Tuesday, 7 of February of 2012
Landscape | Wildlife | Nature | Photography
I went birding today at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in the Everglades and got skunked. There just wasn’t much action out there. It happens. Since there were few birds, I looked for interesting swampscapes. Here’s one I like:
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Swampscape
Autumn Aspens. . .
One month ago today . . .
Were at their peak fall color . . .
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Aspens near Durango
On Sunday morning I made my first trip to Squaw Creek NWR since the great flood of 2011. The refuge closed in June when the Missouri river left its banks and submerged portions of the refuge, thousands of acres of farm land, homes, businesses, and several miles of I-29. The waters have mostly receded. The Refuge re-opened on August 26 and I-29 re-opened last week.
Each autumn, Squaw Creek is a major resting and feeding ground for migrating snow geese. It also attracts hundreds of bald eagles each year as they follow the geese south for the winter. It will be interesting to see if the migration will be affected in anyway by the flood. There are still submerged fields visible from the Interstate and I imagine the migrating birds will have feeding and resting locations that did not exist prior to the flood.
Of course the snow geese have yet to arrive this year and the Refuge was pretty quite this morning. Even on quiet days however, Squaw Creek usually has something to offer. This morning the most interesting find was this cattle egret. I know cattle egrets are fairly common in much of the U.S. but this is the first I have seen at Squaw Creek. I shot this guy about 30 minutes after sunrise from my car with a Pentax K-5 and Pentax DA*300 (hand held) 1/3200s at f/4.0 -1.3 EV ISO400.
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Cattle Egret
Three is a magic number. Compositions of three objects usually work better than those of two or four. Not sure why, they just do. There are lots of studies that show there is a psychological advantage to three in marketing, writing, and composition. Apparently, it is easier for the human brain to process groups of three. Somewhere I read that it all comes down to the way we humans process information. We are proficient at pattern recognition and three is the smallest number of elements required to create a pattern. Hence, the power of three.
I feel this photo works on many levels; lighting, color, and composition (get it, three!). The composition includes groups of three; clouds, mountain peaks, and reflections. It would probably also work with four mountains or two clouds, but there seems to be something to the power of three. What do you think?
Technical – photo taken with Canon 5D Mark II and Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM at 50mm, 1/8s f/9.0 ISO 100 with CPL and GND.
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Molas Lake, San Juan Mountains
There is something about mountains and horses that are irresistible to me. Horses and mountains go together like peanut butter and jelly. When I’m shooting in the mountains, I am always on the look out for a scene that includes horses. You usually have a compelling composition when you find them together.
This scene presented itself near Ridgway, Colorado a couple of weeks ago. I was admiring the rugged peaks of the Sneffels Range as I rounded a curve in the gravel road. When the horses became visible, I knew this was one of those places where I could include horses in a classic landscape.
The light was a bit of a challenge but, in the end as usual, makes the shot one of my favorites. The sun was rather high in the sky at 4:00 PM and was positioned in front of me to the upper right of the frame. The distant mountains were covered in haze and providing a contrasting background to the the back lit aspens in their autumn color.
By the way, the original True Grit movie starring John Wayne was filmed in and around Ridgway (maybe that is part of my fascination of mountains and horses). There’s even a restaurant in town called the True Grit Cafe. It is decorated in classic western decor and is a must stop for the first time visitor but, for my money, I prefer the food and service at Thai Paradise just up the street.
Technical stuff: This photo was made with the Canon 5D Mark II and Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II at 155mm 1/40s at f/11.0 ISO 100 with CPL and GND. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that in post I cloned out about 250 lbs of horse shit from the pasture; you never see horse shit in a classic John Wayne movie.
Thanks for looking.
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Near Ridgway, CO