Wordless Wednesday – An Unexpected Guest at the Bird Feeder
Backyard Wildlife
31 Days of July Photography Challenge – Day 10
Day 10 – We have a new visitor at the birdfeeder today, an Eastern Female Downy Woodpecker. According to All About Birds “Downy Woodpeckers are small versions of the classic woodpecker body plan. They have a straight, chisel-like bill, blocky head, wide shoulders, and straight-backed posture as they lean away from tree limbs and onto their tail feathers. The bill tends to look smaller for the bird’s size than in other woodpeckers.”
Editing Notes: I applied a haze removal before cropping and made some minor level adjustments to the lighting before applying a final vignette for accent.
Field Notes: 170mm; Exposure: 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 1250
Until next time,
~donna
31 Days of July – Photography Challenge Day 9
Day 9 – House Hen Finch. This little bird was having way too much fun at the feeder today, but I was lucky enough to get a shot of him staring at me. His face is not quite as crisp as I would have liked, but it’s nature and sometimes you just go with what you get. I’m also linking this to Becky’s Simply Red Squares Challenge.
Editing Notes: Today, I applied the normal haze removal, level adjustments (lighting) and some sharpness adjustments followed with the usual cropping and vignette application.
Field Notes: Focal Length: 400mm; Exposure 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 1250
Until next time.
~donna
31 Days of July – Photography Challenge Day 8
Day 8 – What was I thinking when I started a personal photography challenge in July, in Georgia? The temps are hot, and the humidity is worse. But here I am doing the best I can shooting photos from inside the house. Hopefully, this heat will break soon, and I’ll be able to venture out to find more interesting subjects. So, bear with me on this journey, you may be seeing a few more bird, squirrels or macro photos.😉
Today’s photo is of one our frequent mourning dove visitors. At any given time, there could be one, two or upwards to five of them hanging out around the bird feeders or on this limb waiting their turn. The complexity of this shot came from shooting it through a window screen. Fortunately, the bird didn’t move too much, and with an ISO of 1250 I was able to maintain focus and achieve somewhat of a crisp photo. Editing comprised of cropping and level adjustments in both lighting and color to achieve the depth and detail. I also applied a vignette outline.
Field Notes: Focal Length: 400mm; Exposure: 1/125 sec, f/9 ISO 1250
Until next time,
~donna
31 Days of July – Photography Challenge – Day 7
Day 7 – Back to the birds. This was a little challenging to shoot. The birds are very skittish and can see me pick up my camera through the back door. The second obstacle is the door is double pane window and casts a reflection if you’re not positioned correctly (hence why the image isn’t as sharp as I would like it to be). Nonetheless, here is the shot for Day 7 – Chipping Sparrow. Apologies for the dirty feeder…….the birds can be quite messy.
Field Notes: Focal Length – 390mm; Exposure – 1/100 sec, f7.1, ISO 1250
Until next time,
~donna
31 Days of July – Photography Challenge Day 4
Day 4 – Well, if you live in the U.S. you probably were expecting something other than a squirrel shot for today. What can I tell you? Like life, photography is about the journey and capturing all things unexpected, not necessarily about shooting the predictable.
This squirrel is a regular to our bird feeders. He’s not as feisty as some of the others, but he’s determined to get his daily fill of food.
Field Notes: Focal Length – 105 mm; Exposure 1/100 sec, f6/3, ISO 500; Processing: Cropping, haze removal, Orton effect, conversion to black and white with vignette.
Until next time,
~donna
When Cardinals Appear – An Afternoon Visitor
They say when cardinals appear a loved one who has passed has come to visit. Cardinals are frequent visitors to our yard so it’s hard to say whether or not they’re family members coming for a visit, or just simply coincidental visitors.
Last Sunday as I was in the kitchen meal prepping for the week out of the corner of my eye, I could see this little fellow hanging out on a bare tree limb. He was a perfectly bright red color with a beautiful black mask surrounding his beak. I desperately wanted to snap a few pictures of him, but I knew he would fly away before I could get the camera ready. To my surprise he just kept sitting there, looking around from side to side, puffing up his chest with no sign of budging.
Finally, I pulled out my camera, attached the 200m to 400m lens (the big lens as Michael calls it), raised the blinds and……..ugh! The windows have screens on them! Obviously, auto focus wouldn’t work, so I switched to manual focus. That was a little better, but not perfect. Trying to hold the camera (the big lens is heavy) and adjust the manual focus made it difficult to get a sharp image. Oh well, he was such a pretty bird I decided to make the best of it and kept on shooting.
This guy stayed on the limb for at least 10 – 15 minutes. Was it a family member? Who really knows for sure, but for me personally, just having him hang out for a while brought some comfort and a smile to my face.
Until next time!
–donna
Silent Sunday
Wordless Wednesday
Hungry Eyes
One evening as we were sitting on our back patio, we heard a rustle through the trees and a thump. “What was that?” Michael asked as I quickly pulled up my camera and began snapping away. A few snaps later and I had the perfect shot of this Coopers Hawk right before he took off.
I must have searched through a hundred songs about eyes, before I landed on the title for this post (Hungry Eyes by Eric Carmen). Seems appropriate to me, since he was out grocery shopping (as Michael likes to say) when he made a layover in our maple tree. What do you think? Do any other songs about eyes come to mind?
Until next time,
~donna
Donna Robinson Photography 