Whimbrel Nature Photography

Sculpting with Liquids (with the Science and How-To)

2012-03-03T20:41:00.000-05:00

Water and Milk Drops - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Why Water and Milk Drops?

Why would a nature photographer be doing water and milk drops in the studio? A fair question, and I'd like to answer beyond the obvious "I'm stuck inside recuperating, and this is the only photography I could do." While I don't plan on making this sort of photography my main focus, I do view these images as a natural extension of my body of work, rather than a side-line or departure from it. This work is an excellent way to graphically depict some of the amazing properties of water. This fits perfectly with Whimbrel Nature's mission of educating about science and the natural world through imagery.

We really never stop to appreciate what an amazing substance water is and how its properties are so crucial to life on this planet. So bear with me as I discuss a little bit of the science behind the properties of water and how those properties relate to the anatomy of droplets and splashes. I'll focus on water, but keep in mind that milk is approximately 88% water. At the end of the article, I'll include a little how-to that explains the relatively cheap and quick technique (there are other more complicated and expensive ways to do it out there; search the web) I used to obtain these images, in case you'd like to try it yourself.

A Little Chemistry, A Little Biology...

Still there? I know some folks tend to run screaming at the mention of chemistry (thanks to some truly dreadful chemistry teachers I used to be right on your heels), but a brief overview of the chemistry of water is necessary to fully understand the importance of water's properties to the biological world.

A water molecule is made up of three atoms, one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. Each atom is composed of a collection of particles known as protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are located in the nucleus of the atoms and electrons occur outside the nucleus. Each hydrogen atom has one proton (positively charged particle) in its nucleus and one electron (negatively charged particle). An oxygen atom has eight protons in its nucleus and eight electrons outside the nucleus (two in the first energy level and six in the next). The oxygen and hydrogen in a water molecule form what is known as a covalent bond. The hydrogen molecules each share their one electron with oxygen and in turn, oxygen shares one electron with each hydrogen atom. This allows the hydrogen to achieve a more stable outer electron configuration of two and the oxygen atom to achieve a more stable outer electron configuration of eight. However, they don't share these electrons evenly. This is known as a polar covalent bond. Oxygen, with all those positively charged protons in its nucleus, pulls harder on its outer (negatively charged) electrons (opposites attract right?), than the hydrogen does. This property of an atom is known as electronegativity and is determined by the proton force in the nucleus and the amount of "shielding" (other electrons and distance) between the nucleus and the outer electrons.

So in essence, oxygen hogs the shared electrons and they spend more time closer to the oxygen than to the hydrogen. So the oxygen has slightly more negative charge floating around it than it used to, and hydrogen has slightly less, but each still has the same amount of positively charged protons in their nuclei. That positive proton charge used to balance out the negatively charged electrons in each atom, but now the hydrogen has slightly less negative charge around it and the oxygen has slightly more. So the hydrogens develop a slight positive charge on the side of the atom away from the oxygen and the oxygen develops a slight negative charge on the side away from the two hydrogen atoms. The molecule is now polar. It has a negatively-charged end (the oxygen side) and a positively-charged end (the side with the two hydrogens). This polarity is what leads to many of the amazing and biologically important properties.

The charged ends (negative on the oxygen side and positive on the hydrogens) of water molecules all jumbled together can now be attracted to one another (opposite charges attract again) and form a weak bond known as a "hydrogen bond". The polarity of water and the hydrogen bonding lead to some of the biologically important properties of water.

What are some of these biologically important properties of water? Well, there are quite a few and they can be broken down in different ways or teased out into greater detail/divisions, but here are some examples (there are more):

1. Solid water is less dense than liquid water. Have you ever wondered why your ice cube floats in your water glass? Do you think this is the usual behavior for solid and liquid forms of a substance? Ice floats because of the hydrogen bonds. In liquid water the molecules are floating past one another rapidly and the weak hydrogen bonds are rapidly breaking and reforming, allowing the molecules to get quite close to one another. As you cool the liquid into ice, the molecules slow down and the hydrogen bonds become more stable, thus holding the water molecules apart in a regular lattice. The molecules are now spaced farther apart (less dense), so ice will float on water. Why is this important biologically? Because when a pond or lake freezes in winter, the ice floats on top and provides an insulating layer that prevents/delays the water underneath from freezing. Thus the plants, fish, and other underwater organisms are able to survive in the liquid water under the ice. If ice sank, many ponds and lakes around the world would freeze solid from bottom to top, killing the organisms living in it, and many northern bodies of water probably wouldn't ever completely thaw at all.

2. Water is an extremely good solvent. Because water molecules are polar and have charged ends, they are attracted to and surround other charged molecules and ions, and are able to pull these substances into solution. It is no mistake that our cells and essentially our bodies are sacks of water. The water allows us to store and transport chemicals essential to life and carry out all the important chemical reactions that keep us alive.

3. Water is adhesive. Because of their polar charges, water molecules tend to stick to other polar or charged substances. For an example, look at the way water or blood climbs up the glass walls of a capillary tube against gravity. This same action helps water move from the roots of a plant, up the stem, to the leaves.

4. Water is cohesive. Because of the hydrogen bonding, water molecules tend to stick to other water molecules; i.e. water sticks to itself. This is another reason water can move up a plant, against gravity, from the roots to the leaves. The water molecules above pull more water molecules up behind them. This also leads to the property known as surface tension. While water molecules in the middle of a body of water tend to be pulled by other water molecules on all sides (equaling out the forces), water molecules at the surface are only pulled inward which tends to cause the surface to contract as much as it can and resist outside forces.

Cohesion and surface tension are responsible for much of the behavior of water drops and splashes.

Anatomy Of Droplets and Splashes

As you squeeze the dropper, a drop begins to form at the tip of the dropper. This drop stretches out and finally falls when the mass of the drop overcomes the cohesion and surface tension causing it to remain attached to the liquid in the dropper. It starts out then in the raindrop or teardrop shape that is typically depicted, but as the drop falls through the air, the surface tension pulls the walls of the drop inward until it forms a sphere. This sphere shape minimizes the "wall tension" as much as possible.

The drop then impacts with the surface of the basin liquid, causing a small initial splash as the energy of the impact allows some liquid to overcome the surface tension and fly off as droplets.

As the impact continues the drop carves out a larger crater and the impact raises a larger splash known as the "crown" or "coronet" because of its shape. This wall of water is held together against the force of the impact by the cohesive force of the water molecules.

The impact has also cratered the surface of the water or stretched the surface downwards. Some of the energy of the impact is spreading out horizontally in the form of waves, but much of it is held in by the force of the surface tension and contained in the downward force of the crater. As the impact force dissipates, the surface tension snaps back, causing a "jet" or "column" to form.

Sometimes the jet or column will have enough energy to throw off a droplet upward just before it collapses. Here you can see one beginning to form.

If a second drop falls soon after the first, the falling drop can collide with the jet from the previous drop. You can see that about to happen here.

And here is the result. The sheet of water or milk is caused by the surface tension and cohesion holding against the energy of the impact. At the edges you can see droplets that have enough energy to escape the pull of cohesion. For a great high-speed video of the entire sequence, check out this water droplet clip from the Discovery show Time Warp.

A Low-Cost, Low-Investment Technique For Capturing Water and Milk Drops

You can certainly invest in or build a lot of equipment to make water and milk drop images. There are rigs to perfectly time the sequence of drops and even coordinate that sequence with the firing of your flashes. You can invest in large flash set-ups that sync with your camera and/or drop equipment. You can buy or build photo or sound sensors to fire the flashes at the appropriate moment. However, since droplet photography was never going to be my mainstay, I was looking for a way to produce droplet images with the equipment I had on hand, without great expense, and without having to drive around (I still can't drive yet) to get specialized equipment or supplies. Can you get better and more reliable results with better equipment? Absolutely! My method requires a lot of trial-and-error, patience, and generally prevents you from getting a lot of the complex forms that some photographers get with perfectly timed equipment. But you can still make some great images!

Here is what I used:
-Water
-Milk
-Liquid Food Coloring
-10ml plastic medicine syringe (started out with a dropper, but found the syringe much easier to control)
-14" diameter 2" deep pizza pan
-Old small table (inverted)
-hoe handle (any sort of sturdy cross-beam will do)
-cheap white plastic table cloth
-duct tape
-Canon 7D
-Canon 180mm f/3.5L lens
-Vivitar 2600 flash
-tripod

Here is an image of the rig I built (in a very short time). [Note: that I built my rig in my garage which was good as I ended up spilling quite a bit of water here and there]

I used the legs of the inverted table as a support for the (hoe) cross-beam that held the syringe in place. I used plenty of duct tape to try to keep the syringe from moving as I depressed the plunger. As I said above, I found the syringe much easier to control than a bulb dropper and less issues with air bubbles etc... You can use a variety of containers for the landing basin, but I found the circular pizza pan fit well between the table's struts and allowed me to photograph at the angle I wanted, without including the edges of the pan in the frame. I tried a variety of combinations, but with the relatively low amount of light from my single flash unit, blue water in the basin with milk in the syringe made the most pleasing and visible combination. The color of the basin water just got better and better as I added more drops of milk to it as well.

The key to high-speed flash photography is that most camera flash units (particularly older ones) control the amount of light a scene gets by the duration of the flash. If you can get the flash to use a very short duration, say around 50 microseconds or so, you can freeze the action. There are several ways to get that short duration flash. With newer flash units you can set the flash output to 1/32 or 1/64 power. You could also modify the photo sensor circuit on old flashes. But if you are cheap and lazy like me and usually shoot natural light (and thus don't have the nice flash gear for your camera yet), you can hold an old-style automatic flash (like the Vivitar 2600 I had left over from my manual days) very close to the water basin and have a reflector on the other side to help bounce light back at the auto sensor and quench the flash very quickly. I found this technique much better than trying to use the on-camera pop-up flash set at 1/32 power (although you can make that work somewhat decently as well). The reflector also helps to bounce some more light back onto the splash and open up the deep shadows on the other side of the flash.

At the beginning of any session, first I would do a few test drops and center a large blue dropper bulb where the drops were hitting. Then I'd use magnified Live View on the 7D to manually focus on the front top of the dropper bulb. To make an image (here is where the patience part comes in), I would turn out the lights (for this method it will have to be dark). The camera settings varied somewhat and depended on the liquids I was using, but I generally found that between ISO 800 and 1000 at f/14 to f/16 worked well (even with those apertures it was sometimes difficult to maintain depth of field throughout the splash). The shutter speed was set at eight seconds and I also used the self-timer to give me plenty of time in the darkened room to get into position, prepare, release the drops, and fire the flash. I'd set the self-timer, walk over while the self-timer light was counting down and then put one hand on the syringe and one on the inverted flash unit to fire it manually using the test button. The trick here is getting a feel for the right pressure and timing with the syringe, combined with the right timing to fire the flash with the other hand. Initially it was hard to get anything right, but with practice and feeling a few successes, my percentages went up and I almost always captured something interesting, even if capturing the good double splashes was still a sporadic occurrence (often I'd get a few in a row, over think it, and then lose the timing again for a while).

Obviously drawbacks to this method include the patience necessary to get the timing and pressure right on the syringe and the timing right on firing the flash. Especially initially, the percentage of keepers is pretty low. Another drawback is that with a single small flash unit firing for such a short duration, the amount of light available is very low, thus necessitating high ISOs. Cleaning up the images with some sort of noise reduction was mandatory. In my case I tested out the excellent noise reduction available in the Lightroom 4 Beta release. Given the low light, and the somewhat textured surface of the bottom of my landing pan, it was also difficult to get satisfying images of lightly colored water. Ideally I'd have a couple of flash units, all slaved somehow to my on-camera flash or to one unit connected with a sync-cord. But that was not the gear I had on hand, so this is the method I used. I'm satisfied with the results.

Check out this link for a more comprehensive guide to water drop photography, which I consulted while designing my set-up.

Questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments section below and I promise I'll answer promptly.

Late Photography Resolutions

2012-01-31T22:31:00.003-05:00

Okay, okay, I know I'm just about a month late on these resolutions. Give the sick guy a break. I've been spending the month focusing on getting a diagnosis and proper treatment for my Lyme disease (with Bartonella) plus riding out the symptoms and reactions to the antibiotics. I take my first full-strength dose of antibiotics tomorrow and I'm hoping within a couple of weeks I'll be back to some semblance of normal. So I'm getting to this post a lot later than I had planned, but it means I've put some thought into it. These are the resolutions I'm making to dramatically improve my photography this year. I bet they might help a lot of you too. Here goes...

1. Photograph with the story in mind.
I need to think more about photographing with telling a story in mind. While it is important to have a good stock collection, the days of breaking into this business solely on stock sales is long over. I need to pitch photo/article packages, and in order to do that I need to spend more time photographing with a story in mind. This will help me get all the photographs I need to tell the story. For example, while I'm out of work, I've been brainstorming some photo/article packages that I could work on and submit to magazines. But I'm often finding that while I have the close-up shots to illustrate the article, I'm missing the big picture, sense of place shots, that are necessary in telling the story. In many cases, I can't shoot those images now until it would be too late to submit these season-critical articles. If I had been photographing with telling a story in mind in the first place, I'd already have these "place" shots in the archives.

On this trip I pre-visualized and got off the beaten path. While I didn't get a ton of images, I made some of my favorite ones.

2. Have objectives for your photo trips and do more pre-visualization.
This is connected to resolution #1 above. With a full-time job and a family, my photography time is somewhat limited. A day when I get skunked can feel pretty painful. As a result, other than picking a location and having a very general idea of what I might be photographing, I spend many of my photo trips just zipping around from place to place, subject to subject, looking to make the most beautiful images that I can, in the hopes of maximizing my "keepers" for any given outing. I'm almost loathe to invest the time, effort, and pre-planning necessary in photographing wildlife that aren't a "sure thing". The temptation to cut my loses and move on is often stronger than my motivation to stick out the possibility of capturing a great image or great behavior. I should have a story in mind and do whatever it takes to get the shots I need to tell that story, regardless of whether that means I might invest a lot of time and effort in something that doesn't pan out on a particular day.

By sitting patiently by a popular feeding pool, I got extraordinarily close to this wintering Ruddy Duck.

3. Do more hiking, waiting, stalking, sitting, and hiding, instead of driving.
Again, this relates to the points above. When I'm just looking to make the highest number of keepers I can in the shortest amount of time, the tendency is to drive the refuge roads back and forth, or stay near the roads where I can move on if something isn't panning out. But, I know that the best wildlife shots come with patience, sitting, and using a blind or ghillie suit. And that the most unique landscapes come from getting off the beaten path and not photographing from the same old car accessible vantage points that everyone else photographs from. I pledge to do more hiking, canoeing, backpacking, sitting, and hiding in my photography this year (with objectives based on the stories I want to tell), and less driving around like a madman.

4. Market, market, market, market yourself.
Having a good website isn't enough. Endlessly posting on social media is not enough. Writing regular, incredible blog posts is not enough (not that I claim my posts to be either regular or incredible). In today's flooded market, the chances that my photography is going to be suddenly "discovered" by one editor, never mind enough editors to turn this into a full-time career that my wife could get behind, is completely nil. I have to put my work directly on their desk. Through submissions, through inquiries, through promotional campaigns. What am I afraid of (see #8)? Chance and luck do not make a good business plan.

If I had gotten enough DOF to make the dragonfly sharp too, this would have been one of my favorite wildlife images.

5. Pay better attention to depth of field in my wildlife images.
Okay, I had to have at least one technical resolution in this list. Some of my favorite wildlife images have been ruined by too shallow a depth of field. Often this has been because of a trade-off between getting the shutter speed to get a sharp image due to animal movement and the poor high ISO performance of my old camera. But sometimes it is just because in the heat of battle, I've been focused on composition, focus, and sharpness and I've forgotten to worry about DOF. With my new camera in hand, I pledge to pay more attention to DOF in my wildlife photographs.

More action and behavior images, less portraits (no matter how beautiful).

6. More action and behavior.
Many of my best animal images are portraits, but I really want to be a photographer of action and animal behavior. Some of what has held me back has been the limitations of my equipment, but some of it has also been from lack of practice. Some of it also has been from that pressure to shoot more keepers, keeping me from experimenting or going for situations that are more dynamic, but less sure. This year, there will be less portraits in my portfolio and more action and behavior.

7. Write more.
This circles back to my first resolution. I'd really like to make my name by selling photo/article packages. I've been practicing and honing my camera craft for the last several years. How much have I been practicing and honing my writing craft?

Rejection can't feel this bad? Right?

8. Fear is not an option.
What's been holding me back from doing more marketing? From submitting photos and/or articles? From putting myself out there? Am I afraid of rejection? Am I afraid of failing? Am I just a natural procrastinator (friends and family are banned from answering this particular rhetorical question in the comments section)? Well, this year, no more.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share your photography resolutions or a link to your photography resolutions in the comments.

Don't Defer...

2011-12-24T22:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays All! I thought I'd start off this somewhat serious/morbid post with some of my favorite winter images to keep everyone in the holiday/winter mood.

Winter Images - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Now, I'm about to break two of my personal rules. First, I don't generally like to broadcast news about my health to random strangers across the internet. It just feels weird; and I know that if most people are like me, they only have a limited tolerance for listening to a long litany of health problems, even if they care about the person very much, never mind a total stranger. The second rule that I'm going to break is to give advice that sounds like the cliched, (practically worthless in real-life) platitudes and quotes that are constantly bandied about, particularly on social media. Don't get me wrong. I'm a dreamer all right, but I also inherited from my Mom a healthy dose of realism and a pretty good B.S. detector.

So, here goes... About 4 weeks ago now I came down with some pretty serious, but weird, neuro-muscular type symptoms (you may have noticed a lack of new photo material or mention of trips). Faintness, dizziness, trouble with balance, numbness and tingling in my limbs, vision problems, muscle aches, muscle weakness, extreme fatigue, etc... It comes and goes, but is a problem for most of every day. I missed the final three weeks of school before the Holiday break, I haven't been able to drive, and I've mostly been home-bound, except for lots of doctor's appointments and tests. We've ruled out a lot of the scariest stuff now (MS. heart issues, Lupus, brain tumor, etc...), but I still don't have any real improvement or a diagnosis. We think that Lyme disease is a likely candidate, but there is a lot of politics surrounding Lyme, and the disease is really tricky to diagnose in its later stages even if the various doctors, testing companies, and insurance companies were all getting along and were actually worried about the suffering patients. I'm waiting on some new tests, but it might be as much as two weeks before I find out if Lyme is definitely ruled in or out. If it is out, and my symptoms still persist, what then?

Now, I'm confident (hopeful) that I will eventually be cured and fully back to normal, but this experience has gotten me thinking. Even though I know better, I've always had this idea that getting my photography/education business fully off the ground and running, and successful, is something that can come later. When I have the time, when I finally get a new camera, when my girl grows up and moves out, when I retire... While I've put some modest efforts into making my dream a reality, I've always been willing to kick the can down the road and put off major efforts until work slows down, or until next summer, or until next year. There was always the assumption that there will be plenty of time later to make things work.

Now I realize, that there are no guarantees that all this time I think I have will be granted to me, or that I will be in the shape I want to be in in order to utilize it. That's a scary thought, but inspiring in a way. Maybe my time is now (or maybe I missed the best part of it). Healthy or not, I plan to start sticking my neck out there more and trying to make this thing a reality. Not only taking advantage of the opportunities afforded to me, but actively hunting those opportunities down. Realism and prioritizing, yes. Cowardice and procrastination, NO!

So my advice to you (and me) is: don't defer your plans until it is too late. Sure you might fail, but wouldn't it be worse to never have had the chance to try?

Favorites of 2011

2011-12-13T20:35:00.000-05:00

Favorites of 2011 - Images by Elijah Goodwin
(If you are using an iPhone or iPad please click here for an Apple-friendly version of the slideshow)

I've never really had a chance to do those year-end "best of" image retrospectives. December used to be the end of the semester for me. Between the grading, reports, and other holiday craziness (not to mention my family wanting to spend time with me), I just never had the time or the energy to put it together. However, this year it isn't the end of the semester yet, plus I'm unfortunately stuck at home with an illness that is keeping me from going to work (or doing much else for more than a short stretch), so I've got some time on my hands, even if only in short bursts.

I recently read about a photo project idea on the Photofocus blog. Scott Bourne suggested picking out 12 of your favorite images of all time. Note, the key word is "favorite", not best. I liked that idea so much that I've decided to turn it into two posts. First, today's post will present my 12 favorite images from 2011, with accompanying explanations as to why they are my favorites. Second, in the next couple of weeks I should be able to put together another post about my 12 favorite images of all time (to date).

#1-Bald Cypress at Civil Twilight, Lake Drummond National Wildlife Refuge, Great Dismal Swamp, VA

Those of you who have read my recent blog post on my trip to the Great Dismal Swamp probably expected that an image from that trip would end up in this list. I had so much fun making these images that they could all be pieces of trash and they still probably would have made this list. What an experience! But as it turns out, I love this image as well. I like the very simple geometric pattern of the reflected silhouetted tree and the line of the opposite shore. I also like the colors from the very end of civil twilight. Normally, I like a sky with more clouds and colors, but in this case I think the cloudless sky adds to the simplicity, peace, and tranquility communicated by the image.

#2-Dew Drop Lenses, Huntley Meadows Park, Alexandria, VA

This was just a fun day for photography at Huntley Meadows. It was a great day for macro images, as there had been a heavy dew and the morning was humid enough that the dew stuck around for hours. Most importantly there was no breeze! I think this is my most successful dew drop image to date.

#3-Fluffed Out Sanderling, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, VA

Another great morning for photography, this day at Chincoteague NWR was full of birds and a beautiful sunrise. I chose this image because I love the low angle side-lighting of sunrise and the resulting long shadow cast onto the beach. I've had a particular love for sandpipers, ever since I started birding with my dad; and the nostalgia that comes with remembering our monthly trips to the Massachusetts coast.

#4-Christmas Fern Fiddleheads, Turkey Run Park, VA

This year was definitely the year of wildflower photography. I found some amazing new spots to photograph wildflowers and I can't wait for spring to come around again. While these aren't wildflowers, the fiddleheads come out at about the same time as the early spring wildflowers. When I found these fiddleheads growing near some bluebells, I think I gasped out loud. One fiddlehead was starting to unfurl and so one part of the frond was linear and the head had flopped over to rest upside-down against the other younger fiddlehead. I love the pure graphic nature of this image with the opposing spirals coming out of opposite corners of the frame.

#5-Young Lotus Seed Head, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Washington, D.C.

I had never seen (or at least never noticed) lotus seed heads at this young stage before. What an amazing range of pastel colors the seeds go through as they mature! Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens has become one of my favorite summer spots for macro photography.

#6-Vine Tendril Encased In Ice, Falls Church, VA

This one was taken right in my very own backyard. An ice storm got me a day off from work, but prevented me from driving anywhere to photograph. But when everything is coated in ice, who needs exotic locales? I've actually been envisioning something like this shot since I first experienced ice storms as a photographer back in high school in Massachusetts. I'm thrilled I was finally able to match an image to the vision.

#7-Spawning Horseshoe Crab Returns To Bay, Port Mahon, DE

One of my favorite events of Spring in the Mid-Atlantic is the spawning of the horseshoe crabs and the concurrent shorebird migration that takes place each late May/early June along the Delaware Bay. The whole event just has this amazing primal and prehistoric feel to it. I feel like this image with the dramatic lighting and partially submerged crab captures that feeling perfectly.

#8-Large-flowered Trillium, G.R. Thompson Wildlife Management Area, Linden, VA

One of those new wildflower locales that I discovered this year was G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area. This area has a mind-boggling display of Large-flowered Trillium, not to mention the other wildflowers and birds. When I took this image, much of the trillium was starting to go by, but this fresher specimen was nestled between some fallen logs. It has become one of my favorite images, so much so that I have incorporated it into my logos.

#9-Backlit Katydid, Huntley Meadows Park, Alexandria, VA

Another macro image from that great morning at Huntley Meadows. I haven't received much feedback on this image, but I think it is one of my favorite macro images from this year (if not ever). I love the backlighting on the katydid and the forward facing shadow cast onto the cattail reed. I also love the way that the cattail reed and the two long backlit antennae divide up the frame.

#10-Sunflower Sunrise, McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, Poolesville, MD

The sunflower field at McKee-Beshers WMA is another new location for me, and while it is certainly not a wilderness experience (the crowd can be pretty large on weekends), it is a photographers paradise. So many graphic images to be made. This one is from right at sunrise (when there are a lot fewer photographers). I love the way the sunrise lit clouds in the sky mirror the rows of sunflowers.

#11-Double Yellow Lady's Slipper, G.R. Thompson WMA, Linden, VA

As I mentioned earlier, G.R. Thompson has a lot more going for it than its colossal display of Large-flowered Trillium. It is also home to some amazing orchids. I've always been a sucker for orchids, particular lady's slippers and I have been hoping to make an image like this for a long time. What a bonus to find the rarer, two-flowered version of the plant!

#12-Bedded Fawn, Shenandoah National Park, VA

It has also been a great year for adventures with white-tailed deer fawns. One of my images of a coyote eating fawns was featured on the National Geographic News website. I also made some of my favorite images of the fawns themselves. This image is one I've dreamed of making, of a bedded fawn that is also alert. I followed a pair of twins one late afternoon/evening and they became habituated to my presence enough to let me get close and get this image of one of them bedding down for the evening.

A Single Photograph

2011-12-05T17:49:00.000-05:00

Hi all. Today's post is a guest post by my uncle, environmentalist, and photographer, Ray Goodwin. He is also the author/photographer/owner of the Sonoran Connection blog. Regular readers of my blog will know that he was the one who first got me into photography. I have also long admired his dedication to environmental causes and I asked him to write this guest post about how he uses his photography to promote environmental causes.

Henry Beston’s words in his book "The Outermost House", written in 1927, changed the course of my life and the way I think about nature and it’s steady decline. With words so eloquent Henry painted a picture in my mind of the great abundance in nature that existed early in the 20th century along the Massachusetts coast. As I read about the huge flocks of shorebirds that Henry described in his book, an awareness of just how much has already been lost crept into my being. I found myself longing to see what he saw, to be where he was and to wrap myself in a world that frankly has changed forever.

In 1949 Henry Beston wrote in the forward of his eleventh printing of "The Outermost House" the following; “Nature is part of our humanity, and without some awareness of that divine mystery man ceases to be man.” Because of Henry, who 83 years ago set to paper words that changed my life in the 21st century, I now believe that I too can change someone’s life, perhaps 83 years from now.

I believe, as Henry did, that nature is the very essence of who we are and that we have a responsibility to care for our planet. In his book all those years ago he describes a “new danger” of “slop” which remains after crude oil is distilled and which is pumped into southbound tankers and dumped at sea. His description of Arctic birds alighting in this oily mess and inevitably dying remains with me today. Even then the evidence of the coming environmental disasters was on the minds of people who observed nature.

For years I was an observer of nature; enjoying what remained, what had been preserved by others, and not really understanding the magnitude of the decline that was taking place in the natural world. Once aware though, I began to look for ways to not only observe nature but to help preserve it.

My journey had begun. As a semi professional photographer with a penchant for all things natural, I spend as much time as possible photographing wildlife and wild lands throughout Arizona. The Sonoran Desert where I live is one of the most ecologically diverse areas anywhere, so opportunities for photography abound. I have to admit I love taking pictures, but I wanted to find a way to use my skills to help the environment. I decided to offer my services as a photographer to environmentally minded organizations free of charge. A simple idea that can best be illustrated by a single photograph. Southern Arizona is home to many endangered species, including the burrowing owl. The burrowing owl is a small bird that makes its home in burrows underground, usually made by other animals. As luck would have it, I happened upon a pair of the owls by the side of the road after taking a wrong turn early one morning in farm country. One immediately flew away into the fields but the other stood it’s ground near it’s burrow allowing me the chance to capture many wonderful images of the sun lit bird.

By the time I took this picture, I had already been published in the newsletter of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, a coalition of more than 30 local and national organizations committed to the preservation of the Sonoran Desert. Once again, they contacted me to see if I had any photos included in a list of Pima County endangered species for inclusion in their upcoming newsletter. I offered and sent the burrowing owl photos.

As it turns out, that photo has been repeatedly used by the coalition to illustrate their efforts to mitigate effects of a highly desirable solar farm on the burrowing owl, whose populations are in serious decline due to habitat destruction here and elsewhere across its range. It has also been used to raise funds for their organization in their annual appeal. They have also submitted my photo to the Sierra Club here in Arizona along with the story of the solar farm here in Avra Valley. Here is a link to their newsletter so you can read about what they have accomplished in this important project: www.sonorandesert.org

A single photograph has had a tremendous impact on this project and has assisted this organization in its quest to save the Sonoran Desert for future generations, and I couldn’t be happier. I will always be proud of this small contribution and hope to make many more like it in the future. What could be better? I get to do what I love and help the environment doing it. There are many, many ways to help save our planet so please get involved. Perhaps one photograph at a time!

Ray Goodwin
Sonoran Connection

A Day In The Life...Of A Nature Photographer

2011-12-03T20:14:00.010-05:00

Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head... well that last part is not quite accurate. I'm currently sporting a hairstyle that does not require a comb or brush. But otherwise it is pretty accurate. I thought for today's post I might do a bit of a "making of" post. Give a glimpse of the glamorous life of the part-time, semi-pro, nature photographer and what goes into producing some of these images I feature on my site.

First the final products. I have a few more images that I liked with subtle variations of light or pattern, but I edited down to avoid too much repetition. Feel free to visit my website if you'd like to see all of them.

Coastal Plain VA Nov 25-26 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

I celebrated Black Friday by getting up at about 1:45am; no, not to head to the mall to get pepper sprayed or trampled in search of a bargain, but to catch the dawn twilight somewhere in Virginia Beach. I did see lots of shoppers out and about on my way down though. Perhaps you can explain this to me... Lots of people think I'm crazy for getting up so early to drive to spectacular places and enjoy them at their most beautiful; these folks were getting up early to go to Walmart. Now, who is crazy again, and why?

Anyways, I quickly got ready (having packed most of my gear and put my canoe on the car the evening of Thanksgiving, hence not getting to bed until almost 11pm) and hopped in the car. From my house, Virginia Beach is about a 4-4.5 hour drive and I wanted to arrive well before civil twilight. My plan was actually to catch dawn and the sunrise at Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge, a new location for me. I wasn't moving super fast and had to make a few inconvenient bathroom stops along the way, so by time I was nearing Virginia Beach on I-64, I knew I wasn't going to make it all the way to Mackay Island in time. I headed for the beachfront instead, in the hopes of catching the twilight and sunrise at the beach and incorporating the fishing pier into my images. I knew the morning was going to be essentially cloudless, so having an object in the frame to silhouette would make the scene more visually interesting. I arrived in time to park, walk to the beach, and start shooting just as the light peaked.

In this image, I composed to have the pier and horizon dissecting roughly the top 1/3 and bottom 2/3 of the frame. I knew I wanted a slow shutter speed to blur the waves and water and emphasize the silky glow that the twilight sky was imparting to the ocean. I also knew that wasn't going to be a problem given the light conditions and the fact that I wanted to shoot at a low ISO (100) and a fairly small aperture to hold my depth of field from front to back. I ended up shooting f/16 at 1 second of exposure. I zoomed the frame out (31mm X 1.6) to include the crashing waves, but made sure that the diagonal line of waves wasn't going to directly connect to the corner of the frame. I set the self-timer and mirror lock-up features and pressed the shutter button when the waves were coming in. Back at home in Adobe Lightroom 3, I added about a half a stop of exposure and some fill light to emphasize the brightness of the water and better reveal the detail in the sand. I then added a simulated graduated neutral density filter to the top portion of the frame to balance the sky better with the foreground and bring back some of the color that had washed out in the sky when I added exposure. Finally, I added some Clarity and Vibrance, then transferred the file to Photoshop for Lab Sharpening (Amount: 120, Radius 1.0, Threshold 3.0).

As the sun began to rise, I moved under the pier to try for some images of waves breaking underneath the pier and utilizing the graphic perspective of the pilings. Finally, the sun rose enough above the horizon to make the light pretty harsh and I decided to move on to my next spot. I headed to Mackay Island NWR, only to be reminded upon arriving why earlier the previous evening I had decided to go to Back Bay NWR instead. The refuge was closed for a hunt. Since I was there, I drove around the island to see what it looked like. It looks like a potentially promising location. There was lots of wildlife in the ditches along the road, including large flocks of American coot (Fulica americana), plus many herons and egrets. The one trouble is that the road was basically a highway with few places to stop, no cover to get close to the wildlife, and very little land between the road and the ditches. After thoroughly exploring the areas I could access, I decided to head for my ultimate destination, the Great Dismal Swamp.

The Great Dismal Swamp is a huge southern swamp located on the Coastal Plain of Virginia and North Carolina. In the middle of this large wooded swamp (the National Wildlife Refuge alone is over 112,000 acres) is Lake Drummond, a 3,100 acre natural lake (one of only two natural lakes in VA). I had seen some images of Bald Cypress trees growing out in the lake and I always thought this location would be worth checking out. The trick is that in order to photograph these trees you have to access the lake by boat, and currently the only way to do that was to park at a put-in on the outskirts of the swamp and boat in the 3.5 miles to the lake. Wanting to photograph both dawn and dusk, camping out overnight seemed to be the only logical option.

I arrived at the put-in just before noon, repacked most of my camera and overnight gear into dry bags, took the canoe off the car, then ate a big lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers in the hopes that I wouldn't need much for dinner that night. Then I carried my two-man Wenonah canoe down the stairs to the dock on the Dismal Swamp Canal, loaded most of my gear in the front to counterbalance my weight in the back, and launched. By putting most of the weight in the front of the canoe and using a kayak paddle instead of a canoe paddle, I'm able to do a pretty good job of keeping the canoe tracking straight, even in the face of a decent breeze. If the winds get higher and I need more control, I can also kneel in the middle.

The paddle to the lake is ~3.5 miles up what is called the Feeder Ditch. The weather was glorious for the day after Thanksgiving and I stripped to just shorts and a long-sleeved shirt for the paddle. The ditch runs straight as an arrow the entire way and the water is black with tannin, so it almost perfectly reflects the trees lining the ditches of the bank and the sky. It was a glorious paddle, with lots of birds lining the edge of the ditch. On the way in I met one small fishing boat and one kayak coming out, the only people I saw the entire trip. The light wasn't great for photographs, but here is an image I took of the canoe on the Feeder Ditch coming back from the lake the following morning. It gives you a sense of the beauty of canoeing in this area.

Just before you get to the lake, you have to portage around a water control structure. At this dam, the Army Corps of Engineers maintains a rustic campground, which is the only spot in the swamp that you can camp. It is basically a small triangular grassy island surrounded by the canals on two sides and swamp on the third. They provide one rather "charmingly" rustic bathroom (but with running non-potable water), some picnic tables, and a couple of small screened pavilions. I stopped here to set up my tent and sleeping stuff for later in the evening and repack my camera gear for easier access. Then I finished portaging my canoe (for those unfamiliar with canoeing, you carry the canoe on your shoulders, although this was a very short carry) and paddled the final couple hundred yards to the lake.

The lake was absolutely breathtaking! It is very large and has a wilderness feel to it. On this day the wind was calm, so as far as the eye could see, the surface was smooth like glass. Dotted all along the shore were Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) trees growing (mostly individually) 20-30ft and sometimes even 40-50ft feet out from the shore in the middle of the lake. There was also a large flock of calling Tundra Swans out on the lake that just increased the beauty and wildness of the experience. As I canoed along the shore, I'd occasionally startle pairs of Wood Ducks.

The challenge for photography was that there really was no place to land the canoe. The shore was just swamp and any relatively dry patch was densely covered in undergrowth. There really were no useful camera angles from the shore anyways to isolate individual trees growing out on the lake. So I had to shoot out on the middle of the lake in anywhere from 4-6' of water on average. Yes, I could have shot handheld from the canoe, but there were two problems with that. One, I did not have image stabilization on any of my lenses and I was looking to get some good quality landscape images. Second, I planned on shooting both dusk and dawn civil twilight using very long exposures (up to 30 sec.), so handheld would not work that way either. I had read about a photographer using a large wooden tripod sunken in the water and shooting from his canoe. But I frankly was nervous about my ability to juggle my two-person canoe, tripod, and camera gear, particularly since I had not brought any anchors (next time...). So what I needed was to find a stable shooting platform out on the lake. I needed to find cypress that had enough knees growing around them that I could dock and climb out and set-up from there.

So, my procedure was to find a cypress that had knees I felt capable of climbing out onto and that had a good angle on another tree that I wanted to photograph. Then I would carefully move the canoe into position and very gently try to climb out onto the cypress knees without falling in or capsizing the canoe. Remember, even next to the trees, I was pretty much surrounded by water at least four, if not six or more, feet deep. Then I would take my tripod out of the canoe, find a good angle and place to position my body, then sink the tripod into the lake near the tree and play with the legs until it was level and stable. Then I'd climb back to the canoe and get my camera out of the dry bag, carefully climb back with the camera, and mount the camera on the tripod. Then came the hard part; usually only a small portion of the tripod was sticking out of the water, so I had to manage to position my body low enough on the knees to see through the viewfinder, without falling in. And when the light was rapidly changing, I had to be able to hold that position for a long time.

Here is an image of my tripod all set up for a shot. Yes, my legs and body are against the trunk of the tree, so that gives you some sense of how much working space I had.

Here is an image of my canoe tied to the cypress knees (my dock) on the other side of the trunk.

For the first part of the evening, I paddled around, scouted, and tried a few different spots, but I ended up coming back to one of the first spots that I had considered, to photograph sunset and twilight.

This image was taken near the very end of civil twilight at ~5:15pm. I used my EF-S 18-55mm lens as I was rather close to the subject and I wanted to be able to capture the reflection of the whole tree (I shot at 42mm x 1.6). As with all my long exposure landscape images, I used the self-timer and mirror lock-up to minimize camera vibration. This image was exposed at 0.3 seconds at f/11 and ISO 100. Back at home in Adobe Lightroom 3, I added about a quarter of a stop of exposure and some lens correction to lighten the vignetting around the tree in the dark sky. I increased the tone curve to strong contrast to heighten the effect of the silhouette. Finally, I added some Clarity and Vibrance, then transferred the file to Photoshop for Lab Sharpening (Amount: 120, Radius 1.0, Threshold 3.0).

Soon after this exposure was taken, I began to worry a bit about getting back to the campground safely in the dark, and honestly, the light didn't look to be getting any better. So I disassembled my gear in the near darkness, loaded into the canoe, and headed back for the Feeder Ditch. By the time I got into the Feeder Ditch, surrounded by woods, it was pretty much pitch dark. I had forgotten my headlamp at home (but I need a new one as it has gotten quite dim even with fresh batteries, so I'm not sure it would have been a tremendous help). Luckily, the ditch is straight, the dam is loud, and there weren't many strainers in the way on the way back to the campground, so I made it fine. I startled one large animal (deer?, bear?) at the edge of the ditch, that went crashing noisily through the underbrush. When I got back, the campground was as empty as I had left it, and very dark. By the way, I should have mentioned, the whole entire glorious evening, I had that huge lake all to myself. Not another human soul for miles. Just a chorus of Tundra Swans.

I grabbed a few snacks for supper; as hoped, I wasn't hungry enough to need to start the stove. The overhead light on the timer in the bathroom was a welcome taste of civilization and temporarily made it feel a little less lonely (but unfortunately the bulb burned out soon after). I was zippered into my sleeping bag and ready for bed by about 7-7:30pm. Which was just as well, since I was working on four hours of sleep and I planned to wake at 4:30am and canoe out before dawn. The night was very cold (despite the unseasonably warm day) and I awoke several times during the night because my decent mummy sleeping bag, long underwear, and fleece hat weren't quite cutting it.

When my alarm went off at 4:30am, it was quite dark and cold. There was lots of condensation from my breath inside the tent, and about an inch of frost on the outside of it. I hit the (now sadly) dark restroom and fired up the stove to heat some water for oatmeal with almond slivers, brown sugar, and dried cherries (oh yeah, I know how to live). My near empty gas canister gave out just before the water was hot enough, but it worked well enough. I happily munched on oatmeal to the accompaniment of two duetting Great Horned Owls nearby. I then threw my photography gear (well, carefully placed is more like it) in the canoe and headed back out to the lake. The paddle back out in the semi-dark was more pleasant, with each stroke toward the lake, things got a bit brighter. I just had time to set up at my first location before the sky really started to light up. Unfortunately a fogging problem with my lens kept me from getting some early shots.

This is image was taken towards the end of civil twilight before the sun rose. You can see some fog along the opposite bank of the lake. This image was exposed at 1/8 of a second at f/16 and ISO 100. Back at home in Adobe Lightroom 3, I added about a quarter of a stop of exposure and some fill light to bring out the detail in the trunk of the tree. Finally, I added some Clarity and Vibrance, then transferred the file to Photoshop for Lab Sharpening (Amount: 120, Radius 1.0, Threshold 3.0).

This final image was taken after sunrise, just as the first rays of sunlight cleared the forest behind me and fully illuminated the entire tree. This image was exposed at 1/15 of a second at f/22 and ISO 100. Back at home in Adobe Lightroom 3, I took away .05 stops of exposure and added just a tiny bit of fill light to bring out the detail in the trunk of the tree. I added just a light graduated filter effect to balance out the sky/tree and water. Finally, I added some Clarity and Vibrance, then transferred the file to Photoshop for Lab Sharpening (Amount: 120, Radius 1.0, Threshold 3.0).

I have to say that this is one of my favorite photo trips to date. Not just because of the pictures that I came home with, but because of the entire experience. There were many moments of exquisite beauty, that I didn't or couldn't capture on film, but that will always be with me. Hope you enjoyed the long post!

Postlude To The Afternoon Of A Fawn

2011-11-19T23:05:00.000-05:00

Shenandoah June 23 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Here are some more images that I've been sitting on since this summer. These images were taken during a late June outing to Shenandoah National Park. The morning was overcast and rainy, so the sunrise turned out to be pretty much a dud, but the rest of the day was quite lovely. I had a wonderful time playing in and around Dark Hollow Falls and then the fawn activity around Big Meadows turned out to be incredible. Believe it or not, most of these images (except the few of the twins together and bedding down) are of different fawns found in different locations. Finally, I rounded out the day with a very windy (and nerve-racking) evening on top of Little Stony Man for sunrise and civil twilight, and then, with a barely functioning flashlight, almost ran smack into two bears tearing apart a log for ants or termites on my way back down to the car. Enjoy! If you are viewing on an iPhone or iPad, please don't forget to click on the static image you see here to see the entire slideshow (sorry for the inconvenience; I'm working on it).

Sunrises From Summer

2011-11-14T22:51:00.000-05:00

Are you missing those warm days of summer? Here are a few sunrise images from late this summer in Shenandoah National Park and Bear Rocks in the Dolly Sods area of WV to warm you up. Enjoy!

Summer Sunrises - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Inspiration...

2011-11-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

Chincoteague Oct 1 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Note: iPad and iPhone users, be sure to click on the static image to see the whole slide show.

What was your inspiration to first start photographing? To start photographing nature? I've had many photographic "tutors" in my life, many of them I've never met personally, just books, articles, and sometimes the occasional lecture-style workshop. But today I wanted to share with you the inspiration that got me started in photography in general and nature photography specifically. I really owe the inspiration for my photographic journey to two important men in my life. My uncle Ray and my father Tom.

I still remember the moment that I decided I wanted to become a photographer. I was about to leave from one of my annual summers in Maine with my cousin Sarah at my grandparents. Sarah's parents and my parents had come up to bring us back home and my uncle Ray (Sarah's father) was showing off some 3x5 prints of some photographs he took around my grandparent's house on the Sheepscot River. One photograph he had of a quaint New England house reflected in the river captured my imagination and seemed to capture the beauty and spirit of my childhood summers in Maine. I was hooked right then and there. The idea of being able to capture the beauty I saw all around me, and to capture the feelings/memories associated with that beauty, captivated me. My uncle gave me that photograph, and I still credit that moment as the one that inspired me to become a photographer.

When we returned home, my dad gave me his old Canon AE-1 camera and I set to work learning how to use it. My dad had always enjoyed sharing his knowledge of natural history with my sister and I as we were growing up, and he had been a big birder in his younger days. So, when he saw how serious I was about the photography, he suggested the following New Years Day that it was traditional to go out and count how many different birds you could see, and I could bring my camera and get pictures. Thus my passion for nature photography, and for birding/birds, was born.

My uncle is still photographing in Arizona (and soon other locations) and, in a continuing inspiration to me, uses his images to help promote conservation causes that he cares deeply about. Check out his blog, Sonoran Connection. I dedicate this latest post and my latest images from Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge to him and my father. Thanks guys!

I know a lot of my readers/viewers are beginning or accomplished nature photographers themselves. Leave a note in the comments section and tell us what inspired you to become a nature photographer or photographer.

Autumn in Shenandoah

2011-11-08T06:51:00.000-05:00

Here are some new images from a relatively recent fall trip to Shenandoah National Park. The foliage wasn't spectacular this year, but there was still plenty to photograph and see. Enjoy!

Shenandoah Oct 16 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

A Return To Posting...

2011-11-05T10:35:00.000-04:00

Gorilla Black and White - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Some have rightly wondered if I've dropped off the planet. And some have wondered if I'm posting anymore and if I will again. The short answer is yes, I'm still posting and will again. The long answer is that I started a new day job in late August and although I'm loving my new gig very much, it has required a lot of time and effort that has taken time away from my other love, nature photography. I moved to a new school this year, and I'm now teaching 8th Grade Physical Science, instead of high school biology, so I've been kept pretty busy refreshing my memory on all the chemistry and physics I haven't been exposed to in years. I love my new job, my school, my colleagues, and my students, so given the relatively unfamiliar territory and my desire to do my best teaching possible, I've found myself with little free time and generally too exhausted to do much when I do have some free time. I'm still getting out (although somewhat less frequently) for photo trips, but the editing and posting time is what is really taking a hit.

I realize how important it is to keep your blog, webpage, and twitter content fresh and what an SEO hit not posting regularly can be, but this year is just going to have to be slow as I adjust to the new employment territory. I will put a real effort into posting regularly, but I hope my readers will bear with me if things are a bit more sporadic than usual this year.

Given that Saturday traffic is generally low, I've started out with some old images from the National Zoo. I found myself playing with these images last night and really enjoying making them into black and whites, so this is a special treat for those dedicated Saturday readers. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did creating/editing them. I should have a recent post from Shenandoah National Park up on Monday. Have a great weekend and make sure to get outdoors!

Macros Galore: Part III

2011-08-24T22:01:00.000-04:00

I'll call this final installment "Mountain Macros" as these images were all taken at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, Canaan Valley in West Virginia, or the Bear Rocks Preserve at Dolly Sods in West Virginia. Most of these images (especially the Shenandoah ones) were taken when the lighting conditions were perfect for macro photography. Either an overcast day or by early morning light. The only problem then (especially with flowers) is waiting for the wind or slight breezes to stop blowing your subject around so you can get a sharp image. If this happens to you, try using a wind baffle (a reflector or your own body for instance) or get a plant clamp. I have the McClamp which is also available through Amazon. The plant clamp end is lined with a rubberized foam and is very gentle on foliage. Often times it is too much trouble to set up or the wind is too strong for it to make any difference, I often prefer good ol' fashioned patience, but in a pinch it can make the difference between a sharp shot and hours of frustration.

Enjoy the images and come back soon for some non-macro images from all these destinations I've been featuring in the last several posts...

July Mountain Macros - Images by Elijah Goodwin

(iPhone and iPad users, please click on the static image you see above to be taken to a site with an iFriendly slideshow. Thanks!)

Macros Galore: Part II

2011-08-17T18:00:00.002-04:00

This next installment of macro nature images comes from a trip to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens at the end of July. One of my favorite nature spots in the DC area, Kenilworth is the only National Park site dedicated to cultivated plants. In addition to a beautiful display of water lillies, Kenilworth has huge impoundments full of Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), beautiful flowering water plants with a host of interesting biological properties. Because of their beauty, and some of their cool properties, they make great photographic subjects.

One thing I love about macro photography is that it gives you a chance to take great pictures under challenging light conditions. Kenilworth Gardens opens relatively late (7am) by nature photography standards. If you have the luck or flexibility to visit on an overcast day, this really isn't a problem for macro photography (although the night blooming plants still fold up pretty early). But if you arrive on a relatively clear hot DC day, the light can get harsh and contrasty well before you run out of subjects to photograph. Fortunately, with macro photography you are dealing with small enough subjects that you can isolate subjects in the shade, or manufacture your own shade, or manipulate the light with handheld diffusers or reflectors. I also like to experiment with using backlighting for dramatic effect; either using the light transmitted through a leaf or flower petal, or focusing on a larger area and letting the contrasty lighting create strong and unique shadow patterns. So remember, next time the sweet light disappears, instead of packing up and heading home, throw your macro lens on your camera or a diopter on your favorite zoom lens and start looking closer!

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens-July 20 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

NOTE: iPad and iPhone users please click on the static image above to view the slide show.

Macros Galore: Part I

2011-08-10T23:14:00.005-04:00

On my last several trips I've taken a lot of macro images. Macro photography was one of the first areas of nature photography that I got into when I started photographing in high school and is still one of my favorite types of image to make. Back then I learned most of what I know about macro nature photography from reading and re-reading John Shaw's classic book "Close-ups In Nature". Despite the digital revolution, this book is still as useful and comprehensive as it was back then. If you are interested in macro photography, improving your macro technique, or even just starting out in nature photography, I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy. I still thumb through mine as a reference or for inspiration today.

My next couple of posts will feature some of my recent macro images. This first set is all from a July trip to Huntley Meadows. The same trip where I photographed the green heron featured in my last post. Enjoy and come back for more posts next week...

[Just a reminder, iPhone and iPad users click on the static image to see the slideshow!]

Huntley Meadows Macro - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Green Heron Fishing

2011-08-09T21:39:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm back! Phew... I disappeared off the radar for the past couple weeks to do some intensive photo work for my daughter's dive team, but at last I've emerged from the pile of dive images and I'm very ready to start posting nature images again. Of course, I've now got a busy schedule and ~5 trips of images to process, upload, and share. So, my plan is to make smaller posts, more often, rather than let another week or two go by to make some huge posts. I'll start with some images from July and a wonderful morning spent at Huntley Meadows park in Alexandria, VA. I was able to get close to a green heron (Butorides virescens) that was fishing on and around a beaver lodge right next to the boardwalk. Here is a series of him fishing, swallowing a fish, and then perching on the top of the lodge. Enjoy!

Green Heron Fishing-Huntley Meadows - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Sunflower Extravaganza at McKee-Beshers WMA

2011-07-18T13:21:00.000-04:00

So, I'm back from a family vacation in WV and I was really supposed to get a post out with my images from my last Huntley Meadows trip, or barring that images from my last Shenandoah trip..., or barring that images leftover from my late spring/early summer trips to Delaware...

But..., I just had a fabulous time yesterday visiting McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, MD with the DC Area Flower Safari Meetup Group and I was having too much fun editing the photos from that trip instead...so I'll be sharing images from that outing first, and then I'll get to my growing backlog. A big shout-out goes to Patty Hankins for organizing this group and the meetup yesterday morning.

If you live in the Greater DC area and you haven't visited McKee-Beshers WMA, it is definitely worth a trip out in the next couple of weeks. The main sunflower field is located conveniently just off River Road about 2.5-3 miles past the junction with Seneca Road. It is the first parking lot for the WMA on the left (if you are there on a weekend after 5:30am just look for all the cars).

McKee-Beshers WMA-July 17 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Embrace The Twilight

2011-06-27T22:07:00.001-04:00

Check out my guest blog post over at the Nature Visions Blog where I discuss photographing this magical time of day. As a companion to that post, here is a gallery of some of my favorite images taken during morning and evening twilight and a top ten list. Questions about more detailed technique, the settings for or story behind a particular shot, or how to find the right place and time to photograph civil twilight? Just leave a comment below and I'll reply.

Twilight - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Here (in no particular order) are my top ten suggestions for getting the most out of photographing civil twilight:

1. Use a tripod (every time, even if you have image stabilization).

2. Use a cable or remote release on long exposures to further avoid shake.

3. Use the mirror lock-up function on your camera during long exposures.

4. Use in-camera long exposure noise reduction or, if like with my camera, that actually adds noise, shoot without it and consider using a post-processing program with noise reduction.

5. If you are photographing in the morning on the coast, you may want to consider arriving for nautical twilight instead.

6. Experiment with HDR techniques or graduated ND filters to get detail in foreground objects as well as the much brighter sky.

7. Look for good shapes for silhouettes.

8. Look for water sources to reflect the light in the sky and help brighten/break up the dark foreground somewhat.

9. Experiment with motion blur. This is particularly effective with waves or flowing water.

10. Bring a flashlight (that works and with fresh batteries). I almost ran smack into two bears in the dark on the trail last week in Shenandoah with an extremely dim flashlight. Yikes!

There are also many other great posts from other Mid-Atlantic nature photographers on the Nature Visions blog so be sure to check out the old posts. Also, if you are in the area, be sure to check out the 2011 Nature Visions Expo which will feature one of my favorite photographers Art Wolfe as the keynote speaker. You can also follow Nature Visions Expo on Twitter @NatureVisionsEx.

Life and Death at Big Meadows, Shenandoah National Park, VA

2011-06-27T18:51:00.000-04:00

Recently, I've been spending some time in Shenandoah National Park and at the beginning of this month I had the privilege of witnessing some truly remarkable events. However, before I get too deep into this post, I should make the following disclaimer: If you do not believe, as I do, that natural predator/prey interactions have their own inherent beauty and majesty (despite being sometimes gory or even sad), or if you believe that no harm should ever befall cute and cuddly animals, this may not be the best post for you; feel free to skip this one.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, the morning started out as a pretty standard trip to Shenandoah. I started out the morning at several overlooks south of Thornton Gap, looking for a good place to photograph the twilight and sunrise. However, on this morning the overcast and intermittent rain never lifted enough to provide much of a light show.

Shenandoah June 5 Sunrise - Images by Elijah Goodwin

I headed next to Big Meadows to look for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawns either feeding with their mothers, or better yet bedded down for the day. However, I was not the only one with that idea, when I arrived at the meadow a coyote (Canis latrans) was actively hunting fawns bedded on the meadow (I feel like the wolf theme from Peter and The Wolf should be playing at this moment).

I personally watched (and heard) this coyote locate and kill at least three fawns that were bedded down in the brush. It seemed to be actively hunting and not eating, so it would make a kill and then move on (presumably to come back later as I saw it do in at least one instance). There were still many does and even some fawns moving throughout the meadow. I have to apologize for the next two images. They are not at all up to the standard I usually require for posting, but they are such cool behavior shots that I couldn't possibly not post them. Here is an image of the coyote just after making its third kill (yes, that is the head of a fawn clasped in its jaws).

After leaving the coyote, I skirted around the edge of meadow looking for bedded fawns (any that were left at any rate). Unsuccessful at that endeavor, I headed down towards the center of the meadow and I spotted a doe and fawn down near a wet area at the bottom of the meadow. I saw the doe "drop" (tell it to hide) the fawn in the underbrush, but the doe didn't leave. It seemed to be very agitated; jumping, stamping, and running back and forth, but not oriented towards me. That was when I saw the coyote nearby on the other side of a thin stand of alder. The coyote (presumably the same one since I never saw more than one out on the meadow) had obviously stalked the doe and fawn and was moving in for the kill. But then something unexpected happened. The coyote came around the stand of alder and the doe charged it. The coyote took off running with the doe bearing down on it rapidly. It all happened so fast (and so close) that I barely had time to react and get off a couple of shots. This is the best.

I'm not sure if the doe actually connected with the coyote, but if not, she almost did. Then she was past it and the coyote started chasing her. But it was no match for her speed and it soon gave up and wandered away, completely forgetting about the bedded fawn. No doubt that this doe would be a strong contender for mother-of-the-year.

After some more unsuccessful searching for bedded fawns, I was returning to my car when I noticed the coyote was back feeding on one of its previous kills. I was able to slowly approach and get some images of it feeding. Then finally as I was just coming off the meadow (and about to my car) I was almost run down by a doe and fawn running along the path (perhaps escaping from the coyote or perhaps the doe thought I would keep the coyote at bay). The doe eventually continued past me, but the fawn kept coming closer, but was too shy to pass me. I was able to get several images of it bleating for its mother (which was just past me near the road) before it ran off in a different direction to bed down near the edge of the woods. Unfortunately, at that point I had to bring my promised half-day trip to an end, but I felt very privileged to have witnessed such an amazing wildlife spectacle.

Big Meadows, Shenandoah- June 5 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Delaware Shore: Fox Kits and Nesting Osprey

2011-06-05T21:42:00.000-04:00

This is the next post in the series from my two recent trips to the Delaware Bay to photograph the horseshoe crab spawning and shorebird migration. While late spring in this region is famous for the spawning and migration, there is a lot of frenetic spring activity happening besides what occurs on the beaches. There is still a pretty strong tide of migratory bird species pushing through and resident species are busy attracting mates, setting up house, and raising young. Today's post deals with two of those common resident (at least during the breeding season in one case) species. First a pair of osprey (Pandion haliaetus) bring sticks to their nest-in-progress along Port Mahon Road. Next some images of this year's red fox (Vulpes vulpes) kits at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, which are spending a lot of time playing outside the den now. Also included in the slide show is an adult vixen (female red fox), presumably the mother or at least a female subordinate belonging to the family group shown here. This female was busy crossing the refuge back and forth throughout the day hunting, until she paused momentarily to scratch an itch. As always, view the slideshow full screen for the best experience and click on any image to be taken to my main website where the images can be purchased as prints, cards, or personal use downloads (suitable for use as computer wallpaper etc...) and licensed for publishing.

Look for one final post in this series, as well as an exciting post from today in Shenandoah National Park coming very soon...

Delaware Bay May 2011-2 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Delaware Shore: Horseshoe Crabs and Shorebird Migration

2011-06-03T00:41:00.001-04:00

Still suffering from that post non-apocalyptic letdown? Sitting around and twiddling your thumbs waiting for October? Well, since you are viewing my blog, I'm assuming you didn't give your computer away to charity in anticipation of the coming rapture. Therefore, let me take this opportunity to show you some beautiful reasons you might just want to stick around. Maybe we already have paradise at our fingertips, we just have to learn to see it, appreciate it, and care for it...

I spent "judgment day" on the Delaware Bay bouncing from Port Mahon, Bombay Hook, the Logan Tract of the Ted Harvey Conservation Area, and back again. Since the world didn't end, I also returned in the morning on Memorial Day this past weekend; visiting Slaughter Beach and the Mispillion River Inlet. This is the season for both shorebird migration and horseshoe crab spawning, two intimately-related natural spectacles that you really should put on your bucket list if you haven't seen them. I was off a bit for peak horseshoe crab activity, it is generally most intense right around the new and full moons, and during high tide. I've also heard that numbers were off this year due to late cold spring rains. However, I did see (and rescue) quite a few spawning crabs and there were plenty of shorebirds in attendance.

Delaware Bay May 2011 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

The slideshow starts out with images of spawning Atlantic horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) taken both at Port Mahon on May 21 and Slaughter Beach on May 30. The images from Slaughter Beach were all taken right around sunrise. I took advantage of the low light conditions (combined with a 100 ISO setting and small apertures) to use slow shutter speeds and slightly blur the action of the surf washing over the spawning crabs. The final crab image is what this fuss is all about, the horseshoe crab eggs. That's why the crabs come to shore in this mating frenzy and what the shorebirds come to eat. In their shape, color, and variation they very much remind me of miniature pea seeds. The eggs are about 1.5mm in diameter and are often pastel green, but as you can see there is variation in color and they can sometimes look wrinkled just like some pea seeds (this may have to do with how long they have been exposed). While the female crabs do dig a nest in the sand for their eggs, the eggs often get dug up by a subsequent laying female or dislodged by the action of the surf, which is why I was able to get this image at the surf line and why the eggs are generally easy-picking for the thousands of shorebirds on their northward migration.

The next group of images shows some of the shorebird migrants that stop at the Delaware Bay to feed on the eggs as well as on other invertebrates. Starting out are some images of Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres) partially silhouetted against the sunrise. Then images of common migrants that utilize the Delaware Bay, including the ruddy turnstones, dunlin (Calidris alpina), semipalmated sandpipers (Calidris pusilla), and short-billed dowitchers (Limnodromus griseus). Less common on the Bay shore is the least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla). Finally, I've included images of two common non-shorebird species found feeding on the horseshoe crab eggs. Blackbirds of various species, including this red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) can often be found on the shoreline eating crab eggs. Also gulls, particularly the laughing gull (Larus atricilla), can be found taking advantage of the food bonanza.

As always, view the slideshow full screen for the best viewing experience and click on any image to be brought to my main website where any of these images can be purchased as prints or cards. Finally, look for my next installment from these trips which will feature osprey and red fox kits.

Five-lined Skinks at Huntley Meadows

2011-05-17T23:11:00.012-04:00

Yesterday I had a chance to get out to Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA. I was hoping to get some macro images of purple milkweed and associated insects, but the milkweed is pretty far behind where it was at this point last year. I was also hoping to luck out with some duck chicks, but I struck out on that score as well. What I did see a lot of was five-lined skinks (Eumeces fasciatus). They were everywhere along the boardwalks near the marsh. Usually my experience with skinks involves seeing them sunning themselves on a boardwalk and then having them skitter underneath something before I get close enough to get a good image. However, this afternoon, I stumbled across an adult male that was fairly tolerant of my presence and happy to pose for some images. Enjoy!

Five-lined Skinks - Images by Elijah Goodwin

NOTE (5/18/2011): One of my twitter followers (@yakfur) brought up a question on ID of this skink which provides a chance for some interesting discussion. It was posited that this might be the broadhead skink (Eumeces laticeps). I agonized a bit over this ID, so I thought it might be interesting to talk about the field marks visible in the images and see if any reptile experts (of which I am not one, I'm an ornithologist by training) wanted to weigh in. The five-lined and broadhead skinks have very similar coloring and patterning and undergo similar pattern and coloring changes based on age and sex. This individual is an adult male and adult males tend to have their stripes fade until they look almost uniformly brown or olive and the orange-red color occurs on the head during the spring breeding season. What is not really apparent in the images here (without a sense of scale) is that this individual didn't look particularly larger or more "swollen-headed" than other five-lined skinks I've seen. My Peterson reptile guide states that five-lined skinks usually have four labial scales anterior to the subocular and that broadheads usually have five labial scales (but sometimes four on one side only). Enlargement of the images above show that this individual appears to have four on one side and five on the other. So this characteristic points to broadhead, but is somewhat ambiguous. The clincher for me was that five-lined skinks have two "enlarged" somewhat horizontally oriented postlabial scales just forward of the ear opening, while broadheads have no large postlabials with one large labial scale extended from the labial region back horizontally to the ear opening. My images here clearly show those two postlabial scales, so combined with the general size/shape information, I felt pretty confident labeling this specimen as five-lined. However, I'm pretty much a beginner at reptile ID, so I'd love to learn from someone more experienced with reptiles and hear their opinion on the ID of this specimen. Any takers?

The 2011 Season at G.R. Thompson WMA

2011-05-16T07:05:00.002-04:00

I was able to head out to G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area one last time during the past week. A few of the trillium were still in good shape, but the real wildflower show was all about the orchids. The yellow lady's slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum) and showy orchis (Galearis spectabilis) were at their absolute peak (some were even starting to go past). I've compiled all my best images (including these newest ones) into a slide show of the 2011 season at Thompson. I'll surely be back next spring! I recommend clicking on the fullscreen button for the best viewing experience. If you are viewing on an iPhone or iPad, just click on the static image to go to the image gallery and then click "Slideshow" for an Apple-friendly version of the slide show.

G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Happy Migratory Bird Day!

2011-05-14T07:58:00.000-04:00

Happy International Migratory Bird Day to all! I will get out for a trip tomorrow, but luckily I have a party at a house on the Chesapeake Bay this afternoon. With any luck, I'll get to enjoy some migrants while I'm at the party. In celebration, here is an image of a barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) I photographed at Bombay Hook NWR last April. While a few barn swallows winter in the southern part of the US range, most migrate to Central and South America.

Return to Thompson WMA

2011-05-05T00:37:00.000-04:00

Yesterday evening I was able to sneak in a stealth trip back to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area after work. By time I fought my way through the traffic headed west on I-66 I didn't have a ton of time left for photography before sunset, but it was completely worth the drive. Got a few more images I'm happy with and more importantly spent a beautiful evening surrounded by nature. The bird activity was incredible once again and I was serenaded at close range by a variety of warblers, thrushes, and other songbirds. The barred owl called a few times in my vicinity and I saw a red fox on my way out. I'm so thankful I have the opportunities to visit amazing places like this and the good sense to appreciate them. Do yourself a favor and get out and surround yourself with nature at least once a week.

Thompson WMA- May 3 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

My New Favorite Natural Area

2011-05-02T22:08:00.000-04:00

Back on April 17th I had the opportunity to scout out the G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which I stumbled upon on the internet while searching for wildflower locations in the DC area. From all accounts and my scouting trip it looked like an amazing area for wildflowers. Many of the thousands (millions?) of large-flowered trilliums (Trillium grandiflorum) were just about to bloom and I estimated that Easter weekend would be peak or close to peak. Unfortunately, I had too many family commitments to get out to the WMA on Easter Weekend. I returned to Thompson this past weekend on Friday night and again for a few hours on Saturday morning and it surpassed my wildest expectations. In my opinion, this location ranks among some of the best East Coast natural spectacles (such as the horseshoe crab/shorebird event in the Delaware Bay). Large-flowered trillium literally carpet the ridge encompassed by this wildlife management area for several miles. As if that weren't enough, this area boasts a great diversity of wildflowers. In addition to the trillium, I found yellow lady's slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum) and showy orchis (Galearis spectabilis) and many others. From my scouting trip it was also obvious that this is an impressive location for blood root, rue anemone, and wood anemone earlier in the season. It is also an amazing spot for birds. I've never heard/seen so many cerulean and worm-eating warblers in my life, plus hooded warbler, scarlet tanagers, rose-breasted grosbeaks, two species of vireos, eastern towhees, and wood thrushes in great abundance. I was even serenaded by a barred owl on Friday evening.

Unfortunately conditions weren't great for landscape images of the carpets of trillium (there is also lots of underbrush and downed trees that make this type of image difficult to pull off) so I mostly focused on more intimate portraits of the flowers on these two trips. I hope to get out there again tomorrow evening, before the trilliums go by (they were a bit early this year). I've posted two images I took with my iPhone that give you a broader image of the environs, then here I'll include a slideshow of my favorite images from my "real camera". Enjoy and don't miss this spectacle if you live within driving distance!

G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Early Spring Wildflowers Part II-Turkey Run Park

2011-04-25T21:56:00.000-04:00

After the successful trips during the week of my last post, I was able to get back to Turkey Run Park on the weekend and do some more photography of the spectacular wildflower display there. The bluebells were starting to go past and so was most of the Dutchman's breeches, but the squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis) was still going strong and the toadshade (Trillium sessile) was just about at peak. The Potomac River was cresting from a wave of thunderstorms and the Potomac Heritage Trail was submerged in places (including the crossing at Turkey Run). Many of the bluebells along the banks had been submerged or were valiantly bobbing in the muddy current. Still one of the best wildflower displays I've seen locally. Here are some of my favorite images from that day. I hope to get out to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park this coming weekend to photograph large-flowered trillium and other wildflowers there, so hopefully I'll have some more wildflower posts coming soon... Thanks for visiting and enjoy the images. As always, click on the fullscreen icon for the best experience. iPhone and iPad users please click on the static image to visit an "iFriendly" version of the slideshow.

Turkey Run Park-April 17 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Early Spring Wildflowers-Turkey Run Park

2011-04-18T00:22:00.001-04:00

On Monday I had a chance to meet up with Patty Hankins for my first trip to Turkey Run Park off of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia. What a treat! It is a fabulous spot for wildflowers, with a great diversity of flowers/habitats as well as good numbers of bluebells, spring beauty, and Dicentra spp. I was so enamored with the location that I made two more very short trips in between work and home on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. I spent the afternoon and evening there today again as well, and came away with some great images, but those will have to wait until later this week. Enjoy these images for now and look for more coming soon... If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and haven't gotten out to see the wildflowers, get out there ASAP!

Turkey Run Park-April 11-15 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Denali Wildfire Sky

2011-04-10T22:12:00.001-04:00

I'm still working on a post about red-winged blackbirds and their song that will include audio and spectrograms. However, the sound editing/digitizing is taking longer than I had hoped, especially since I'm having trouble staying awake at night to get it done. So, in the meantime, here is another previously unpublished image from my Denali trip in July of 2009. This image was actually taken from a gas station in the Denali Park Business District (just outside the park entrance). I had left the park to fuel-up and get some supplies one early evening and the smoke from several large wildfires had drifted heavily into town. As I gassed up, I realized how the smoke made the early evening sky look like sunset and caused the nearby ridges to differentiate nicely from each other. By using a 70-200mm zoom lens, I was able to compress the stacked ridges and make the sun look as big as it seemed. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Dreaming of Denali

2011-03-31T20:02:00.002-04:00

Today's post is an image from my trip to Denali in the summer of 2009. Due to contrasty lighting and lots of smoke in the air from the Kantishna River fire that year, I've been working with processing this image and trying to perfect it. I think this is as good as I'm going to get it for now. This lovely morning I woke up at 3am to find much of the smoke (which had been very thick) had cleared out and Denali was in full view. Later that morning, instead of waiting for the early bus to arrive, I hiked up the road from Wonder Lake campground and found some vantage points to photograph both Denali and the beautiful (but ubiquitous) fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) while I waited to catch the bus on its return trip. I like the juxtaposition of the fireweed with smoke from the wildfire since the flower gets its name from its tendency to colonize recently burned areas. I hope to get back to Denali as soon as possible; it is a magical place.

If you click on the above image, you will be taken to a larger version on my main website. Have a great day and thanks for visiting the blog.

Spring Has Sprung!

2011-03-30T23:28:00.000-04:00

Great Falls National Park Mar27 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Spring has officially arrived here in Northern Virginia (both literally by the calendar and biologically). The early spring wildflowers are out (and some have even almost gone by) at Great Falls National Park. Last Tuesday I took a hike with visiting relatives and was delighted to see many wildflowers in bloom. Despite fighting some sort of illness, I just had to go back and try to capture some images of the early spring wildflowers and vegetation the following weekend.

The first flower that is evident everywhere in the park, if you are looking closely, is the small, but lovely, spring-beauty (Claytonia virginica). I've previously photographed a tundra relative Scamman's spring beauty (Claytonia scammaniana) in Denali.

One particularly warm microclime on a ravine slope in the park had young flowering Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), as well as Virginia bluebells and red trillium that were almost open. The Dutchman's breeches are another example of myrmecochory, or seed dispersal by ants. The seeds of this flower have elaisomes (fleshy, oily appendages) that cause ants to bring the seed back to their nests. The ants eat the elaisome, then dispose of the seed in the nest's trash pile where it can germinate far from the parent plant.

As I made my way back in the evening, I came upon a patch of emerging skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) leaves that were back-lit by the setting sun reflecting off of a nearby stream. This is one instance where a still picture just doesn't do the moment justice. The sun was reflecting off the ever changing ripples in the stream so a constant dance of light and shadow played across the back-lit leaves. The beauty of the moment would have been better captured with video. Skunk cabbage is a fascinating plant. In addition to the foul smell of the flower and bruised leaves that gives the plant its name, it is also known for exhibiting thermogenesis. The skunk cabbage flower is one of the first to emerge in early spring. In fact it often pushes up through still partially frozen ground or even a light coating of snow. The way it achieves this feat is through thermogenesis. It uncouples the process of ATP production during cellular respiration (i.e. mitochondria in the cells breaking down glucose into chemical energy the cell can use) and instead generates heat. This allows the spathe-covered flower to generate temperatures 15-35 degrees Celsius above the ambient air temperature and melt its way through the frozen ground. In addition the heating helps to attract pollinators, both by helping to spread the odor of the flower, and thereby attracting early spring carrion-eating flies, but also by attracting early spring insects directly to the warmth, giving them a chance to escape from the ambient temperatures.

Hope you enjoyed the post. I'll be heading out to photograph some more spring wildflowers as soon as I get another chance.

Water Colors

2011-03-15T10:51:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post. Since my grades and comments were due for the quarter yesterday, I only got out for a brief local trip on Saturday morning. I went to Burke Lake Park in Fairfax, VA and also to Huntley Meadows Park. I hope these abstract images from that morning are a reminder that exquisite beauty can be found all around you, wherever you are, you just have to look for it. Hope you have a great week!

Burke Lake-March 12 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Sunrise, Sunset...

2011-03-01T23:48:00.001-05:00

Here are a few more images from my trip to the Eastern Shore on February 20th. The first image is sunrise on the beach at Chincoteague NWR and the next two are from sunset at Blackwater NWR in Cambridge, MD. Some low-level storm clouds (nimbostratus) moved in right at sunset and the actual sunset was not visible. Luckily there was a small band of relatively clear sky that remained to the south and to the east. That, combined with the glass-like calm water providing perfect reflections, added some visual interest and dramatic lighting to the scene. In the second image, smoke can be seen from wildfires burning near the refuge. I drove right past one of these wildfires earlier in the day during my travels. Hope you enjoy!

Eastern Shore- Feb 20 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Hooper's Island HDR- Deserted House

2011-02-22T00:07:00.002-05:00

I had the opportunity to head out once again to the Delmarva Peninsula for a photography/birding trip during this long weekend. I started the day at Chincoteague NWR, but as the day was fairly quiet there and the light got harsh pretty fast, I decided to spend some time exploring the Eastern Shore of Maryland. My plan was to check out some back roads and a few of the car accessible islands and then end up eventually at Blackwater NWR and the Cambridge waterfront as the light mellowed in the afternoon.

I was particularly interested in photographing some of the deserted and/or distressed buildings I've seen in my travels around this area of Maryland. There seems to be high amount of poverty in this area. Many of the residents earn their living through farming and/or as watermen fishing for oysters or crabs. Although they both have their benefits, not the easiest ways to make a living. According to the 2008 census, median household income in Dorchester County was $43,288 and 14.3% of the population lived below poverty level. Deteriorating environmental conditions in the Chesapeake Bay and overharvesting have had a particular impact on the fishing industry. Throughout this region you can find many houses that have been abandoned for one reason or another and the houses have fallen into varying states of decay. While out on Hooper's Island in the Chesapeake Bay I found this abandoned house standing on a lot overgrown with beach grass. This is actually one of the few abandoned/distressed buildings found on the island. Due to the popularity of coastal real estate and the proximity of the Bay for members of the fishing and tourist industries, most of the abandoned houses are found farther inland. This particular house found in the town of Hoopersville on Middle Hoopers Island was so picturesque, with its overgrown lot, missing clapboard, and open sky background, that I knew it was the image I had been looking for. I shot a series of three images bracketed by one stop and processed them as an HDR image in Photomatix Pro. I then made some minor adjustments in Lightroom, including dodging a few areas that came out a bit too dark in the HDR for some reason and finally sharpened the final image in Photoshop. Hope you enjoy the final result.

This sight could become more common in coming years as pollution and overharvesting continue to take a toll on crab and other marine populations utilized by the fishing industry. Eventually, Hoopers Island itself and its historical way of life may disappear altogether. It is predicted to be inundated due to sea level rise from global warming. Already human habitation of the lower island had to be abandoned in the late 1920's due to serious erosion.

I'll have some more "true" nature images up in the coming week from this trip, so please stop by again soon.

More Images From Ocean City

2011-02-18T07:22:00.000-05:00

Well, I seem destined to post my Ocean City images piecemeal, so I might as well give in to the inevitable. Here are a few more images from the same morning as my previous two posts. This first image is another High Dynamic Range image from underneath the fishing pier at the Ocean City Inlet. This image is a two part HDR. First I processed the image in Photomatix Pro using three images exposed at +/- 2 stops, but I didn't like how the sunrise sky turned out in the Photomatix version. The sky was way too noisy and muted, so using Photoshop I masked in the sky in the central area from my -2 stop exposure.

The second image is of sea foam on the winter beach just after a wave had retreated. I like the contrast of the wave sculpted beach vs. the wind sculpted beach with the line of foam and dark shadows from the rising sun separating them. This image gave me an idea for a new photo project depicting the interaction of the elements. This one depicts the interaction of water, earth, and air.

I hope you enjoyed the post, I've got to run for work. Happy Friday!

Sunrise From Underneath the Ocean City Fishing Pier

2011-02-15T23:37:00.001-05:00

Today's image is of the sunrise from underneath the Ocean City Fishing Pier, near the Ocean City Inlet in Maryland. This is an HDR image created from three separate images bracketed at 1 stop increments and processed using Photomatix Pro.

Are purple sandpipers really purple?

2011-02-13T23:39:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I took a trip to the Ocean City Inlet in Maryland to do some photography and look for winter seabirds. I'm still working on putting a full post together, but I thought I'd post this image of a purple sandpiper (Calidris maritima) among a flock that was feeding and resting along the rock jetty that separates the beach from the inlet. I have to admit that I've seen many purple sandpipers over the years, but I've always scoped them at a distance, feeding on the inaccessible reaches of rocks or jetties in the rough New England surf. I had always assumed that they got their name from having some sort of purple color somewhere (maybe visible only in the hand), but I had never seen it or really given it a second thought. Upon working my way closer to this flock of birds and getting them in the camera lens, I was delighted to see the purple iridescence so conspicuous on the back feathers in the morning light. This is what I love about photography; taking the time to get intimate with a species (even one I've seen a million times before) and gaining a deeper understanding of the bird and its behavior.

So the answer to the question posed in the title of this blog is yes, they are really purple. However, apparently only in their nonbreeding plumage, and only when you view them at a close distance. Another interesting fact about the purple sandpiper is that it has the northernmost winter range of any shorebird. So, if you live near the Atlantic coast anywhere from North Carolina to the north, keep an eye out on rocks and jetties for flocks of these lovely shorebirds.

More images from this trip will be up soon...

More Images of Ice

2011-01-26T17:34:00.000-05:00

In celebration of the snow day, I thought I'd post some more images of ice coated objects that I've been sitting on for quite a while. These images were taken back in 2008 on a very bitterly cold (but gratifying) December evening. I'd decided to spend the afternoon/evening checking out Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Rock Hall, MD after a pretty uneventful day further south on the Eastern Shore. Photographically the initial part of my exploration didn't turn out much better than the earlier part of my day. However, just before sunset, I decided to follow some trails near the refuge butterfly garden down to the shore of the bay. I found a bonanza of winter macro images. A great collection of shells had washed up on the frozen sand from the winter waves. Also, the sea spray crashing over the jetties that protected the beach from erosion had frozen like thick cake icing over the tops of the jetties and the grass and logs behind them, creating some pretty geometric patterns. These two images are my favorites from the evening. One, a close-up of the bent ice-covered grass stems lit with the setting sun juxtaposed against the dark shaded side of the jetty. The second, a landscape taken just after sunset with the ice coated grasses in the foreground. Enjoy these images and then get out there and enjoy the beauty that winter has to offer. Depending on where you live, that beauty may be grand and easy to find, or it may be more subtle, but trust me, it is out there.

Ice Storm! Images of Plants Encased in Ice

2011-01-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday I woke up to a snow day from teaching and a world covered in ice. With all this copious free-time, I couldn't resist getting out a little bit to photograph all the vegetation covered with ice. Of course, driving somewhere in the car wouldn't have been the brightest thing to do (although that hasn't stopped me in the past). So, I photographed the vegetation around my house. It gave me a chance to test out the new Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro Lens that my girls got me for Christmas. Hope you enjoy the images! Stay warm!

Ice Storm-Falls Church Jan18 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Winter Images From Cambridge, MD

2011-01-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

Things have finally eased up enough with the search for a new day job that I've had a chance to get out photographing, edit some images, and make a post. I'm thrilled to finally be getting some new images up on the blog. The slideshow below is from a half-day trip I took to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and Cambridge, MD. The sunrise in the morning was one of the best I've seen in a while and I really enjoyed spending time with the usual flock of canvasbacks and other ducks that hang out near the sea wall at the end of Oakley St. Enjoy the images! As always, view the slideshow full screen for the best viewing experience (hitting ESC when you are done watching will bring you straight back to the blog). I hope to have some close-up images from a recent ice storm up tomorrow...

Cambridge, MD-January 16 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T23:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm excited to be back posting again and I'm excited for 2011 and all the new photographic ventures that will come with it. First off, my sincere thanks to all of you who have followed, tweeted, commented, and especially made a purchase during 2010. Making these images would be a hollow pursuit without wonderful folks to share them with and I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to view, promote, and support my photography. I wish you all a peaceful and joyous new year!

In celebration of the holiday and winter, I'd like to post this gallery from a recent trip to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

Chincoteague Dec 30 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Chincoteague got hit by the recent snow storm that made news all over the East Coast (but was a bust here in DC), so much of the refuge was still covered in snow and a lot of the available water was frozen. It made for a cold, but beautiful day on the refuge, with the wildlife still sticking around concentrated mainly in areas of open water. I took a risk in the morning and went to see if the old Assateague Light House would work for sunrise or moonset (it didn't), but I managed to have some fun photographing the lighthouse in the morning light. I spent a large part of the day just sitting by open water and letting the wildlife habituate to my presence. After an hour or so of cold sitting at one spot, I had four great blue herons (Ardea herodias), one great egret (Ardea alba), and a flock of ruddy ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis) all feeding within 3-10 feet of me. One of the herons actually tried to land on my head before suddenly realizing I was there. It clouded up in the late afternoon/evening and I'd about given up on any more productive photography when I ran into a herd of six Chincoteague ponies along the Wildlife Loop and I stayed with them almost until sunset as they fed along the road. On my way out of the refuge the twilight sky was spectacular despite a lackluster sunset. Despite needing a restroom badly, I swung around, parked, and hiked out to the Assateague Channel accompanied by the sounds of clapper rails, terns, and great blue herons out in the dark marshes. I caught a few frames of the end of civil twilight, including the image of the Assateague Light House shining across the channel.

While I know that the standard shot of an animal butt at the end of the slideshow is pretty cliched ("The End"), I couldn't resist taking or including this last shot of the back end of a Chincoteague pony. I justify it with the fact that the image actually has biological instructional value; demonstrating the bloated appearance common in these ponies due to the salt water in their diet.

Patterns

2010-12-10T00:38:00.000-05:00

Felt the need for a little abstract beauty this evening (morning). I was looking through my recent shoots for an image that was or could be reduced to mostly just pattern. The evening I shot sunset at Cape Henlopen State Park, this was the first pattern in the sand ripples that caught my eye. I liked the way the little enclosures in the sand ripples made a repeating (yet ever slightly changing) pattern of their own. By increasing the contrast and doing a high contrast B&W conversion using a gradient map in Photoshop, I hoped to emphasize the pattern of the sunlit ridges.

Wishing you a pleasant end to your week.

Chincoteague NWR-Yellow-rumped Warbler

2010-12-09T07:49:00.000-05:00

Didn't get much time to edit for another post, but I thought I'd give you this image of a winter-plumaged yellow-rumped warbler (Dendroica coronata) as my image for the day. Huge flocks of these winter warblers were moving in the brush and trees pretty much everywhere you looked. Hope you have a great one.

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge-Part II

2010-12-08T02:59:00.000-05:00

Some more images from my recent trip to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island in Virginia. Enjoy!

A juvenile double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) swims in a drainage ditch surrounded by reflections.

A great egret (Ardea alba) fishing at sunset.

A great egret (Ardea alba) flying near sunset changes direction in mid-flight.

A great egret (Ardea alba) pauses during fishing and is reflected in the tanin-rich waters of an impoundment.

Chincoteague Was Hot!

2010-12-05T23:06:00.001-05:00

Actually it was quite cold temperature-wise, but the bird/photography/scenery action was incredible when I went to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge last weekend. Lots of waders and lots of ducks, geese, and swans. I've been so swamped this week with end of the semester work, that this is the first chance I've had to get a few images completely processed and up on the website. Enjoy these samples and know that more are coming. Hopefully I can get some images up daily this week. Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and if you have the chance to get out to Chincoteague in the next couple of months, I definitely recommend you make every effort to go! As always, click on any image to go to an enlarged version or to purchase.

A great egret (Ardea alba) fishing at sunset crosses into the shade and casts a reflection

A ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis) flies over a feeding frenzy of gulls and egrets chasing a small group of fish

A great egret (Ardea alba) takes flight from a fishing spot near sunset

A male northern pintail (Anas acuta) stretches its wings in the late afternoon sun

A great egret (Ardea alba) fishing at sunset catches a small fish and the action is reflected in the water

A long exposure of a restless snow goose (Chen caerulescens) flock at twilight

Twilight reflected in Toms Cove seen through marsh grass

Delaware Shore-Part III: Grateful

2010-11-25T13:52:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm grateful for my wonderful family, friends, and friends/followers of my photography. I'm grateful for the small magical moments I get to experience constantly in the field like the ones pictured here. I wish for you the ability to recognize and appreciate those small magical moments before they pass you by.

Top Ten Ways To Piss Off A (Fellow) Nature Photographer

2010-11-24T08:09:00.000-05:00

Let me just start this post with a qualifying statement. In general, I think nature photographers are a decent bunch that have the best interests of their subjects in mind. I think sometimes we do a lot of unnecessary hand-wringing (although commendable that we care enough to) about our impact on the animals/environment and we generally get an unfair amount of negative attention. Compared to many other resource user groups (outdoor and motorized recreation for example) and the general public, I think serious amateur or professional nature photographers have, on average, a lower impact on the animals and the environment. We generally are more knowledgable (and aware) of the animals and their environment, ethical about our impact, and contribute more to the conservation of the habitats we frequent.

That being said, there are clearly some nature photographers out there giving others of us a bad name; and even the best of photographers can forget their manners in the heat of the chase or through getting lazy over time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had the relatively recent personal experiences that led to the creation of this list. I've been wanting to write an article of this nature for a while now, but was unsure how to approach it. In this format, I hope it comes off as a timely, somewhat humorous, but succinct reminder to us all, and not as snarky or preachy.

All right, without further equivocation, here are my top ten ways to piss off a (fellow) nature photographer:

10. Always represent your studio set-ups, captive animals, composite images, or heavily photoshopped images as representing a wild or natural situation to buyers or the public; especially when you juxtapose elements that are temporally, seasonally, or geographically impossible in the wild.

9. Monopolize the best position, vantage point, or subject and never give other photographers a chance, even if you’ve already got a bunch of keepers or are not actively shooting anymore.

8. Engage in loud, boisterous conversation with your photographer friends at popular vantage points or where the animals are located. Never have the courtesy to move the conversation to the parking lot or better yet a local coffee shop after the shoot. Nobody is in this endeavor to enjoy the peace and tranquility of nature.

7. Be denigrating or condescending towards anyone who doesn’t have the latest, multi-thousand dollar gear or who appears to be less knowledgeable. This is an endeavor for the rich and the experienced. Beginners and, especially, people without large disposable incomes should be discouraged as quickly and efficiently as possible.

6. Find a photographer or group of photographers photographing a subject by the side of the road, jump out of your SUV or truck and leave it running so that the photographers are enveloped in a constant cloud of exhaust and noise. Bonus points for adding insult to injury on this one by simultaneously contributing to global warming, air pollution, and the need to drill for more fossil fuels.

5. Find a photographer that has painstakingly stalked up to a subject or waited quietly for a long period of time for the subject to come to them. Charge up to the subject in an upright position and blast away with your long lens and motor drive as the subject “heads for the hills”; then leave without saying a word.

4. Never quietly (or non-verbally) ask permission to approach an animal subject that another photographer is already working. Good manners and recognizing other’s efforts or priority aren’t important.

3. Suggest directly or indirectly that the good work a photographer does is a result of a good camera and/or lenses and has nothing to do with the photographer’s talent, technique, patience, perseverance, knowledge of natural history, and/or time spent in the field.

2. Ignore all signs and/or directions from rangers, biologists, law enforcement, and property owners. Enter prohibited areas, trespass, and ignore minimum approach distances as long as it means you get your shot. Work tirelessly to ensure that frustrated public and private land managers over regulate nature photographers or eventually ban them entirely.

And the number one way to piss off a fellow nature photographer is:

1. Always put getting the shot above the welfare of the animal, your own welfare, and/or the welfare of other photographers.

Did I miss any? What is on your top ten list that I didn't include here?

My thanks to the Photoshelter Blog for inspiration on the format.

Delaware Shore-Part II: Cold War

2010-11-22T23:15:00.000-05:00

Frankly, these two images were a bit of an experiment for me. While I do enjoy photographing the interaction of humans (and their structures) with nature and I'm drawn to decaying/distressed objects, this isn't really my usual subject matter. I was drawn to the way the structure was decaying from weathering and being reclaimed by grasses and trees and the deeper meanings that could be construed/inferred about war. Though I've played around with the selenium toning preset in Lightroom, I don't think I've actually published an image using it, but in this case it captured the cold, nostalgic, and melancholy tone that I wanted for these images. I think it also heightens the sense of age and decay.

What do you think of these?

More posts from Delaware to come. Stay tuned...

Delaware Shore-Part I

2010-11-21T23:22:00.001-05:00

I finally had a chance to get out to the Delaware coast on Saturday. The weather was absolutely gorgeous; sunny but cool and windy, such that I got away with keeping my long underwear on all day. Classic fall weather! I started the morning before sunrise at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge and worked my way down the coast to finish the day at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes. I got to see and most importantly hear plenty of snow geese (nothing says Fall to me like the sound of geese flying overhead), as well as plenty of other wildlife. However, the scenery really stold the show photographically on this trip. The sunrise, which I greeted on a small brackish pond off of the marsh boardwalk trail, was spectacular and the sunset at Cape Henlopen was even more beautiful. The sand flats were exposed at Cape Henlopen Point and I really got a kick out of photographing the sand ripples left by the shrinking tide in the side lighting of sunset. I also got a kick out of discovering the huge amount of scientific literature on sand ripples. The physics of how they form; what they can indicate about wave height, periodicity, and currents; and how fossil ripples can be used to infer ancient water movements. As I said previously, I ended the day with a gorgeous sunset and twilight at Cape Henlopen (by sunset I had the beach to myself too) and hiked out by the light of an almost full moon. Here are a few of my favorite images from the day; more to come later this week.

Delaware Shore Nov 20 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

A Rugged Landscape

2010-11-18T23:55:00.000-05:00

This view looking northeast from Bear Rocks Preserve at sunrise highlights the folded topography typical of this region of West Virginia. Early morning fog fills the hollows which serves to emphasize the ridge lines in the warm sunrise light.

Wild and Wonderful Wednesday

2010-11-17T22:46:00.001-05:00

Well, at the rate I've been able to edit photos before falling asleep or attending to work obligations, it is still going to be a while before I get the entire backlog of West Virginia images up as a single slideshow. In the meantime, I thought I'd share some more finished images from one of my favorite locations.

Dolly Sods is a unique and beautiful area, with a fascinating ecology, geology, and human history. Partially due to human disturbance through logging and fires, the top of this mountain ridge has become predominantly subalpine heathland that harbors many species usually found father north. I could go on for pages about the fascinating natural and human history of "The Sods", but for now I'll just give you one of my favorite facts. Dolly Sods is part of the Allegheny Front which forms the Eastern Continental Divide. Water draining off the east side of this ridge flows into the South Branch of the Potomac River and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Chesapeake Bay. Water draining off the west side of this ridge makes its way into Red Creek and eventually through a chain of rivers, including the Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi, finds its way to the Gulf of Mexico. So when one of the frequent rainstorms rolls over the Dolly Sods area, depending on where those raindrops fall, they may end up in the Atlantic Ocean or they may end up in the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the unique features of the Bear Rocks Preserve, a Nature Conservancy property at the end of the Dolly Sods Scenic Area, is the weathered sandstone and white quartz boulders which lie along the eastern cliffs. Through a combination of chemical and physical weathering, including frost wedging, these boulders have been carved into fantastic shapes. Often the boulders are also pockmarked with gnamma of various sizes and shapes. The two images shown here, taken in June of 2009, show some of this fascinating geology. Be sure to click on the images to see a larger version and read more about each image. Enjoy and look for more West Virginia images coming soon.

Geese and Frosted Leaves, Must Be November in Virginia

2010-11-16T20:43:00.000-05:00

Although I had wanted to get to the coast this past weekend, family and school obligations caused me to settle for brief morning trip out to Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA. I had hoped for lots of bird photography opportunities, but although there were some great birds, not many of them were in range. However, when I first arrived in the morning there was a spectacular display of frost-covered late fall foliage. Later on in the day I spent some time with a small group of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) feeding right next to the boardwalk. It was a gorgeous morning and I really didn't want to leave. Hope you enjoy the images!

Huntley Meadows Nov13 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Featured on the Photoshelter Blog

2010-11-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to say that the Autumn Scavenger Hunt contest was featured on the Photoshelter Blog today. Also a reminder that the deadline for entry is midnight (EST) November 26, so get those entries in!

Great Falls Evening

2010-11-11T23:24:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I spent the evening enjoying the beautiful fall weather at Great Falls National Park, just outside of DC. Here are some images I made just before sunset from Fisherman's Eddy.

Great Falls National Park Nov7 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Elakala Falls HDR

2010-11-11T00:32:00.002-05:00

I'm almost finished my big West Virginia post that I've been promising, but not quite. Here is another teaser image from that series. This image was taken below Elakala Falls #1, but facing in the opposite direction (downstream). Elakala Falls is located on Shay Run, Blackwater Falls State Park, Davis, WV.

I agonized quite a bit about how to properly process this image. I'm not a huge fan of HDR or overprocessing, but the dynamic range in this scene exceeded my camera's ability to capture it in one image. Knowing that I couldn't hold detail in both the sunset lit trees and the dark shaded banks of Shay Run, I did take bracketed shots in the field for use in an HDR image. Back on the computer I decided that HDR was definitely the way to go. I chose a set bracketed at one stop intervals (8, 15, and 30 seconds at f/16). After a few minor color, clarity, and contrast adjustments in Lightroom synched to all three images, I imported them to Photomatix Pro (ver. 3.2) and tone mapped them using the Details Enhancer at a strength of 80. After reimporting to Lightroom I made some exposure and contrast adjustments to the final image, then exported to Photoshop where I used Lab sharpening to sharpen the final image for display.

Note that the glassy texture of the water is not a side effect of the HDR process, but rather the long exposure times required at this time of day in the shaded stream bed.

Scavenger Hunt Print Giveaway!

2010-11-05T22:15:00.001-04:00

To celebrate the closing month of my favorite season (Autumn) Whimbrel Nature Photography will be giving away two free signed 8x12 prints of the winners' choice in my first annual Autumn Scavenger Hunt contest. Contest entries will be due by midnight (EST) November 26, 2010. Each of the two winners will receive one 8x12 signed print of their choice from the Whimbrel Nature Photography online galleries.

Here are the rules for entry:

A. You must either be a follower of the blog or a fan (like) of the Whimbrel Nature Photography Facebook page. Both current and new fans/followers are eligible for the contest, so sign-up to become one if you aren't already. Relatives of Whimbrel Nature Photography will not be eligible for this contest (but contact me to find out about your own family version of the contest).

B. You must email Whimbrel Nature Photography with answers to the following Autumn Scavenger Hunt questions by midnight (EST) on November 26, 2010. Please be sure to put "Autumn Scavenger Hunt" as the subject line of the email and include your full name somewhere in the email. The answers to these questions will be found by exploring the galleries at www.bestnatureimages.com.

Here are the Scavenger Hunt Questions:

1. Which animal featured in the galleries (common name is fine) has the lowest core body temperature ever recorded in a mammal; actually supercooling its body to -3° C for short periods during hibernation?

2. Which plant’s superhydrophobic (water-repelling) leaf has been copied to produce water repellent and self-cleaning products in a process known as biomimicry?

3. Which two Alcid species are featured extensively in my Seabird and Gulls gallery?

4. How many species of wading birds pictured in the galleries have the same genus name (Egretta) but are called herons or egrets depending on their color?

5. In which National Park were my Christmas fern fiddlehead images made?

6. Which species of dragonfly was caught by a yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) in my spider gallery?

7. Bubble Rock in Acadia National Park is what type of geological feature?

8. In my close-up image of a blue bottle fly, what species of plant is it pictured on?

9. How easy did you find it to find the answers above? How easy/hard was it to navigate the site? What would make it easier?

10. What product and/or images would you most like to see Whimbrel Nature Photography offer in the future?

On November 28, 2010, two entries will be selected at random from all the correct/complete (or most correct/complete) scavenger hunt answers received. Winners will be announced on the blog and also emailed. Your email addresses will not be collected or used for any other purpose than contacting the winners of the contest.

Good luck! If you have any questions about the contest please leave a comment below and check back for a reply.

Early Autumn at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge

2010-11-02T00:06:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I had the chance to spend the morning at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, MD. This is one of my favorite spots on the Eastern Shore. Autumn is beginning to get in full swing; many of the trees are beginning to turn, the large flocks of geese and ducks are starting to arrive, and the resident and dispersing eagles are evident throughout the refuge. Here are a few of my favorite images from the day:

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge Oct 25 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

As always, click on the full screen icon for the best viewing experience. Even in the smaller version of the show you can see captions if you mouse over the slideshow. Thanks for viewing!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T08:17:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween from Whimbrel Nature Photography! I've got a lot of posts in the pipeline, so stay tuned and thanks for your patience. I thought I'd post this image in celebration of the holiday. This "Frankenstein" of post-processing is something I'd probably never do with my nature images, but it is fun to play with the family photos and practice my processing skills. First I made a faux-HDR by duplicating the original image in Lightroom twice and adding or substracting 2 stops of exposure from those images, then those three images were processed as an HDR using Photomatix. Then I brought the resultant HDR into Photoshop and did a Gradient Map B&W conversion. Then, finally, using the gradient map as a layer mask, I painted out the gradient map on the pumpkins, bringing back the color in just those spots. This image was taken on a family pumpkin/apple picking trip to Crooked Run Orchard in Purcellville, VA.

Almost Heaven...Teaser

2010-10-11T21:26:00.001-04:00

I had a big blog post planned for this evening from my trip to Blackwater Falls State Park and Dolly Sods in West Virginia. However, a sinus infection, a dirty house, and a stack of grading have all conspired to postpone my post for one or more days. In the meantime, here are two teaser images from the trip that will hopefully entice you to watch for that big blog post later this week. Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend.

This first image was taken Saturday evening at Elakala Falls on Shays Run in Blackwater Falls State Park. This is just a gorgeous series of waterfalls to work. I could spend several hours at the first falls (series of four going down Blackwater River Canyon) alone (and I did this particular evening).

The second image is an autumn West Virginia sunrise as seen from the edge of the cliff at Bear Rocks Preserve, a Nature Conservancy property adjacent to Dolly Sods National Scenic Area. Sunday's sunrise was a bit lackluster due to the completely clear skies, but the sun coming up over the misty ridges is always a good show.

Macro Monday-Hooked Mussel Shells

2010-09-27T23:57:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post today as I'm still trying to catch up from the reception this weekend (which went well, thanks to those who asked or sent encouragement). Today's image is of hooked mussel (Ischadium recurvum) shells on the beach at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Rock Hall, Maryland. I took this image several winters ago on an exploratory trip to the region. Hooked mussels are a common denizen of the Bay and, according to research conducted 1999-2001, serve as a major food source for wintering seaducks using the Bay, especially scoters.

Greeting Cards Now Available From www.bestnatureimages.com

2010-09-26T10:33:00.000-04:00

I've added a new product line to the Whimbrel Nature Photography website. It is now possible to order both blank and custom, high-quality, folded greeting cards featuring any of my images. Simply click on Buy Image, then the Products tab, and then choose the appropriate cards and quantity. The cards are 5x7 inches, printed on card stock with a high gloss finish. The image will be centered on the front of the card with a white border (no black border unless otherwise specified). Ordering custom cards allows you to print your own custom text on the inside of the card; perfect for holiday greetings, personalized thank you notes, invites, or celebrations. Blank cards are $25.99 for a pack of 12 and custom printed cards are $49.99 for a pack of 25. All cards come with envelopes. Order early for the holidays!

Waders on Wednesday-Eye of the Beholder (Great Blue Heron)

2010-09-22T20:48:00.001-04:00

I find it funny sometimes how an image that I'm really excited about, or that I think is one of my best, fails to generate much interest or buzz, and then an image which isn't a personal favorite, or that I feel isn't my very best work, gets rave reviews and accolades. As I listen to and watch people respond to my images it is always amazing to me what a broad range of images end up being people's favorites. The beauty of a photograph or the interest of a particular subject are definitely "in the eye of the beholder".

Today's wader image is a (very minor) point of contention between my wife and I. This is one of my favorite images I've taken from the wild rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, Florida so far. I love the dramatic, low-angle, side-lighting on the heron. The fact that the background has mostly gone to black, except for the log and the little bit of green leaves. I even love the evidence of molt you can see in the primary and secondary feathers. I constantly drag this one out as a possibility when I'm submitting for contests etc... My wife, on the other hand, finds this image too dark and with not enough color for her taste. It is inevitably one of the first ones she suggests I drop when I'm editing down a submission. On this one, we usually agree to disagree.

Leave a comment on the blog and let me know what you think. It will be interesting to see what diversity of opinions there are out there in my readership.

...love the lens you're with.

2010-09-21T22:56:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago while I was on a photo trip with my daughter, disaster struck. I had just been taking macro images of some milkweed bugs and I went to get something out of the car. I set my tripod down with the camera mounted and the zoom lens still fully extended. One of the adjustments on my trusty old tripod is going and that leg started to creep down just enough to through the tripod (which was on a slight incline) off balance. The tripod went down and the fully extended lens hit the ground. The lens hood was on and this was relatively soft earth, so no elements were broken. However, it completely jammed the zoom and focusing mechanism.

This was my Sigma 70-300mm lens, which is my workhorse. Wildlife, macro, landscapes. I'd say I easily take 95% or more of my images with this lens. Even when photographing landscapes, I tend toward using this lens to isolate portions of the scene. And now it was dead. With a sick feeling in my stomach, I put my best face on for the rest of the day with my daughter. However, now I'm left without my primary lens while I consider whether to repair, replace it with a comparable used lens (for about the same price as the repair), or upgrade to a better lens (not likely to fly with the wife unless I start making more sales; feel free to help a guy out with that one 8-)).

So, this currently leaves me with only my "kit" lens, the Canon EF-S 18-55mm. Now I have two choices. I could sit home and sulk, depressed, and refuse to photograph until I have my favorite telephoto lengths back one way or another. Or, I could look at this as an opportunity to get out of my lens rut and try to make some different images. I always bristle when people tell me I must have a great camera or a great lens to make such good photographs. Now I guess it was time to live up to my own ideals. If I'm a good photographer, I should be able to go out and make good nature images even with my little kit lens.

Last weekend I did just that. I headed to a new (and unknown) location for me, Calvert Cliffs State Park, on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay near Lusby, MD. The slideshow below features some of the images from that morning. I'll let you decide whether they are great, good, or merely passable, but I know that this experience in flexing some of my unused photographic muscles was good for me.

Calvert Cliffs Sept 19 - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Macro Monday-Stabilimenta

2010-09-20T21:48:00.000-04:00

For today's Macro Monday post, I want to talk about stabilimenta, the somewhat mysterious structures that some spiders build into their webs. Back in July I posted some images of a female yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) with a dragonfly trapped in its web. At the time of that post, I'd planned a follow up post on the stabilimenta that yellow garden spiders build into their webs, but various distractions ensued, and now here I am finally getting to it in late September.

I'll start off by saying that most yellow garden spider webs that you see are the webs of the female. Adult males are much smaller and roam around in search of a female. Once they find a suitable mate they build relatively small webs in or near the female's web. Here is an image of male and female yellow garden spiders together in a web. When you first see one, you might be tempted to think that the male is a young spider.

Stabilimenta (stabilimentum, singular) are conspicuous silk structures built into the webs of some spiders. Many species of spiders build stabilimenta and it is like to have evolved multiple times within the arachnids, but it only occurs in diurnal (active during the day) spiders build stabilimenta. Below is the typical stabilimentum of an adult yellow garden spider.

The function of a stabilimentum is still controversial, although most scientists can agreee that the orignal explanation that it stabilizes the web (and hence the name) is incorrect. Here are some of the common hypotheses for the behavior:

1. Makes web visible to birds and thus prevents damage to web
2. Attracts prey by reflecting UV light
3. Protects spider by camouflaging it or making it look larger
4. Helps the spider regulate excess silk
5. Serves in mate attraction when the female is ready to breed

There are other hypotheses, but these are the major ones. It is of course possible that several of these explanations may be true at the same time or that it is a different reason for different species or groups. Some studies by Todd Blackledge (and colleagues) showed that spiders on a restricted diet did not build stabilimenta and that webs with a stabilimentum catch less prey. However, some other studies have showed that the stabilimenta attract prey.

Here are some more images of the yellow garden spider and its web.

Hope you enjoyed the post! Remember to look for stabilimenta next time you are out in the field.

Puffins and Razorbills!

2010-09-16T00:31:00.003-04:00

I thought that today I'd feature some images from a trip I took out to Machias Seal Island, ME to visit the Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) and Razorbilll (Alca torda) breeding colonies. Machias Seal Island is an amazing place and I highly recommend booking a trip out to the island if you have the chance. They have long-standing blinds set up near the breeding colonies which allow you sit feet away from puffins and razorbills above their burrows without disturbing them. I can't describe to you what a magical experience it is to photograph and observe these birds at close range. I had the biggest smile plastered to my face for the entire boat ride back to the mainland. Enjoy!

Waders on Wednesday-Great Blue Heron and Falls

2010-09-14T23:05:00.000-04:00

For today's Waders on Wednesday I've grabbed an image that had not yet been uploaded to the webpage. I love photographing the herons that come in to fish the Great Falls of the Potomac River (from either the VA or MD side). When they are hunting they will often stand still enough for a long exposure that blurs the water rushing over the falls, but the heron remains sharp. Usually they come in after sunset, but this particular image was taken instead in the morning just after sunrise. Enjoy, and I'll try to catch up with some more posts this week!

As usual, click on the image to see a larger version and purchasing options.

Gallery Exhibition-Protected Spaces

2010-09-14T15:39:00.000-04:00

Back from a bit of a hiatus due to the beginning of the school year and preparations for my first gallery show. I realized I hadn't officially announced the show on the blog. My exhibition, entitled "Protected Spaces", will be at the Landow Family Gallery, Landon School, 6101 Wilson Lane, Bethesda, MD from September 8-30. The gallery is open weekdays 8:30-4pm and on weekends by appointment. The reception will be on September 25 from 4-6pm. Click on the link above for a preview of the show. Hope those of you in the DC area can make it out for the show or the reception!

Macro Monday-Patterns

2010-08-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

Well, my day job is beginning once again and I'm also still trying to finalize my gallery show. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to economize a bit on this edition of Macro Monday. I have a whole bunch of macros almost ready to go, but I don't have the time this evening to process, keyword, and upload. So instead, I've gone through the macros currently available on my website (some of which haven't been posted on the blog yet) and picked out a few that reflect the theme "patterns in nature". Hope you enjoy and Macro Monday will be back next week with totally new material. Everyone have a great week! Remember, click on any photo to see a larger version, get more info about the subject and location, and to see purchasing options.

A Brief Visit to the Adirondacks

2010-08-29T20:52:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of the month I went on a quick family vacation up to the Adirondacks of New York to visit my sister who lives in Lake Placid. This was a trip to spend time with family, so I unfortunately didn't have much time to photograph the beautiful surrounds, but I did get out one morning while we were there. Based largely on my brother-in-law's recommendation, I decided to hike out to Marcy Dam in the High Peaks Wilderness for sunrise. I'm glad I did, the hike was beautiful and view from the dam with the reflections of the mountains was spectacular. Here are two of my favorite images from that morning.

While it was a family visit, I couldn't resist pulling out the camera one day while my sister was riding and my brother-in-law was helping my daughter with her first horse ride in a long time. Here are a few fun images I took while everyone was out riding.

Family and Friends - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Waders on Wednesday-Final Post from the St. Augustine Rookery

2010-08-25T19:47:00.001-04:00

I think this will be the final post from my early summer trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm wading bird rookery. It was a very productive trip, but I can't decide whether I enjoyed this year more in June with all the young birds and the feeding behavior, or my trip the previous year in March with the nesting, courting, and mating behavior. Not being a big fan of heat and humidity, I have to say that the March trip has the weather going for it. Some day I'll have to finagle a late April/early May trip, but it just doesn't usually work with my school schedule.

I hope you enjoy the images. As always, click on an image to visit a larger version on my main website, learn more about the photo, and to see purchasing options. I also love to hear your feedback. If you ever have a chance to visit the SAAF rookery, I highly recommend it. It is an incredible spectacle and the surrounding area is great too (I also recommend camping at the nearby Anastasia State Park, a great birding destination in and of itself). If you are a photographer, look into the SAAF photo pass program, which is well worth it for the opportunity to arrive early, and especially, stay late. If you end up visiting the park on multiple days or several times during the season, it is even more cost effective.

Macro Monday-Closer To Home

2010-08-22T22:25:00.000-04:00

For today's Macro Monday, I've decided to publish a couple of photos from closer to home. Right out my front door in fact. My wife and daughter planted some sunflowers in our front garden this year and I went out on a recent rainy day to photograph them. Due to a persistent breeze and the low light levels, I didn't end up with all the images I wanted, but I did get a few good ones. While sunflowers are one of my favorites and the flower heads are just gorgeous, I found myself attracted to the backs of our sunflowers. The overlapping hairy green bracts set against the bright yellow petals of the ray florets combined with the drops of water left by the rainstorm was too tempting a composition. As I was finishing up, I also stumbled upon a huge water-logged Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) sheltering under one of the inflorescences. Enjoy!

Sunday Sunrise-Elk Neck State Park, MD

2010-08-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

I spent much of Saturday preparing for an upcoming gallery show, so I didn't have time to create the Adirondack post that I wanted to for today. Instead, I'll say good morning to you with this recent sunrise image from Rogues Harbor in Elk Neck State Park, MD. Elk Neck State Park in located on a pennisula that juts out into the northern Chesapeake Bay between the North East and Elk Rivers. I photographed this sunrise the morning I went to see the Sandhill Crane featured in a previous post. I'd never been to Elk Neck State Park before, and unfortunately didn't have much time to explore it post-sunrise on this particular morning, but it looks like a promising location. Indeed this is one of my favorite sunrise images I've taken to date. Enjoy and I hope you have a relaxing Sunday morning.

As always, you can click on the image to be taken to a larger version on my main website as well as to see purchasing options.

Waders on (Thursday): A Few More St. Augustine Images

2010-08-19T09:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the long break in posts folks. I was away on a family vacation in the Adirondacks and did not have access to internet or any reliable signal on my phone. I'm trying to get caught up with a backlog of images and editing, so bear with me. Today's (day late) Waders on Wednesday post features some more images from my trip to the wild rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, in St. Augustine, FL, earlier this summer. Enjoy and expect a rapid-fire series of posts before I go on my "final" summer vacation (a short backpacking trip with neighbors). Yeah, I know, it's tough having your summers off.

Macro Monday-Dragonflies

2010-08-09T12:22:00.001-04:00

I've started to build up a collection of dragonfly images that I'm pretty happy with. I've just added a bunch of new images from several trips to Back Bay NWR in Virginia Beach as well as some images from Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, all from late summer. I have enough images now that I've created a seperate Dragonfly and Damselfly gallery under Arthropods, rather than lumping them in with the other Insects on my website. Below is slideshow of the new gallery (containing mostly new images). Now I just need to work on adding to the diversity of species. Enjoy and have a great week!

Dragonflies and Damselflies - Images by Elijah Goodwin

Waders on Wednesday-Rainy Day Crane

2010-08-04T13:27:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know it is not technically a wading bird. Cranes belong to the Gruiform order, which includes the rails and gallinules. However, it is a big water bird with long legs, so I figured you might let it slide.

I photographed this individual this past rainy Monday in a small park near downtown Elkton, MD. This sociable adult crane has been hanging out for an extended period in the fields in the middle of a town park. It was quite amusing to watch all the walkers and joggers doing their excercise circuit round and round while this rare crane fed placidly in their midst. It just goes to show that you never can tell where rare or unusual birds will show up. Sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) are rare, but regular visitors on the US east coast, particularly during migration. They are reported frequently in my area of the mid-Atlantic, but often as flyovers that are seldomly relocated. It was great to experience these majestic birds once again (I've seen them in MA, including another intimate photography experience) and some day soon I hope to make it out to one of the real migration spots such as the Platte River in Nebraska.

Enjoy the images!

Why did the water moccasin cross the road?

2010-07-30T19:07:00.000-04:00

I didn't get close enough to ask! Eastern cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus) are one of the wildlife species I see frequently at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Luckily always from a safe distance. I often see them swimming in the impoundments, hunting for fish and frogs along the edges. This individual was crossing from the marsh on the Back Bay side to one of the water impoundments not far from the visitor's center. I'll be posting some more images from Back Bay soon. If you are ever in the Virginia Beach area, I highly recommend visiting. I always have great luck with wildlife there and the sunsets can be spectacular (including the header for this blog). Enjoy your weekend!

Waders on (Thursday): Roseate Spoonbill Preening

2010-07-29T15:05:00.000-04:00

This week's Waders on Wednesday (1 day late) comes from my recent trip to St. Augustine, FL to visit the wild wading bird rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. This year is the first year that roseate spoonbills (Platalea ajaja) have nested at the rookery and a northern breeding record for Florida. This image is of an adult preening just after coming off the nest. Enjoy!

Macro (Wednesday)-Dragonfly Lovers Look Away!

2010-07-28T15:49:00.000-04:00

Today's macro post (sorry for the delay-Wader Wed. will shift to Thursday this week) is hot off the presses (so to speak). I captured these images yesterday at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach, VA during a day-long shoot. One trail in the refuge was just filled with yellow garden spiders (Argiope aurantia) and their beautiful webs. This particular female managed to net a blue dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) and was busily wrapping it in silk. Look for more posts about the yellow garden spider and the stabilimenta (web decorations) in their web in the next couple of days. Enjoy!

Here's another image from ealier in the process...

Worldwide Photo Walk 2010-Vienna, VA

2010-07-26T16:44:00.003-04:00

(Note: this week's Macro Monday post has been postponed until Tuesday so I could bring you this post about this weekend's Worldwide Photo Walk)

Vienna Worldwide Photo Walk 2010 - Images by Elijah Goodwin
(for best viewing, be sure to click on the fullscreen button, click again or press ESC to return to the blog)

One of my enduring (classroom) memories from high school is when my English teacher brought in a local writer to run a creative writing workshop and club. One of the activities she had us do was brainstorm a bunch of random words and then she would choose a word and give us 5 minutes or so to quickly write (or begin) a short story generated from and incorporating that word. I loved the fast-paced creativity involved with having to come up with a bunch disparate but interesting story beginnings based on all the different words. Well, this weekend I participated in my first ever Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk and it brought back those feelings and memories from English class.

For those of you who haven't heard of it, which I also hadn't until a few weeks ago, photographers sign-up (limit 50) for walks in their city or area and then walk around a visually interesting area of the city for about two hours taking images and sometimes interacting. Then everyone meets at a restaurant for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks depending on the timing of the walk and gets to interact and talk photography with other area photographers. There is also a contest associated with the walk, but the main goal of the walk is to spur social interaction and jump start your creativity. This year was the third year, and it seems like it is growing, so I definitely recommend checking it out for next year.

I participated in the Vienna photo walk, led by Photoshop/Digital expert Richard Harrington. At the beginning of our walk, Richard challenged us to avoid taking the types of photographs that we usually take and try something different. I decided to take that admonition to heart. As we were in the middle of a town, that wasn't too hard for me, but I strictly resisted taking close-up flower images from the many beautiful gardens we passed along the way as I do those frequently. I was out of my comfort zone in every way possible. In addition to the unique subject matter, this walk began at 10am as the summer sun began to get harsh. In the summer months in particular, unless it is a cloudy/rainy day, I'm starting to wind down by 10am and starting to scout for or travel to late afternoon/evening locations. If nature is cooperative, I'm also used to working a good subject as long as I want, sometimes for hours, but in order to keep up with the pace of the walk, I had to make shots relatively quickly.

I can't tell you what a blast this event was. Just like back in my English class years ago, I felt those creative juices flowing in response to the challenge. I feel like I got a new boost of creativity and inspiration; and opened up a new world of potential photographic subjects. I also really enjoyed meeting some local photographers and talking shop and good locations in the area. I must admit that the solo nature photography thing, while peaceful and wonderful, can sometimes get a bit lonely. I just wish the restaurant we ate at was a bit more conducive to interacting with a large group, there were many folks I didn't really get to talk to. Despite the brutal heat this weekend (by time we finished the walk the heat index was 112), I came out of this experience energized and reinvigorated. Most surprising to me was how much I enjoyed interacting with the non-photographers along the walk, asking for permission to enter buildings or take their picture. Everyone was very nice, accomodating, and interested in sharing their stories or hearing about the walk.

If you have chance, I highly recommend you participate in a photo walk. It is a surefire cure for a lag in creativity, a case of "there's nothing to photograph", or the belief that there is no shots to be had in "bad" light. If you can't wait for next year, or you can't find a convenient photo walk near you, why not create one with some friends or advertise one with the local photography club? Or you could always assign yourself a solo photo walk. Just make sure you challenge yourself to step out of your usual comfort zone and watch those creative juices flow.