Monday in Nature Weekly Photo Nov. 4, 2013

<blockquote>

<p><br>

</p>

<p ><strong >Basic Guidelines</strong>: Nature based subject matter. Please, declare captive subjects. Keep your image at/under 700 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing and try to keep file size under 300kb. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. <em >In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Let common sense be your guide.</em> Do you have a series of great shots to compliment your post? Please, tell us where they are so we can see them.</p>

<p ><strong ><em >Let's make this a true Photo of the Week and only post 1 image per week.</em></strong></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Greetings Nature Lovers,<br>

How many times have you looked at a scene and thought "there's a shot in there"? Whether it's a hillside, a beach, a tree, a cliff face, sand dunes, bayou, reef, you know there's a picture, but can't quite bring your vision home. Or, in the same vein, what is brought home somehow leaves you wanting. Arrghhhhhhhhh. Then one day, you walk up the beach from a different direction, get on the other side of the canyon, paddle up the bayou instead of walking on the levee, get up 2 hours earlier. One way or another, we see things differently and there is the picture. Well, you brought the camera, didn't you?</p>

<p>Recently a co-worker/nature photographer and I were talking about the idea of seeing versus merely looking around with regard to photography. The conversation led me to look at a photo of<em> Xylobolus frustulatus</em> with "new eyes". These hard little grayish fungi grow almost exclusively on decayed oaks. I had a hard time getting these right, even though they present themselves in fantastic abstract forms. Too close, and they look like little butts/bums/rears connected by old spider schmutz. The B&W treatment suits their "nature" and akin to the vision I had in the woods.</p>

<p>It's Monday in Nature. Had any visions lately?</p><div></div>

<p>Now all I can see is little derrières on the oak, Laura! ;-) Interesting fungus.</p>

<p>I like sneaking up on an animal without them being disturbed by my presence. However, it is rare that I ever use an artificial blind, preferring to use what is naturally available and simple stealth. And a long focal length with some judicious cropping gets my frame filled. Like this Snowy Egret portrait.</p>

<div></div>

<p>Good Monday morning to all. Still taking advantage of the beautiful Fall foliage around North East Ohio. </p><div></div>

<p>Visions, eh?<br>

I got up early Sunday to catch some nice light with birds flying through and blazzing leaves in the backgrounds. I had the perfect position. I waited. No Eagles. I waited. No Herons. I waited. Even the Canada Geese didn't want to fly where I wanted them to. So I turned into the sun and fog on the other side and caught this Great Blue Heron.<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17585279-lg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="506" /><br>

Great Blue Heron, Eagle Creek, Indianapolis. Pentax K5iis, 600mm f5.6 A Cropped ISO 3200.<br>

Sorry about the black around the image. I'm currently software limited.</p>

<p>I was looking at fall colors & was taken by the chaos/fractal dimension of it all. The greens working into the reds, the branching of the veins. Try as I could, I just wasn't catching it with the camera. I tried B&W (with a little help from my best friend :) ). Still not what I was going for, but I think it may be the best I can do this season.</p><div></div>

<p>Mark, I didn't even think of derrières! Pretty egret.</p>

<p>American White Pelican at White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas. </p><div></div>

<p>I've often seen an impressive landscape or what seemed to be an interesting scene only to find that it didn't translate to an interesting photograph. I'm sure it's in part due to a lack in my skills as a photographer, but I think a photographic image can't always communicate what our eyes see.<br>

As for my image this week, I live here right at the edge of where the eclipse was at all visible. The moon got completely out of the suns way within a couple minutes of the sunrise. But I got lucky and as the sun became visible the clouds vanished and for about a minute you could see the small bit of the moon passing in front of the sun.<br>

<a href="/photo/17584930&size=lg"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17584930-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="475" /></a><br>

Click on the image to see it larger.</p>

<p>I got down low for a snake's eye view of the bay.</p><div></div>

<p>This one from a while ago presented itself as I was walking to get the mail. I love how nature can transport you from the mundane to being awe inspired in a moment. </p><div></div>

<p>Milky Way from northcentral Pennsylvania</p><div></div>

<p>The vision is still not adequately rendered, but water is a fickle thing. This was an attempt to capture the feel of the flood-force waters here this past week. I sat on a rock in the middle of the creek and tried numerous combinations of aperture, speed, and framing, but none worked as I had intended. Stopping the water failed to give the sense of action, letting it flow lost some of the hard edges. Including the rocks was distracting. Excluding them was misleading. So here is a nearly monochromatic swirl of the water rushing down Bull Creek. Having spent part of the weekend handing out relief supplies to those in the flooding, I am aware of the contrast between the almost rose-bud looking swirl in this shot and the real power of water and its impact on people as much as on nature. </p><div></div>

<p>Water drainage channels on a sandy beach.</p><div></div>

<p>A spider among the foliage.</p>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17586508-md.jpg" alt="spider'sfoliage" width="680" height="453" border="0" /></center>

<p>So, did anyone else get up Sunday morning to see the eclipse? Here in the Tallahassee are we were at the very western limit. The eclipse was ending just as the sun was rising. This is what we saw.</p><div></div>

<p>Fall color in the Santa Catalina Mountains.</p>

<div></div>

<p>We don't get the spectacular fall colors here in Florida, but there is enough to let us know fall has really arrived.</p><div></div>

<p>Just got back from a trip to Wisconsin. I was very lucky to run into this group of juvenile Whooping Cranes, an endangered species, that were released from captivity recently. The Whoopers are white with cinnamon markings. They were raised from hatchlings through the spring and summer by keepers costumed as birds so that they could be released into Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin. The hope is that they will accompany adult Whooping Cranes on migration into the southern United States in a few weeks. When I saw them they were with Sandhill Cranes. Following the Sandhills is another option. The birds are monitored using VHF and satellite telemetry.</p><div></div>

<p>Really stunning work today. <br>

Laura, you do have a great eye for your subjects.<br>

Mark, love the look you caught. Gorgeous exposure and detail on those white feathers<br>

John P, lovely landscape, very serene<br>

Douglas, wonderful fog shot .<br>

Rick, very nice post on the leaf. Really adds to the detail and texture.<br>

Bill, love the inflight position on this one.<br>

Gorgeous shot Siegfreid, full of drama<br>

Gordon, that is really a stunning shot, fantastic composition , great detail and textures and I don't even like snakes :)<br>

Will try and get back later as there are so many wonderful shots.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>My shot today is not what I was expecting or planning to shoot. However, in the late afternoon setting sun, the colors almost monotone, well just had to try and get a shot.<br>

D800 300mm f/4 with 1.4 TC <br>

Hope you enjoy</p>

<div></div>

<p>More often than not, I'll go out looking for feathered subjects with at least a vision of which species I'd like to catch in what pose/action. Sometimes this includes a more or less elaborate plan for time/spot/approach etc.</p>

<p>Most of the time the plan and vision don't work out at all - but on the best days something entirely unexpected occurs instead that I happen to click accidentally of an entirely different subject on the way there or back. Past week I was hoping to catch more raptors feeding or flying low, and they didn't oblige. But by then I had already taken a quick stop by this Cassing's Kingbird for what I thought would be a very static shot of it gobbling down a green darner.</p>

<p>Instead, it treated me to a 2-second juggling act that I didn't even get to actually figure out until it was over!</p>

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

<p>A Fall scene I found out walking in the woods</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Pied Grebe</strong></p>

<p><a title="Pied Grebe by dcstep, on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3775/10367581296_a1c10403d7_z.jpg" alt="Pied Grebe" width="640" height="427" /></a><br>

Click on the image if you'd like to see it in a more modern size.</p>

<p>Bald Eagle in tree near Driggs, Idaho.</p><div></div>

<p>yesterday morning on my tromp thru the woods</p><div></div>