Anya and I took the day off work on Friday and decided to go on a little hike for Valentine's Day. I figured that if I have to continue to suffer through this winter weather, I might as well make use of it and see if I could get some good photos from it. We headed to McConnell's Mills to find some frozen waterfalls and see how Slippery Rock Creek looked. Then we stumbled upon this beautiful waterfall.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM AF at 12mm, 10mm, and 10mm, 1/8th, 1/8th, and 1/4th sec at f/11. ISO 100. Raw conversion Adobe Camera Raw.

Exposure on these shots was pretty difficult with the extremely bright white snow outside and the dark insides of the cavern. I tried using some flash, but really wasn't able to get things just right. Additionally, and probably most impressive was that you could see and hear water still flowing inside that pillar of ice; unfortunately, there simply was no way to capture that with a photo.

I've got as couple more from this trip that I'll share soon.

- Bill

Ok - I'm not entirely sure if it is because I really want to go diving, or if my standards were just too high before, or what... but back when I took and processed these photos, I felt they just weren't up to par and was pretty disappointed with them. To be entirely honest, they're still not top shelf, but I certainly think they're better than I felt about them back then.

I remember this dive vividly. As usual, I was one of the last divers in the water (not sure why that seems to always happen - perhaps a method to help me conserve a little air instead of using it waiting for the rest of the group), and as soon as we dropped in there was a bit of a commotion. Suddenly, the shapes of around ten squid came into view and it became clear what everyone was excited about. The squid hovered there, seemingly motionless, in front of us. Luckily I had the camera rigged for wide-angle photography because they just weren't letting us get close enough for any kind of macro work. I started firing off as many shots as I could while slowly trying to inch my way in closer, knowing that the closer I got, the better the images would be. Unfortunately, the squid seemed to just stay out of reach, and after a few minutes, the rest of the group tired of them and start to move off. Reluctantly, I tried a couple more shots and then followed along.

Back home, I remember going through these and being fairly disappointed with the bluish colorcast, the heavy amount of backscatter, and the general blurred look to the photos. They just weren't the clean, crisp, beautiful images I was hoping to have captured of my first real encounter with squids.

Original	Cropped	Additional processing

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 55mm. 1/300 sec at f/13. ISO 320. Ikelite Housing and Port with dual Ikelite 161 Strobes in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

What do you think?

- Bill

It's been cold recently....

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/160 sec at f/11. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in eTTL mode. Image Stabilization on. ISO 160. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

I believe that this confirms that ice spiders exist.

- Bill

Ok - a couple more angles of that pseudoscorpion...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/200 sec at f/16. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

Believe it or not, this thing is real...

Anya found this on one of our walls, and a quick google search later, turned up that it is called a pseudoscorpion. Like it's namesake, it is in the arachnid family, but obviously is missing the stinger. It is very small, only a few millimeters long. I have a few more shots, but for now I have an episode of Sherlock to watch.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/200 sec at f/16. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Stay tuned.

- Bill

Ok - here's a fun shot to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Technical Data: Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 35mm, 1/40 sec at f/11. ISO 320. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw

- Bill

Normally I wouldn't expect to be photographing spiders this late in the year, but during the demo work on our bathroom, I spotted this guy (ok - it really wasn't all that hard as he was fairly large and ended up in the tub!). Anya grabbed me one of my trapping containers and I plum forgot about him until yesterday when my mom mentioned there hadn't been any new photos up recently (so yeah - these spider photos are all my mom's fault! ;) hah!).

Anyway, there is something about "normal" spiders that just seem to make them so much harder to photograph. Perhaps it is their different stances (and this one had a fairly aggressive stance) or their longer legs that cause those shadows - especially around their body. Perhaps it is that they tend to cover more area and thus make it harder to get the shot lit and enough depth of field. Perhaps it is just that they don't have that "playful" look that jumping spiders seem to have. Whatever it is, I always struggle with them, and I usually end up throwing out most - if not all - of the attempts.

This one sat fairly still for me, and I was able to fire off about a dozen to fifteen shots, keeping nine - which seems to be pretty good results. Here is a sampling of the best...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro, 1/250 sec at f/16. Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX in ETTL mode. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

- Bill

I spent some time freezing my fingers and toes (I need some new boots!) off the other day to hang out by one of the feeders and see what bird photos I could come up with. Here are some of the results...

Chickadee	Carolina Wren	Brown Creeper	Carolina Wren

Technical Data Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/640 (except Brown Creeper at 1/400) sec at f/8. OS Mode 1. ISO 1250. RAW conversion and cropped (middle two) in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm, 1/20 sec at f/16. ISO 100. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill

OK - just a couple quick and dirty photos tonight... we're supposed to get dumped on with a ton of snow, so I went out this evening and fired off a couple shots to get a "semi" before shot. We already have several inches on the ground, but all the snow sticking up in the branches was so beautiful, I figured I'd capture it real quick. I'll probably try and get out tomorrow when the light is better (these are long exposures to get them bright like that). You might even recognize one of the views...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm, 30 sec at f/3.5. ISO 320. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm, 30 sec at f/3.5. ISO 320. RAW processing Adobe Camera Raw.

Stay tuned for more... as long as we can get a door open to get out there tomorrow!

- Bill