It wouldn't be a sweep net foraging attempt without some spiders...

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

I recently took the sweep net out to see what I could find in the various tallish plants growing along our driveway. One thing I found was a nice little boll weevil. I took it inside and put it on the white background so I could really focus on its features.

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

So after Anya finished her shopping at the antique sale she went to (while I was visiting Sugarloaf Mountain), we decided to grab some lunch and take a bit of a walk along the C&O Canal at Point of Rocks, MD. We eventually found a picnic table and ate our lunch. As we were finishing up, this little guy stopped by to say hello...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200 sec at f/16. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in eTTL mode. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw

Surprisingly, a few minutes later, a female (I think of the same species) showed up...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200 sec at f/16. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in eTTL mode. Image Stabilization on. ISO 100. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw

I tried to play match-maker, and the male was putting on some decent displays (which I should have tried to get video of), but the female would have nothing of it and quickly ran off.

Regardless, it was an interesting encounter and chance to observe the mating rituals of such tiny little critters.

- Bill

Ok - I've been really remiss in getting stuff posted, but I'm going to try and get things up more regularly (in fact, I'm going to try and write several posts tonight so I can just activate them later)... so what that means will be less words, more photos.

Enjoy.

This fort was near the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain (there's probably history behind it, but you'll have to look it up for yourself).

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm, 1/200th second at f/11.0. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Also at the summit I found this rather formidable looking beetle...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, Various exposures. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in eTTL mode. Image Stabilization on. Various ISOs. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw

Stay tuned - hopefully there will be more to come over the next few days.

- Bill

A few weeks back (I know - it has taken me this long to finally get around to posting these!), we took a trip down to Virginia. Anya was going to some antique market, so I took the camera and visited nearby Sugarloaf Mountain Park in Maryland.

Besides not being signed very well, the park was a nice little visit. I didn't find too much to photograph, but after the short hike to the summit (1282 ft), I figured I should at least take a few landscapes of the view provided of the surrounding lowlands. It was a fairly cloudless and hot and hazy day, so the sky is pretty drab. Instead I saw this dead tree and thought it might make a nice foreground feature.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 37mm, 1/320th second at f/11.0. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

- Bill

So this was a bit of a treat. I've only ever seen Red-headed Woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) twice - once back in our old house in Pittsburgh and I managed to get just enough of a blurry shot to prove to Anya that I'd seen it, and this second time just the other day. I debated waiting till another day to try and get photos, but I decided against that and went and got the camera and sat and took photos for almost an hour while the woodpecker hopped around in several trees in our backyard. I'm glad I did too, because we haven't seen it again since!

I couldn't get super close, but I think for such a rare bird (they're nearing threatened status), that these are pretty good. I really hope it comes back more frequently and I can get some more shots and hopefully a bit closer, but this is definitely a reminder of seizing the moment and not letting opportunities pass you by.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/200th sec at f/11. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Oftentimes, folks confuse the Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) with the Red-headed Woodpecker because the Red-bellied also has red feathers on its head, but once you see the Red-headed, you definitely realize why this one got the name it did!

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/500th sec at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Bill

Just stopping by real quick to share a couple spider photos... I'm not sure if this is the male and female of the same species (I need to look that up), but this isn't the first time I've photographed either of these types of spiders, but they both have a similar and very nice pattern on their abdomens, and the male has that nice rusty "mustache".

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.

I am trying to get through all the back-log of photos I have, but with my schedule recently, I'm not making any promises.

- Bill

Just a quick post today, but a cute one for sure...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200 sec at f/8. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in eTTL mode. Image Stabilization on. ISO 200. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw

And because one of the most frequent questions I get is "How big was that?"... I finally remembered to put something for reference in a couple of the shots...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/120 sec at f/11. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in eTTL mode. Image Stabilization on. ISO 200. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

Ok - so much for posting on a regular basis... work has been absolutely insane recently, and by the time I get home I am completely exhausted; add to that the need to mow the grass every five days and that we had one night with strong storms and that we went away this past weekend, and you've got a recipe for me not getting to post all the cool stuff I'd wanted to.

Anyway, that just means you get one big post today. So after getting the cool encounter with the owl on Friday evening, we then went to Jennings Environmental Center Saturday morning. Jennings is one of those places that really wasn't convenient to get to on a regular basis when we lived in the city, but now it is only fifteen minutes away, so we can pop on over there whenever we like.

This particular morning, we were looking for birds and flowers, and we found some of both.

First, we noticed this pair of tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor)...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/640th sec at f/11. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Both the male and the female were making repeated trips to and from the nest box with bits of sticks and grass to line their nest to get ready to lay some eggs...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/1250th sec at f/11. ISO 1600. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/1250th sec at f/11. ISO 1600. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

We looked for pink lady-slipper flowers, but couldn't find any... but we did find a couple patches of trillium - one of my favorite flowers.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/640th sec at f/11. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

We also saw a pair of Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) feeding on the nectar in some tree blossoms (unfortunately I never got a good shot of the male).

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/2000th sec at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Finally, we had seen a couple of these Common Yellow-throats (Geothlypis trichas) at the beginning of the day, but this one we managed to get in pretty close to and get some nicer shots of. He liked to sing to mark the boundaries of his territory, so I tried to wait until just the right moment to catch him mid-song.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/400th sec at f/8. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

At this point, I have a nice back-log of stuff to process and share, so stay tuned... hopefully I can post more frequently than once a week!

- Bill

As much as I like the Barred Owl photo with the branches and leaves partially obscuring the owl, there is definitely something to be said for crisp clean close-ups. I was amazed with how cooperative this owl was, and though the six minutes went by really fast, I also felt that it lasted forever at the same time.

The lighting was a bit odd as it was getting on towards sunset, and the camera picked up the color temperature in an odd way. When I got home, I wanted to process the photos to look like how I remembered it - a bit warm due to the orange-ish setting sun. However, the camera had picked up a cooler 4300K color temp that just looked a bit too cool for my tastes. I tried several different settings, and personally I liked the 5200K the best, but I intentionally processed some extras to share here to show the difference.

Mouse-over the thumbnails to compare how the different color temperatures affect the photo...

4300K	4700K	5200K	5500K

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/400th sec at f/6.3. ISO 1600. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

While I was processing the photos, Anya came in and said she thought this photo would also look nice processed as a black & white. When I fired up Silver Efex Pro to see what it would look like in B&W, I found that I was just as happy with multiple versions of the photo that way too. I processed a couple in a "high key" (brighter with more whites) style and a couple in a "high structure" (darker with more contrast and sharper lines) style.

Same thing applies, mouseover the thumbnails to see the different versions...

High Key 2 Preset	Fine Art Preset	Fully Dynamic (Harsh) Preset	High Structure Preset

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/400th sec at f/6.3. ISO 1600. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Now comes the fun part (as if looking at a bunch of cool photos of an awesome bird wasn't fun enough)! Pick the versions you like best and vote for them below. I've opened up the voting so that you can vote for as many versions as you like, but ideally, I'd suggest picking one color and one B&W... but honestly, if you can't narrow your choice down to just one of each, feel free to vote for as many as you like!

So this encounter with this owl was just the beginning to a very productive photography weekend, so be sure to check back frequently as I'll hopefully be posting daily for a bit to get through all this rush of new material I have (and hopefully I'll also be out collecting more as well)!

- Bill