outdoor photography

Carolina Spreadwing After having such a wonderful time this past Saturday at Lake Proctor looking for butterflies and dragonflies, I thought I'd try a different park with a similar habitat. Geneva Wilderness Area is a little closer, but it has three ponds with similar habitat. So I decided I'd check those ponds before work. They are surrounded by pines with grassy fields near them, and from what I'm learning that's a pretty good type of place to look for dragonflies. Cherry Bluet I didn't see nearly as many dragonflies as on Saturday, but I did get about 15 species, and two of them were new to me: Carolina Spreadwing and Cherry Bluet. There were several species that were at Lake Proctor as well: Banded Pennant, Golden-winged Skimmer, Halloween Pennant, Little Blue Dragonlet, Atlantic Bluet, and Rambur's Forktail. Atlantic Bluet (can't entirely rule out Familiar Bluet) Citrine Forktail Rambur's Forktail Banded Pennant L...

Savannah Sparrow at Marl Bed Flats When I first moved to Central Florida, the first places I visited for nature and bird photography were in Brevard and Orange Counties.  I didn't know of any good places to visit in Seminole County where I live.  Every new place I found was in another county. But last year I began discovering my home.  It turns out that, while Seminole Co may not have quite the same variety of birds that its surrounding counties my have, if you know where to go, you can actually do pretty well here.  And there are some places in the county that are quite beautiful for nature photography and  landscapes.  So I thought it would be good to collect my favorite birding and photography locations within Seminole County and share them. Econ River Area My favorite places in eastern Seminole Count are located near the Econ River.  I began discovering places around here in June of last year.  It was so fun to begin finding pine fores...

Tree at Sunset Geneva Wilderness Area Canon PowerShot S100 At Geneva Wilderness Area, this particular tree caught my attention.  The undergrowth was high enough that I had to hold the camera high above my head to get this angle.  This is a single-shot image.  I decided I liked it better than the HDR images I made.  Because I had to handhold the camera, Photomatix couldn't completely eliminate ghosting in all those branches, and the photo looked weird.  But this photo seemed to be interesting enough to post.

Trees of Geneva WA The other day I dropped by Geneva Wilderness Area, and I decided to photograph the trees.  The sun was setting, and I wanted to shoot into the sun. I didn't have my tripod, so I handheld three shots at different exposures.  I used Photomatix to combine them into the above HDR image.

Geneva Wilderness Area Chapel I drove out to Geneva Wilderness Area this morning before work.  I was hoping to try out my Christmas present that came in the mail yesterday: a Canon Powershot S100.  This is an advanced, compact point and shoot camera.  It has a number of features that I like: GPS tagging, a sharp, moderate wide-angle zoom lens (5x), a large sensor with relatively low noise (for a p&s camera), and the capability to shoot RAW images. I've been thinking it would be good to take scenic shots while photographing birds, and I didn't want to be slowed down by carrying two cameras or, worse, constantly switching lenses. I was really hoping to give the camera a work out this morning, but it was so dreary, cloudy, and drizzly that I didn't use it much.  I'm including one image above just because it seems like I should have something to show for my efforts.  What I find interesting in the above image is not the beauty of the photo (I don't like it t...

Geneva Wilderness Area One of my favorite places to visit here in Seminole County is the Geneva Wilderness Area, which is located in Geneva, FL [ map ]. The Geneva WA is about 180 acres with about 2 miles of trails through flatwoods, pine scrub and bay swamp environments. The trail takes you by three ponds, and there's a rustic chapel that overlooks a grassy clearing with two of the ponds. You can find a brochure with a trail map here .  I find this area truly beautiful, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves hiking, beautiful scenery, and wildlife. Carolina Chickadee Trails There are two main trails in the wilderness area, and both are relatively easy trails to walk.  The Loop Trail with red markers takes you on a loop around the ponds.  The trail with yellow markers takes you to Flagler Trail, a trail that takes you through the Little Big Econ State Forest. When I go in search of wildlife, I normally walk the trails in such a way that I can see ...

Carolina Chickadee Early this morning I went to the Geneva Wilderness Area, since I was going to be working Oviedo.  I spent a little time there, and as usual, I had a blast. I've had a terrible time photographing Carolina Chickadees. First, they have to be still enough in the open to get a photo. Second, they have to give you a pretty, clean back ground, and third you want to be able to see the eye. The third part is a real challenge because of their black caps--those little eyes want to disappear into their caps so you can't pick them out. I don't use a flash, so I have to wait for them to turn their heads just right to get "catch light" in the eye. This morning I photographed a couple Chickadees with the eye visible. I'd still like a better background, but I'll take what I can get. Carolina Chickadee This morning I also found Brown-headed Nuthatches, many Palm Warblers, a few Yellow-rumped Warblers, one Pine Warbler, one Yellow-throated ...

Eastern Phoebe Mead Gardens Mead Gardens was fun this morning.  We saw nothing out of the ordinary, and there were many Eastern Phoebes there, which is always fun.  I saw my first fall Yellow-rumped Warblers there this morning too.  Warbler migration seems to be winding down. Eastern Phoebe Geneva Wilderness Area This evening I went to Geneva Wilderness Area in search of an Eastern Whip-Poor-Will.  I got there around 6pm when it was still light out.  It was fun to see an American Kestrel before the sun went down.  Shortly after the sun went down, I found what I was looking for.  The Whip-Poor-Will flew up onto a perch and let me get a silhouette photo.  I had to shoot this at ISO 6400 and under expose by about a stop to get sharp photos, but since I didn't need any detail, I just ramped up the noise reduction all the way. American Kestrel Eastern Whip-Poor-Will

Brown-headed Nuthatch This morning I returned to the Geneva Wilderness Area.  It wasn't nearly as active today as the last time I was here in September, but it was still fun to see a Bald Eagle and a House Finch, as well as the normal birds I see here: Tufted Titmice, Eastern Towhee, White-eyed Vireo, woodpeckers, etc.  I didn't see any Bluebirds or Chickadees, though, which was kind of sad. This is one of my favorite places to find them.  The stars of the morning, though, were three Brown-headed Nuthatches.  I've always struggled to get good photos in good lighting.  This morning I was able to put the sun behind me and get a clean background behind the birds.  I think these are my favorite photos of these wonderful birds. Brown-headed Nuthatch These are one of my favorite birds for three reasons.  First, they're just plain cute.  Second, their calls sound like a squeaker toy, adding to their overall cuteness.  And third, they're on...