Monday in Nature Weekly Photo October 27, 2014

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<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. Feel free to link your image to a larger version.<br /> <strong><em>In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Please refrain from images with obvious buildings or large manmade structures like roads. A bird on the fence post or bug on your finger is fine. Try to minimize man made features, keep the focus on nature, and let common sense be your guide. Let's post 1 image per week. </em></strong><em>More details please <a href="/nature-photography-forum/00cgtY">check here</a>.</em></p>

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<p>Good Morning Nature Lovers,<br /> Hopefully you were able to get out and enjoy the changing seasons. There were some great raptor migration moments at a nearby area. Sometimes we head out equipped for certain images, but then miss other opportunities. It would have been nice to have a long lens to photograph a bit of an altercation between a Bald Eagle and a Golden Eagle as they migrated south. It was good to watch. Wider angles were my focus and the woodlands abound with interest from any perspective.</p>

<p>It's Monday in Nature and time to get the week started. What's happening in your end of the woods?</p><div></div>

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

<p>Spider webs.</p><div></div>

<p>I've been in opposite timezones for a bit. Although overly common to the folks who live there, I was happy to finally see the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo in its natural habitat... an urban park. But at least not in a cage.</p><div></div>

<p>Was at Cordorus State Park near York PA this weekend, but just after peak colors apparently. Nonetheless, did manage to get some nice shots. However, this little guy/lady came to visit at the house, landing on the screen to the sliding glass door. I grabbed my Lumix FZ200 and installed the Raynox 250 closeup diopter. My wife thought it would look much 'cuter' posed on one of our pumpkins, but I told her I didn't pose nature, so leave it alone. I grabbed a few shots, and turned my back for a moment to review them away from the sun. Suddenly, a blood-curdling shriek pierced the evening air. I turned to see my wife trying to hide behind me. The temptation to move it had been too much. Now it was on my t-shirt staring up at me in its attack position. More blood-curdling shrieks (I won't say from whom). Eventually we gathered our senses, and I gently removed it with my camera strap. I can only assume it then went on to find a less dramatic screen to perch on.</p><div></div>

<p>Nice liverwort Rick. Here it's leaves changing colour, rain saturating the colours, high winds stripping them off, more changing colour, more rain, more winds (you get the idea).</p><div></div>

<p>An <em><strong>American White Pelican</strong></em> landing at White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas. About 100 of these birds spend the winter here. They arrive mid-October and head back North by mid-April. </p><div></div>

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17891653-md.jpg" alt="6D 012PN" width="680" height="453" border="0" /></center>

<p>A marsh along Rt. 3 in Mid Coast Maine. </p><div></div>

<p>Tree growing out of a crack</p><div></div>

<p>Meanwhile, back in geology class... ;-)</p>

<p>This is not exactly one of the most dramatic Sedona red rocks, but it's still interesting (at least, to me). It's on the road to Red Rocks State Park, just off the main highway. The "eye" is visible only for a couple of seconds, and you have to be looking in the right direction when you drive by, or you miss it altogether. It's probably a good thing there was no other traffic that morning...</p><div></div>

<p>was walking a bridle trail looking for some fall color when this guy buzzed over me and landed on this branch about 50 yards in front of me....it stayed just long enough for me to take off my pack, grab the camera and switch lenses</p><div></div>

<p><strong>Hawk Eye</strong></p>

<p><a title="Hawk Eye by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5606/15637910745_420380cb6c_c.jpg" alt="Hawk Eye" width="800" height="534" /></a></p>

<p>As nature photographers we love to capture our subjects in close up, revealing in sharp detail every hair, feather, or scale. However, it is also worthwhile to step back a bit and place our subject in its environment. Here's what was happening in the Ngorongoro crater woods. 5D2 / Tamron 150-600mm at 213mm; 1/200s at f/8 ISO 200.</p><div></div>

<p>As Bill Jordan's story above shows, nature's getting ready for Halloween too!</p><div></div>

<p>More from Australia.</p>

<p>Chitons in tidal pool, Southern Western Australia <br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17823684-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="451" /></p>

<p>Rick D., I really like the processing on your giraffe shot. Any hints as to what you did (assuming it's ok to discuss such here)?</p>

<p>Good question Bill - actually, I did very little to this photo. It was shot in RAW under cloudy conditions, so the lighting was nice and soft. In ACR I adjusted the color temp. to daylight (cloudy was too yellow), clarity to +9, Vibrance to +16, and saturation to +3. I also applied lens correction. In PS I adjusted the levels (black 9, mid-tones 0.93 and white 223), and then de-noised with Nik Dfine2 and then sharpened for output. I'll post a larger copy to my Tanzania folder. Cheers, RickDB</p>

<p><img src="/photo/17889873" alt="" />Mine is some boulders located close to a water front in Brossard Quebec. Vibrance was boosted slightly. d300 1/160s at f9</p><div></div>

<p>This was near Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario. </p><div></div>

<p>Headed to a park near you! This line of Canadas and a few Snows stretched over kms on the lake. Here one day and then on their way south the next.</p><div></div>

<p>John, while I don't recognize any of the snows it looks like a few of those Canadas made it to southern California already - I could swear I recognize several from the ones I passed in the park yesterday! It's the goose super highway in action ;-)</p>

<p>Wonderful shots everyone !</p>

<p>Mine is a sleeping bumble bee . </p><div></div>

<p>From a walk in the woods</p>

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