52 Photographs - Week 26

This week’s photograph is from one of my favorite places to photograph pelicans. I was in Wisconsin for a brief visit and after meeting friends for breakfast on Tuesday, we went to the Rockton Dam to see if the pelicans were still there. For the last couple of years it has been the place to go to photograph these amazing birds. Here’s a link to a PDF book I produced from past photographs: A Pod of Pelicans.

Fortunately there were a few pelicans in the area despite all the rain they’ve had which resulted in a fast flowing river. Every time I’ve photographed pelicans I always get some interesting photographs. This particular photograph I captioned “OK, get busy. The supervisor flew in.”

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 25

This week’s photograph is from a meet up with three other members of the Rock Hill SC Facebook group. Kiska Thompson set it up. We met at River Walk to do some macro photography. Along with Kiska was Connie Bauman and Cammie Marshall Brazzell.

I no longer have a macro lens but I do have two extension tubes. So along with my 12-200mm lens off I went. And I was pleasantly surprised at the results. I need to spend more time perfecting the use of that setup.

So with that said, here is this week’s photograph, a Hairy Scarab.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 24

OK, so it’s not just one photograph this week It’s a triptych of a Canada geese family I’ve photographed twice at Manchester Meadows Park. The first photograph I took of this family I have uploaded to my Flickr page: Canada Geese family.

I thought just one photograph would not tell the story I wanted to tell with these photographs. First one young goose takes a drink of water and then the other one takes a drink of water. 

So I created this triptych using Affinity Photo. I think this might be useful in future projects when one photograph does not tell the whole story.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 23

 Well this week got off to a slow start. First rain then more rain. Then a couple of appointments. I didn’t think I’d get anything worthwhile this past week.

But the other day I photographed this plant. I used Pl@ntNet to identify it and it is Wild Garlic, Allium vineale L.. Who knew?

Allium vineale (wild garlic, onion grass, crow garlic or stag's garlic) is a perennial, bulb-forming species of wild onion, native to Europe, northwestern Africa and the Middle East. The species was introduced in Australia and North America, where it has become an Invasive species.

I love the purple colors contrasting with the green background.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.“

52 Photographs - Week 22

This week’s photograph is of a Mimosa tree. I’ve seen them around at Manchester Meadows Park. They are certainly beautiful. A friend called them an invasive plant. I don’t think I had ever seen one before so here is what I found out about them.

Albizia julibrissin, the Persian silk tree, pink silk tree, or mimosa tree, is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae, native to southwestern Asia and eastern Asia.

In the wild, the tree tends to grow in dry plains, sandy valleys, and uplands. It has become an invasive species in the United States, where it has spread from southern New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, west to Missouri and Illinois, and south to Florida and Texas.

I love the color contrast of this photograph, the pink contrasting with green along with the dark background. It almost looks like a fireworks display.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there.”

52 Photographs - Week 21

 Another very good week of photography. I got a lot of bird photographs. Many of them using Pro Capture to catch them in flight. I did screw up on a couple of those shoots because I didn’t check my settings before I began shooting. You can see the results on my Grumpy Old Photographer flicker page.

I also went to a nearby state park this past week, Landsford Canal State Park. It is home to the world’s largest population of Spider Lillies. After a short hike from the parking lot I found the Spider Lillies. A difficult thing to photograph as most of them were far out in the river. But there was a small group in close and that is this week’s photograph.

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there."

52 Photographs - Week 20

Well, this was a very productive week. But the choice was easy. As you’ll see in the post below this one, I have been trying to use Pro Capture to get some photographs of birds in flight. And given that I take photographs while out walking my dog, I don’t spend a lot of time hanging around one place waiting for a bird to launch itself in the air.

But yesterday an opportunity presented itself and after a short wait I was able to get four good images. And here is my favorite! 

“Tri-X, f/8, and be there."