Ants and Iris

This morning after photographing hummingbirds I took Badger the Wonder Dog for a walk. Just past the end of our driveway and just off of our road was a beautiful wild Douglas Iris. After spotting it I knew that I had better photograph it very soon as it was just past its prime. After Badger and I finished our walk I grabbed my camera a telephoto lens with an extension tube and a ground pod. When I got there I realized that the ground pod was going to be too low for such a tall flower and maybe I should have grabbed a tripod instead. I looked around me and found two flat rocks that I could stack one on top of the other that would get the ground pod to just the right height. It was just perfect! Perfect except for the fact that I hadn't noticed the little black ant nest attached to the bottom of one of the rocks. Before I knew it I had ants crawling all over my arms and camera. Now as I am typing I keep finding more ants on me. I think it is time to go take a shower. Have a blessed day, chris Canon 7D with a Canon 100-400 IS v1 lens and a 20mm extension tube on a ground pod with a Bogen 3055 ballhead. camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 100, F 16.0 at 1/6th of a sec.

Going Up for Hummingbirds

The hummingbirds that feed in my backyard have a favorite place that they like to perch. It is on top of our oak tree arch. To create an intimate hummingbird image it helps to be on the same level that they are. This poses a bit of a dilemma as the top of the arch is just over eight feet off of the ground. The easiest way is to photograph through our double pane window in the living room as that puts me at exactly the right height. But I'm too far away so I have to use an extender to magnify the image and I'm having to shoot through the window both of which degrade the quality of the image. It is also too far away. The other solution is to put a photoblind on a ladder and then move the ladder as close as I possibly can to the edge of our flagstone patio. It works really well though I wouldn't want to be up on the ladder if the wind came up.Enjoy the images and have a blessed day, chris #TeamCanon #Bringit