Field Guide – Linda & Robert Scarth

We had a new experience recently. Being the subject rather than just photographers was interesting and a great learning activity. Chris Gourley, a producer/director/videographer from Iowa Public Television spent a day with us watching us work while interviewing us with great skill. He also had us provide a selection of images to use in the short feature he was preparing for the IPTV program “Iowa Outdoors.”

The first showing of program #302 of “Iowa Outdoors” will be Friday night April 19 at 8:30 CDT.  There will be repeats over the next week. The station usually puts segments from the program online within a week of the first showing.

This image of Mr. Gourley was made with our small “pocket” camera as we sat on the old stile at the Hanging Bog Preserve, a TNC property in Linn County, Iowa, while talking about our years of photographing together. Spring had not really arrived but there were Skunk Cabbages. A few were outside the sensitive seep area so they were a good subject. We also found some pretty lichens. That furry microphone cover and large lens appeared over our shoulders and above our lenses as we worked while trying to pretend he and they were not there.

From Hanging Bog we made a stop at home to see our digital darkroom. Then we to the Indian Creek Nature Center where the collection of glacial erratic boulders provided some pretty abstracts. The image below is one of the attractive patterns found in a boulder that began life as an ancient sponge. Fossils and crystals made lovely subjects before the spring flowers appeared.

We are eager to see the program and hope viewers enjoy it as much as we did participating.

We are eager for Spring with the wildflowers, insects, migrating warblers and a greening world. In the mean time, to keep thinking color, composition, edges, shapes and all the elements of a good image, it is necessary to look around for other pursuits. The annual mineral and fossil show in March is a chance to wander about with cameras to see what catches our eyes.

Many of the exhibitors have geodes and crystaline chunks of various quartz and other minerals. Most exhibitors are happy to allow photography when asked. Some even offer to move a piece into better light with fewer shadows.

Light is an issue in the big halls with tungsten and fluorescent lights competing. Thank goodness for auto white ballance and raw image files.  Picking an in-camera white balance would be difficult because the variety of light sources. The ability to adjust the light balance and termperature in Photoshop or a similar program turns what a camera can do back into what our eyes and minds saw.

There will be polished agates which are mysterious and look like elevation lines on a subtley colored map with pools and cliffs.

Mineral slices backlit in an exhibit are works of abstract impressionism, just waiting to be photographed. This one caught our attention and is intriguing to contemplate. While the agate is soothing, this one is opposite. Both are good subjects to capture.

The recent gentle rains are most welcome after the summer drought. The subject of water figures extensively in both landscape and close-up photography. Close-up images are sometimes intimate landscapes, as well as abstractions. Autumn leaves and water mix so well. Colors intensify and the accompanying overcast adds a special depth.

The undersides of fallen leaves are often waxy and rain drops form and stay. Water on the top sides of leaves usually is just a sheen of wetness. Sometimes the water tension is able to maintain large drops on the waxy surface like the ones above. Each drop magnifies and sharpens the underlying pattern of veins.

The tree from which this leaf fell was a warm yellow and one of many colored trees in the neighborhood inviting us to make out-of- focus images of single and patchwork colors. Large prints of out of focus foliage can be useful backgrounds for other subjects. They also can become a faux mat layer for another image.

This background was at the widest aperture to make the smooth wash of yellow and gray-green seen in this faux mat. The file at the top of this post was superimposed on the yellow file. The perceived color of the original image was brightened by having the brighter faux mat. Color, like light, has chameleon qualities. Neighbors influence one another.

Many fallen leaves were examined between showers. Another large yellow and tan birch leaf had a small pool of water as well as little drops. It also had a small locust leaf floating just at the surface of the ‘pool.’ The little leaf had a sheen of water that softened the little leaf’s sharpness in spite of careful focusing using LiveView.

Autumn is a good time to add to the collection of files for the ‘backgrounds folder.’ A zoom lens works well to capture the wonderful colors that are out of reach. We vary the aperture to alter the degree of focus and separation of colors.

We went to check on the Skunk Cabbages at Hanging Bog Preserve today. There were just a few peeking out in the little brook that comes off the seeping hillside. The brook was burbling along as it usually does, even on cold winter days. Today it was trimmed with a heavy lace of ice along the edges.  These coalesced into a patterned sheet of ice as the brook spread into the little wetland along the preserve border.

So ice became the subject in the shelter of the hill. One of us looked for abstracts (tan) while the other searched for faces (blue) in the ice. The light played over the surfaces in blues, whites, tans and grays.  The sand and pebbles under the running water added to the colors and textures. We have an interesting group of files to read and interpret like clouds on a summer afternoon.

It was sunny, crisp and so still that we could hear the flap of the crows who flew over. Two Barred Owls observed us from tall trees. A small flock of chickadees came to see what we were doing along the brook. Photography is more than an art. It is a way to really experience the quiet beauty of a winter’s day.

Photographing fireworks is an Independence Day tradition here in the US. It is also one of the photographic cliches that, like sunsets, sometimes looks repetitive. It is a challenge to turn a cliche into a bouquet. Last night we worked on trying to make some images that say “fireworks” without saying “ho-hum”. This image reminds us the line from a John Denver song  – “raining fire from the sky.”

One of the ways that sometimes works when photographing fireworks is to provide a context. There was a line of trees where we watched looking to the northwest after sunset. Some of the early images included the tree silhouettes against a navy sky. The burst was a spikey flower shape between the trees.

Here is one that could be an exploding “flying saucer.”

More rain from a garden sprinkler with a cluster of fireflies in the background.

And of course the classic palm tree shaped burst with streamers can work when it fills the frame.

We kept our settings simple. Most were at f/5.6 to f/8 at ISO 800. Sometimes images were made in the AV mode and others were Bulb.   Bulb worked best when there were multiple bursts in close succession. AV captured crisper single bursts.

 

We often explain our interest in photographing beautiful insects by saying that they are the jewelry that flowers wear. It is now early summer and another generation of insects is developing in the eggs found on leaves and other natural substrates.

These tiny football shaped eggs (above) were seen on the back of a common milkweed leaf at a nearby nature center. They looked like carnelian beads and absolutely glowed.

This cluster of even tinier eggs were a bit further along the trail, on another common milkweed leaf. We do not know their species but were attracted to the patterns. The shapes are a bit like closed, very tiny sea anemones. Nature is an abstract artist who sometimes repeats herself.

Several years ago we found these on a coneflower leaf. They were somewhat irregularly shaped and looked a bit like red freshwater pearls. We sent a photograph to a ‘bug person’ friend who said wait until they hatch to find out what they are. We did and a few days later, they hatched into tiny Box Elder Bug nymphs.

The nymphs are red and gradually become duller and add black markings as they mature.

Perhaps we should have brought home the two clutches we found this week to learn their names.

Dreary winter days sometimes find us playing with image files in ways quite different from our usual approach to presenting beautiful plants and animals as works of art. We photographed this Great Blue Heron (Ardia herodias) in a dark swamp along a road in Florida last February. There was just a shaft of light coming through the trees, falling on the bird and making it appear quite bright in the scene. The image was made with the lens resting on a large beanbag on the truck window. The light on the bird caught our attention and we backed up along the shoulder to make the image.

Light and water conditions made for an almost perfect mirrored reflection. The warm light changed the bird from gray to brown. Little flecks are visible on the water around the bird. The symmetry reminded us of the way bits of glass and other objects appear in intricate patterns in a kaleidoscope. Photoshop CS5 did the heavy lifting as we tried various layouts with repeated images. Several compositions were tried with the one here, the most interesting.

Great Blue Herons can appear to be rather abstract compositions in real life. The repeated, somewhat abstract, shapes and patterns of the bird turned it into a kaleidoscopic work.

Water is an element in many kinds of photographs. We are fascinated by dew and rain drops and their contributions to interesting images – especially the refractions and colors that are sometimes captured. Ice may be solid but it provides interesting abstracts. Also, icicles are available in winter when many of our other favorite subjects are not.

When icicles form they may have growth rings or layers of varying thicknesses formed as water slides down, expanding and extending the shaft. As a result icicles may reflect, refract and transmit light in surreal ways. These three were hanging from a blue metal table near a brick wall with snow on the ground nearby. There were light and shadowed areas on table, wall and snow. By focussing on the patterns in the icicle with a shallow depth of field, the resulting image becomes an abstract piece of art rather than just a photograph of icicles.

As the winter solstice approaches, we look for more winter image opportunities. The moon eclipse overnight tomorrow is likely to be covered by snow clouds according to the weather forcast. Sometimes missing a grand opportunity encourages us to look closer to home. Perhaps we should find some more ice.

The local County Conservation agency keeps a small group of Elk (Cervus canadensis) in a large paddock in one of the county parks. There are shade trees, a grassland and a pond. We sometimes stop by to admire them.

Another common name for Elk is Wapiti – originally an American Indian word: Waapiti. Because the North American elk and its sub-species are genetically close to the smaller Red Deer of Europe, some older field guide books still give it the scientific name Cervus alaphus, though it is now considered a separate species. Wapiti are the largest members of the deer family that includes other elk species and sub-species.

This unhappy looking fellow was photographed on Sunday afternoon when the temperature was 90° Fahrenheit (32° Celsius) in the shade and the flies were tormenting the elk. Most, even the calves, had immersed themselves to their chins and were swinging their heads to try to evict the flies on their faces. The two bulls sometimes barely missed one another as they swung their huge racks. The sweep of those antlers is very impressive.

Even though the sun was still high in the sky and the shadows fairly deep, the pattern of elk against the blue and green of the pond invited image making. The fence wire is spaced so that the center area of a 300mm lens gets a good view through the heavy netting. Even if the fence wire had interfered slightly, the long lens with narrow angle of view and using a shallow depth of field could have rendered the fence almost invisible.

Elk in the wild are known to have favorite wallowing places in wetlands and along streams. The wet mud protects from horse flies and other biting insects. Insect control is an issue for those who farm elk and deer. This group uses the pond for cooling and insect control. We should consider them as photographic subjects more often.

The feathers of the bird’s at the feeders are fluffed against the bitter cold. The blizzard that passed through yesterday has left frigid temperatures in its wake. Staying inside to photograph some feathers, including a few moulted by Scarlet, our Solomon Island Eclectus parrot, provided warmth on a cold day.

This feather shows both pigment and structural color. As it is angled against the light the colors change from red to green to blue. The red-orange is pigment and the blues are seen because miniscule air pockets in the feather barbs scatter light that is seen as blue. Most blue feathers are produced this way. The red colors are produced by several types of pigments which in combination with melanins can produce a wide variety of colors from yellow to orange, red, maroon and green.

The feather below is a tiny breast feather with a downy base and bright barbs at the tip. Eclectus’ feathers are almost like dense fur – soft, firm and tightly packed.

The even tinier blue feathers around her eyes and in the narrow neck scarf will be a project for another day.