Playing catch up

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) view 2

Millsboro (DE) Pond sunset 2

Unknown flower

Aster sp? seed head

Pretty sure this is another Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) caught snacking

Skipper butterfly of some sort

Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) view 1

Millsboro (DE) Pond sunset 1

So all good intentions doing regular postings in the new year kinda flew out the window a bit, missed all of February. So here’s to trying to get back on track again.

Memorial Day Weekend at the Beach

Sunset at Lewes Beach 1

Sunset at Lewes Beach 3

Sunset over the dunes at Lewes Beach, Delaware

Close up of the surf

Sunset at Lewes Beach with horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus)

Sunset at Lewes Beach 2

Birds on the beach

Dog (not ours) playing fetch in the water

Some pictures I took during sunset at Lewes Beach, Delaware during Memorial Day weekend. Horseshoe crabs were spawning in the evenings in May, saw a few and a few up on the beach. Enjoy, there’s a back log to come!

Virginia Trip Day 2 (part B) Blue Ridge Parkway

Setting sun, clouds and trees

View Irish Creek Valley Sign

Setting sun, clouds and trees 2

View exposure I

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Colored clouds

Sun through the trees

Coyote (Canis latrans) in motion

Colored clouds 2

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in motion

View exposure II

As promised (if a little late) part B of my 2nd day in Virginia. I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove from Buena Vista up to Steeles Tavern and came back down Interstate 81. Sunset was nice but I didn’t get quite the same views, though the clouds colored nicely. Encountered some white-tailed deer in a field off the parkway and was able to snap at least one decent picture and some blurry deer in motion. Also a coyote received the blurry cam treatment as well. One more day of pictures to come!

Virginia Trip Day 1

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA 3

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA 2

Shenandoah River

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway over Buena Vista, VA 4

Dogwood (Cornus florida) and redbud blossoms (Cercis canadensis)

Dogwood blossom (Cornus florida)

Shenandoah River from Harpers Ferry Visitor Center Trail

The first leg of my trip began with a stop at Harpers Ferry National Historic Site. I had been there with my family many years ago while I was going to school nearby at Shenandoah University, and passed by going to and from school when taking that route. I’ve always found it to be a beautiful area and one of these days I’ll hike the Appalachian Trail (The non-profit Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters are in Harpers Ferry as well) through the area and hopefully do some kayaking. For now it was kind of an over cast day but the redbuds were in bloom everywhere as well as flowering dogwoods.

Due to rain in Winchester, VA I decided to go ahead and plow ahead to Lexington, VA. It was cloudy but I was determined to get up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which winds through the mountains east of Interstate 81 before becoming Skyline Drive (which you do have to pay to drive), in order to catch the sunset.

The clouds were a little too heavy but the sun provided some interesting back lighting at least.  Stay tuned for more to come!

Snow in Delaware

Flock of birds at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge frozen

Two weekends ago there was a great blue heron in the reeds

Shell of a horseshoe crab

Frozen waters of the marsh

Dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis) at the feeder

White-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis)

Fluffly dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis)

‘Cape’ American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata) at Rehoboth Beach, DE

Sunlit sky and snow-clouds

The ‘Big January Snow’ of my last post affected the entire region, including southern Delaware which often does not see too much snow if any from year to year. On the way down, I again stopped at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge to see what it looked like under the ice and snow. Birds could be seen along the roadside where the snow had melted enabling them to get to the ground underneath. There were no herons or seagulls in, or rather on, the frozen water this time but even covered in snow the landscape was beautiful.

At home we have a far greater diversity of birds visiting our feeder, although not all of my pictures turned out well I have posted a few of the best. At the feeder we saw dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, blue jays, eastern tohees, northern cardinals, and possibly a house wren. We also went out to Rehoboth Beach this same day where the seagulls were conserving warmth on the beach, but I will save those pictures for my next post. However I’ve included a shot of the setting sun and snow-clouds as well as snow on our dunes and beachgrass. The link takes you to a page by Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources (DNREC) about dune restoration on Delaware’s shoreline. Enjoy!

Big January Snow!

Snow on the holiday ball hanging from the shepherd’s crook

Icicles and bokeh

Rhododendron (Rhododendron sp?) in the snow

Dried hydrangea heads

Dried ornamental grass

Dried seed pod

Tree and sky

Dried seed pod clusters

More dried hydrangea blossoms

Snowy perspective

Through the ice

Sunset icicle

Here is my collection of ‘after’ the snow pictures from the days following. If you go back to my January 21 Snowstorm post you will find a rough time lapse of the snow fall for that day. For a sense of how much fell I snapped a night time picture of the snow clinging to the top of our holiday ball hanging out front. By morning the wind had knocked most of it off and the following day it was sunny.

Plenty of dried plants still to photograph, particularly with the snow in the background. Rhododendron are evergreen and when it gets to be freezing out the leaves will curl (wilt) up to help protect themselves from the cold (you can click here for a highly technical journal article about the phenomenon and here for a lighter article). As the sun melts the snow and the air temperature stays below freezing you can see a lot of icicles hanging off of gutters. The icicles provide another opportunity to play with bokeh and keep in mind the background as well as the foreground of a shot.

Hope you enjoy, as the snow has stuck around for a bit there are more winter wonderland pictures to come!

Valley Forge National Historic Park

Setting sun 2

Sun through the trees

Canons at the artillery park

Looking over the Grand Parade

Looking up to the National Memorial Arch

View out of the park

Remains of the redoubt

Schuykill River

Sunset tree silhouette

Setting sun 1

It has been many years since I last visited Valley Forge National Historic Park and since it is only a half hour away I thought I would revisit and try and catch the sunset. Unfortunately for me, it was very cold and I had forgotten to put some of my cold weather gear on my car so I did not get to explore as much as I would have liked. I will definitely have to go back better prepared and go back when it is warmer as there are a lot of trails and beautiful vistas to revisit as the seasons change.

Final post of 2013 Happy New Year!

Last sunset of 2013 3

Christmas light Bokeh with ornament close up

Christmas lights and ornaments 2

Christmas lights and ornaments

Christmas light Bokeh 3

Last sunset of 2013 2

Christmas lights and ornaments 3

Christmas light Bokeh 4

Christmas light Bokeh

Christmas light Bokeh 2

Last sunset of 2013

Less of a nature photography post, more artistic, unless you count the fraser fir (Abies fraseri) Christmas tree the lights and ornaments were hung on. If you open the aperture wide and are far enough away you can get a nice blurring of the lights. The Japanese call this bokeh which means “haze” or “blur”.  If you keep the aperture small you can get the star like effect from the lights. If you look around online there are other neat effects you can do with cut outs and such.

Lastly the last sunset of 2013 was particularly nice, though I find it hard to shoot in a suburban setting with houses and power lines everywhere.

Happy New Year everyone!

Landscapes and Plants of New Mexico Day 2 (and Arizona)

Cross-section of a petrified tree

Might be a eremopedes katydid (Eremopedes sp?) 1

Might be a northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)

Drive by landscape 1

Beautiful view from a rest stop 1

Sunset at Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area 2

Drive by landscape 2

Might be a nymph stage of a green stink/shield bug

Saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) at Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area

Agave on Boothill Cemetary in Tombstone, AZ

Might be a eremopedes katydid (Eremopedes sp?) 2

Beautiful view from a rest stop 2

Close up of ocotillo (Fouquieria sp?) 2

Might be an immature white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)

While this is amusing graffiti it’s still a shame to deface nature

View of Sheep’s Head Mountain outside of Tombstone, AZ

Sunset at Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area 1

Unknown thorny shrub close-up

For some reason these signs amused me, granted there’s nothing amusing about a dust storm

Close up of ocotillo (Fouquieria sp?)

Cactus growing out of a petrified log

Hope everyone had happy holidays (for those in the US), I’m working on getting caught up with my posts and finishing out my Arizona and New Mexico set. For this post we left New Mexico and returned to Arizona so there are many drive by landscape shots. Before leaving Las Curces, NM we stopped in at the Zuhl Collection which is part of New Mexico State University. It’s a free and only a couple of rooms, but beautifully laid out with a large collection of petrified wood cross-sections, fossils, and minerals. On our way back we detoured down to Tombstone, AZ which is better known for its history, but there were some nice southwestern views and plants at the Boothill Graveyard, including one for which I just had to throw in the towel when trying to identify it. Finally when returning to Tucson we went up to Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area to try to catch a Southwestern sunset.

“Super” Moon June 22 from Waterrock Knob

Panorama from the trail up to Waterrock Knob

“Super” Moon 6/22/2013

View of the moon from the trail up to Waterrock Knob

Moon over Lake Junaluska

Lake Junaluska at night

Original view from trail up to Waterrock Knob

Edited view from trail up to Waterrock Knob

Sunset from the trail up to Waterrock Knob

Michaux’s saxifrage (Saxifraga michauxii)

Blackberry blossom (Rubus sp?)

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

So this year’s “Super” moon was upon us and I went with my roommate up to Waterrock Knob along the Blue Ridge Parkway to photograph the event. Ended up with less spectacular moon shots and better dusk and sunset pictures, definitely a lesson in patience. A “super” moon occurs when the moon is both full and at perigee or closest to the Earth in its orbit. This happens about every 13-14 months, per the linked article. Aside from the moon there were a lot of birds hopping around but I only snapped one decent shot. There was also a lot of Michaux’s saxifrage about, named after the French botanist André Michaux. I played with photoshop a little on one of the vistas along the way up to the knob, giving the picture a rather surreal look. Finally, we stopped by Lake Junaluska to see how the moon looked on the lake. It was a little early and the lake wasn’t still enough to get a decent reflection but a couple of the pictures turned out nice nonetheless.