In case you were wondering - the frog from the other day managed to get away. So did this one...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro1:2 at 238mm, 1/130 at f/5. ISO. No post production. Beechwood Farms, Fox Chapel, PA.

It has been a while since I've left the critique up to you, so have at it. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this photo.

- Bill

Sorry - I've been lazy about posting recently. I've found that that tends to happen frequently when I have a batch of photos that I like but that all have a flaw of some sort.

This current batch was taken about a month ago at Beechwood Farms. This year, Anya has taken a shining to bird watching - we have about a hundred bird feeders in the back yard, we have several bird identification books and CDs, and we took a trip to Beechwood Farms as it is the local headquarters for the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.

On the grounds was a small pond. It was covered in duckweed, and absolutely swarming with frogs.

And then, through the duckweed, I spotted this guy...

Now, before I get into details, let me explain a few things. First, I decided to travel light this day. I only took my Canon EOS 7D with the Tamron 70-300mm lens attached. While that lens is a nice (and inexpensive) lens, it doesn't have any kind of image stabilization, so working at the 300mm range is tough without a tripod.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro1:2 at 238mm, 1/32 at f/11.3. ISO. No post production. Beechwood Farms, Fox Chapel, PA.

Why This Photo: I had been snapping shots of the frogs for some time when I noticed this pair. The tension in the situation was palpable. You knew both were watching the other and waiting to see what would happen. I tried to capture that tension as well as the stealth of the snake's approach.

What Works: The composition is ok, but I was working with what I had at hand. I couldn't really reposition or remove any distracting elements. At first, if you're not sure what you're looking at, the snake is almost invisible. The focus is pretty sharp on the frog, despite being handheld at a fairly long focal distance.

What Doesn't Work: Though the composition was ok, it is also somewhat lacking. The frog facing out of the frame is somewhat distracting, and there are a great number of distracting elements. Also, the depth of field prevented sharp focus on both the frog and the snake at the same time - this shot was the compromise.

Like I said, I really like this set of photos, but there seems to always be at least one thing wrong with each shot.

I may continue to be a bit of a slacker with the posts for a little bit here. Tomorrow I start a photography class at CCAC. I signed up with a friend mainly as a way to start getting some real training. Since I've self-taught all the way up to now, I figured some real training to confirm some of the stuff I've picked up would be a good idea. After this class, I think I'll probably try to find another, and then another, and ... well, you get the picture (yeah - pun intended again!).

- Bill

So today's shot is a different perspective.

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/25 sec at f/3.5. ISO 400. No post production.

What Works: I really like the composition of this shot. It is a different view from most frog photos. Also, the background with the green gradient to black is very pleasing (much more so than the blue to purple that yesterday's shot has).

What Doesn't Work: The focus is a bit off, and the catch-light again is a bit annoying with how obvious it is about it being the fluorescent lights from the tank. And also like yesterday's photo, the depth of field could have been a bit deeper to get more of the frog in focus. Perhaps I should have focused on the foot and those cool sticky finger pads instead?

- Bill

So I don't know if I've mentioned it here before or not, but for a couple years, I owned my own pet store. I previously had been an avid aquarium hobbyist, keeping multiple fish tanks and terrariums with different species of lizards, newts, and my particular favorite - frogs. While owning the store, I had access to a lot more species of frogs, and I managed to secure some Vietnamese Mossy Frogs (Theloderma corticale).

Unfortunately, I've recently lost one of these frogs. After growing the frogs out from very young froglets (yes, that's a term!), I figured out I only had males. Each night, they call and call to no avail. And every once in a while, they decide to try mating anyway, and quite often result in drowning one of the frogs. It really is extremely unfortunate, and I wish I could get my hands on some female frogs, but after discussing it repeatedly with probably the top breeder - Patrick Nabors - it seems captive breeding produces more males than females, and thus females are pretty hard to come by.

Anyway - they're quite good photo subjects:

Technical Data: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, Tamron 180mm f/3.5 Di SP LD 1:1 Macro, 1/20 sec at f/3.5. ISO 400. No post production.

Why This Photo: I don't remember exactly why I took this photo, I was either messing around with the macro lens, or just taking photos for the sake of taking photos.

What Works: The focus is tack sharp right on the frog's eyes - revealing a good look at the beautiful irises. It also does a good job of capturing the texture of the skin on these masters of camouflage.

What Doesn't Work: The depth of field is a bit too shallow. The fact that the background is blurred is nice, but it probably would be better if the nose of the frog was in focus as well. The catch-light in the eyes of the frog are nice, but the fact that you can plainly see that they are two fluorescent lights is kind of distracting.

What do you think? These are cool frogs, and recently, I purchased another photo book to add to my collection. This one is called Frogs: And Other Amphibians (though I got mine much cheaper at Half Price Books) by Paul Starosta (apparently his whole site is in French, so good luck).

The new book has me thinking about getting more frogs, but for now, I figured I'd share some photos of the ones I have.

- Bill

PS: I made another kayaking video this weekend too. Enjoy...

Alright - bear with me for one more dragonfly photo, and then I'll switch it up.

So today, we'll look at several different crops of the same photo. The subject is a Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) that I saw while at Raccoon Creek State Park.

Horizontal

Square

Vertical

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/260 sec at f/8. OS mode 1. ISO 200. Dolica AX620B100 tripod mounted. No post production. Raccoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA.

I honestly originally thought that I would like the square crop the best - I'd recently read an article in one of my photography magazines about the virtues of a square crop. However, after seeing them all together, I honestly am not sure which crop I like best. I'll have to debate a bit before deciding.

Place your vote and leave a comment to let me know why you feel the way you do.

- Bill

So one of the shots I've been trying to capture for a while is a dragonfly in flight. As you might expect, it isn't exactly the easiest thing to manage.

The most important thing I've learned is to observe the dragonflies for a while - turn the camera off and just watch. Try and identify a pattern; often dragonflies will repeatedly return to a certain landing point or hover in the same spot. You need to identify those places and prepare for your shot from there. Once you identify a place, setup your camera and compose your shot - don't worry about trying to capture anything just yet. Pay attention to your background, make sure that you won't have something distracting that will ruin the shot if you do end up getting one. Now, moving around and setting up your camera and tripod may very well have spooked the dragonfly. So you'll likely have to wait a bit longer for it to calm down and return to its pattern, but more than likely it will, so just be patient (ie: don't go moving the camera and starting over!). Finally, use a remote shutter release and shoot without using the viewfinder, just fire off bursts when the dragonfly nears the spot you are composes on. And of course, you'll need a faster shutter speed, which probably means a wide aperture.

That all said, I still haven't gotten a perfect dragonfly in flight shot yet. There's always something just a little bit off...

Sometimes I'm too early...

Or too late...

And sometimes I get close, but the focus is not perfect and the shutter speed is a little too slow to freeze the motion of the wings...

And sometimes even a bit closer still - focus is better but continues to not be perfect, but the faster shutter froze the motion of the wings a little better...

So I'm stick with it and keep trying. There are a few more things I'll be keeping in mind next time I'm shooting for one of these. First, I'll try manually focusing on a spot and avoid using auto-focus. Also, I'll make sure I just default to the largest aperture right off the bat to speed up the shutter (and maybe go with a higher ISO). And if possible, I'll get the lighting a little better to brighten up the wings - in the last shot, since they're frozen, they almost disappear - having a bit of highlight lighting on them would help to accentuate the wings and avoid capturing a floating dragonfly body. Perhaps a flash unit would help, but so far I am still nervous about using flash.

It is a challenging shot, that's for sure, but then again - I am not stranger to elusive and challenging shots.

- Bill

PS: Here's the technical data for all of the shots above:

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/330 sec at f/9.9 (first three shots) and 1/1020 as f/6.4 (last shot). OS mode 1. ISO 200. Dolica AX620B100 tripod mounted. No post production. Raccoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA.

Here's the second video from our kayaking trip to Moraine.

This video is a bit rougher - I think the camera housing fogged up a bit with the quick temperature change, and repeated dramatic shifts in lighting causing the white balance to get a little confused.

Enjoy.

- Bill

So remember when I mentioned that Anya and I recently bought kayaks.

This past Friday, Anya and I took a half day from work, and headed up to Moraine State Park and spent about four and a half hours on the water just cruising around, bird watching, and getting some exercise.

Eventually, while exploring one of the many fingers along the perimeter of the lake, we found this very interesting area. The entrance to it was a ravine walled on either side by sheer rock cliffs about twenty feet high. There were dead trees strewn about, and almost had an eerie feeling to it. Even the air was cooler - probably a good ten degrees cooler than out on the main part of the lake. After a bit, it came to a wooden bridge that allowed a walking trail above to cross the water - Anya and I decided to push on and glided under the bridge.

On the other side, the scenery changed again, this time to a meandering wetland that snaked along. I honestly felt like we were transported back in time. The banks were over-grown with large ferns, and I seriously expected to come around a bend in the stream to find a dinosaur munching on some of the tall grasses.

Well, something I haven't mentioned yet is that we also bought an underwater camera (I'll get more into details at a later date). So with that safely encased in its diving enclosure, and mounted to the front of my kayak using my Joby Gorillapod, I decided that it might be fun to take some videos on our way back out. So enough blabbering... enjoy. Oh - don't worry about audio, It isn't all that useful but I couldn't figure out how to mute it.

This is basically my first attempt at taking videos (and with uploading to YouTube), so there's obviously stuff to learn there, but for a first try, I think these came out pretty well.

What do you think? Tune in tomorrow when I'll be sharing the second video (which is the first section as we headed in from the main section of the lake).

- Bill

Just sharing a couple more photos of that Widow Skimmer Dragonfly...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/330 sec at f/6.4 plus 1/3 stop exposure compensation (not sure how that got flipped on). OS mode 1. ISO 200. Dolica AX620B100 tripod mounted. No post production. Raccoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/200 sec at f/6.4 plus 1/3 stop exposure compensation (not sure how that got flipped on). OS mode 1. ISO 200. Dolica AX620B100 tripod mounted. No post production. Raccoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA.

Feel free to critique to your heart's content in the comments.

- Bill

Before I get into the photos, I wanted to share some news with everyone. Last week, Anya and I bought some kayaks. So far we've taken them out to the Youghiogheny River at Cedar Creek Park and at the lake at Raccoon Creek State Park. Which leads me into the photos...

Several weeks ago, I went fishing with my dad and brothers at Raccoon Creek State Park and I took my camera along to see what I could catch with it. The fishing wasn't so hot, but I came home with a handful of good dragonfly photos.

This particular species of dragonfly is called a Widow Skimmer (Libellula luctuosa). And we saw many more while out kayaking - they tend to like taking a rest on the kayaks as we paddle through the water.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM at 500mm, 1/200 sec at f/6.4 plus 1/3 stop exposure compensation (not sure how that got flipped on). OS mode 1. ISO 200. Dolica AX620B100 tripod mounted. No post production. Raccoon Creek State Park, Beaver County, PA.

What Works: I like the strong composition with the dragonfly resting close to one of the thirds, and the diagonal line of the blade of grass is nice.

What Doesn't Work: There is a slight ghosting around the dragonfly if you zoom to full-size - I think this might actually be a result of having the OS turned on while tripod mounted (I've read some things that this might not be the best thing to do). Also, I wish the exposure compensation wouldn't have gotten flipped up a notch as I really have no clue how that happened!

This really is a simple shot with a very obvious point of focus - something I really like in my nature photography.

- Bill