Egret Encounter

Like everyone else that enjoys watching birds at lakes, I have seen and photographed egrets many time. This time however, was more of a close encounter than I expected. I was turned away from the water shooting a tree, when Lonnie said “Egret!” as it flew seemingly right in front of us. Then it looped back and made a right turn heading right at us. It looped back and then made its way along the shoreline to the other end of the lake. I had my 300 zoom lens on my camera and was able to capture most of this encounter, but the ones where it headed straight at us are a bit blurry. Later, when I looked at my photo of the tree, the egret can be see between the branches as it headed our way.

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Bye-bye Blackbirds!

I love red-winged blackbirds! I have seen them often at Willow Lake, but this was the first time I had seen them at Watson. They flew in fast and disappeared into the grasses along the shore, and then flew away just as fast. In between, I could hear them inside the weeds. Sometimes other flocks would join them- and then off they’d go. It’s a successful shoot for me if the red shows on their wings. Getting a good closeup shot is on my bucket list!

Besides the blackbirds, we saw a bald eagle, a great blue heron, an egret, many ducks, and possibly two loons!

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Leaf Peeping

We drove up to Flagstaff Sunday and joined the masses of leaf peepers driving the road to Snow Bowl to enjoy the fall color. We stopped at Aspen Corner and walked around admiring the aspens that have turned to gold. They are a week or two from their peak color, but this was likely the only time we would be able to drive up there. We continued on to Snow Bowl (the ski resort), where there was even more fall color. It was a great day to be out in nature!

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Lakeside

Ahhh the lazy days of summer, just hanging out by a lake- in this case, at our daughter’s cabin at Crooked Lake in Alaska. The sunlight shimmering on the water behind the fireweed caught my eye, and I tried to capture the dreamy feeling using multiple exposures and a slow shutter.

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In the Forest

We’ve just returned from a visit with our daughter’s family in Alaska. My camera got a workout taking dozens of senior photos of our oldest grandson, and lots of ICM photos of places we’ve visited many times, trying to capture them in a different way. The photos here taken on a short hike to a spot we had never visited before- Barbara Falls in Eagle River. I took the photo above as we walked along and the more traditional photo below of the falls themselves. Quite a contrast to Arizona!

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BIF

I have just returned from photographing sandhill cranes at Whitewater Draw in southern Arizona. Lonnie and I went with a group of people from my camera club- and this was my very first time seeing the cranes, as well as photographing birds in flight. It was an amazing, bucket list type adventure- such a wonderful escape from stress! I highly recommend taking a break from the news, soaking yourself in nature and just watching the birds. What does BIF mean? Birds in Flight of course!

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Aurora

The aurora was visible right over our house last night!

I had received a text with a photo just taken of the aurora visible from Colorado. I didn’t have any real hope of getting a photo, because last time we drove all over Prescott trying to see it without any luck at all. I knew that it might not be visible to the naked eye and that people here had seen it before by taking iPhone photos. I went out to the driveway and just aimed my iPhone at the sky in a northeast direction and there was the purple! I did not see streaks or dancing lights or any green at all, but the color was definitely there. I used night mode on my iPhone for most of the shots so that I would see the stars against the dark background and increased the exposure slightly to get the color. My hands shake, so the focus on the stars isn’t perfect.

Below is another view looking out across the street from our driveway.

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Tern in the Rain

When we were in Alaska, we managed to get out as often as we could despite the rainy weather. We strolled along the wooden walkways at Potter Marsh and were thrilled to see this Arctic Tern perched above the water. From time to time it would fly down to fish, but was mostly hunkered down on this stump, as the rain grew more intense. I had only seen one in the air, never on land, so it was a thrill to be able to get a photo, even this far away. I was also amazed that you can see the rain in this shot; the rain was intense!

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Rainy Day on the Turnagain Arm

We have just returned from a trip to Alaska to visit our daughter’s beautiful family. Like on our first trip eight years ago, it rained most of the time. My husband and I love the views of the Turnagain Arm along the Seward highway, so did not let the rains stop us from driving on the beautiful stretch of highway between Anchorage and Girdwood. We stopped at Beluga Point and Bird Point as usual, but the rain started getting more intense and it became more and more difficult to get good photos and keep my camera dry. I ended up using the Slow Shutter app on my iPhone to capture a series of ICM images through the car window as we drove along. The raindrops on the window added interesting patterns, and I ended up being very happy with the resulting impressionistic images. This one is one of the least abstract and is one of my favorites.

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