Patience

One of the cool things about sitting in a photoblind waiting for birds is how your ears become quite tuned into the sounds around you. Typically when I am photographing I only have a small roughly six inch portal to look out of. Your ears tune into the environment around you. This morning I could hear the small town of Willits waking up below me. Traffic noise gradually picked up from trucks on the highway and cars on the surface street until it became a background hum. I heard a Pileated Woodpecker hammering away somewhere in the woods behind me. Off to the side I could hear the plaintive calls of a group of Red Breasted Nuthatches as they got closer and closer and then they were in front of me sneaking drinks and darting away. I watched and waited. There were feeding calls of the Dark Eyed Juncos as they fed on the ground around the feeder kicking up leaves with their little feet. There was the call and hammering of a Northern Flicker off to the side but I couldn't see it. I waited and waited. Eventually a brave little Junco hopped up and got a drink. A couple more followed and then they nervously took off. About twenty minutes later they returned and a bolder one in the group took the plunge and took a bath. After that it was a free for all of bath times and birds. I carefully photographed a few of them. Suddenly off to the side there was a flash of color as a Townsend's Warbler came in for a drink and a bath. I rarely get warblers so this was a real treat. I am so glad I stuck it out and waited. Shortly after that the lighting got to bright and I called it a morning. Thank you Lord for the special morning. May all of you have a wonderful day, chris Image created using a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L Is usm Lens. AV mode, ISO 800, F 8.0 at 1/30th of a sec.

Simple Gifts

This morning I was up and around photographing an expansive sunrise and colorful clouds across the horizon. There was this little Oak twig that kept getting into my composition. A burst of inspiration hit me that the slender little twig was very beautiful as a silhouetted subject all on its own. I shifted my focus to the twig and I came up with a little piece of the sunrise that was quite beautiful. Enjoy the little gifts that God puts before you today, chris Image created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens at 150mm on a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 200, F 8.0 at 1/80th of a sec.

Marvelous Millipede

When I was taking Badger the Wonder Dog for a walk down the road on Saturday I spotted a millipede sauntering along on the edge of the road way. Not wanting him/her to be smunched by a passing car I scooped it up and brought it home. It was a pretty good sized one so I photographed it next to a yardstick before I let it go in the forest behind the house. What a cool looking creature. How do they keep all those legs organized and traveling in one direction? If you look closely at the image you can see evenly spaced groups of legs that are out of focus because they are moving faster than the shutter speed I used. There are waves of motion that travel down each side of the body to go forward. It is quite fascinating to watch. God created such a marvelous little creature. Have a wonderful evening and God bless, chris

Incredible Anna's

Wednesday afternoon I had a fantastic time photographing Anna's Hummingbirds in my backyard. There were about eight hummingbirds in all but the star of the show had to be a little Napoleon that kept all of the hummingbirds away from the feeder and his little perch above it. He would settle nervously onto the perch and spy out in all directions, chattering his defense of the feeder in defiance to all who would listen. Periodically he would dash out and chase off any intruders he felt were invading his space only to settle back nervously onto his little branch again. This gave me plenty of opportunities to photograph him displaying his gorget for all the world to see. It was like a little red light bulb turning on and off. He was an incredible sight to behold. This image was one of my favorite among many. The image was created with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto at 310mm with a 36mm extension tube for very close focusing.Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 800,F 11.0 at 1/30th of a sec. The camera was supported on a Manfrotto 055 XPROB tripod with a Bogen 3055 heavy duty ballhead. The technique used to create this image is covered the book, "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography", in Chapter 6 Photographing Hummingbirds on page 56. May you have a blessed day with the warmth of God's love and protection all around you, chris

Cover All the Angles

Yesterday morning I went off in search of a deer. It's been quite awhile since I have done any deer photography. I hit all my usual spots and didn't see a single buck. As a last resort I hit an old ranch house that sometimes works but parking along the road is pretty iffy. Sure enough there was a nice little three point buck lying out in a field near the ranch house. I made a a couple of U turns and managed to barely squeeze my car off the road into a wide spot on the shoulder. Then I walked about fifty feet down the road and up to the fence lining the field. I was surprised to see the buck wasn't very concerned at all that I was there. He kept his eyes on me but at least he didn't get up and bolt off into the forest. With such an agreeable model I photographed him from a variety of different spots and angles with different backgrounds. Deer look bigger if you photograph them from a low spot looking uphill so I got down low to my knees. I photographed him up close and full bodied in scenic format. I made sure to get some tight portraits as well for those cover shots. You never know when you need a vertical for a cover. So whenever you are out photographing if you find something great to photograph be sure to take the time if possible to look at your subject from a different angle or point of view. You might be surprised at what you find. Go out there and enjoy your day and God's blessings to you, chris

I'm King of the House Finches or It's a Creative Process

I spent the last two mornings photographing mostly House Finches from my garden blind out in the Little Lake Valley of Northern California. There have been a few other birds but seems like it has been House Finches all morning long. I was using my white picket fence set up with some beautiful flowers. With this set up I created close to nine hundred images over two long mornings. That is a lot of House finches! After the first edit I whittled that down to sixty two images that had some promise. The others were rejected for chopped off tails, beaks, being out of focus or just poor composition. Some images were discarded just because I didn't like them! In the afternoon I went through and did a second edit in which I picked some of my favorites out of the sixty two. These are my select images. Someone else might have picked something entirely different but these were my best choices. Sometimes it's just a matter of taste or a bit more detail in the eye. Enjoy the images and have a blessed day, chris All images were created using techniques from the book, "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography". This book is available wherever fine books are sold.

Farmer's Market

On Saturday we did a quick trip up to Arcata, CA and back. We went to watch Annika play in an Ultimate Tournament. Before the tournament we decided to hit the farmer's market. It was really crowded so we had to park about five blocks away. I didn't want to leave Badger the Wonder Dog in a hot car so I decided to bring him along which turned out to be a pain because they don't allow dogs into the market. In the end we took turns going through the stalls and holding the dog. The end result was I didn't get much time for photography. It was kind of a speed photo walk through the veggies. Afterwards we went and watched Annika play. She scored one goal and her team won their match against the Humboldt Hags. After the match we had a great dinner of crepes at Renatas. A lovely time was had by all. Enjoy the veggies and God bless, chris All images were made with a Canon 7D and a Canon EF-S 17-85 mm lens handheld and on the run!