Where were we? Friday afternoon, I had just walked back up the from the pond. I was hoping to get several good bird shots while we were in Maine, but that just didn't pan out. Ultimately, I didn't have the patience or cold weather gear to hold out to get great shots of several different species. Although, this black capped chickadee did oblige. Where Megan and I live in Ohio, we have Carolina chickadees, so it is nice to see the black caps. To me, they are a little bigger and more handsome, but this is perhaps because our city birds are "dirty" from rolling around in dust and grime piles! Glen had five feeders out, and they were being visited by downy woodpeckers, white breasted and red breasted nuthatch, and a bevy of red squirrels.
Being almost dinner time, I headed up to the house to see what was going on. Sure enough, someone had began to defrost shrimp in the sink. I wanted to take a picture of the shrimp for microstock, and it was quite dark in the kitchen, so I got out my Vivitar 285hv flash to illuminate the scene. I took the picture, and looked at the camera, and my jaw dropped. I no idea that I would be able to stop the stream of water raining down on the shrimp with my flash. It was very cool, and I had to try it again, taking a picture of just the water. If you have an SLR camera but don't have an off camera flash, you are missing out on some fantastic creative opportunities. I used to think I never would need flash, but now that I've had one for about six months, it really comes in handy and I take in wherever I go.
After the shrimp and water photography, I noticed a bag of live creatures on the porch. I took one out, let it crawl around the floor, and was fascinated by its colors and shapes.
When looking at the lobster's claws close up, it appears that they have very different uses. The left claw, full of tiny barbs and hooks, looks like it is designed to hold onto prey items.
However, the left claw, which is lined with bumps that remind me of our own molars, looks like it is designed to crush prey.
Photographing the lobster was fascinating. I'll leave it up to the imagination as to what happened next.
A full belly, it wasn't much longer before Megan and I headed to bed, ready for our last day (Saturday) at little pond.
I was up early the next morning. The temperatures in Maine weren't all that cold when we were there, and it was very humid. Overnight, everything froze and there we some amazing frosts. Ice crystals coated everything in the bog, like this black spruce branch,
This tamarack needle, one of only a dozen or so still holding on to the tree,
and these alder catkins.
There was quite a bit of bird life, and I was able to see a brown tree creeper, and squawking above, these three ravens.
Ravens are common at Little Pond, but here in Ohio, we just had our first confirmed modern nesting of Ravens this year. I always enjoy the ravens, but they stay far away from the house at little pond.
The house is a log home, nested at the top of little pond on a peninsula between the pond and a marsh. The house itself faces away from the road. The original owners had the house face that way so its large sliding glass doors would look out towards the pond rather than back at the woods. Since the front of the house is so close to the woods, it is quite hard to get a shot of the real front facade.
I was poking up around the woods just below the house when the sun rose up above the hills, providing dramatic lighting to the ice and snow covered forest.
A snow covered branch of balsam fir, the conifer so revered for its fragance at this time of year. It seems as if every church in Maine sells native balsam fir wreaths for fundraisers at this time of year.
Another tree that caught my eye in the sun was this American beech, still holding on to its leaves.
And finally, as I walked up towards the house, ready to go in, as I was pretty cold by this time, the sun was simply spectacular as it shot through the trees. Part of the photography challenge I have at little pond is to continually capture unique and interesting images. We visit here often, and although the property is only 40 acres or so, things are pretty similar. I saw this shot and just new I had something interesting and different from anything that I had ever captured at little pond. The small white pine, coupled with the right-arching deciduous branches provides an interesting contrast and balance to the image. Although shooting into the sunlight is typically a "no-no" in nature photography, I think this shot works. I had to shade the lens by holding out my hat above and in front of the camera.
Megan and I packed and later we headed to Portland to catch our flight back to Columbus. On the way, we stopped with the family at Dimillo's a floating seafood restaurant in Maine. Satisfied with my bounty of seafood for the weekend (lobster, PEI mussels, shrimp) I was ready to head back to Columbus. I hope you enjoyed our trip to Maine.
Tom
Good evening and I'll be soon off to bed, but I wanted to share images of a white crowned sparrow that visited our yard today. I looked out our window this morning, and there it was, eating the seed just off our front porch. It really surprised me, as I've never seen this bird visit the yard before. I must say, this was the best look that I've had at this species. The seed is only about ten feet away from where I was standing. Unfortunately our dirty window and the lack of light led to a less than spectacular photograph.
I took the afternoon off today, and I headed to Midwest Photo Exchange's tent sale. I lucked out and they had a tripod that I had been eyeing for quite some time- a Gitzo explorer- for a really great price. I found a ball head I like, and headed home for the afternoon. I set up shop in the front yard, photographing mushrooms and weeds, when I turned around, and noticed the white crowned sparrow had returned. You can see that from far away, and without binoculars, this bird is rather plain looking, but up close, it is quite spectacular. This morning Megan saw it and said that it looked like someone had applied "white-out" correction fluid to its head!
As I was watching the birds further away, a female house sparrow swooped onto our neighbor's driveway and snatched up an arthopod of some type. I managed to get a few decent shots of here. There are hundreds of these non-native birds in our neighborhood.
And this evening, being without Megan and she flew to Alabama to attend here future sister-in-laws shower, I went down to Kenney Park to practice my photography. I'm very much concentrating on creating dynamic landscape images that have continuous flow througought the photograph. This side channel of the Olentangy has always been one of my favorite subjects since moving to our present house. The lines, the reflections, and the exposed roots of the American sycamore are all quite intriguing to me. I captured a range of exposures of this same composition with plans to compile a high dynamic range image.
