Monday in Nature POTW 6-3-2013

[Laura Weishaupt]

<blockquote>

<p><br>

</p>

<p >Basic guidelines: Nature based subject matter. Please, declare captive subjects. Please keep your image at/ under 700 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing. and <strong>please try to keep the file size under 300kb</strong><strong >.</strong> Note tha<strong >t </strong>this includes photos hosted off-site(at Flickr, 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 and we'll work out the details as we go forward. <strong >Lets post 1 image per week for awhile.</strong></em></p>

<p > </p>

</blockquote>

<p>Good Morning,<br>

Thanks to all who made the first outing for this thread such an incredible success. Let's keep it up.<br>

Sometimes the small things catch our attention. Details in leaves, feathers, textures, draw our eye and pull us in. Such was the case with my contribution this week, a delicate fungi, Galerina hypnorum. This is one of many fungi found growing in mosses throughout the woods. What caught your attention?</p><div></div>

[Rick Bortnick]

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

[bob-c]

<p>Off to a great start. Laura, I must admit my appreciation of fungi (at least the beauty of) has increased significantly due to your postings every week. Rick, that's a very nice shot.<br>

I hope my pic qualifies as "nature." I stopped here on my way to work one day last week. It was one of those foggy mornings and the light was just right.</p><div></div>

[slopoki]

<p>Hi folks,<br>

Taking last Sat at Flamingo. A hawk was chasing this Eagle away from the area. The hawk probably nesting close by.<br>

http://www.slopoki1.com</p>

<div></div>

[Member69643]

<p>Our rainy weather finally paused yesterday, and we had a decent sky for a trip to the local nature center and pond.</p><div></div>

[colin carron]

<p>a pair of puffins nesting on the uninhabited Scottish Island of Lunga. The puffin colony seem fairly relaxed about human visitors maybe because predators are deterred. </p><div></div>

[kirigoi]

<p>Lovely shots all, and a smashing photo Rick in particular. I'd like to draw attention to Keith Reeder's photo of a pair of Gannets in Yorkshire last week as well; he posted just before the thread closed so I think a lot of people might have missed it.</p>

<p>To answer your question about providing larger images Keith, I suppose there's no reason not to post an inline photo at less than 700px, but provide a link to a larger photo if you choose. You'd have to host two versions of the picture with the link pointing to the larger one, but I agree some shots would benefit from greater resolution. People may justifiably not want to post high-resolution versions of their photos online however. I'll obviously also let Laura be the judge of whether that's approprate to this thread.</p>

<p>To give an example I'll post the following, which hopefully is in keeping with Laura's "small things" post. Unfortunately I am in the middle of exams at the moment so haven't had opportunity to get out so this photo is from 8 weeks ago when I still had free time(!) It was taken at the Sea Life Centre in Birmingham so is a photo of a captive animal under artificial lighting. I suppose it also technically includes the "hand of man" as the starfish in question is crawling across a pane of glass; however this affords a view that would normally be impossible so perhaps it has some merit. I'd have liked to take a video as the movement of the tube feet was mesmerising; but I was already pushing the limits of my technique (and equipment!) as this was an extreme macro taken hand-held at 1/30s f/4 using ISO 6400.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.skylight3d.com/images/photoNet/Release%20The%20Kraken.jpg"><img src="http://www.skylight3d.com/images/photoNet/Starfish.jpg" alt="" /></a></p>

<p>I'll try to do better next time Laura; at least it's not a picture of my cat! Also, how are people posting their images centre justified? I'm sure that's something I should have picked up during my time on photo.net. Perhaps I should use the forums more often...</p>

[biomed]

<p>On my early morning walk.<br>

<a href="/nature-photography-forum/photo?photo_id=17412133&size=lg"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17412133-md.jpg" alt="seven-falls-s100-001" width="680" height="542" border="0" /></a><br>

Canon PowerShot S100.</p>

[kirigoi]

<p>Never mind; I worked it out; I was just mispelling centre/center.</p>

[hugh_duguid1]

<p><br />Canon Eos 7D, 50mm f/2.8</p><div></div>

[Jon Eckman]

<p>This small in our world, large in its domain visitor certainly caught my eye -</p><div></div>

[Miha]

<p>Hi, my picture for today is of a praying mantis. It was crawling upon a plant of basil - Ocimum Basilicum (I hope to get it right). Taken with a 105mm macro lens, wide open. Hope you'll like it.<br>

Regards, Miha.</p><div></div>

[birdied]

<p>Wonderful shots everyone! I do most of my photo hunting in the Bonnet Carre Spillway. While the rising levels of the Mississippi have left many of my spots under water, it has also created some wonderful fishing opportunities for some of the local residents .<br>

Here a Snowy Egret standing on one of the footing to the spillway structure does some shrimping. I had so much fun watching this one , who was so animated.<br>

Hope you enjoy !</p><div></div>

[dcstep]

<p>Great thread. Wonderful shots.</p>

<p>Here's mine:</p>

<p><a title="Red-tail hawk greets me... by dcstep, on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8246/8454973812_052da8f452_z.jpg" alt="Red-tail hawk greets me..." width="640" height="640" /></a><br>

These shots are intended to be viewed in more than 700-pixel limits. If you click on the image, it'll take you to Flickr where you can see this in higher resolution.</p>

[kts]

<p>water, earth, animal, sky</p><div></div>

[stemked]

<p>While I got some great bird photos this week, my favorite image has to be a small Eastern Gartersnake I found in Starkery Nature Preserve, Indianapolis, IN (USA).<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17408193-md.jpg" alt="" width="680" height="450" /><br>

Pentax K5iis, D FA 100/2.8 Macro WR at f14, handheld on camera popup flash. ISO 400 (I think)</p>

[ShunCheung]

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

[johnkenthill]

<p>Duck!</p><div></div>

[wazungi]

<p>Good Morning Everyone,<br /> Isn't this forum off to a brilliant start? This week's offerings amaze me in their beauty and variety, but I'm most taken with Mark's starfish; it's simply beautiful. My shot for the week is of one of our local wasps feeding on an onion flower. I've seen many bees on flowers, but this wasp is a first for me. A correction to the data: ISO 400</p><div></div>

[wayne_wrights]

<p>Mama bear just got through rooting an old rooted log looking for ants and etc. Image was taken with a Nikon D300 and a 70-200mm f2.8 lens. Cades Cove TN.</p><div></div>

[jonathan_parkhouse1]

<p>Bringing back a choice delicacy for the chicks:</p><div></div>

[CoryAmmerman]

<p>Visiting a local lake recently.</p><div></div>

[bruce_gibson1]

<p>purple lichen</p><div></div>

[David_Cavan]

<p>A follow-up to last week's photo from Reifel Wildfowl Sanctuary in Delta, BC, here's a shot of a robin from our previous trip out there. A rainy day, so it's a little darker than I'd like, but I guess birds have to find worms in the rain too.</p><div></div>

[Laura Weishaupt]

<p>We're off to a beautiful and varied start. Great shots all. Yes Robert, I'm in full fungal mode.</p>

<p>I did see Keith's beautiful Gannet post. While the thread was closed to contributions, it is still there for viewing. If anyone missed the Gannets, go have a look.</p>

<p>Mark, I think as long as captives are declared as such, we all understand that there are "hand of man" elements present. Last week we had shots taken through glass. Let's not let that detract from the beauty of the subject, or your lovely presentation. As I think more on these ideas I'm starting to come up with where I envision the "lines" might be. As Monday in Nature moves forward we'll get a better sense about this. Perhaps when considering photos of captives, we can concentrate on the nature of the subject rather than the captivity itself. Please, do include what aquarium, zoo, arboretum, etc. in that "captive declaration" It may be helpful information for other folks in the community.</p>

<p>Hugh, maybe a word or two about your frog and where if flew in from and where it landed.</p>

<p>David, while the 700 pixels is a photo.net standard, it looks like you have a creative alternative for those who want to see your image the way you intended. </p>

<p>Roberta, wow! What a great time that must have been.</p>

<p>Miha and Jon, great mantis shots.</p>

<p>John K. Hill, ahhhhhhh, wins the cute award.</p>

<p>More later on.</p>