Incidental Photos

I woke up this morning and went outside to play with the dogs. I got them running around the yard and Caspian was chasing and retrieving his toy. After we all got tired out I decided it was time to let them in. As I was letting them in I realized we had a rose that had just bloomed and the sun was shining on it perfectly. This has been the only rose that has survived the deer so far this year so I decided now would be a good time to go put and photograph it. I was happy when I got out there and saw that there was still dew on the rose and the other flowers in the yard. So I took a "few" photos. 300+ photos later I decided to go back in the house. Sometimes the most enjoyable photo sessions are the ones you never intended to have.

Flash photography in Ithaca

Last weekend I took a trip with the plan to photograph some birds in the woods up in Ithaca, NY. However, the weather did not really cooperate with my idea of good photography weather. I generally prefer to use natural light whenever possible. On this day the sky was very overcast. There was very little light and particularly little making it into the woods.

I decided to use this low light photography opportunity to practice my basic flash photography skills. They can become a little rusty since I do not use them all that often. This was a good opportunity to work on those skills. I found several subjects in the woods to work some flash magic on. I was not successful in finding birds to photograph but I did find these flowers. Let me know what you think of the results.

Best laid plans

As a wildlife and nature photographer sometimes what you plan to do and what you actually end up doing are two very different things.  As a wildlife and nature photographer I am very dependant on two things the weather and the wildlife itself.  These two factors can be researched, studied, and planned for but I will never be fully in control of them.

When I go out to take photos I generally go with a plan in mind about what I want to photograph and how and where I want to do it.  What I planned on doing today was photographing sunrise at the river.  I checked to see what the weather was predicted to be around sunrise today.  Partly cloudy with very little chance of rain.  I liked that forecast.  I like to have clouds in my sunrise and sunset photos.

So I planned what I would need to get the photos I wanted.  Tripod, check.  18-200mm zoom lens, check.  Three different levels of graduated ND filters, check.  Filter holder, check. 

I checked the location where I wanted to shoot and where the sun should rise in relation to where I'd be.  It looked like it would work out good. 

When I arrived at my location in the morning I was a little troubled.  There were thick clouds and thick fog in the sky.  Not even a glint of the sun was getting through.  The tripod, 18-200mm lens, and filters never even got unpacked.

 I had a backup plan.  I brought my 300mm, 1.4 teleconverter, and my 60mm macro lens.  I knew there were lots of great blue heron in this area so I would try to photograph them.  Unfortunately for me there was very little light.  I saw several great blue herons and green herons but they would not move to where I was.  When I tried to approach them I was unable to get within range of my lens without them moving off farther away.
Still I persisted.  Plan C: macro photography.  There were lots of wild flowers growing along the river.  So I turned my focus to photographing the flowers and the insects pollinating them.  I think I was still able to come away with some keepers despite my plans not working out quite the way I had planned.