Part of the Fall Color Series

Wednesday morning I was out in the photoblind in the yard adding some images to my fall color series. It's a series of images with birds and fall color in the background. A nice Douglas Tree Squirrel thrown in for good measure. I am really behind on editing images right now. I still have a weeks worth of editing to catch up on. It just takes time. Here for your viewing pleasure are a Steller's Jay, Chestnut Backed Chickadee, Dark Eyed Junco and a Douglas Tree Squirrel. Enjoy your weekend and God bless, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens, Manfrotto 055PROBX tripod and an 3055 Bogen ballhead. If you are interested learning more about bird photography like this please check out my new book. "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography" on Amazon and other online book sellers. http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Backyard-Photography-Chris-Hansen/dp/1937538559

Devilish Deer

The birds have been cleaning out two of my bird feeders faster than I can refill it or so I thought. Yesterday when I was editing some images at the computer I found out why. Badger went absolutely berserk. He was running from window to window and barking furiously. Thinking we were under attack I got up to see what was up. There was a doe on her hind feet thrashing her head against the bird feeder to push it sideways to shake out the bird seed. Off to the side there was a buck eyeing her hungrily. It wasn't the bird seed that interested him either. He went towards her and she spun off away from the feeder trying to get across to him that she wasn't having any of it and that she wasn't interested. He followed her around head down lips up phleming. She would come back to the feeder and knock it around some more while he stood watching. Several times he stopped in front of my back drop for bird photography. I couldn't resit the opportunity to photograph him there. This continued until she had cleaned the bird feeder out and then she settled down to try and eat the seed while the buck chased her in circles. God's love and blessings to you, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 L IS lens handheld. AV mode, ISO 800, F 5.6 shutter speed varied.

Chickadee Challenge

Recently someone commented to me as they were looking at one of my chickadee images that the reason I get so many good bird images is because of the big telephoto lens I use. While I will admit that a telephoto lens is a big help it has more to do with using a good bird set up and field craft to create great bird images. To prove this point I challenged myself to use some old photography equipment I had lying around to photograph some chickadees. I used an old Canon Rebel XT. This is an entry model DSLR that was made in 2005. I mounted on it a dented Canon 28-80 zoom made in 1990. To top it off I used a 2GB San Disk Card. Nothing top of the line here. This is all ancient stuff by modern digital standards. In addition I promised myself no cropping of the image or undo Photoshop work on the final images. After choosing my equipment I went out into the front yard and created a nice set up to photograph some chickadees. This was the key to the creation of some beautiful images. I sat in the blind for about forty-five minutes photographing Chestnut Backed Chickadees. I came back in and then photographed the camera and lens that I had used and processed my bird images. I had three of them that I really liked. Take a look! God's love and blessings to all, chris All images cretead with a Canon Rebel XT, Canon 28-80 at 80mm. AV mode,ISO 400, F 5.6 shutter speed varied but was around 1/100th of a sec. Manfrotto 055PROBX tripod and an 3055 Bogen ballhead. If you are interested learning more about bird photography like this please check out my new book. "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography" on Amazon and other online book sellers. http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Backyard-Photography-Chris-Hansen/dp/1937538559

Rocky Mountain National Park

We were up before the sun on day eight of my trip to Colorado and Wyoming. My brother Eric and I had our gear packed and out the door without any breakfast. We were headed for RMNP. We stopped on the way to photograph an incredible sunrise and a tiny Mule Deer silhouetted by Mary's lake. The sky was on fire with color. Long's Peak and the Never Summer Range were bright with light. Just inside the park entrance we stopped to photograph some more mule deer. After that it was elk and aspens all over again. There were elk bugling everywhere and the sound was fantastic. The light gave out fairly quickly and then a front started moving in covering everything with clouds. We went down for breakfast in Estes Park at the Bighorn Restaurant where I have always had good meals. It wasn't as good as last time I had breakfast there. I had a chorizo omelette that seemed to be missing the chorizo! The weather didn't clear up after breakfast so we headed down the canyon to Loveland. I made an attempt at photographing the jays again and managed to photograph both ends of a Fox Squirrel instead. Later that evening I had hoped for a sunset but the front moved on in and all it did was cloud over and rain. Looking back on it I can see that it was an amazing day. Thank you Lord for giving us such incredible beauty to marvel and photograph! chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Manfrotto 055PROBX tripod and an 3055 Bogen ballhead.

Elk and Aspens

Day seven of my trip to Colorado and Wyoming found my brother Eric and I headed west on Highway 34 up the Big Thompson Canyon towards Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). RMNP holds a dear spot in my heart as I have spent many days in my past fishing, hiking and camping with family and close friends. One of my fondest memories is sitting in the back of a pick up truck listening to the elk bugle and watching them spar in the meadows. Eric and I found plenty of elk. In fact we found one nice bull just inside the south entrance in beautiful morning light. Shortly thereafter we watched two bulls sparring and my card filled up right at the beginning of the match. DRAT! Next we made the drive into Bear Lake where it was snowing and the wind was blowing like crazy. It made for some nice aspen images though. We made a stop at Sprague Lake where there were Brook Trout spawning in the inlet as well as an Aspen Tree that a beaver gnawed down. We drove up into Hidden Valley a favorite spot for me as that is where I learned to ski even though the ski area is now long gone. On the way out of the valley we photographed a Magpie on the side of the road. The day slipped in and out with clouds. We drove back down into Estes Park where we photographed a lot of elk in the east side of Estes near the golf course of all places! I loved my final image of the day. A cow elk looking for some peace and quiet from all the attention she was getting from two nearby bulls. Thank you Lord for this wonderful experience. God's love and blessings to all, chris