Monday in Nature January 2, 2017

<blockquote>

<p><strong>Basic Guidelines</strong>: Nature based subject matter. Please, declare captive subjects. Keep your image at/under 1000 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. Feel free to link your image to a larger version. <strong><em>In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Please refrain from images with obvious buildings or large man made structures like roads, fences, walls. Minimize man made features and keep the focus on nature. </em></strong><br>

<strong><em> </em></strong><br>

<strong><em>Are you new to this thread? We post one image per week. For more details on guidelines please read <a href="/nature-photography-forum/00cgtY">this</a> helpful information. </em></strong></p>

</blockquote>

<p>New Years Greetings,<br>

It's time to welcome the new year. Nature has it's own celebratory sounds: claps of thunder, howling winds, roaring just about anything from lions to rivers. Nothing sounds quite like ice, and ice sounds like many things. From large slabs in rivers to bergs and glaciers, ice sings its songs in deep tones. Rocks bounced off frozen pools in the Feather River sound like electronic instruments echoing off the steep canyon walls. A tinny cracking sound spreads underfoot when geese slowly walk on very thin ice. Branches hanging over waters edge become laden with ice ornaments that gently clunk and jingle with a breeze. Ice storms have their own sounds in the forest as the branches are coated, and then all crashes and falls. It is beautiful, and as dangerous as it is inviting, especially so for photographers. You know who you are.</p>

<p>Local lakes are thawing and thin sheets of ice have been washed to the shore where they have piled up. The make wonderful sounds as waves lap the shore. The fine pieces sound like a lakeside slushy whirl. My husband described the larger pieces as ice chimes. When the breeze picked up they chimed and sparkled with the swells all along a section of shoreline.</p>

<p>It was a pleasant sound for the beginning of January. With eyes closed it sounded like a thousand clinking glittery glasses and a wish for Monday in Nature.</p><div></div>

<p>Egret seen in Austin, Texas.</p><div></div>

<p>Pitcher plant seen at Flower Show so technically captive !</p><div></div>

<p>Early morning sky</p><div></div>

<p>Watch where you step in the jungle...</p><div></div>

<p>Looks like MiN is off to a fine start for 2017. No ice on the Florida lakes, but a misty morning resulted in some beautiful dew bejeweled webs.</p><div></div>

<p>Sunrise on Lake Michigan</p><div></div>

<p>Made yesterday around noon:</p>

<div></div>

<p>First 2017 session - ice and mat grass</p><div></div>

<p>Brown pelican (<em>Pelecanus occidentalis</em>) with mating plumage</p><div></div>

<p>Autumnal fog.<br>

P.S.: should be ... nearby (sorry).</p><div></div>

<p>Open range in the San Rafael Valley of Arizona.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks, Laura, for keeping MiN going. And thanks to the generosity of the photographers who post, some of the best pictures I've ever seen are right here.<br /><br />Not ice but there was some wonderful scum out at the wetlands yesterday.</p><div></div>

<p>My apologies to everyone. I did not think about the tracks in my photo representing the "hand of man" until Shun pointed it out to me in an email.</p>

<p>A frost covered almond that refuses to drop off the tree. Canon 5D Mk IV and Vivitar 100-300 f/5 close focus zoom circa 1969.</p><div></div>

<p>Hanging on by a thread, waiting to re-seed.</p><div></div>

<p>Gull</p><div></div>

<p><img src="/photo/18328368" alt="" />Happy New Year and may 2017 be bountiful. Laura many thanks for keeping this going and I can 2nd the aforementioned comment that some of the best photos to be seen are here in this forum. And we start 2017 with some fabulous images.</p>

<p>PS An autumn shot in parc Tremblant Quebec Canada</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<blockquote>

<p>Bill Todd: "I did not think about the tracks in my photo representing the "hand of man"</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I didn't think of it too. The tracks add dynamics to the composition.</p>

<p>Here's a shot from the Canadian Rockies. </p>

<p>Happy New Year Everyone!</p><div></div>

<blockquote>

<p>My apologies to everyone. I did not think about the tracks in my photo representing the "hand of man" until Shun pointed it out to me in an email.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Bill, don't worry about it. Actually Laura and I tend to send this type of reminder perhaps once or twice a month on the average, but we do that in the background such that it is not obvious to everybody. Typically I check with Laura first.</p>

<p>Since I look for sign of human activity in each image, usually it is not hard for me to spot them. Unless it is a serious and repeated non-compliance, we don't make a big deal out of it. However, I'll take the opportunity to remind everybody that this is a thread about nature photography with specific guidelines. For non-nature images, there are many weekly image threads on other forums on photo.net.</p>

<p>OK, granted, this is bit of a longing.....:>)</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Big Buck Heads Into The Sunset</strong></p>

<p><a title="Headin' Home" href=" data-flickr-embed="true"><img src="https://c3.staticflickr.com/1/577/32000813426_b5a9c79cfe_b.jpg" alt="Headin' Home" width="1024" height="819" /></a></p>

<p>Happy New Year.</p>

<p>Wind blown snow.</p><div></div>

<p>Snowy day...</p><div></div>

<p>Another week of beautiful, inspiring images--I love this forum. Thanks, Laura, for making it happen (and for getting me interested in fungus and lichen photography)! Meanwhile, I'm still experimenting with focus stacking. This one's from a handheld series captured using burst mode with a slow-motion lean with a non-macro lens--probably not a standard method, but it seems to work in a tripod-less pinch. And pardon my weakness in lichen ID--am I close?</p><div></div>