robert100

this is a superb bunch of photographs from everyone, i've really enjoyed looking at them all, but the reason for coming on to make a comment, is to Lex Jenkins. Lex, re your comment you "hope this isn't too long" re your gear-talk, I vote in your favor, I really enjoyed your explanations, I doubt I'll ever do any ir stuff and not with that equipment, but this is about photography, and you can talk techy details for hours about gear you use to get the images and not bore me.... and you just gave me a couple of ideas for some stuff to play with in photoshop...... thanks.

1201 hours Sunday Aug3 2014 sucking on a thistle in the patch of 'em at the corner of the main yard. I'm not really a “bug guy” in terms of knowing or caring what names or classifications man has given them, I just photograph 'em because the forest holds a variety which are constantly flowing through on the wing and along the mountainside on sunny days you can search out camera angles catching dramatic backlighting with the deep shade of the forest behind giving photographs with punchy chromas and strong high-contrast subject to background ratios. A friend of mine who is deeply involved in bug stuff tells me this one is known as a Woodlands Skipper.<div></div>

the wild blackberries are beginning to ripen<div></div>

Thom P.....very effective photograph, wonderfully composed, i looked at that for quite a while before i even discovered the second beaver.....

tree swallow<div></div>

third image, Great Horned Owl<div></div>

second image<div></div>

I had to go up island on business Monday so took advantage of being in the area to swing over and spend time at a marsh which has Tree Swallows nesting. Set up the 7D with Tamron 70-300 at 300 on a tripod near a nesting hole they were flying bugs to for an adult perched inside which I anticipate must have been sitting on a nest. Used the old tried-and-true method from the days of manual focus/ manual film advance, pre-focused on an area in space, set the shutter at 1/1000 and hammered the shutter as they threw their wings wide as air-brakes and flew through it. The third image, the Great Horned Owl, is from yesterday back here at the studio-trailer, there's a new robin's nest nearby and there were a dozen adults screamin' their heads off just as I poured a coffee so I grabbed the camera and went for a look and sho' 'nuff, they were scolding the heck of this big dude and flying in its face to distract it. It's been here pretty steady lately because there are dozens of tender young Quail to feast on. Owl photo is on the T3i, I also have it outfitted with a twin Tamron SP 70-300.<div></div>

Yes, "young are born". More than once during a season. I discovered this nest here on the property two days ago, Saturday 07-19-2014. It's very difficult to see, I had to climb to a shaky perch 2 meters up and about 15 meters from it to the only spot i could photograph from, and then by timing my bursts for the times the leafy branches between myself and it were parted slightly by the breeze..From the brief glimpses I did get, it appears there are 6 or maybe 7 nestlings in it. I didn't want to focus my own attention on it for very long and potentially give its location away to predators and won't check on it often for that same reason. They have a tough enough time surviving as it is without someone giving away their location to the Great Horned Owls, Barred Owls, Coopers Hawks and Stellar Jays which are constantly on the prowl for nests here .Of the 6 or 7 little heads in there, the norm is for one, maybe two at most, to ever live to fly as an adult. I'll ignore it except for a quick look for a few minutes maybe every four or five days.<div></div>

0902 hours pacific 07172014 (...photo'd 7 minutes before the second image posted today)<div></div>

0909 hours (pacific) thursday 07172014 (47 minutes ago).....<div></div>

1014 hours wed 07162014<div></div>

early walk sunday july13 2014<div></div>

second image<div></div>

Photographing butterflies reminds me to stop and smell the flowers. Draggin' the gear out with the big boys into the dust clouds which tears up lenses and the intense heat which can melt a sensor, is what pays the bills. "Excloud" 40D 50mil, "Hardhat" 7D 300mil.<div></div>

7D Tamron sp70-300<div></div>

Lost in this entire discussion about whether a photo of a bird on a post is a "nature" photograph or not, is the matter of "what constitutes a "Photography" topic of discussion". Personally, having earned a living with a camera for as long as anyone on here, I've never before found myself in a discussion with Photographers which opened with a treatise on the history of invasive plants on an island in the pacific back in the early stages of World War Two. It's like I said to David Stephens on the original post, frankly folks, to be watching this discussion of "what is relevant" in this, is funnier than H, I just laugh, go grab a camera and walk out into the forest with the Cougar and the Bear.

No sweat David, and don't mistake anything i've said on here as "angst", I'm totally relaxed about all of it, I live every day of my life totally immersed in the real stuff and love every minute of it. The real "nature", complete with its scattering of man-made objects the animals live in and around. In the parking area by my studio trailer. The attitudes voiced here about "what nature is" don't cause me to "not be relaxed", I grew up in a canoe and a tent and still live surrounded by animals of the wilderness 24/7/365. In addition to two cars in the parking lot there's a small skid-steer, a backhoe, and a small excavator. I've watched two families of robins use those heavy metal man made objects as perches all spring and summer, there's s pair of California Quail with about two dozen little ones who've been running all over around and under the treads on the excavator for a week, the deer who stroll the yard use them as scratching posts, and five minutes before I began typing this I was watching one of the wild hare who come out of hiding at this time of the evening, eating grass growing a foot from the man made tires on my car. In spring, the Red Breasted Sapsuckers who were mating used the metal cladding on the old winery building, and the upside down half pop bottles abandoned on the posts in the vineyard, as very loud, sounding boards on which to do their rat-a-tat-tat drumming part of the mating challenge. There are weekly sightings of bear and Cougar in the area, and it's not unusual to find bear scat alongside the blackberry and grape vines, or to see the turkey vultures taking advantage of a Cougar kill, and if you intend to photograph a Turkey Vulture sitting on something, you'll find more of them perched on the massive high-power electrical towers on this mountain than you will on tree branches. They've become quite accustomed to making those metal man-made things their new-age "tree perch". When you live it 24.7, as I do, and get to live it by choice, nothing can "un" relax you. That doesn't prevent me from simply stating facts, and the fact in this case is, that anyone who thinks fence posts somehow don't exist around wild animals needs to get their head out of......the sand, and take a look around. Back at the farm in Alberta for example, if you intend to photograph a barn swallow, the odds are pretty much you're gonna be standing somewhere near an old barn. I frankly have just been a bit surprised, in that I guess I anticipated a nature "photography" forum to probably be a bit more inclined to talk (if at all) about things like camera angles and lighting angles as it relates to photographing plants and animals, more so than a recap of the history of invasive plants on Guam followed by a critique of someone posting a people photo. I thought they kind of offset each other in terms of irrelevance. The nice part of it all, is that tomorrow, you'll get up and grab a camera and go look for an owl, I'll get up, grab a camera, and as I do every day, head off for a three mile hike along the mountain during which I will photograph Vultures or Eagles or Deer or Cougar or whichever pops up, along with quite likely a robin or family of quail or crowned sparrow perched on one of the non-natural pop bottles upturned on one of the non-natural posts, or a pile of non-natural vineyard netting, and...the birds won't care that it's man-made, and neither will I, we'll just enjoy being out there seeing each other. While on the other hand, there will be people who will be "un" relaxed, because "they" will be the ones who won't be able to forget this and move on, they now "need" to formalize it. (what's funny, is that apparently it's more "nature" to photo a hummingbird sucking at a flower on a patio in the city as long as you don't show the patio furniture, than a wolf peeing on a fence post in a farm field it you show the fence post.....see...now that, is hilarious) Anyway, it's their right to formalize "rules", and it's what they enjoy doing, so we just laugh and stay out of it. You and I, David, we are the lucky ones, because we'll be doing what we came for....the photography. Incidentally, the only photo.net place I have images now is at my actual Imagepro website maintained through photo,net....robert100.photography,com if you're interested in a look-see. Keep up the good work.

you would probably enjoy this dude's work, he pretty much spends his waking hours with camera at hand near the Osprey https://www.facebook.com/KristoferRowePhotography

David, I am a true admirer of your images, and your attitude toward nature. I was particularly enthused about a comment you made concerning the Owls you photographed, when you stated you were not going to reveal their location in order to let them retain most of their privacy. However, you may need reading glasses this time around. Forget what it says at the opening, Laura made some comments after that. And then had "the heavy artillery" chime in to support her. in which there were specific comments made about birds- on-posts and birds-on-wires were "pretty well "outside" of what should be here"...and posted a second time in which he wrote, here on this thread, the following: ----------------- As Laura points out, to make a long story short, nature photography means no human-made objects in the images. Obviously there is a lot of gray areas. For example, we are not going to be very picky if there is a distant powerline in the background in your New England foliage image or a fence shows up in the corner of you picture, but please keep even those situations to a minimum and do not show non- nature content in the main part, foreground of the image. __________ got that, David ? No human made objects in the image......and specifically not in the foreground. David, they can retitle this thing The Fungi Forum, narrow it down to that as a topic, leave it at that, and they'll all be happy.And that\s what this is all about. Every one needs a place to be happy, and this is Laura's place she needs to be happy. She spends a lot of time on it, she earns the space and the enjoyment it brings her. My cameras earn me a very good living. But none of it, on this forum. So to me....it's irrelevant. I started posting here a couple of months back because frankly, thinking about it on Sunday nights re what I may post, gave me a relaxing sideline to play with over a coffee. It doesn't pay my bills, these aren't "money images", and I really, really, don't care what they do with it.

it will be very interesting to see the "official" guidelines for this forum. If birds sitting on posts, or wires in the background are ruled out, then you'll be ruling out ninety nine percent of the natural animals I am in contact with and photograph every day. Here on Vancouver Island I live on what was an active Winery, which is no longer active. In its wake, are left 12 acres of imported/invasive species of vines now being overgrown by invasive broom ,and european blackberries...plus....over a thousand abandoned fence posts, several miles of stringing-wire, each of the fence posts topped in fact with a now-abandoned plastic pop bottle half nailed to its top to keep the netting, which was there to keep the native birds out, from snagging on the posts. However.......in addition to all that now abandoned man-made crap, there are hundreds of birds nesting in that former vineyard....there are California Quail, Nighthawks, a variety of sparrows, Flickers, dozens of Robins......etc etc etc. It is almost impossible for me to photograph any of those birds without getting one of the posts, and the running wires, in the photo, because those are now "an integral part of" those birds "natural" surroundings. It is where they are raising their young. Hundreds of them at the moment. (the bee photo I posted today is on a flower which is no more than a foot away from one of the vineyard posts in fact) That's here on the Island. Back on my farm in Ab, there are 300 acres of open cropland, interspersed with standing areas of woodland, and through it all, intertwined and "part of it all", are fence posts and lean-to's the Martens and Swallows nest in and the squirrels nest in and teach their young how to run on and around, a massive big old Barn no longer used commercially, and in which I was fortunate enough to photograph a pair of Mating Great Horned Owl as well as Swallows in the act of feeding fleges. The farm is also awash on a constant basis with Skunk, Coyote, Red Fox, Weasel, Gopher, Badger, etc, all of whom run in and around and between the graineries...and give birth to, and raise their young in-and-among-and-between the graineries and the fence posts and the cattle lean-to's. I'm a commercial photographer by profession. Heavy Industrial on location, Commercial Farming Ops, Aircraft, Seaccraft, etc. The "money photos" I produce which pay the bills and buy the toys aren't for forums such as this, they are images of heavy, dangerous, fast-moving active and aggressive equipment..............and I don't post them here. But if you rule out "birds on posts" and things like birds or coyotes or fox with "wires in the background", you are ruling out the "natural surroundings" in which I photograph hundreds of birds and animals. The hundreds and birds and animals which are........."Nature"........on well over a thousand acres of the two areas I work in and call home. No sweat folks, it strikes me you're gonna go a little overboard, but posting here has been a hobby sideline, not something that pays my bills, not something I have to keep doing. Enjoy your days, enjoy every moment of every one of em. It's why we're on the planet.

one day on your walk you photo a turkey vulture with a 2 meter wingspan, next day on the same walk the flyer you see is a wee tad smaller than that, i think they both belong here. Near as i can tell, the folks who've been here the longest feel the most damaging invasive species to hit this island was european man, so, who knows, as much as I thought images like the people-photo weren't allowed, maybe it fits after all<div></div>

Rodger, it's a pure fluke of timing. I've been at that lagoon and watched Heron stalk for an hour and come up empty. The tides enter and exit the lagoon through a very narrow passage, the incoming tide raises the level which sweeps tons of food fish into the lagoon, then when the tide is falling, the water level lowers rapidly and the fast flow sweeps a whole mess of food into a shallow funnel making it a hunter's field day. The Heron in the photo had pretty much the prime spot for me to photo it from, close to the exposed wet sand, but there were a couple of dozen more feeding successfully two hundred yards "out". The same thing happens with shellfish, there were a few dozen gulls picking off shellfish, climbing skyward, and releasing them to smash open on the exposed rocky-sandbars. I actually had gone there after dropping my laundry off, with the hope of finding a chance to get a decent image of an Oyster Catcher. I saw one...airborne two hundred yards away, but got lucky on the other stuff. It also taught me a lesson in the process, showed me that if I'm going to spend time birding at the coast, then I need to invest time and energy to learn how to read tidal charts and then use that to plan my trips to the water for periods of low tide and when the tide is going out, that's when feeding images will he happening. Incidentally, the lagoon these are at is Esquimalt Lagoon just outside the Pacific Fleet Naval Base outside Victoria at the southern tip of Vancouver Island. I've had my studio-trailer high up the mountain side on a vineyard north of the city for just over a year and even though I get lots of wildlife and vultures etc up here and i'm only a few hundred yards from the edge of the ocean I'm 700 feet above it, so only do the shore-bird thing when I take laundry in. Thanks for the comment and keep lookin at the world through a lens.

With all due respect to Rodger Baker and apologies for posting such a similar image , I too had a Heron image put together to post today and it's an almost identical camera angle to yours. This is from last Wednesday, sometimes when I head down off the mountain to take my laundry to the laundromat in town I then follow out to a lagoon by the Naval base. The outgoing tide was quickly dropping the water level and where it funnels through a narrow gap to the ocean this Blue Heron was having a feast, picking off a small fish at least every third time he stuck his head down, and giving me just as big a fest as he, I banked over 8 hundred images of a variety of birds at the lagoon in a few hours, close to a hundred of them with a fish in the process of becoming this Heron's lunch.<div></div>

a couple of hours ago on the first part of my morning hike along the mountain I spotted two lonely crimson dots growing among the vines and other-stuff in one corner of the no-longer-cultivated vineyard<div></div>