Bee Happy

This morning I grabbed my little Canon T1i to take with me on a quick trip to the big city of Ukiah. I threw on a macro lens and then I checked the SD card and discovered that there were twenty-nine images that I hadn't downloaded yet. "Hmmnnn ... I thought to myself". So I uploaded them to my computer and there were some pretty nice images there. My favorite though was one of a bee covered in pollen. It was happily going about its work gathering nectar from a sunflower. It even had pollen in its eyes. I hope that you can be happy in your life's work as well. God's love and blessings to all, chris This image wascreated with a Canon EOS T1i camera and a Canon EF-S60mm F 2.8 Macro USM lens. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at 1/250th of a sec. #teamcanon

Working the Set Up

Yesterday afternoon I worked on changing the background for the sunflower set up I have been using in the backyard. I thought a fall color background would go very nicely with the sunflower. This morning with a new sunflower in hand I went out into the backyard to photograph the birds. Upon arrival I discovered that the squirrels had devastated the feeder. So the first order of the day was to put up a new bird feeder. I have a love/strong dislike relationship with the squirrels. They can be a lot of fun to photograph but they do take a toll on my bird feeders by chewing them apart. I spent less than half an hour photographing birds almost non stop as they kept coming into the perch one right after the other.It sure kept my eye glues to the viewfinder of the camera! After editing the images this morning this Red Breasted Nuthatch ended up being my overall favorite. God's light and love to all, chrisThe nuthach image was created with my Canon 7D MkII camera and a Canon 100-400 L IS USM v.1 lens at 350mm on a Manfrotto 055 XPROB Pro tripod. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at 1/200th of a sec. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 550EX flash set to -2 stops. #TeamCanon

Sunflower Kind of Day

Todays' photoblog was created with a nod to Jack Brock. He is one of the most talented and prolific bird photographers that I know. Please check out his bird photography on Facebook. He is always posting something new and creative. He posted some birds with sunflowers recently and I decided to create something of a similar nature. Last night I went out into the backyard and did the preliminary work on the set up. This morning I headed out to the backyard with a sunflower in hand and completed the set up. I photographed the Chestnut Backed Chickadees for about half an hour. After editing these three images were my favorite. Thanks, Jack. God's love and blessings to all, chris All of the images were created with a Canon 7D MkII camera and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L is USM v.1 Lens. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800 and the exposures varied. Fill flash was provided by a Canon 500EX flash set to -2 stops. Please check out the book, Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography for more information on how to photograph birds in your backyard. #TeamCanon

Sunflowers, Butterflies and Bees

Driving down Highway One Oh One towards Hopland I passed a beautiful field of sunflowers. They were a giant swath of yellow parting the green vineyards. I just had to stop and photograph them. I drove up to the next side road and turned around and came back. It was a great decision. Stepping out of the pick up I could hear the sounds of hundreds of bees at work feeding on them. While photographing them a Monarch Butterfly stopped on one of the sunflower heads. I followed it from flower to flower until it had too much of me and it flew off. It continued on its journey south and I continued with mine. God 's love and blessings to all, chris Images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon EFS10-22mm lens handheld.