Slate Run Historical Farm Megapost

We always enjoy a trip to the Slate Run Historical Farm.  Thank you Columbus Metroparks.

-Tom

A Visit to the Ohio Railway Museum

Get this friends:  Weston is now four years old.  How the heck did that happen?  This Mother's day, as a gift to the mother of our house, Weston and I went to the Ohio Railway Museum.  Megan got to stay home and take a much needed nap.  The Ohio Railway Museum is located in Worthington Ohio.  It's now open for the season.  If you visit, just make sure you keep an eye on your kids.  There is plenty of trouble (rusty metal) for them to get into.  Ultimately, Weston had a great time. It's pretty cool that our small little city has an actual operating train ride.  It is a short ride- maybe about 15 minutes or so- but yes, but a real train it is.

The yellow shirt with the orange jacket ensured that I didn't lose him. :)  Don't worry, I brought him home.

-Tom

Exploring the Olentangy

Exactly one month ago, Weston and I ventured to my old stomping grounds about two miles south of where we live today.  Like me, Weston is fascinated with technology, buttons, machines, and other man-made things, but he loves exploring "nature" and "the river" just as much as I do.

-Tom

A Different Viewpoint

I've been experimenting with wide-angle closeup photography as a way to illustrate the totality of a plant- not just its leaves, its flowers, or its stem in part.  Yesterday's viewpoint was from a very close distance but with very wide 16mm equivalent focal length.  Today's view shows a different clump of crocuses, a clump that was much more clustered together, shot with a 35mm equivalent focal length.  The two styles are similar- I'm able to include an entire plant within the frame with much more depth of field.  With the ultrawide angle of view, I'm able to show the relationship of the plant to its environment- in yesterdays photograph, there is not any question that these crocuses were growing in our backyard.  Today's shot, however, doesn't provide the viewer with that information.  Have you tried shooting wide-angle closeups?

Although I've Incorporated this style of close-up photography before, I was inspired this winter after reading Paul Harcourt Davies and Clay Bolt's e-book, Wide-angle Macro, the Essential Guide.  It's a great read- it will help you see the natural world through the lens of your camera in a entirely different way.

-Tom

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung my friends.

-Tom

Game and a Maine Game Warden

Although I was expecting to capture game on the trail camera, I wasn't expecting to photograph a game warden. In Ohio, we've been calling our game protectors "wildlife officers" for a while, but Maine sticks with the traditional game warden moniker.



I was expecting to photograph deer. I was hoping for a buck with a huge rack, but this spike and two does will suffice. Deer started crossing here only during the rut in early November.






Only once in the five months did wild turkeys meander down this path, but when they did, they came in numbers.



And finally, on the night of October 11, I managed to grab a coyote. The quick trigger speed barely captured the coyote in the frame, presumably as it cruised nose to the ground from left to right.

All in all, this was a really fun thing to do and completely worth the five month wait. I do wish I would have captured animals more frequently, however, this camera was not baited. I would have liked to have captured a bobcat and a porcupine. Maybe images of those species will be on the memory card when I return once again to Maine? The camera is still there.


-Tom

Five Months in Maine

Last summer I purchased a small trail camera and had it shipped to Maine before our summer trip to visit Megan's parents. I've become increasingly interested in trail cameras as they have become smaller, cheaper, and offered better image quaIity. I installed the camera this summer and baited it with canned tuna. Over the course of four days I was able to attract the resident chocolate labs, one small doe, a turkey, and finally, a family of raccoons.

I toyed with the decision of leaving the camera in Maine, not knowing when I would be back to retrieve the images. Rationalizing that I wouldn't get much use of the camera in our back yard in Columbus, I loaded the camera with a fresh set of lithium batteries and an empty memory card. I found a tree along the back driveway where it crossed a little ravine, in a location that my in-laws could check easily. The lace was far away from the house so that the dogs wouldn't constantly be running by. I set up the camera and off we went back to Ohio.

We returned a few days ago- needless to say I was pretty excited to retrieve the memory card- I'm sure I had a smug grin on my face when I saw the first few pictures as they downloaded onto my iPad.






Yep- that's what they call a Maine wood's dog. Or black bear. My inlaws have had their bird-feeder shepherd hooks bent to the ground, but they've never actually seen a bear. I'm not much of a mammalogist, but there's no doubt what we're looking at here. Only once did this bear appear in the five months of surveillance. And it's also interesting that this bear showed up only two days after I set up the camera. Perhaps h/she smelled the cans of tuna that were about 100 yards away? I do not know, but just perhaps, I got lucky.

In the coming days, I'll share more images from the camera.

-Tom

Oh, yes- the camera I purchased was the Bushnell Trophy Cam HD. It sells for about $180 via Amazon.

Location:Otisfield, Maine

Moose visits Ohio

Dark-eyed Junco reaches for the seeds of Lamb's Quarters...Quinoa for the birds!

On November 22 I attended a lecture by Moose Peterson, one of the pioneers of digital wildlife photography.  Moose is a Nikon shooter who has recently been really getting in photographing WWII airplanes from other WWII airplanes.  Admittedly, before I went to his lecture, I wasn't one of his avid followers.  I wasn't sure I even wanted to plunk down the $20 bucks for a two hour talk.

However, it wasn't more than twenty minutes into his presentation that he really made a connection with me.  Moose has both a passion and understanding of both wildlife AND photography.  It's a passion for two things, when combined, creates something much bigger than a camera or a wildlife research study alone can produce.  Moose really is 2/3 wildlife biologist and 1/3 photographer.  He, perhaps more than anyone I've met, understands what it's like to be both a wildlife professional and a photographer.  I live in both of these worlds.  Needless to say, finding common ground with Moose and his work was just the spark I needed to get out my long telephoto lens more often.

After the talk, I learned about his BT Journal, a quarterly magazine for wildlife photographers.  The most recent "bonus" edition, available as an electronic only e-book, focused on a topic that Moose addressed in his talk.  His thesis is simple: the best place to learn wildlife photography is in our own backyards.  He gives tips for luring wildlife to any home, including high rise apartment buildings, and provides technical photography guidance as well.

A blue jay finds a cached pin-oak acorn in the furrows of our bur oak.

Needless to say, his special edition of the BT Journal reinvigorated my own passion for backyard wildlife photography. I spent Sunday looking out the windows of our house like I haven't done since Weston was a wee little baby, and I felt ten years younger to boot. And that my friend, was worth the $20 admission.

Thanks Moose!

-Tom

Exploring Nature at Highbanks Metropark