Hi friends, I’m back from Sacramento, CA where I spent the week on a business trip. There was no time for photography (explains the week without a single blog post) and finally I arrived a day late because of weather issues in Denver. Good to be back home and having the weekend for what I love to do the most, being in the great outdoors and using the camera.
There is a lot going on here in our woods and yesterday I did some bird photography. But let me start with a couple of my favorite pictures from today. Both images were made in the Green Island Wetlands. Because of last week’s rain the water level in the Mississippi and the wetlands is higher than normal. Except for the Canada Geese, who already escort their offspring, you can’t see much of the waterfowl. The grass and reed is tall and hides the ducks, coots, and mergansers pretty good.
I like to make the shot with some gesture of the critter but the Leopard Frog isn’t known for cute gestures ;-) It just sits and waits probably for an insect to come by. Well, how do we make an image of the frog work anyway? We have to lay down and meet the critter at eye level. I tried this with two other frogs before but they didn’t like my presence and jumped into the taller grass. For this one I went down and crawled slowly towards the frog until I had it at a focal length of about 300 mm. It makes for a more interesting picture and it blurs the otherwise very busy background nicely
I like the summery mood of the second shot. Everything is lush and the duck weed and algae amplify the green and yellow colors of this very humid day. The reflections on the water are my subject, even if this is not so obvious since this is not a very strong one, but the sharpness will lead the eye. On a side note, I did not realize the Great Blue Heron in the background on the right while I made the photo but I think it adds to the peaceful scene. More to come…