photoartflightWalk In the Woods Series #1
Posted on October 12, 2018
We enjoy walking along the paths at local parks and some go through the wooded areas. It is fun to look for little Photo Still Life images or Vignettes of natural details. It makes you look closer at what you are walking through. You never know what you will or can find. The only trouble is it is usually very dark for photographing my subjects. The featured image is a group of fungus on a tree trunk. I would usually use a tripod but on this walk I just had a 300mm lens so I raised my ISO to 6400 to get a high enough shutter speed even at f/4 for a sharp image in the tree covered woods. I shot 4 images, handheld, and focused on 4 different areas because I was shooting at f/4 to get the areas I wanted sharper and still get moody soft areas where I wanted. Then I aligned & assembled the 4 images in Photoshop for the final image.
Davidson’s Mill Fall Landscape Panorama
Posted on October 11, 2018
We were looking for colorful photo subjects on the Farm Road Trail at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park. I was looking for more detail type images so I was using a 300mm f/4 lens. On the trail I liked the colors and trees on the far side of the pond. I shot 11 handheld images to get all I wanted in my panorama. I overlapped the images a little more than usual so the images would assemble easier for the final panorama image.
Additional Pond Image taken with my small pocket camera
Another Pond Image zoomed in a little, again from my small Panasonic pocket camera.
Milkweed Plants & Milkweed Bugs – Both Large & Small
Posted on October 10, 2018
Here is a series of images from our visit to Davidson’s Mill Pond Park showing Milkweed Bugs, both the large and small variety, on the waning Milkweed Plants. Again these are stacked or panorama images from two to four images, handheld and assembled in Photoshop. Shot with a close focusing 300mm lens.
Fall Milkweed At Davidsons Mill Pond
Posted on October 9, 2018
We went to a local park, Davidsons Mill Pond Park, to look for photo subjects. The Milkweed Plants were starting to look the worse for wear, but that is what happens this time of year. I liked the weathered “look” of the plants and the “feathery” pods as the season is coming to a close. I was using a 300mm close focusing lens for these to try to capture the fine detail of the weathered pods and keep the backgrounds somewhat softer. These are a series of images taken from 1 image each up to 4 handheld images which I then aligned and combined in Photoshop. It was windy so it was difficult to get some of the series to blend well, but I got quite a few. The next series will feature the Milkweed with Large & Small Milkweed Bugs, which adds some color but not good for the plants. The Milkweed is a favorite for Monarch Butterflies.
Widow Skimmer
Posted on September 17, 2018
Some more Dragonfly images from Davidson’s Mill Pond Park, shot in the beginning of September. Probably the last dragonfly images for me this year because of work. We found them around the small pond that is near the entrance along the roadway. I was hard pressed to find a few dragonflies to photograph there for the blog.
Cabbage White
Posted on September 9, 2018
Butterfly and dragonfly season is ending, but I am still finding a few still around for some last images to capture. The featured Cabbage White was on a bush near where a Monarch was feeding.
More Monarchs
Posted on September 7, 2018
Butterfly season and Summer are coming to an end. The butterflies and dragonflies are starting to look the worse for wear. Wings are starting to look more tattered and pieces are missing. These were taken at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park outside the butterfly house that is now closed. This year with work and the weather not cooperating I never shot inside the butterfly house, but I enjoy getting shots where they are not in a controlled environment anyway. I like the look and challenge of a natural environment to capture my images instead of a “zoo” like environment.
With the wind blowing them and the branch all around and their constant movement I was surprised I got some sharp images. I was not stopped down much so I sacrificed depth of field for a higher shutter speed to help stop blur from the butterfly blowing around in the wind.
Slaty Skimmer Dragonfly From Davidson’s Mill Pond Park
Posted on August 19, 2018
I am going through my dragonfly images shot earlier this Summer at various locations. These are Slaty Skimmers photographed at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park in Monmouth County, New Jersey. For these I used a Canon 7D (1.6 crop sensor) 300mm f/4 lens and a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter to get closer since my subjects did not want to cooperate and come closer to the edge of the pond.
Slaty Skimmer – Side View @ 960mm (Field Of View)
Slaty Skimmer Closeup Wing Detail
Slaty Skimmer – Side View
Slaty Skimmer – 3/4 rear view
Slaty Skimmer – Side View
Slaty Skimmer – Side View
Slaty Skimmer Wing Detail
Spangled Skimmers
Posted on August 16, 2018
We found quite a few Spangled Skimmers At Davidson’s Mill Pond Park when we went to look for and photograph Dragonflies. It gave us opportunities to get a variety of angles and views of the Spangled Skimmers as they darted around the small pond there. Looking them up online it seems they like Well-vegetated ponds and lakes or occasionally slow-moving areas of streams. Also they are more prevalent in Summer while others are around starting in the Spring.
Slaty Skimmer Head-On View
Posted on July 23, 2018
I am always trying different ways to photograph Dragonflies and Damselflies. At one location most of the dragonflies are not where I can get close to get the detail I want. So I have to come up with different ways to photograph them. Here I was trying a 300mm lens with close focusing capability. I also added a 2X teleconverter, so using a Canon 1.6 crop sensor camera I had a FOV equivalent of 960mm of a full frame camera. Some shots I also added a short extension tube between the lens and the teleconverter which also enlarges the image on the sensor a little more. But doing this you cannot focus to infinity, but I did not need that ability to photograph Dragonflies.
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