Female Phainopepla
A female Phainopepla. Two images combined using Multiply blend mode.
Posts from the ‘Birds’ Category
Jan 14
Dec 31
COLD
We’re in for a couple more nights of mid 20s. Brrr. I’m betting the Gambel’s Quail don’t like it any more than we do 🙂
Captured this morning from my dining room window.
Dec 12
Phainopepla
I’m assisting on an MSC educational hike in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve this morning. Subject: Birding. Since I’ll be on duty, I won’t have time for photos so here’s a shot of a Phainopepla I captured yesterday while hiking the Marcus Landslide trail.
Sep 9
Bird in Wildflowers
A montage containing a sweet little bird, two photos of dried flowers, blowing grasses and some rusty metal.
Sep 5
Gambel’s Quail at Sunrise
I put a Cholla Skeleton outside the dining room window knowing birds would use as a perch and I’d have a good chance of getting some nice images. The hard part, though, is keeping the birds from seeing me! It’s no problem in the afternoon but at sunrise, they take off at the slightest movement so I typically crawl on the floor until I reach the window and then slowly get up. Sometimes I make it but not this time. I like the result anyway 🙂
Aug 20
Schultz Pass Road
Calling all Wildflower lovers!!! Because of heavy snows, this is a banner year for Wildflowers in Flagstaff so it is well worth the drive. I recommend going up Schultz Pass Road to the Sunset Trailhead. Once there, look for the Shultz Tank trail (or something like that). It’s about a mile hike or so but you’ll see flowers all along the trail. The Tank should be your goal, though, as I have never seen so many varieties of flowers! This Hummingbird literally flew into my shot 🙂
Aug 13
White Pelicans
This image was taken very early in the morning during a workshop with Art Morris in January of 2004. It was barely light outside and there was heavy fog so I knew it would be a tough exposure but it was such a beautiful scene I had to try. Besides, it was dead calm and the Pelicans weren’t moving so I figured I might get something. I was practicing, after all, so I put my Canon 10D with a 100-400mm lens on a tripod, set my ISO to 1600, aperture to f/11 and fired off three shots. I had barely pressed the shutter when one of the Pelicans decided to lift off. It was really underexposed and at ISO 1600, you can imagine the tremendous amount of noise!
Back then, it was impossible to remove that amount of noise but I loved the images so I kept them. Now we have phenomenal noise reduction software and although the image isn’t perfect, I’m able to make an acceptable small print. Moral? If have a poorly exposed image but you love the composition and subject matter, don’t delete it! You WILL be able to recover it some day.
Aug 2
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
My first sighting of a Ladder-backed Woodpecker and I see two right outside my kitchen window! I wondered if they might be fledglings because feathers on their heads were a little sparse. I searched online and read that juveniles of both sexes have red on their heads so I might be right. Light rain and a slightly dirty window kept me from getting a really clear shot but once again, I have a photo for the day 🙂
