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 - 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

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

There you go - if that post title doesn't work for a band name or some murder mystery novel, I don't know what would... ;)

Anyway, our second to last dive on our most recent trip was at a site called "The Lost Blue Hole". A blue hole is basically an underwater sinkhole, and is so named because from above they appear a deep dark blue color when compared to the shallow light blue color of the reef and sand around them.

This photo really doesn't do justice to this blue hole, but does kind of give the idea of what it is like to dive into one - to some extent, it felt like diving off a cliff.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

Even at its widest zoom, my 18-55mm lens couldn't even begin to capture what the opening of this blue hole looked like.

As we went down into the hole, there were many ledges and shelves where various fish and other critters were taking up residence. On one large shelf, there was an enormous sea turtle with two incredibly large remoras attached to it...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

There were also plenty of lionfish at this dive site (notice the big one in the right side of the frame).

Since the day was pretty overcast, it was fairly dark down in the blue hole, so Anya and I didn't linger for long. After a few minutes, we went back to the opening to explore the sand and small patch reefs surrounding the blue hole. As we came up, Anya pointed out a medium sized Southern Stingray swimming by us. I quickly framed my shot and rattled off some photos as I gently swam along next to it.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

Look closely and see if you can spot the second, much larger stingray hiding right in front of your eyes! I honestly didn't see it the first time by, and I'm glad I wasn't swimming directly over top of it as that could have spooked it and could have been a bad situation.

We also saw a small group of Nurse Sharks, some of which were displaying flashing behavior where they give a quick tail flick while turning and rubbing their sides against the ground or some other rough surface - usually to try and rid themselves of parasites, or just to scratch an itch.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/8. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion in Adobe Camera Raw.

By this time, I did notice the extra large stingray still hiding itself in the sand. I approached it slowly from the front and managed to get a nice portrait...

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II at 18mm. 1/200 sec at f/8. ISO 800. Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in eTTL mode. Raw conversion and cropped in Adobe Camera Raw.

While the conditions weren't great for photography because of the overcast morning, this was still an interesting dive, and a good reminder to keep my eyes open and look for hidden critters everywhere!

- 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