Swans

Group of four Swans, I chased around the refuge. Stay in the car and get a longer lens. The mountains with some snow cover makes a great backdrop. These guys were quiet unlike the Canada geese I have photographed often.

The refuge published a listing of bird likely bird populations versus time of the year. I will wait until the first frost to return when the knats are gone.

Fish Springs is at least 80 miles from the nearest cell phone tower, so its either no telephone or satellite phone. The claims of 95% coverage for wireless, is for population count and not land area.

Backyard Zinnias

If I wish to isolate a flower, I often look for well lit blossoms with a dark background. Moreover, flowers with a strong red color content can be problematic for digital cameras. I use spot metering and under expose the image. I always shoot flowers in raw and then adjust the exposure in the raw file, checking the red channel, for this flower, to avoid blown red highlights. The objective is to retain as much detail in the texture of the petals whilst retaining accurate color rendition.

I chose a late afternoon sunlit setting, the Golden Hour. The bright light and long shadows enhance the texture and detail of the petals. These images were shot at 200 mm and an aperture of F2.8 - 3.5 which further isolates the blossom.

Hummingbird at 1/3200 second

Plenty of light and a 1/3200 second shutter speed but still not enough to stop action the wings, but close as the wings change direction. Since they hover, I got more keepers that I expected. What marvelous birds.

I am really surprised to see that Hummingbirds are attracted to Zinnias! There is a Hummingbird feeder in this backyard setting that the birds completely ignored. In the space of 20 minutes there were multiple visits by more than one Hummingbird. Two were there at one point in time. One of the birds chased the second bird off. "This is my territory!"

Harvesting Nectar

Most of the petals of this blosson are long gone but apparently the nectar is not. There was a lot of light but not enough to stop action the wings, but got this shot of the bird drinking nectar.

Backyard Zinnias and Visitors

Zinnias are a beautiful and hardy late summer flower. I did non realize that they are a favorite of hummingbirds. While photographing flowers in the late afternoon light this little fellow came to visit. At on point in time he hovered no more than three feet in front of me looking me over. The shutter speed for the image on the left was 1/640 second, not fast enough to stop the motion of the wings.

Portraits in the Poppies

All of these family portraits were taken in the evening golden hour when the contrast of the sunlit portions of the photographs is not too high. The poppies do not bloom all at once, so that new blossoms appear over a matter of two or three weeks. The flowers are mixed in with Sage brush, trees, June grass and bushes. Beautiful setting are found in many places. It is common for several groups to be there taking photographs. What a place!

Portraits in the Poppies