Ok - as promised. A photo of something that has eight eyes and eight legs... ;)

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 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Happy Mother's Day!

- Bill

Ok - this isn't the promised Mother's Day post with eight eyes and eight legs. That'll come tomorrow, so be sure to stop back for that.

Hopefully Mom doesn't take the title of this post the wrong way, but it does indeed tie directly to today's subject. This evening as Anya and I were driving up to the compost heap, Anya spotted an owl sitting in the trees just off the side of the road. The kicker was that I had debated bringing my camera and didn't (shame on me!). Anya got a few snaps with her iPhone, we then dropped off our grass clippings and saw the owl was still in the same spot on our way out. So we decided to run home, grab the DSLR and head back up in the hopes that it would still be there.

Sure enough, it was! I managed to get just a handful of shots in the six minutes that the owl tolerated us being there (ok, and me being nosy and trying to sneak in closer and closer).

Oh - and the subject of the post? The Barred Owls have a very distinctive call, and it sounds just like someone saying "Who, who cooks for you?" - and seriously, on Mother's Day I guess we could all show a little appreciation for Mom's cooking!

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.

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for another special Mother's Day post!

- Bill

We were just about to leave to walk the dogs when Anya noticed a commotion out on our pond. As it turns out, it was a pair of snapping turtles mating. I moved in as close as I could and took some photos as well as some video...

These things were absolutely massive - if I had to guess, I'd say at least 60 lbs each - and they definitely weren't very graceful bobbing around in the water. They did make some grunting noises that I tried to capture in the video, but they either weren't making the noises or the camera didn't pick it up well enough. I waited around until they finished and split up, and I was hoping to catch the female hauling herself out of the pond to go lay the eggs, but after some quick research, it appears that she won't lay the eggs right away (and in fact can carry the viable sperm for several years, so they can even lay viable eggs in years during which they do not mate). How's that for a fascinating bit of info?

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/640th sec at f/8. ISO 800. 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, 1/640th sec at f/8. ISO 400. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

And be sure to check back this weekend for a special Mother's Day post... I don't want to ruin any surprises but it includes eight eyes and eight legs!!!

- Bill

I've heard and read in multiple places how it is important to get low - preferably eye-level or lower - when shooting wildlife photography. I've seen and taken plenty of examples where this is definitely true, but this set of photos really seems to drive the argument home (at least for me).

So here are two photos - taken only a few seconds apart from each other, of the same subject, just from a slightly different vertical angle. Honestly, I like both photos. As stand-alone images, they both work well for me, but there is a definite clear winner when I compare them side-by-side. Take a look and then cast your vote for which angle you like better...

High Angle	Low Angle

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/500th sec & 1/1250th sec at f/8. ISO 400. RAW processing in Adobe Camera Raw.

Cast your vote below!

- Bill

Ok - I'm getting better and better results with my bird photography every time I head out. Normally I'd try to spread these out, but I'm just going to do a nice long post today with the top results from my last outting. I am still cropping, but as you'll see, it is less dramatic (mouseover the images for the original uncropped versions).

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/200th sec at f/8. ISO 500. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/250th sec at f/8. ISO 500. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

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

Nashville Warbler (Oreothlypis ruficapilla)

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/1600th sec at f/8. ISO 800. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Hope you're enjoying the bird photographs. Eventually here it will warm up and we'll start getting back into the bugs and spiders... and hopefully a dive trip is in the not too distant future and we can get some underwater fun too! But for now, the improved results with the bird photography is really fun!

- Bill

Well, today's posts are uncropped, but as you can see I did have some challenges with getting sharp images with some of the birds. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet was in amongst thin branches, so getting auto-focus to lock onto the bird and not a stray branch was difficult. With the Palm Warbler, the setting sun's light was getting so soft that the shutter speed got slow enough that movement blur became an issue. But continuing to practice with more "common" birds like the Robin and Chipping Sparrow got decent results even if they're not flashy birds...

Ruby-crowned Kinglet Regulus calendula	Palm Warbler Setophaga palmarum	American Robin Turdus migratorius	Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

Hopefully I'll get a chance to get out and look for some more birds this evening.

- Bill

Ok - so still working on bird photography, and still having to do some heavy cropping, but the results seem to be pretty decent...

First up is a Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata):

Technical Data Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/320th sec at f/8. ISO 400. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

And the osprey has been making regular visits:

Technical Data Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 400mm, 1/1250th sec at f/8. ISO 640. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Stay tuned.

- Bill

OK - I normally try to avoid cropping at all with my wildlife photography, but that is usually hard to do. However, I rarely like to crop as heavily as I had two with these two images, but the subject material really made it worth-while.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 390mm, 1/3200th sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

That is an osprey. I actually didn't even upload a copy of the uncropped version, but suffice to say that you could pretty much only make out that it was a bird in that version. However, I am impressed with the results I got here as you can even make out the eye and some individual feathers in the full-size version

The next bird is much much smaller, but I was also way closer to it. But it still needed a heavy dose of cropping (mouseover the image for the original). This one we believe is a Palm Warbler...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (borrowed) at 390mm, 1/320th sec at f/8. ISO 1250. Canon Speedlight 580EX II flash in auto mode with -1 EC plus Better Beamer. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

So I've been a bit lazy with photography lately as we've been anything but lazy with projects to beautify our property. Yesterday during one such project, we found this fairly decent sized spider. I believe it is a Parson Spider (Herpyllus ecclesiasticus) though my ID book says it is a small spider and doesn't get as large as the one we found...

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 and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

Hopefully I can be a bit more regular in my posts in the future, but we'll see.

- Bill

Ok - as promised, I cropped a couple of the shots from my set with the bufflehead. As a rule, I generally try to crop as little as possible, but in this case it definitely does help to bring out some of the detail in the bird - especially the iridescence in its seemingly black feathers on its head.

This first one I shared yesterday...

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 800. RAW processing and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

As you can see, the exposure on these birds is tough with the bright pure white right next to dark jet black. Also, that first image has just hints of the iridescence showing up in the head feathers (see the slight purple hints at the top and bottom of the head?). This next one, however, shows it much more prominent!

Can you see that awesome purple and green iridescence showing through now? That isn't a trick of the camera or any kind of photoshopping... that is definitely how it was in person. Fleeting to see, but quite beautiful.

I also played around with trying different compositions with the crops - I go back and forth whether I like those decisions, but the increased size of the bird in the frame is definitely a nice benefit. For web viewing or possibly small prints, this kind of cropping is OK, but I still strive to get the shot just as I want it in the camera.

I tried to head out and see if I could get some photos of the hooded merganser that was on this pond yesterday, but the little bugger flew off before I could even get off the porch! I'll keep trying to get photos of these lovely migrating visitors, so stay tuned!

- Bill