Small Worlds
Welcome to June!
I've been spending quite a bit of time with my new macro and telephoto lenses. Both take a new and different kind of concentration, but similar muscle requirements. Any movement is magnified, whether you're zoning in on a bug nestled in a dandelion puff, or a bird on a swaying branch far away. I've learned I don't have terribly steady hands, but I think I'm improving.
I'll toss in a few landscape photos too. I think they're nice, but nothing that says "wow". Sometimes the stars just don't align.
I travelled south near the US border to Pembina Valley Provincial Park, just to get out of the eternal flatness of the prairie. I wasn't disappointed: it's a pretty little park, with a couple of creeks running through it...or they would be running if it hadn't been so dry this Spring. Within a few minutes the songs of a huge variety of birds greeted my ears. One caught my attention, and I looked up to see a Scarlet Tanager, only the second I've seen in my life. It's an incredibly beautiful bird. Once again I tried the trick of pretending nonchalance, scratching, yawning, and playing it cool. It sang prettily, like a promise. I casually dropped my pack and pulled out my camera. It was still there, singing happily. I had to change lenses. "No problem," it sang, "take your time." Finally all the prep work was done, settings adjusted, shutter speed fast. I looked at it, looked away. It cocked its head and sang again. I casually swung my camera in its direction and...gone! Just like that, it disappeared.
I had to laugh. But I thought, "I know where you live, you little bastard, and I'll be back." But I'll save that part for later.
The hike next to the creek was full of other birds, not as colourful, but not as devious. I believe this is an Eastern Phoebe, a type of flycatcher, which it was certainly busy doing, when not resting on an exposed branch:
This new telephoto lens is phenomenal. My camera body is not really "wildlife suitable", but the lens kind of makes up for it, and I expect to get better with it as I get experience.
Anyway, this bird skipped from perch to perch, defending each one from other phoebes.
Mine!
Lower to the ground were a few other treasures. This dandelion is rather mundane, but I liked the cross shape the leaves made:
The leaves from last fall haven't broken down yet, and I was surprised when a "leaf" jumped at my feet. Looking closer, it was a frog, very well camouflaged:
It let me get quite close, and seemed weirdly fascinated with the lens...maybe it saw its reflection. I find it remarkable how well it blends in with the leaf litter:
After several hours of hiking I thought I'd head back to where I'd first spotting the tanager. I spent the next hour quietly waiting while flies and a few mosquitoes explored my balding head, and ticks marched up and down my pants, relentlessly seeking entry. Finally, the light was fading and I decided to pack up and...there was the tanager, staring at me. It sang, a bit of haze cleared, and the last light of the sun lit up the tree. I pointed my camera, headless of caution and took picture after picture while it sat there posing, singing like a diva. But even in my haste I could tell: something was off. When I got home, every picture was out of focus! This is the best one, and the focal point is on the branch behind the bird:
Every *$&(#$ picture! I swear the little prima-dona played me for a fool. Or, as I have liked to put it in the past, sometimes the universe has a sarcastic sense of humour.
Moving on...
I spent a couple different days back at Birds Hill Park. Many flowers in bloom, including the rare lady slipper, like a tiny Dutch wooden shoe:
Other flowers aren't quite so far along:
From rare to common, this is just a weed leaf, but the stickers give it an edge, so to speak:
We've finally had some clouds and rain, with more varied skies even when sunny. Here are a few evening shots of Birds Hill, with the spring green emerging from the winter brown and gold:
For this next one I had the worst luck. The cloud in the distance had a fat brilliant rainbow hanging below it, but I needed a foreground subject. I practically chased it across the field, but the clouds were receding faster than I could run, and by the time I framed this shot, the rainbow was gone. My consolation was I enjoyed seeing it without being distracted by trying to photograph it:
Nearby was a female redwing blackbird with an Audubon-like pose:
Changing subjects and styles, in Birds Hill is an old farmstead from the early 1900s, including some old machinery. I found myself fascinated with the various parts of the machinery. Given the emphasis on shape and contrast, I felt B&W was the best way to present these. The nice thing is I no longer think about this after-the-fact, I took the pictures with B&W in mind. They are a bit abstract:
I'll end with a study in dandelion puffs, which isn't so interesting because of the photography, but just some fun with natural history. First is focussed on the closest feathers, the second on the seeds below:
This puff had two insects that had crawled their way inside:
I don't know what type of insect they are, but their long proboscis suggests they weren't eating the seeds but were instead somehow feeding on the juices of the seed head:
Finally, a closeup of the bud, but if I'm honest the lower-resolution pictures I have to create for this blog can't give justice to the detail:
And that's it for this edition.
Oddly, while I don't feel like any of these are my best pictures, I do feel like I'm making progress. I'm getting better, if slowly, at my ability to pre-visualize. I'm starting to be able to anticipate which lens I will need before putting camera to eye...something which used to be trial and error, mostly error! What a trial. :) On occasion, I will even ask myself "what the heck is the subject here?", which is a huge step forward from when I was just so eager to click the shutter because "I liked it". Also, and this may be the most important for the kind of work I want to do, I'm starting to "see the light" as a concrete and definable thing. This is still very tricky and elusive to me, but on occasion I feel like I'm able to see it and make decisions before even getting the tripod out.
That's the positive side. The negative is that I feel less decisive and sometimes more confused. I can only hope that this is a passing thing and the other insights will start to come together. I guess we'll find out in the next instalment.
Cheers!
