Cool Creature of the Night

Last night as I went outside to take in the hummingbird feeder (otherwise the bears and raccoons will get it) I spotted a bright glow on the flagstone of the back patio. Looking closer it seemed to be some sort of segmented worm. I photographed it and the brought it inside to photograph it in the light. Later looked it up and it is called a California Pink Glowworm. But isn't actually a worm at all. It is Microphotus angustus, a genuine firefly beetle. Another strange fact is that only the female larvae glow.  They also never turn into an adult form of beetle. They stay in larval form their entire lives. When the males change into an adult beetle. They fly about at night looking for a glowing female to mate with. She then lays her eggs into the leaf litter and goes about looking for slugs and worms to feed on. It was a cool find. God's blessings upon your day, chris

 Photographed with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a  Tamron 180mm lens. #teamcanonusa, #withmytamron

Up in Smoke!

It has been a long, long while since I have photographed smoke. Yesterday afternoon I was looking for something to photograph. With Shelter in Place where I live in northern California I have plenty of time to photograph on my hands. I grabbed my camera ,a macro lens and a flash. Then I set up a black background with an incense stick in front of it. I had a great time photographing smoke rising up from the incense stick after lighting it. It's amazing to see all of the patterns and shapes that come from it. God's blessings and Happy Easter to one and all. He is Risen! All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera with a Canon EF-S60mm f2.8 macro lens. The camera settings used were M mode,ISO 100, F 11.0 at 1/200th of a sec. A Canon 550 EX Speed light was used as a light source set to 1/4 power. #teamcanonusa

Shingle Creek a Great Alternative to Disney World

We discovered, Shingle Creek, more or less by accident. I was looking for hiking trails in and around Orlando, Florida. Our first attempt led us to a middle school. We were told that trail access wasn't permitted during school hours. The school secretary thought there was a trailhead in Kissimmee. We checked Google Earth and found the trailhead was in Kissimee about ten miles away. Upon our arrival we were amazed to find a paddling center and kayak rental beside a slow moving creek. There was a boardwalk and trail beside the creek that lead right through a cypress forest.It turns out that this creek is the headwaters of the Everglades! It was such an incredible spot. We were only able to hike for a short time because Lenore had a class to take. I dropped her off at her class and vowed to come the next morning and go kayaking while Lenore attended her conference. The following morning I was at the paddling center bright and early.I rented a nice twelve foot sit in Kayak for three hours. Both of the centers employees saw me off at the waters edge. They seemed rather skeptical eyeing my camera and telephoto lens. I imagine they weren't used to seeing people taking out camera equipment in their kayaks.I paddled upstream and under the Vine Street bridge. Coming out on the other side was like entering a brand new world. Except for the sound of the traffic it was like stepping back in time. There was a large pool surrounded by Cypress trees. There wasn't a lot of bird life but it sure was beautiful. I continued paddling upstream away from the sound of the traffic. I came across some Pied Grebes, a pair of Mallards, Tri Colored Herons and some Hybrid Red Slider Turtles. I even floated up on a White Tailed Deer. There was a little Green Heron that I came alongside that was less than three feet from my kayak. I floated around watching it feed for ten or fifteen minutes. One of my last subjects was a Limpkin feeding on snails. If you are ever in Orlando take a break from the amusement parks and go fro a paddle on Shingle Creek. It is such a great alternative to Disney World. God's blessings upon you, chris . #teamcanonusa, #withmytamron All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera with a Tamron 150-600 mm G2 lens or a Canon Rebel t1i with a Tamron 28-200mm lens.

At the Old Watering Hole

A couple of days ago I was at the window looking out on the back yard. I caught some motion out of the corner of my eye. In our little backyard pond there was a Hermit Thrush getting a cool drink of water. As I watched a little longer it threw itself into the water upside down and began to have a grand old time splishing and splashing. I walked to our back bedroom which is much closer to our little pond to see a parade of Varied Thrushes, Dark Eyed Juncos and Hermit Thrushes coming to the pond to drink or bathe. The next morning I set up six Canon Speedlights around the front rim of the pond for lighting. I put up my window photoblind in the back bedroom window and clamped a ground pod to the inside of the window sill. All that was needed was to set my camera up on the ground pod and create some photographs. Over the next couple of days whenever I spotted a bunch of birds in the backyard I would wander into the back bedroom to see what I could capture with my camera. I ended up with some very nice images including one of a Cedar Waxwing when a whole flock of waxwings dropped by for a drink this afternoon. They had a great time and so did I. God's blessings upon your day, chris All images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens. Six Canon 540 EZ Speedlights set to 1/64th power were used for lighting. The camera settings used were Manual mode, ISO 800. A shutter speed of 1/160th of a sec was used. The F stops varied. #teamcanonusa, #withmytamron

Fall Portrait

This morning I went out to the photoblind to create some more images for the, "Off the Hook", series of images I'm working on. I set up a separate feeder for the squirrels off to the side of the pond so they wouldn't bother me when I was photographing birds. After sitting in the blind for about fifteen minutes the birds started pouring in. At first there were a lot of Steller's Jays. No other birds would show up when they were around! Later the chickadees and some nuthatches stopped by. The lighting started to get too bright around ten and I was thinking about packing it up when a Western Gray Squirrel showed up. I sat watching the squirrel when it hit me that with the bright fall background this would make a great fall portrait. I zoomed in tight on the squirrel waiting for it to lift its head to look around and take a break from feeding. After a couple of tries I got it. Fall is almost upon us and this is a great image that shows off the fall colors. God's light and love to all, chris This image was created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon 100-400IS v.1 lens at 400mm. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX Speedlight set to -1 2/3rds stops. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, F 8.0 at 1/2,500th of a sec. #teamcanonusa, #teamcanon

Virga Over the Valley

This morning when I awoke and looked to the east I was surprised to see in the morning's sunrise clouds with virga. I quickly grabbed my trusty camera and photographed a wide variety of compositions of the virga. Virga is basically clouds releasing raindrops that dry before even making it to the ground. In fancy pants meteorological terms virga is an observable column or shaft of precipitation dropping from a formation of a cloud that evaporates or sublimates before reaching the ground. This is due to dry air and a higher condensation point below the cloud formation. There is your meteorology lesson for the week. God's blessings upon your weekend. Go out and have some fun, chris All images were created with my Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and a Canon EF 28-200mm lens. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400, F 11.0 at a variety of shutter speeds.#teamcanon

Band, Cast, Party and Scold

There was a scold of Steller's Jays at the bird feeder in the back yard this morning. Who makes up these odd names for groups of birds anyway? A cast of Steller's Jays. Sounds more like casting a spell. Shaking of fists and pointed finger. "I cast a Steller's Jay on you!" There were only Jays coming to the bird feeder so I made the best of it and made quite a few images of them. I even got a few over the shoulder looks. One of my favorite bird poses as it really shows off their plumage. They are quite the fun and vocal group of birds to watch. I hope your week is going well. God bless, chris #teamcanon All of these images were created with a Canon EOS 7DMKII camera and a Canon 100-400 L IS USM v.1 lens. The camera settings used were, AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at a variety of shutter speeds. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550 EX speedlight set to minus 1-2/3rds stops. #teamcanon

Floral Friday

I was down in the community garden photographing flowers this morning. On the return trip home I brought some columbines with me for Lenore. Before putting them in a vase I photographed three of the blossoms. First on a white and then a on black background. Which image do you prefer? I'm leaning towards the one photographed on the black for some reason. Maybe I did a better job of lighting it for that particular image. Have a great weekend. God bless, chris Both images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MKII camera and an EF-S 60mm macro lens. #teamcanon

B + W Well Sort of

This morning when I arose the sun was shining brightly over the fog filled valley below. I was really looking forward to a bright sunny day. Then the clouds thickened and blotted out the sun. Minutes later the fog rolled in from the coast. It quickly tuned into an inside kind of day. We even had to fire up the woodstove which is incredibly rare for us to do at the end of May. Looking for something to photograph I grabbed a single Nasturtium blossom from Lenore's pot outside on the deck. I brought it inside and photographed it with a white and then a black background. Which one do you like better? God's blessings upon your week, chris #teamcanon, #withmytamron Both images were created with a Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and a Tamron 180mm lens.