Oct 312012
 

In Nevada near Carson are wild horses.  Not sure if they are generations of horses left from the cowboys and miners of old.  One thing is sure.  They are not easy to find.  And they are shy.  For the most part just don’t like two legged fat guys carrying a camera I guess.

Not being an expert I wonder about their condition.  Look at the mare.  I think the lady horse is called a mare.  She is the all black horse with what looks like sway back and her ribs are showing.

Look close at what I am pretty sure is her offspring.  Not sure what baby horses are called.  It may be more than a baby.  But I bet not more than a year old.

The younger ones of this group of four wild horses stay close together.  And close to the Mare (Mom).

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Then there is DAD!

Stud?

Stallion?

Father Horse?

All I know is that he was not happy with me.  Was I really a challenge for him?  He was all over the place.  Often to stop and see if I was impressed.  Little did he know I am scared to death of horses.  All he had to do was take one step towards me and I would have ran to the car screaming like a little girl!

I think he’s awesome looking.  Grundgy yet strong.  ((Did man get the idea for dreadlocks from horses?)

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 Posted by at 10:34 PM
Oct 282012
 

The duck hunting season is in full swing.

The DUCKS are on the run.

D4, 200-400mm f/4 lens, 1/125 second @ f/8, ISO 800

 Posted by at 10:41 PM
Oct 272012
 

Tonight I got out kinda late to Farmington.

Gray skies, little light, tons of hunters and few birds.

So….It was about the eyes with these two captured tonight!

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 Posted by at 10:11 PM
Oct 272012
 

Learning the biology of critters around the country is half the fun of photographing them.

I found this Double Crested Cormorant and wondered why it’s typical black body and neck was out of sorts.  Did a little homework.  This is a junior Double Crested Cormorant.  The younger bunch have a lighter throat.  Learned something new again.  It’s a somewhat goofing looking bird.

 Posted by at 4:26 PM
Oct 272012
 

There is always a first when it comes to photography.

I see this bird every year.  Finally this Loggerhead Shrike posed long enough to let me capture a couple of photographs.

From Wikipedia:

The Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) is a passerine bird. It is the only member of the shrike family endemic to North America; the related Northern Shrike (L. excubitor) occurs north of its range but also in the Palearctic.The bird has a large hooked bill; the head and back are grey and the underparts white. The wings and tail are black, with white patches on the wings and white on the outer tail feather. The black face mask extends over the bill, unlike that of the similar but slightly larger Northern Shrike.  The bird breeds in semi-open areas in southern OntarioQuebec and the Canadian prairie provinces, south to Mexico. It nests in dense trees and shrubs. The female lays 4 to 8 eggs in a bulky cup made of twigs and grass. There is an increase in average clutch size as latitude increases. The shrike is a permanent resident in the southern part of the range; northern birds migrate further south. The bird waits on a perch with open lines of sight and swoops down to capture prey. Its food is large insects and lizards . Known in many parts as the “Butcher Bird,” it impales its prey on thorns or barbed wire before eating it, because it does not have the talons of the larger birds of prey.  The population of this species has declined in the northeastern parts of its range, possibly due to loss of suitable habitat and pesticide use.”Loggerhead” refers to the relatively large head as compared to the rest of the body.

Conservation status

The Eastern Loggerhead Shrike (L.l. migrans) is critically endangered in Canada. (Although only one island subspecies is legally listed as endangered in the United States, the species is declining continentwide and no longer occurs in most of the northeastern U.S.)A captive population was established at the Toronto Zoo and McGill University in 1997. In 2001 an experimental field breeding and release program managed by Wildlife Preservation Canada was established. “Field breeding” refers to moving captive pairs from their wintering cages at the Toronto Zoo and McGill to large enclosures within shrike habitat in Ontario where the pairs nest and raise their young and then the young are released to the wild when they’d naturally disperse from their parents. Since 2004 over 90 young have been released annually and between 2% and 6.5% of young released have successfully migrated and returned to breed in the subsequent year.

I captured this cute little bugger with my D4, 600mm lens at f/4,  1/8000 second @ ISO800.  I believe what gave me this opportunity was that I shot this from my car.  On two feet I could not have approached as close as I was.  In post I cropped about 10% to a panoramic feel.

 Posted by at 3:52 PM
Oct 242012
 

Every year I see this big beautiful edifice on the mountainside in Bountiful and say I will photograph it with fall colors.

Never did it.

Tonight at 5:45 I finally found a spot unobstructed by houses, power-lines, street lights and the like.  I was at least a mile away.  Had to use the longest lens I have.  Nikons 600mm f/4 lens.  Standing on the soccer fields at the Bountiful Recreation Center I captured this shot.  A little contrasty.  But OK

 Posted by at 10:10 PM
Oct 212012
 

Cool weather = slow moving insects.

I had fun again today at Bear Lake with a little wasp.  The poor guy was freezing.  Kinda like on drugs.  Could not fly away but alert enough to give me the big “stinger”.  I turned him over and photographed his belly.  Teased him enough that he was pretty ticked at me.  Made for some real fun photography.  And a Wasp with some real issues when I left.

All shots with D4, 105mm Macro lens, at 3200 ISO.  Some shots are at f5 and others are at f29.  You’ll see the difference….

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 Posted by at 5:28 PM
Oct 172012
 

A long drive from Baker City, Oregon to Milton Freewater, Oregon.

I needed a break!

The drive up a canyon imposed a ton of photo opportunities.  An approaching exit sign described “Perry’s Pond”.  With the fall colors all around it had to be good.  It was great.  My time at Perry’s Pond was wonderful, relaxing, and energizing.  All shots were taken with the D4, 28-300 lens and used a Polarizer to take glare off the water. Where is Perry’s Pond?

45 degrees, 20′, 41″ N

118 Degrees, 9′, 18″ W

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 Posted by at 9:54 PM
2016