Happy Wednesday!
Only one image for you today. I sort of overslept and now only have time for this quick post.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Tuesday!
A foggy, snowy day yesterday. I decided to go out and see if I could find some trees with crystallized ice on their branches. Never really found what I was looking for but I did find some interesting things to photograph. The only disappointment was I found a row of trees that had a lot of snow clinging to their branches and in the middle of them sat a beautiful red cardinal. By the time I got the camera ready to shoot he flew away. 😦
This old bridge is no longer used by vehicle traffic, just wildlife critters. I hiked about a half mile (well it seemed like a half mile) to grab this image. There were rabbit tracks and paw prints (I’m assuming fox or coyote.) I suppose it could have been a cat or dog. I’m not fully trained in the art of reading animal tracks.
Came across this old barn surrounded by the snow. There used to be a twin barn that set a hundred feet to the side of it but all that I found yesterday was the foundation. I’m couldn’t tell if it had been torn down or burnt down. Either way it’s sad to see a wonderful old barn gone forever.
That’s it for today. Thanks for checking out the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Thursday!
I have three eagle images for you today. I said I wouldn’t show all 1,500 of them and I won’t but right now they are all I have in my photo inventory. I hope to get out this weekend and capture some different images. 🙂
Busy week at work. I am learning a new program that I will use almost every day in the future. It has a lot of advantages over what I’ve been using for years but right now, as I struggle with learning it, I have been frustrated. For example it took me 45 minutes to do a simple task that would have taken 3 minutes with the old program. That won’t happen as I get more familiar with the program but I said many bad words yesterday (to myself.) 🙂
This was not a planned shot but I like how the eagle cuts across the path of a jet many thousands of feet above him.
That Friday was a wonderful day for me. The best eagle photographing day I’ve ever had. Probably won’t be going back this year as my hard drive is full of eagle images and I have other commitments in the coming weeks. By that time the season will be over. So it was a fun day and way more than I had hoped for.
That’s it for today. Thanks for checking out the blog. Really cold weather for the next few days in our part of the world.
Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Tuesday!
I didn’t get any photography in this weekend. Never really seemed that busy but just didn’t get around to it. The weather wasn’t all that great and on the one day we had sunshine I was a little under the weather. So I’ll show you some behind the scenes, as it were, of the shooting at Lock & Dam # 14.
I believe these guys are Common Mergansers. I may be wrong so feel free to correct me if I am. When the action is slow you either photograph things in front of you or you visit with those around you. I did a lot of both. I have a lot of shots of these guys, some geese, and some ducks. The ducks were really too far away to photograph. I will also practice panning on the ubiquitous gulls flying by.
I got this guy on the way down but couldn’t keep up with him when he snatched the fish.
The result is he has a nice lunch and a bunch of photographers had some nice images on their memory cards.
That’s it for today. Remember you can click on the image to enlarge if.
Thank you for all the wonderful Birthday greetings and sentiments yesterday. Really makes me feel good. Thank you.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Monday!
Hey something besides eagles. 🙂
Okay I’ll admit there have been a lot of eagles on this blog of late but I have 1,500 images of them so I’m going to show a few more over the next weeks. But last Friday I did go looking for other things to photograph.
I photographed this barn several years ago in the Spring of the year. I had forgotten about it but when I went by it I knew I had to photograph it again.
One lone fishing boat on the river by the lock and dam. There was a pretty good expanse of open water below the dam, which allowed these fishermen to put their boat in the water. I would suspect they probably put it in on the Wisconsin side of the river.
Although I wasn’t particularly looking for eagles at the dam there were none to be found. Normally at Winter time they will sit on the ice near open water and fish from there. This year I have not seen one eagle at the lock and dam. The 16th Street Basin is completely frozen over so there is no wildlife there either.
Three years ago there were a lot of blue herons fishing at the Basin and I got a lot of great images of them fishing from the ice. I haven’t seen a heron at the Basin in a long time.
I’m sorry I couldn’t go a whole post without throwing in one eagle image.
That’s it for today. Thanks for checking out the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Saturday!
I was able to get through some more of my eagle images from a week ago yesterday and came across this one. It was near the end of the day as you can see from the softer yellow light on his wings. This is a young adult. He still has a lot of white to fill in yet but the look of his eyes tells me that he is focused on finding food. (click on the image to make it larger.)
I wasn’t able to go to Lock and Dam 14 yesterday because I had to get a haircut, had a doctor appointment, and a variety of other “honey do” errands to take care of. Later in the afternoon I did get out with camera in hand but didn’t find much. I found a cardinal but I only had the Nikon 80 – 400 mm lens and he was far enough away that I couldn’t get a good clean shot of him. Still it was a cardinal and I might show him later. I photographed some barns as well but I can’t seem to quit coming back to the eagle images.
I’ve just about reached the end of them and have only culled about 175. So that still leaves me with about 1,500 keepers. Don’t worry I won’t show them all. 🙂
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Thursday!
Sorry more eagle images for your today. I am just enamored with eagles. Unfortunately for me I have some appointments in Dubuque tomorrow so I won’t be going back to Lock & Dam 14. It’s also like (for me) how can I top last Friday?
So I’m going to have to find other things to photograph this weekend. 🙂
Not much babble today. Lots to do before I leave for work.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Wednesday!
Some more eagle images for you today. I want to show you some of my mistakes and what can happen when you get busy visiting with other photographers and not paying attention. 🙂
I was watching some geese fly over the area and happened to notice all the lenses pointing over my head. I had the lens set on 400 mm and this is what I got. Not a very good composure but on the other hand you could call it up close and personal. 🙂
For this image I was busy visiting with my friend Burt and totally missed the catch of this juvenile. He does have a fish in his talons and you can still see the spray of the water. All I got was three frames of river water before I finally caught up to him.
This guy pivoted and was headed for a catch. I did a good job of following him down until all I could see in my view finder was brown blur. There were photographers leaning over the railing and I was getting the back of their insulated jackets. So I missed his catch as well.
Here is another miss. I caught up with him just after he had snagged his lunch. Probably visiting again. 🙂
There weren’t many juveniles at the lock when I was there. A couple flew over and I captured this image. For the most part the adults were having the most success on this day.
That’s it for today. I have lots more eagle images but I’ll give them a rest for a few days and see if I can find something else of interest. Truth be told however I could photograph eagles every day and I don’t think I would get tired of them.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
Happy Tuesday!
I’ll take a break from all the eagle images to wish my Son, Mark a Happy 25th Birthday. I’m extremely proud of him and how he has taken control of his life and his success. He and a couple of friends just got back from Las Vegas. Now that’s a cool way to celebrate a birthday! 🙂
Like I said I’m taking a break from the eagles (oh yes, I’ve got a ton more images) but I don’t want you to get tired of them and there are other things to photograph.
Like this little Princess. We were invited to Angie and Ben’s home for dinner Sunday evening. It’s always a treat to be with them. I do my best to grab a few snap shots of the grand kids while there. I asked Gabby if I could take her picture. She gave me some really weird poses and I finally waited till she quit posing and snapped this one. I won’t show the others because… Well just because.
I tried to get all three kids together but this is the best I could do. Austin loves this bouncing seat and he will entertain himself for a long time. It’s fun to watch him bounce and laugh. Sometimes he get to laughing so hard he has to stop bouncing for a bit. 🙂
As I write this blog the snow is falling hard and the cancellations are mounting. I’m tempted to take a PTO today but I’ve been away for a long time and the work doesn’t get done by itself so I will make the effort to get in this morning.
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.