Briefly....

My apologies for being remiss in my posting these last two weeks... back into a crazy busy patch... The Ashley Gang (my band) will be performing Friday at the library in Sebastian, FL (kids show -- holy moley!), and on Saturday at the Bluesboro Cafe  in Rockledge (near Cocoa). I put Mrs. Muse on a plane from Orlando to visit family in Ohio for a few days, and today was in the studio working on my solo recording project. Then there's this little thing called "making a living"... so I appreciate the understanding of those who have been nudging me to post some new photos. There just haven't been any. What I will do is recommend  a new book for those who are (like me) avid readers. I downloaded "Faithful Place" to my Kindle yesterday -- the new Tana French mystery, and stayed up (too) late into the night reading the first 25% of it. If you enjoy detective stories (her's are based in Ireland), go get it! More soon. Really.

County Dock - After the Storm...

Another Sunday evening trip to the County Dock on the Saint Johns River, off of Mandarin Point.  The tide was in after a hard rain, and the ammonia smell of the algae blooms, while still present, was tolerable, and there were no dead fish in the water. In fact, the water was teeming with manatees -- a family of at least three, maybe four kept us well entertained for a good thirty minutes. Unfortunately I had only my 10-20mm lens on the D200 tonight, expecting to shoot the drama in the sky, not in the river, so no photos of the sea cows worth sharing today... On the other hand, the scene was beautiful as the cloudy remnants of the recent storm played agains the descending sun....

All of the images here (except the one above) are three-exposure HDR images, processed using Photomatix Pro. Some were also run through a Topaz Adjust filter to provide a variety of interpretations of the scene. So enough chatter -- I'll let the photos speak for themselves. These will help you understand why I'm in love with this river...

Unti next time -- enjoy your week, appreciate the world around you, and take good care of it....

In The Backyard, Again -- July 4, 2010

She was in and out too quickly yesterday for me to capture a shot.. but today was another day, and another opportunity to photograph the humming bird who comes to visit our porter weed a couple of time each day. This was her second trip in today, and was raining lightly. I had the D200 handy with the 70-300 VR lens mounted. I stepped out under the shelter of the eves to avoid the rain, hoping not to frighten her away, and voila!

The light wasn't great and I forgot to switch the VR on, but these aren't too bad...

She stuck it out for quite awhile -- visiting every small blue blossom, then came zipping at full throttle directly at me by the porch, stopping to check out a daisy about two feet from me and my camera -- the lens too long to focus on her at such a close distance... then she was gone in an instant...

Her visit motivated me to clean out the old humming bird feeder, cook up some sugar water, and hang it out in the garden next to her favorite flowers. We've never had any luck getting the hummers to visit the feeder -- they clearly prefer the real thing -- but who know... maybe this year. Come back and find out...

Today in the Backyard

Today was one of those comfortable (even for Florida in July), lazy Saturdays when the choice between heading out somewhere or just hanging around the house was an easy one. We stayed put. Worked on the yard a bit --- and kept the D200 nearby with the 150mm macro lens. The D200 give the lens 50% additional reach thanks to the digital crop factor that I don't get in the full-frame (but preferred for most shooting) D700... The one humming bird that I saw was in and out too fast for me to shoot, but I did find the occasional target...

A dragon fly finding nourishment in the spent blossom of a canna lily (taken from above and behind). He was an excellent and patient model...

We have replaced a portion of our water and fertilizer-hungry Saint Augustine lawn with native perennial peanut. Now well established after a month in the ground, these self-sustaining little ground covering plants gift us with tiny bright yellow blossoms every morning...

This clown spider has taken up residence in the side yard, having woven a multi-level condo / insect trap that would make I.M. Pei proud. Even wide open at f/2.8 the breeze was blowing too hard for a perfect hand-held shot... but you get the general idea...

Getting eye-to-eye with the Dragon made him a little nervous -- so he took off, then decided I was probably harmless and came back, keeping those huge eyes on me as I moved around and closed in. The intricacy of the wings is amazing. Click on the image for a full sized view.

Just goes to show you that if you're patient and observant, nature will put on the best show on earth for you...