Wednesday Morning Blues

Wednesday morning I added another image to my "Blues Collection" of Steller's Jay images.  Late Tuesday afternoon I went out into the backyard and set up a lichen covered brach about twelve feet out from our back bedroom window. I clanped it at an angle between to up right perch supports at a nice angle for the birds to land on. Just above it and out of camera view I hung a single port bird feeder filled with black sunflower seed. Then I went back inside the bedroom and pulled the window screen out and put the window hide/ blind in it's place. On Wednesday morning I was up bright and early waiting for the birds to come. I waited and waited and nothing came. What's a fella to do but go make some breakfast. While I was preparing breakfast I heard the distinctive call of the Jays. I grabbed my breakfast bowl and hurried down the hall into the bedroom. Looking out from the blind i watched the Jays feed looking to see where they were landing. Once I figured that out I prefocused my Tamron 150-600 mm lens on the spot. I was alarmed to see my shutter speed on my Canon E|OS 7D was quite low! I took about thirty exposures and all but four had some kind of motion blur in them. One however looked pretty nice. Late after uploading the images to the computer I was very happy to see it was pretty sharp. I had the image i was looking for. Great over the shoulder pose on a beautiful perch. Later on I set up my camera again and Got a really nice Western Gray Squirrel in the same spot. They have the most awesome tails. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Mighty Oak

 For the past few weeks the forest has been alive with the sound of falling acorns. Wherever you walk it sounds like some creature is stalking you. These acorns provide food for a multitude of forest animals from deer to pigs, squirrels and birds. It's amazing to watch a Band-tailed Pigeon swallow an acorn whole! Here is an acorn from my front yard. It was photographed with a Canon EOS 7D camera with a Tamron 180mm macro lens. God's light and love to all, chris

Blues Series

 Several months ago I embarked on a series of photographs called ,The Blues Series. It involves photographing Steller's Jays in my backyard. Here are some samples

Attempt #2 Was Successful

 My second attempt at photographing calling frogs was much more successful. I used my Canon EOS 7D. (The 7D MKII has been sent off to Canon Pro Services for repair) I paired the camera with my venerable Canon 100-400 mm lens. I added a 20mm extension for close focusing. I once again used my Canon 550 EX speedlight for lighting. I attached two layers of white napkins to diffuse it with a rubber band. When Lenore and I walked across the patio we could hear two Pacific Chorus Frogs calling for females like mad. After searching the pond with a light I found one on the edge under the flagstone. Lying on my belly I was able to start photographing him from about three feet away. I t was really cool to hear and see. God's love and blessings to everyone, chris