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

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

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

A few more butterflies today... this time in vertical orientation.

- Bill

So other stuff pushed in front of getting these posted, but when we went to see Niagara Falls while it was frozen, we also stopped by the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory. Here's a nice assortment from the day's visit...

Thanks for stopping by.

- Bill

Here's a couple more angles of that Spotted Cleaner Shrimp...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200th sec at f/8. Image Stabilization on. ISO 400. Ikelite Housing and Port and Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Raw conversion in Photoshop CS5.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200th sec at f/8. Image Stabilization on. ISO 400. Ikelite Housing and Port and Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Raw conversion in Photoshop CS5.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200th sec at f/8. Image Stabilization on. ISO 400. Ikelite Housing and Port and Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Raw conversion in Photoshop CS5.

Have a nice weekend!

- Bill

Not as flash as the Spotted Cleaner Shrimp, but much more common, Pederson's Shrimp are always a fun find and a challenging photo subject. Their skinny bodies and long antennae make them difficult to get in focus. However, if you can get a bold one and hold your hand still in front of them, they will sometimes hop on your hand and pick off any dead skin around your fingernails.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200th sec at f/8. Image Stabilization on. ISO 400. Ikelite Housing and Port and Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Raw conversion in Photoshop CS5.

- Bill

Alright! I have finally made it through all the photos from my (at this point, not so) recent dive trip. I really should have finished them a long while ago, since the last dive certainly had a couple gems in them - in particular in the form of an encounter with a Spotted Cleaner Shrimp (Periclimenes yucatanicus). It was definitely a challenging subject due to the continually undulating anemone that it was hiding in, but I did manage several really sharp photos, and this particular one worked pretty well in several different crops... take a look and then cast your vote for which one you like best.

Original	2:3 Crop	Square Crop

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/200th sec at f/8. Image Stabilization on. ISO 400. Ikelite Housing and Port and Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Raw conversion and cropped in Photoshop CS5.

Honestly, I didn't even notice the crab also hiding in the anemone at the time - I was so focused on capturing a species of shrimp that I'd never seen before.

There are still a handful more good shots from the trip, so hopefully I'll post a little more frequently to get them shared here. Stay tuned.

- Bill