Monthly Archives: July 2014

Day 184: Beauty and Color on a Drab Day

Today started in line with the old sailor’s rhyme: Red in the Morning, Sailor take Warning! Shortly after sunrise dark dreary clouds moved into the Northland. While the open skies out over Lake Superior made for a dramatic sunrise, within 30 minutes after sunrise the color of the world seemed to lock down. Over the course of the morning, the skies darkened further. Normally this presents a low light challenge for a bird photographer. Our feathered friends tend to move around quickly, which requires a short shutter speed. However, later in the afternoon I headed out with my camera. During mid Summer with food plentiful, birds are well normally well fed. The end result is birds often “slow down”. Switching to aperture priority will work well if one is able to find lethargic birds! Given the ugly sky, if the photographer can find nice green leaf backgrounds the end result photographs can be quite nice … just don’t include the sky in your photo framing!

Merganser Morning (common merganser hen and chicks at sunrise)
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Belted Kingfisher
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White-Breasted Nuthatch
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Day 183: Year Long Bird Photography Project is 1/2 Complete!

This osprey which I photographed this morning is screaming it aloud … well done on completing 1/2 year of bird photography! While the output of this project has been the bird photographs, the input has been my learning how to manually control and use my camera. Many of the photographs I now take were totally impossible for me six months ago.

Thus, if you are considering a 365 photo project, find a subject you like and be prepared to learn! The project forces you to use your camera in all kinds of varying conditions and light levels. The result helps you improve your photo taking skills!

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Day 182: Unexpected Treats!

Earlier today while photographing cedar waxwings at the mouth of the Talmadge River on the North Shore of Lake Superior, at one point I happened to look down from the bridge and discovered what should NEVER be happening on July 23rd … tons of steelhead (rainbow trout) trout were in the mouth of the river spawning!

By my reckoning even a late spawn would be over with by the 1st of June. Who says the water is not still cold from last winter’s frigid temperatures?! My apologies for the fuzzy fish photographs. I don’t have much experience with photos of fish with love on their minds! 

Also saw a gray fox earlier in the day. Have to love living in northern Minnesota.

Talmadge River Cedar Waxwings
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Spawning Steelhead (rainbow trout)
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Gray / Silver Fox
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