Colours!!

I processed a few more shots taken last fall and it was pretty easy to come up with a theme.

Without a whole lot of further ado....

The rusty old wheelbarrow below has been at the family cottage for ages. It often catches my photographer's fancy, especially in early and late light, or even, as in this case, when rain-soaked on a dull day.

These leaves appear to be nestling against the gnarled trunk for warmth.

I'm old school. I think black and white are colours. (If this puss was mine, I'd call him "Smudge.")

The fence below circles much of the pond near Hilary's place. It's a new addition and has aroused mixed feelings among the locals. I'd druther it was never erected. But I won't turn down a shot when I see one. And like the leaf trapped below, the fence has served up a nice photo or three.

Although a tad under-exposed, I like the jewel-like tones of some of the colours in the following shot. And yes, there's that fence again, lurking in the background.

The dead tree in this next photo is a favourite subject of mine and Hilary's. There is a grandeur to its slow decay. Each month or two, a new branch is lost or broken but the main tree continues to stand. I salute it in the only way I can.

The soft, pastel tones of the maple leaves below are something of a rarity in my experience.

More often, they look like these:

Like an aging Hollywood goddess, the rose below clings fiercely to her fading glory, despite November's approach.

I guess that'll do 'til next time. Hope you enjoyed.

PS - Thanks to all who have joined The Nest. I hope to see more of you take the plunge.

Mostly Critters - Part Deux

I have a few more shots from last fall, mostly from our last trip to the cottage.

If you spend any appreciable time on a lake or other water body, you'll occasionally come across a fish which is past its best-before date. Usually, they're floating belly up and such was the case with our first subject - a cisco, sometimes called lake herring. We don't see or catch them often, as they spend most of their time in very deep water. In fact, in the 40-some years we've owned the cottage, I've only ever seen two or three.

This one was a little over a foot long and probably weighed a pound or so. He was floating within a few feet of our dock. I'm sure a turtle or opportunistic osprey, or even one of the bald eagles which nest on our lake, did not let it go to waste.

Our next subject is a junco. They're quiet, drab little birds but cute in their fashion. Ground feeders, they seem most comfortable foraging on the fringes when many other birds are around. Along with mourning doves and cardinals, they tend to appear close to dusk. On grey days, such as we had at the cottage most of the time, they almost disappear into their surroundings. But when spooked into flight, they reveal startling flashes of white under their wings.

Next up, one of those adorable, red rascals.

Speaking of rascals - in the avian world, I suspect bluejays have been called that, and much worse. This one has his eye, and very nearly his beak, on a plump sunflower seed.

The next photo is the view from our dock when facing left. It illustrates the weather we had during our stay - occasional glimmers of clear sky peeking through masses of gray cloud. If you look closely, you'll see our neighbour has a jointed dock and elevates the lower end so it is not subject to the wear and tear caused by ice.

Along the shoreline near our dock is the stump from a long-downed tree. A young tree, perhaps not yet worthy of that description - more like a near-sapling - was growing alongside the stump. Its last few leaves clung to the single stalk with quiet determination. It intrigued me but I couldn't get the shot I liked under natural light. So, after dark, I tried it with a flash and was happier with the result.

Back home again, I was tickled to see a yellow warbler considering a plunge into our bird bath. It was the first and only time I saw one last year. I only had time to take two quick shots before it reconsidered and flew off. Neither one is great. But the one below is the better of the two.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned in an earlier post that I love chickadees but have a devil of time getting a good shot of the little beggars. They're so darn busy, even when (theoretically) still. They specialize in zooming to a pile of seed, selecting their favourite (sunflower) and taking off again - all within two seconds. Their heads dart constantly, even when their feet are at rest, and the black caps make it difficult to see their eyes.

Which is a windy intro to the last photo today. After approximately a zillion and a half attempts, I finally got a shot I like of my little buddy.

Well, that'll do it for this go-round. Hope you enjoyed. See you next time.

Mostly Critters

Here's a few shots that were taken in the early autumn.

I noticed a lot of birds last summer/fall looking quite bedraggled. Molting is rarely pretty I reckon, but some of these poor beasties really looked awful, especially normally-handsome birds like Cardinals.

No wonder this poor fellow was trying to hide when I spotted him.

Even with a crop and beak full of nuts, this Blue Jay maintains his good looks and dignity.

But have you ever seen a Jay battle a strong wind?

Pretty goofy, eh?

While walking around the pond near Hil's place, looking for birds, I found I wasn't alone in that pursuit. There, on a fence, was a competitor.

I believe he was a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk, or possibly a Cooper's. He noticed me immediately but remained supremely unconcerned until I took one too many steps in his direction.

I love ducks as subjects. (And as food - but let's not talk about that right now.) Female Mallards, in particular, are favourites. They often seem to make eye contact and exude grace and wisdom.

This one was resting but peeked at me shyly.

A couple of moments later, she began to preen. In the following shot, you'll see she has closed the nictitating membrane over her eye. Although opaque-looking in the photo, it has a transparent center, allowing ducks (and many other birds) to see while underwater or diving at high speeds (like falcons).

Here she is one more time, seconds after the previous shot. This time, I have a caption for her.

"I've got a what stuck to my what?"

If any animal deserves the title Rascal of the Woods, it's our next subject. Yeah, he's cute, but he's also trouble. He'll chase away squirrels three times his size and chatter angrily at any human that interferes with his antics. And if a window screen is all that separates him from food - well, bye-bye screen.

Speaking of trouble, here's Ben looking for some.

For the most part, the weather at the cottage during our last visit was cold and dreary, with lots of rain. But even drab days can offer splashes of colour.

And if you're lucky, as we were near the end of our stay, the sun might pop out and favour folks with a rainbow.

Hope you enjoyed. See you next time.

Oooooo...Pretty Colours! And Stuff.

Before I inflict my latest batch of photo fodder on you poor folks, I want to extend a public "Thank-ee Ma'am" to Hilary for spiffing up this blog. I get the vapours when confronted with templates and margins and that sort of thing. Luckily for me, she does not. Thanks, Hil.

As mentioned previously, I'm still wading through summer shots. Here come da latest batch.

I think I would have ignored this first pic if I hadn't noticed the jet's contrail. The sunset (by cottage standards) is just so-so. But the pic illustrates a world where a couple of guys can fish quietly at dusk while thousands of feet above them, folks are hurtling off to god-knows-where. Same world, way-different realities.

I like frogs. Their metamorphosis is amazing. And they are the canaries in the mindshafts of our environment. Their porous skins make them susceptible to atmospheric and aquatic anomalies. If something is wrong in a particular ecosystem, frogs are often the first to indicate it.

All this healthy fellow below is demonstrating, is how well he's mastered the art of camoflage.

No intro for the next shot. But I have a caption below it!

"Anybody seen that dang dog?"

Next up, how about a pretty flower?

I featured a pic of Hilary's wrist bling a while back. But apparently I took another shot some time later, and darned if I don't like it too. So, have a deja view.

What caught my eye on the next shot was the vivid splash of orange sky which offset the near-monochromatic aspect of the lower two thirds.

While playing with my macro (and still buffaloed by some of its subtleties) I came across this interesting, little green fellow. I have no idea what kind of bug it is. It was perhaps an inch long. Nifty, though.

There's no dearth of fine sunsets in cottage country. (I used to be able to vouch for the spiffy sunrises too. But now I'm too old and lazy to get up that early.) This next one, with its fiery sky, offered a treat-per-minute as the Creator played with his palette.

That evening, Hil and I and my brother-in-law Evan, shot a zillion photos. (Evan is a pro photographer with his own business, Magic Portraits.) In the next shot, I shoot the photographers as they go about their business.

I am going to wrap up this entry with what might very well be the first photograph of its kind - ever. Yep. Of all the umpteen quadrabazillions of photos ever taken, I believe this next one is unique.

Brace yourselves, good people.

Yes. I caught a grasshopper reading a book. Who'da' thunk it?

It's A New Year But

I still haven't processed half the photos I took in 2011. But I've now nearly worked my way through June.

So, unsurprisingly, you folks will be seeing summer shots from this corner for quite some time. Maybe you won't mind so terribly if you're in wintry climes.

I'm a huge fan of dragonflies. They are aerodynamic marvels who eat mosquitoes, deer flies and other bugs that eat people. Godbless'em.

They come in lots of colours.

Including red.

And white & brown. The one above almost disappeared into the rock on which it perched. Only the brown spots ruined its camoflage.

I don't usually fiddle with much post-production stuff but in the next pic, I played with the saturation and hue a little. It didn't affect the dragonfly too much, but I like what it did to the wood of the dock.

Next up, a clever bunny renders itself invisible by standing still. (No wonder they provide lunch for so many predators.)

The next two pics are titled "Peas & Thank You."

What follows is not one of my sharpest photos but I like the colours.

This next fellow was caught enjoying a bask at the pond near Hilary's.

I am charmed by chickadees. I flat-out love these little birds. They have an abundance of wonderful qualities all out of proportion to their tiny size. I find them difficult to photograph, though. They are constantly flitting and their black eyes often disappear within their black caps. I'm always happy when I get a shot of one and I can see his eyes.

I'll bid the old year adieu with a pic of one of the young cardinals which graced my backyard for several weeks this summer. They were as cute as cute could be.

Hope the next 12 months are great ones for you and yours (and chockful of photo opportunities for us camera jockeys).

Mostly Bugs

I'm still working on processing photos I took in the summer, so you can expect to see out-of-season shots in this corner of the internet for quite some time. Without a whole lot of further comment, here's a few from July/August.

No idea what this fellow is but he was nifty looking.

Again, I'm clueless about the identity of our next subject. The focus could be better but I like the iridescence of the wings.

This one I know! It's a bumblebee!

And next up: a green bottle fly on a rose stem.

This wasp was gathering minute bits of wood for nest repair.

I walked around the pond at Hil's one day and happily chanced upon a Swallowtail butterfly. Even more happily, it stayed within range for a moment and let me take a couple of shots.

Enough with bugs? Okay. We'll wrap up with a few birdies.

Here's our own Lucy. I like the background pattern of the bars of her cage.

On another amble around Hil's pond, I came across a rare sight indeed: a female mallard doing yoga.

I mentioned iridescence earlier. Here's another fine example from Mr. Grackle.

Ever seen a bird with fur? Me neither. But this one nibbling at the feeder is kinda cute.

That's it for today. Thanks for taking a peek. Hope you enjoyed.