outdoor photography

On Saturday, I visited Hal Scott Preserve to look for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers. I found two, which was really nice to see. I also saw several Carolina Satyrs, and I got my best photos of the species. I then went to Tosohatchee, where I saw lots of interesting bugs. I'm playing with the video capabilities of my new Canon 7D mark ii with fluid head, so I put my photos in the above video using ProShow Producer. I also added the photos from the slideshow below. Red-cockaded Woodpecker Hal Scott Carolina Satyr Hal Scott Lilac Tasselflower Hal Scott Pine Hal Scott Oak Toad Tosohatchee Oak Toad Tosohatchee Crambini Moth Tosohatchee Long-headed Toothpick Grasshopper Tosohatchee Common Green Darner (Teneral) Tosohatchee

Swarthy Skipper About a week ago I shared the fun experience I had with Jeff Cagle at Tosohatchee WMA. We found about 30 butterflies, and more than half of them were new to me. Especially the skippers. I'm finding out that skippers can be extraordinarily difficult to identify. Some of them are like the empids of the butterfly world. Perhaps I'll feel differently once I get to know them more, but right now, that's how I feel. Twin-spot Skipper But skippers are kind of fun as well, and their small size makes them somewhat of a challenge to photograph. But often they don't mind me getting close to them if I move slowly enough, and that left me with some half-way decent photos of these guys. And that makes for some exciting time. Horace's Duskywing Skipper Confused Cloudywing With my colorblind eyes, I think of these skippers in groups of "orange" and "brown." The orange ones can be really hard to tell apart from each other, ...

Georgia Satyr On April 12th, Jeff Cagle and I visited the second-most recommended location for butterflies--Tosohatchee. Even though this place is relatively close (and almost right across the street from Orlando Wetlands Park), I've only been here about three times. But it was recommended that we try the Powerline Rd and Fish Hole Rd for butterflies.  We were amazed with the number of species we had there. We counted over 30 species, and in fact we don't have an exact number yet, because we're still trying to ID the species in several photographs. But here are a few of my favorite photos of butterflies from our morning. In this post, I'll highlight the non-skippers and return the the skippers later. Dainty Sulphur Barred Sulphur Palamedes Swallowtail Phaon Crescent Little Metalmark We also had the opportunity to photograph other critters in the park. We came across a really cool robberfly, a toothpick grasshopper (which I didn't...

Overall, this was somewhat of a dreary day.  It was overcast the whole time I was out, so shutter speeds were slow, and I have a lot of blurry pictures.  Thankfully, I got there at 6:30am to take pictures of roosting Black-Crowned Night Herons (they weren't roosting where I was told they would be), so I had my tripod with me.  I've been spending more time in places where I'm more likely to find perching birds, but I found nothing extraordinary.  I did see a Pileated and a Downy Woodpecker, which I haven't seen in the park before. After I left OWP, I went down to the Tosohatchee WMA to see what I could find there.  I didn't realize how large that place is.  I'm going to have to read up on where to go there.  I only saw a few species while I was there, but I didn't spend much time there, and was mostly trying to get the lay of the land for future trips.  I got very irritated with a few fishermen--I didn't see it happen, but I'm pretty sure they fe...