The Beginning of this Year's Cherry Tomato Crop

You might say that it's slim pickin's in the photography world when I'm posting pictures of the cherry tomatoes that have just started growing for me. Or, you might say: "Wow! Cool! Green cherry tomatoes!" Really, it all depends upon your perspective. Thanks for stopping by!

Mourning Dove in the Brush

I came across this Mourning Dove yesterday, and I half suspect that something was wrong with it, as it allowed me to get fairly close (within 10-12 feet) without flying away. It's a pretty bird, especially when the details are brought out in Photomatix.

Smiling Dragonfly

I realize that the concept of a smiling dragonfly is an anthropomorphism, but... it's smiling!

Red Dragonfly

I had seen red dragonflies around town, but I had yet to actually make a picture of one until a few days ago. This one is interesting for the purple hue in its eyes, as well as the little balls underneath its wings. (Are they eggs?)

Dragonfly with an Attitude

Looking at this dragonfly, there's something that suggests to me that this bug has an attitude. Maybe it's the big eyes, reminiscent of some sort of goggles. Maybe it's the hairs coming out around the bug's 'nose', right in the area where a mustache would be. Instead of hanging around on flower buds, this dragonfly belongs on a motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson, cruising down the highway... because it can. That's what I'm thinking as I look at this picture.

Backside of a Dragonfly

I was shooting dragonflies yesterday, and in this photo I noticed something I had never seen before -- there's an interesting pattern on the back of the dragonfly's head! The dragonflies are interesting creatures, and while it would be cool to take a picture of one in flight, the easiest pictures seem to be those where the dragonfly is simply hanging out on leaves and branches.

Juvenile Chipping Sparrow

I can't say for certain, but I believe this little bird from a few days ago was a juvenile Chipping Sparrow. What leads me to believe this is the memory (perhaps incorrect) that an adult Chipping Sparrow had been on the deck, with this little bird, and that the adult had put something into this little bird's mouth... leading me to believe that this little Chipping Sparrow was probably a juvenile.

Pile of Wood in the... Woods

This isn't much of a 'throwback Thursday' picture, except that it was originally taken back in 2013, while we were on our Canadian fishing adventure. On the island where we stayed, there was this really cool looking pile of... wood... in the woods... so, I took a picture. (I actually took several pictures, merged them together in Photomatix, and then I reedited the result this morning in AfterShot Pro.)

Restaurant Decor

My wife and I got our anniversary celebration started a little bit early this year, with a trip out to a local Italian restaurant. (We went to this same restaurant earlier in the year, for my birthday, and somehow, when we went back yesterday, we found ourselves seated at the exact same table! What are the odds?)

Speaking of tables, what I liked about this table (a black table) was the reflection that you could get from it, as seen in today's photo. It reflected both the wine bottle display and the decoration on the wall.

Two Shots -- Shooting Behind the Glass

Ok, so the results here are not going to be surprising to anyone. I did a test experiment to show the difference between shooting my Sony NEX-6 through the glass with my patio door closed, and then -- the exact same shot with my patio door open. The second image has a definite improvement in clarity.

While it would be nice to shoot all of my deck photos with the door open, I would still need to deal with the issue of the repetitive click of the Sony shutter -- which pretty much scares off the birds as soon as they hear it. (Come to think of it, if I heard the same noise shooting in my direction, I would probably fly away, too!) And... if I leave my door open to take photos, who knows what would come flying into my house!

Juvenile Robin Changing Colors

Perhaps it's a little bit of an overstatement to say that the juvenile robin is "changing colors". That might imply something really cool, something like a chameleon, where the robin is going from brown to green to red to blue, etc. The 'changing colors' that you see here is the emergence of the orange on the robin's breast, together with the speckles (that I assume will eventually fade?), and the white stripes that are on the robin's back (which, I assume, will eventually fade, too?). I guess you can call it 'changing colors'...

Little Ball of Robin in the Yard

When I looked out into my yard yesterday, I happened to see this robin. It was sitting, all puffed up like a ball, which I thought was kind of cool. The funny part was, when the robin got up walked away, it looked like a normal robin again. But here... I had a little ball of robin in my yard. :)

Sparrow on a Tomato Cage

I found this sparrow sitting on a tomato cage and decided to take an HDR picture. (Actually, I decided to take three exposures and merge them together into an HDR picture using Photomatix.) I don't know whether sparrows even like tomatoes, but I have seen them perching on the cages.

Dragonfly on Deck

Shooting conditions when I take my "on deck" pictures are not exactly ideal. I'm shooting through a patio door window, which means that my lens quality is brought down considerably... to the level of the window glass (not exactly Zeiss, if you know what I mean...). I would shoot with the patio door open, but that would let bugs (like our friend here, the dragonfly) into the house. Besides, I have tried sitting out on the deck (and enduring the bugs), but... no surprise, as soon as the Sony shutter starts clicking, whatever I'm shooting (usually birds) flies away.

In spite of being shot through window glass, there are still some pretty nice details to be seen on the dragonfly picture that I took yesterday. I like seeing all of the fine details in the dragonfly's wings; it reminds me of a stained glass window (although, without the stained glass).

Nuthatch Visitor to my Deck

As the summer continues, the nuthatch has remained a regular visitor to the deck in my backyard, looking for seeds. Like the sparrow from a few days ago, this picture passes as my conception of the "Audobon Society" pose. This single image was processed first in Photomatix and then in Corel AfterShot Pro.

Daily Sparrow: Washed Out Sparrow

For today's picture, I was playing with the filters in Corel AfterShot Pro and Corel PaintShop Pro to see how much of the background I could wash out surrounding the sparrow. It turns out that PaintShop Pro's vignette feature works really well for this purpose.

Chipping Sparrow: The Audobon Society Pose

When I think of "the typical" Audobon Society pose for a bird profile photo, this is what comes to mind:

Guest Picture: Sparrow Feeding a Juvenile Sparrow

When I came home a few days ago, my son (age 11) was very excited to show me this picture that he had taken with my camera while I was gone. He had caught the adult sparrow feeding its juvenile on our deck.

Dragonfly -- A View from Overhead

I wanted to call this post "Aerial View of a Dragonfly", which... it is, but I was afraid that the title would sound much cooler than the picture actually is. "Aerial view" might suggest that I had captured the dragonfly in flight, or perhaps that I was somehow flying over the dragonfly (which would have been even cooler yet!). The view was "aerial" -- the camera was over top of the dragonfly, shooting overhead. The bug was grounded on a flower. So, in order to avoid undue expectations, I simply titled this one: "Dragonfly -- A View from Overhead".

Thanks for looking!

Comparing the Dragonfly

More dragonflies were out yesterday, and so I went out with my camera, too. Below is a comparison of two edits that I did on the same file. The first was processed (only) in Corel AfterShot Pro, and the second was processed in Photomatix (I input a single image) and afterward sent through AfterShot Pro.

What this comparison may prove to everyone else is that I have poor skills when it comes to editing photos. For me, I like the colors a lot better (at least for this photo) when I first sent the image through Photomatix.

Dragonfly in my bushes

There was a dragonfly (at least one) flying around my house yesterday, which prompted me to learn a little bit about dragonflies.

My first question was: How can I attract dragonflies? Specifically, what can I set up around my house to get a dragonfly to give a nice pose for my camera? I was looking for an answer like "grape jelly" (apparently not) or something like that. The answer I found instead involved digging some kind of pond and sticking bamboo sticks around in it on which the dragonfly might perch... something that's not going to happen around here anytime soon.

I have found that the dragonflies will land on my "sticky" (as in, lots of sticks) bushes, and they also like the far board on my deck. (Why? No clue.) They supposed like to sun themselves on light colored rocks (which is doable). I also learned that there are something like 300 dragonflies on the endangered species list, which added an element of coolness to the pictures that I took today (although I doubt that my dragonfly was one of the endangered ones.)

A Dark Squirrel in the Grass

It's no secret that I'm not really a fan of the squirrels, so, for today's photo, I must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel... Actually, I saw this squirrel, a darker squirrel, within my photo range, and so I thought it made for an interesting subject. To me, this seems like a very rodent-like picture of this squirrel. (I'm sure it's wondering why I didn't leave any seed out on my deck for it....)

Enter the Grackle

I caught a couple of yard shots of a common grackle yesterday. The pictures weren't anything particularly special. The grackle is not the prettiest bird in the world, yet it is surprising just how much color and detail you can see on this bird.

Edit: A year later, I'm pretty sure that this is not a grackle but a European Starling. You can see other posts that are tagged European Starling for more photos. Thanks!

The Daily Sparrow

It seems like I've been getting a sparrow a day recently on my deck. This sparrow landed and poked around for quite some time, before a squirrel finally chased it away. Normally, I had been shooting these deckside bird pics using manual focus. The last day or so, I've been trying to see if I could get a better picture (or more better pictures) with autofocus. The jury is still out.

(July 4th) Blue Jay in a Tree

Today's photo is a Blue Jay from the fourth of July. (The picture really needed a cardinal, in order to round out the red, white, and blue for the holiday.) 

Contemplative Chipping Sparrow

There was something pleasing to me about the angle on the head of this chipping sparrow; it seemed like a thoughtful, contemplative pose. I happened to catch this photo as the bird darted around my deck, picking up seeds.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

I like these nuthatches that land on my deck. They've been around for a while this summer. You really do need to be 'quick on the draw' with your camera, or at least, you need to be ready to shoot when they land, because they pick up their seed and fly away - the whole thing is said and done in maybe 5 seconds tops. Even though this particular type of nuthatch is not a very colorful bird, I really do like the black and white that you see in this bird, and especially the detail that my camera has been able to pick up in its feathers.

(Not a) "Canoe" Creek

This picture is not all that interesting. I believe that this is the other end of the "canoeing" creek that was referenced in yesterday's blog post. Again, the picture would be far more interesting if someone were trying to get their canoe through on this creek and into the raging Mississippi River beyond. But, nope. No canoe. Not a very interesting photo.

Waterway Under the Little White Wooden Bridge

On my travels yesterday, I found myself with a photo opportunity next to this little white wooden bridge. The little creek that goes under the bridge was made all the more interesting by a sign, near the bridge's entrance, which talked about the importance of streams (such as this one). I could tell that the sign was generic, and not at all intended for this little waterway, because it mentioned the need for protection so that waterways (like this one) could be used for such activities as 'canoeing'. Now, if only someone would have come along and planted their canoe in this little waterway, then... that would have truly made for an interesting photo opportunity!

Apple Blossoms Buds

As temperatures dipped into the mid-40s here in our neck of the woods (in July!), I thought it would be appropriate to dip back into pictures from times that were a little bit warmer and dig out something from my crab apple tree bud photos.

Robin and Juvenile Waiting to be Fed

The robins have been hitting our jelly pretty hard lately. A few days ago, I got to see what the robins were doing with the jelly. The adult would take the jelly in its beak and go to the juvenile. The juvenile would open up, and the adult would drop the jelly in. In this photo, the juvenile is looking expectantly to the adult, waiting to be fed.