Today I headed out to Claireville to take photos at the feeders just off the main trail/road.
The Old Bridge
I had to get some shots of the bridge. It’s one of the more interesting things to photograph here in Claireville. The shadows from the late day sun from vines and the other side give this photo a lot of character.
Posing
At the feeder, the nuthatches were flying back and forth getting their food for the day.
Grabbing a Snack
They are even willing to land on your hand if you have some seeds to share with them.
I had a lot of fun getting photos of the birds and always look forward to the cold temps when it’s okay to feed them like this. In summer they are too busy to be bothered with us and our seeds when there is so much more to eat.
Today on my neighbourhood walk, I decided to focus on photographing subjects that would look good in black and white. It had rained earlier today so things were wet and droplets were in abundance. Droplets on leaves always look fantastic in black and white, in my opinion.
Wet Leaves
On the sidewalk, I came across this leaf that was infested with eggs, or at least, I think they’re eggs. Regardless, it looked neat and it caught my attention and so the photo was taken.
Eggs on Leaf
Close to the end of my walk, I found this white-lipped snail having a munch on a dried leaf.
White-lipped snail
Usually I just see these little guys hanging out on stems – either snoozing or slowing making their way somewhere. This one, however, I could actually see eating, If you look hard at the photo can you “see” him eating?
On today’s installment of my neighborhood walk, I decided to look for groupings and patterns in nature. My first grouping of flowers is these fluffy little puffballs that have obviously moved onto their next stage of life. I have no idea what they might be but they are soft to the touch.
Fluffy Balls
I guess that they may have been a type of thistle or something.
I then came across this Queen’s Anne Lace whose pattern was broken by a little petal from the sumac.
Sumac petal on Queen Anne’s Lace
I don’t know if they call this little nub a petal or not but I’m going to refer to it that way.
Zucchini leaf
Walking back home, I noticed these leaves poking out from a backyard fence into the creek area. I think they either belong to the zucchini plant or possibly a cucumber plant. Either way, I was intrigued by the veining in the leaf. I created a black and white image to accentuate the contrast between the veins and the rest of the leaf.
There are a lot of patterns in nature, and when you make an effort to look for it, you’ll find it everywhere.
Today I decided not to bring my Nikon camera along on my walk but rather take the smaller Fuji camera that my friend Nigel gave me. It’s a great camera but I just love my Nikon so much I just can’t seem to go out without it. But today, I finally tore myself away from Nikon and stepped into the world of Fuji.
Dried Leaf
I walked over to one of the local parks and I decided to focus on patterns and texture in my photos today. A dried leaf on the piece of wood caught my eye and I immediately got a few shots of it. The original shot is in colour but I found I was able to see more of the textures if I converted the image to black and white and really cropped into the leaf.
Wood Pattern
Not too far from the leaf, I found this old log. It’s irregular pattern and texture was amazing. I can almost feel the wood under my hand.
I think my Fuji did a very good job of capturing the images I was looking for. Now I just have to occasionally give up the dependency on my Nikon. 😉
At the beginning of my walk today I noticed a couple of birds flying in and out of this very tall birdhouse. The macro lens is not the tool for this job but I thought it was an interesting viewpoint from way down below. With a little cropping and adding some clouds to the cloudless sky, I created the photo below.
Bird House
From here I focused on finding macro shots, that is what my challenge to myself is after all. I have been taking lots of macro photos but they haven’t been that great so that’s why you are seeing such a mix of shots photographed with the105mm macro lens.
Seed pods
I keep coming across interesting seed pods and I wonder what the heck they look like in full bloom. The seeds in the photo above reminded me of these creatures from an original Star Trek episode (Operation–Annihilate). I wonder what kind of plant it is and what it looks like in summer. Hopefully, I’ll be able to recognize it to take a photo.
Leaf in BW
I found this dried leaf that has somehow wrapped itself around its stem and still kept curling in on itself. It really popped when I decided to change it to a black and white image. Sometimes taking the colour out of an image can make an image you thought was too busy or just not that great into something that you love.