Florida Roadtrip 2012

Arrived today in Ft Myers Beach for a few days to visit the many birding spots in the are.  It has been a great trip so far. Last week I was in the St Augustine and spent some time in the Rookery in the Alligator Farm. This is a shot of a young Roseate Spoonbill stretching its wings. Earlier that morning his sibling met an untimely death by falling off the edge of the nest and into the Alligator Pond. He was quite weak since this one seemed to hog all the food.  I wonder if birds can feel remorse knowing that indirectly he caused his siblling's death!

Wow! Events...
When we speak of spectacular events, we often think of events like the great migration in Kenya or the like but all around us are "lesser" spectacular events that take our breaths away!!  In Columbia, SC at the Riverfront Park, each year the shad (fish) make their journey upstream to spawn, passing through an area full of rocks and a dam wherein the rangers have built a fish ladder to help the Shad navigate upstream.  As the shad swim upstream in schools, somehow the birds are informed and arrive in great numbers to gorge themselves on the unlucky shad that happen to not reach the fish ladder and become lunch to gulls, herons, egrets, commorants, terns and other birds that gather at the dam area in anticipation of their arrival.  When the conditions are just right, they are a sight to see!!  I got on the road this morning at 6:30am to witness once again this feeding frenzy!! My friend and I were greeted with this sight!!

A special treat was the arrival of an Osprey and I was immediately impressed by the intensity with which this guy peered down into the water hunting for his lunch.

And then he locked onto his prey beneath the water and dove headfirst into the river only to emerge with this huge fish in his talons.

After that things settled down as the birds waited for a school of shad and then began their fishing in earnest.

How great thou art!!!

Enjoying the Discovery of old Image Files.

Sorry for the silence on this blog for so long.  Since November I have had extensive surgery on my left shoulder and it has been extremely painful to wiggle my fingers on a keyboard and so I have had to pace myself.  I have now started strength training at Physical Therapy and hopefully in a couple of months I will be near perfect.  I had visions of catching up on my image editing while recuperating but now reality has set in.  I have discovered that I am making images way too fast to ever catch up on editing.  The good news though is that I am discovering images that I had forgotten I ever made and now am consumed with editing to the detriment of everything else I have to do.  Over a year ago I spent the week out on Pawley's Island on the coast of South Carolina near Myrtle Beach.  I must go back, why?  This is one of the images made while there and it appears to be a place that I would like to visit for a few days. I have been surprised lately at how popular infrared photography has become.  It seems everyone is getting a camera converted for infrared these days.  It is an area that I have enjoyed for many years and so I thought I would look back at some of my old files.  Wow, some of this stuff is great!!  Why did I let them hide on my drives so long.  Enjoy this shot of an area of Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  I call it "A Patch of Light".

I like the way it makes me feel!!

What a wonderful Autumn

As we experience the weather gradually turning a bit cold, I cannot help but reflect back over the last few weeks and months.  It has been a magical Autumn for me this year.  I started the Fall season off with a visit to Cades Cove chasing bears.  The bears disappointed us since they were not as plentiful as we  thought they might be because the cherry trees failed to bloom.  As a result, the bears we did see were obviously a bit underfed and not gaining the weight they need to store up for the winter.  I surely hope it gets better for them.

My travels then took me to Colorado Springs, Colorado.  I lived there in the Seventies and Early 80s, teaching Computer Science at the Air Force Academy.  I spent lots of time in and around Colorado Springs but the highlights of my visit was to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and then to Crested Butte and Trebler and Ohio Passes.  The Aspen Groves in this area was spectacular.  The Shot above was taken alongside the road on Ohio Creek Pass.

And then the last couple of weeks have been spent exploring the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian Mountains for Autumn color and waterfalls and we were not disappointed.  The shot above is at the foot of the Middle Falls in Dupont Forest (NC).  Notice the reflections of the trees up on the bank in the water and rocks down below.  Soon after this shot was taken by my friend Edgar Payne, I slipped and injuried my knee on this hard and slippery slate. It would be an understatement to say that It was worth it but it was!!

Backyard Nature

This is a test of using Windows Live writer to post to my blog.

My MSN

Woke up this morning feeling bored with nothing to look forward to and decided I needed to kick-start my engines so contacted a friend for an all-day visit to the Appalachian Mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway.  As soon as I reached Hickory I knew that this was not exactly a good idea.  The traffic was like rush hour in New York.  It seems everyone and his brother woke up and decided to visit the mountains and view the leaves.  Aside from the crowds, though, it was absolutely breathtaking.  The leaves from Milepost 295 to Milepost 316 which includes Linville Viaduct, Grandfather Mountain and Linville Falls, are definitely at their peak and won't last another week.  But they are really awe inspiring now and for the next few days.  I was really mesmerized by the Rocky Mountains and the Aspens in "bloom" and they were really nice but the Blue Ridge is just as nice in its own way and much closer to home!  The image posted with this blog is at the little lake pulloff right before reaching Julian Price Picnic area.  The lake was still, the leaves were sparkling and the reflections were awe inspiring!!

I am really amazed at the images that can be made from the usually invisible light rays of the Ultra-violet or Infrared light spectrum.  I spent the afternoon over at Pee Dee NWR a few weeks ago and this is one of the Infrared images that resulted.  I like the feeling of depth realized because of the converging trees and the reflections in the lake.  The image is a bit overprocessed but it has potential, I think, and is truly a view not often seen of Pee Dee NWR.

This is an exciting part of year to be in the Rocky Mountains!  The Elk are in rut and gathering cows into their harems and fighting to protect and keep them until they reach estrus and the mating can occur.  These guys are greedy and it seems the order of the day is the more cows to impregnate the better.  The cows, however, are a bit hard to keep in tow and frequently succumb to the call of the guy next door! And so the challenges and bugling, antler wrestling (sparring) and posturing that takes place in the big meadows are somewhat like a reality show: The Desperate Elk Harem Wives. Great drama and even greater photography!!  This big guy just lost 3 cows to one of the other bulls and is now engaged in bugling as he heads back to make sure the others in his harem are staying in place.

When you get tired of watching the Elk battles, take a ride along Ridge Road and maybe over the pass to Grand Lake for some absolutely gorgeous views and, if you are luck, maybe you will encounter some moose.  Unfortunately the day we went looking for Moose was a bust.  We visited all of the normal habitats several times during the morning ... no Moose but always enthralled by fantastic vistas.  This shot is towards the mountains over a lake, an incredible still lake which results in this clear as glass lake reflection.

 And everywhere you look are these incredible groves of Aspen, glistening in the sun in all of their green, yellow and red splendor.  Blindingly beautiful!!  I lived in Colorado Springs for 6 years and now remember why I always loved the area so much.  By the way, how many trees to you see in the grove above?  Would you believe possibly ONE!  Many of the trees in a grove are from the same root system and all share the same DNA and are all the same tree!!  That is why one rarely sees a single Aspen tree.

Now with thousands of images to process, I had better buckle down to the task!!!  See you next time!

I consider myself incredibly blessed this week, surrounded by fantastic beauty and the weather has been heavenly.  During this week I have visited the Crested Butte area, Black Canyon near Gunnison, Cripple Creek and, of course, Garden of the Gods, a free park, actually, inside the city of Colorado Springs.  Not really a garden but an area of incredibly beautiful rock formations of unimaginable variety and beauty.  This shot was taken yesterday morning shortly after sunrise.  Enjoy and I will try to post more as the week goes on!!

Checking In

First let me apologize to those of you who check my blog occasionally looking to be caught up on my wanderings and see some new images.  It has really been a busy spring and summer for me and I am just getting halfway caught up on the backlog. I received emails from several folks checking if I was alright since I had not been posting.  I appreciate the concern for my health and will try hard to establish a regular schedule of posting.  Since here last I have been back to Texas, in and out of the Smokies and Blue Ridge, including Cades Cove and Cataloochee.  Had some interesting Bear encounters in Cades Cove a week ago and next time I will share them with you and some images of the bear cubs and beautiful deer bucks that I photographed while there.  Coming up though is Colorado and South Texas (again).  I will spend 12 days in Colorado leaving on the 16th and will shoot a few days in the Rocky Mountain National Park with Weldon Lee.  This is the period of the Elk rut so I am looking forward to some good shots of these huge animals.  Then in November as the Fall Migration is in full stride, I will return to South Texas and spend 5 days on one of the ranches with blinds and all.  In preparation for Colorado, I was looking through my old image files and found a few that I like and that have great B&W potential.  One of these was taken in the Garden of theGods and  is posted here for your enjoyment.  The 2011 Photographic Society of America International Exhibition of Photography will take place in Colorado Springs the week of the 19th.  I have had 6 of my images accepted into this exhibition and am excited about my work being shown in the great venue!!  So long for now and take care!