to shine. It was about 20 degrees Fahrenheit so still well into the freezing temperatures which should preserve the snow. In this short time most of the snowflakes were no longer in their original shapes but melting together to form larger pieces of ice. There were a few snowflakes here and there that had kept the form in which they landed in tact but not many as you can see in the above photo. The sun is reflecting off of one of these snowflakes only hours old.

The melting snow

Looking at the same bright snowflake from another perspective shows the melting even better and how unique an relatively intact snowflake is shortly after a fresh snowfall. I have never taken time to look closely at a recent snowfall so it was fun to discover how they transform in such a short time.

Attempting to capture individual snowflakes

I tried many different ways to capture single snowflakes and their unique shapes without any success as you can see in the photo above. Still, I find it interesting to see the ridge of larger ice crystals formed by the melting taking place in the sunlight on this juniper tree.

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In areas that have had more time in the sunlight the progression was even further as all of the snowflakes had melted into larger pieces of ice which reflected the sunlight beautifully. As they continue to melt further in the warm sunlight they create icicles. Fascinating and beautiful.

Snow melting and creating icicles

Photos, Troy's Blog

Snowflakes

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One of my goals for 2016 is to photograph snowflakes so here is my first attempt. It was really interesting to see how unique and beautiful snowflakes can be. While learning how to begin doing this I saw several images of individual snowflakes that were amazing. As snow falls they appear white but when looking at them closely you can see the ice crystals which are more clear. Taking the photographs of snowflakes was not as much fun as I hoped mostly because I was tired and cold and not really wanting to be outside at that time after work but sometimes images aren’t convenient and available on our schedule. Once I finished and was able to view them on the computer it became a lot more fun to see the different shapes, sizes, and formation of these ice crystals. I won’t look at snow the same again.

A Golden Snowflake

Since I was photographing these at dusk I needed to take time to work with lower light which meant longer shutter times on the camera and using additional light to get sharper images. After all was complete and I looked at these on the computer I saw how interesting it can be to reflect different colors of light off of these crystals so the time of day worked out well and taught me more than I think I could have learned photographing these at another time of day. With my equipment there isn’t much more I can do to get close ups of snowflakes so next time I want to try different compositions to get interesting pictures of snowflakes. Investing in better equipment isn’t something I want to do at this time.

Each one is Unique

Photos, Troy's Blog

The Problem with the GoPro Hero 4

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The GoPro Here 4 Black comes with so many great options such as burst mode which can take up to 30 pictures in a second which was used in the above photo to capture the firing of this gun along with timelapse, video up to 4K, and even the ability to make a timelapse video without any other software. These are all great features of a camera that takes nice photos and video in places such as under water or in the snow. Most of which I’ve used at one point or another to get some nice pictures previously unavailable to me. With all these options what is the biggest problem with the GoPro Hero 4 for me? The requirement for more storage space. It doesn’t take long to use 30 – 60 gigabytes of storage room and that can fill a hard drive in a very short time if you’re like me and tend to keep as much as you can without deleting files you may never really use just because you may want to use it someday.

Photos, Troy's Blog

My Photography Psychology

A Prairie Storm

Try saying that fast a number of times. It’s enough to drive you crazy (or at least appear crazy). I don’t have any real expertise in psychology other than the one class I took part in in college but I do read books that cause me to think about why I do the things I do which I consider psychology because many of those reasons originate from emotions. This post will cover the last couple of years as I began to focus more on photography and the games we play within ourselves along the way to reach for better results. Reading and talking with others who enjoy photography, the paths tend to be similar.

I’ve occasionally taken pictures for almost 30 years but just to capture a moment and never really to display that moment. The focus became a little more intense with the arrival of my first child which also happened to coincide with the change from film to digital making photography easier and less expensive. At least I think it was less expensive but I never really added together the cost of more batteries, hard drives to store the pictures on, and memory cards for the camera. Still, honing my photography skills was not of much interest other than nice photos of the family. On my first point and shoot camera there was the option of manual settings but I didn’t really understand them and never really wanted to. Auto was the only setting I wanted to use.

Gazing at History

After a number of trips on our National Parks Monopoly Board I started to question the quality of the photos I was taking and if I should upgrade. Do I go to an interchangeable lens camera or just a better point and shoot? Watching others struggle with changing lenses and having to carry around all that extra gear was not really appealing to me. Finally I began to see spots on my photographs and realized that there was dirt inside my lens and probably on my sensor. I decided to take the camera apart (you can read that story here…) and ended up breaking one of the electronic boards inside. After getting another camera of the same model for parts I got it back together but still knew it was time for an upgrade. The question was how much of an upgrade.

During the summer of 2012 we took a trip to Yosemite with friends of ours. During our time there we were taking pictures and so were our friends with their new Sony interchangeable lens camera. Later in the year I got to compare the photos and was essentially convinced it was time for that type of camera. Photography was starting to intrigue me more and I was already beginning to play with some of the manual settings and I wanted a camera with more versatility so an upgrade to a Sony Nex went into the budget. I chose this camera because of the overall size. It was smaller than most dSLRs but with many of the same qualities of photos.

The Badlands

During the next year I read a couple of books on photography and started practicing attempting to reach the level of professional photographers but severely failing. What’s the first thing we blame? The quality of the camera of course and I was no exception. As I continued to read more and look at the pictures of much better photographers I paid attention to the equipment they were using and kept thinking that’s what I need to get the pictures I wanted. The only problem was that equipment had a much higher price tag and I really didn’t want to put that much money into my camera equipment. How could I possibly achieve the results I wanted with the camera and lenses I had?

I struggled with this for several months continually looking at my pictures and those from other people thinking my equipment was sub-par and that was the major issue. The other part was of course the need for more knowledge and practice. Now some of the reason for blaming the equipment was I was trying to take amazing pictures of the night sky which are some of the toughest pictures to take and equipment can make a tremendous difference for those types of pictures. There were several times when I thought I made the wrong choice in cameras because no one else was using a Sony Nex for their quality photos.

A Foggy Stroll

I had to continually ask myself what I wanted to achieve with my pictures. My answer continued to be to take pictures that I would enjoy and others who looked at them would say “wow” when they saw them. Selling them was never the goal although it would be a confidence booster to sell an image or two. With these answers, upgrading equipment again didn’t make sense so I had to convince myself the equipment wasn’t the problem.

Practice and reading on how to take better landscape photographs kept me occupied and I have now convinced myself that my equipment is just fine for what I want to achieve. Over the past two years I have taken over 12,000 pictures and captured some amazing images in my opinion while learning a tremendous amount. These images are still not the caliber of many professionals but they are getting closer. The equipment has been pushed and I’ve found a number of limits but I’ve become ok with those limits. As long as I know what they are my expectations can be set accordingly no longer setting me up for disappointment.

In Flight

Amazing photographs are in the person viewing them. There are many of my images that I love but many others don’t think there anything special. It’s because I know everything that went into each image and the experience around it that makes them special for me. I’ve come to believe that great photographs require two parts. The first is know how your equipment works so you can make the necessary adjustments to it quickly if need be. Second is the photographers view of each situation which eventually becomes more important than the first part. A landscape photographer needs to be able to identify a unique situation and have the knowledge of how to photograph it. Some of those unique situations only last for a few seconds and you have to know your equipment thoroughly enough to capture it.

The knowledge of your equipment can be the difference between and amazing picture and a great one. There is still much for me to learn and I’m having a lot of fun doing it. I see more and more opportunities to take a great picture and continue to work towards an amazing image.

Still Work to Do