As we inched our way toward the cranes, I heard the sound that always shatters my serenity like, well, a shotgun. Because it was a shotgun — very close by. In a clearing across the river, just a hop and a skip from where we were …
Archives for October 2010
Great Blue Dreams
We came upon this Great Blue Heron, perched statuesque above a leash-free dog area. The dog walkers didn’t look up. Neither did the dogs. But my eye is always looking …
Dine Like an Eagle
We came upon this scene on a Seattle area beach . . . a small stretch of private community beach where we have a pass. Planted on the pebbles, way far away, too far for my 70-300mm lens, we watched as this Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) wrangled with a second eagle, a group of crows,…
Spillway
At the Ballard Locks there’s a mist that hangs over the spillway, the meeting of nature and machine, sending and suspending droplets across the sky and onto my camera lens.
A Merlin’s Dragonfly Day
I expected duck photos and got a Merlin. This female used her perch to survey the mass of dragonflies below. She regularly dove then reappeared on this tree with a dragonfly in talon. The Merlin Falcon Foundation has information on Merlins of Western Washington and British Columbia, including Merlin behavioral insights and audio of their…
House Fly Cafe
Could be a diner shuttered by the Health Department, or . . . A house fly doing what house flies do: bringing up saliva to liquefy food. Flies tend to stand still through their moments of digestion, making macros of this phenomenon possible. Shot on a friend’s porch, after a rain deluge, with my Panasonic…
The Art of Gull Feet
Pigeon Over Seattle
This pigeon did aerial turns and hovers that rivaled a raptor’s. I captured a few frames as she took off from Pike Place Market and hovered for a few seconds against Seattle’s skyline. Thanks to SkeletalMess on Flickr for the Creative Commons texture “Tainted” which I used in the above rendering. Related Pigeon Posts: Lancelot-Guinevere:…
I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
A Starling’s tribute to Duke Ellington . . . jockeying for best song position, and losing it to a crow. Shot with my Olympus E-520 and Zuiko 70-300mm. The photo was taken as the sun receded behind clouds, just above the horizon, so it was later-afternoon warm and filtered.