DISCOURAGING BACK LIGHT

As everyone knows, ya just don't take pictures directly into the sun, especially into the sun pointing the camera up into the sky.  Most eagles seem to perch high in trees with their backs to the bright gray or white of the morning sky with the sun at their backs.  I sincerely believe, after countless attempts to photograph bald eagles and other raptors, that all these birds of prey purposely stage themselves in this manner in order to avoid looking into the sun which would hinder seeing their prey.  The purpose of this explanation is to inform the reader why I can't achieve perfect, colorful and detailed photographs of the baby eagles in the nest I have been posting about.  Note the terrible contrast, detail and color in the below shot.

The quality is terrible.  Everything that makes a photograph good is shy in the above picture, as holds true in the ones that follow.  Shortly I'll show you the difference in being resigned to shoot into the sun compared to the results, just two hours later, of shooting when the sky is placed properly behind the subject.  Bored yet?  Here's another baby eagle shot:

That little pile of brown to his right is his sibling.  Again, the quality is horrible but if I want to gather documentation then it has to be good enough and quality can be sacrificed in the name of photographic data gathering.  These little guys are growing like bad weeds.  They've doubled size in one week.  He's testing his wings below:

I mean these guys are really growing up fast.  The photographic problem is that all the property around the eagle tree is private property and I can't get out of the truck to walk for a better vantage point.  In reality, I'm stuck in the truck and I have to stop at the exact same spot every time.  No variation exists in my approach.  If the sky is dark blue or even light blue I'm good to go.  If it's late afternoon and the sun is behind the truck - I'm good to go.  When in a boat I can drift past to set up my position to the eagle.  I'm imprisoned by the water but at least I have some latitude of adjustment in my position.  So, please bear with this growing up of the baby bald eagles.  There will be some acceptable photography as well as some less than adequate photography but, you will observe the young birds until they bounce up and down on the tree limbs and eventually test flight.  Now, compare the above shots to the shots below where I could position myself to the subject critter, or when the sky was darker (rich blue) behind the subject.  Quite a difference.

 He came off that limb so fast I almost missed the shot.

 I panned the camera quickly and caught up with him in the above shot.  Note the clarity and definition --- and the sky.

 The forest provides the buffer between bright sky and my camera lens.  If one is shooting manual, the light meter has to be observed constantly and adjusted.  Manual is rarely selected for these shots.  I prefer shutter priority and when opportune - I select an ISO number as low as possible as long as the shutter can stay above 1000th and I never, ever use the automatic 7 shots per second option.  Anyway - these pictures were taken when I controlled the background by maneuverability of my person, or where nature conveniently placed me with back to the sun.

 So, there ya have the excuses that explain why I can't get great pictures of those baby eagles.  I'm a victim of circumstance!  Ha.  Yep.  That's it.  I'm a victim....The sky will be blue behind them at different periods in the day and I'll stumble along at the right moment and get some shots of them that you will like.  Gotta be patient with nature.  See ya.

LOONS - A WILDERNESS TREASURE

I just finished shoveling gravel onto the driveway where the gravel truck spilled half the load I ordered early spring.  I have a ways to go but I'm in no hurry.  I'm scheduled for Douglas Lake this morning and 4:30 AM found me at the coffee pot making an extra strong brew so I'd have strength to face the unattractive, muddy shorelines that still encircle the lake.  The lake is still filling and will be about another week until it is at full pool for the summer months.  I was assigned an area where I could use the 22 foot bay boat, which I haven't had on the water in a few months.  I was looking for the opportunity to launch it and today was the day.  It's not good to allow marine equipment of any kind to sit idle.   I was on the water at sun up and heading upstream to Muddy Creek, a tributary that joins the French Broad River in the lake.

I entered dangerous areas into my GPS navigational unit a couple years ago when I started running on this lake.  Below is one of them:

Well, what can I say?  I punch in what's on my mind at the time.  I'm glad I did because I was on a collision course with that big ass rock this morning, two years later.

And just like the GPS says -  Thar she be dead ahead. 

I knew I'd enjoy the morning if for no other reason than I'd be on the bay boat.  I've been driving the aluminum jon boat over the late winter and spring months.  But, the day unwound in some surprising ways.  

 Just what was that over there?  One never knows what  mysteries will be uncovered out here.

 That explains it.

 Wonder how many bodies are inside.  Maybe Jimmy Hoffa.  Na.   Too many years.

It appeared to be stuck to the bottom but I could move it a bit when I pushed on it so the current will take it out in the middle of the lake and  present a navigational hazard.  I called it in for what that is worth.

There wasn't many fishermen on the water for a change and I spent more and more time just scanning the shoreline for photo ops.

The mountains always make a nice back-drop for any lake as long as one (me) can block out the houses on the shoreline from my peripheral vision.

This picture seems over saturated by I didn't mess with it at all.  It's how the camera metered the light.  It's pretty close to what I saw though.  The vivid green reflections in the water bounce green light back to the originating foliage and energize the already rich green color.

I startled a couple of passive ringed bill gulls.  I was sorry to be a bother to them.

Then the wood duck blasted off the shoreline and I took a "hip shot" at him.  Ain't easy with a 500 mm lens on the camera.

 Got super lucky on these two shots.  A lot more shutter speed would have been great.  By the way, I'm using the repaired 500 milometer telephoto today.

Wood ducks are very shy and backward and will lay hidden until they just can't stand the nearness of human intrusion  any longer and they rocket away at light speed into oblivion.  Great birds.

And now I give you the prize of this entry.  The American Loon.  He is in full breeding plumage and this is a rare opportunity to photograph one of these on Douglas Lake or any lake for that matter.

In the summer months he is plain old drab brown.  Nothing to write home about and mistaken for other common birds.   But, when he's got his go to church plumage on he is fit for a king's court.

Great Scott he's gorgeous!  These shots are very rare "for me" to be able to take.  I just don't run onto these incredibly beautiful birds that often. 

 He's preparing to dive, and he does.

 Gone.  Just gone and I can't see where he resurfaced.  Amazing!  But, I got him.

Just a couple more shots that I wasn't going to put up here because they aren't that great of quality.  Then I though what the heck, this ain't National Geographic.  This is just fun.  So, here's a juvenile bald eagle getting beat up by some crows.  The shots are taken at a great distance but still interesting.

 I saw the eagle flying down the shoreline and was lining up the camera on him when a crow actually collided into him in mid air.

 Then the crow swooped down at the eagle as he shadowed the big bird along the edge of the trees.

The smaller bird stayed with the young eagle and a second bird joined in on the harassment.  You can see him arriving on the scene in the second shot below.

 The eagle left the shoreline and climbed for altitude thinking he could lose his tormentors.  Wrong!

 This was getting serious.  These crows can be very happy that this young eagle isn't an adult or the outcome of this would be very different.  The young kid here has a lot to learn.

 The crows broke off the chase when the eagle soared out toward the center of the lake.  I watched him fly away in peace.

Oh, no.   I'm turkey-ed out.  I've seen more turkeys this week than Carter's got liver pills.

 She is a pretty little thing though.

And there ya have the day in a nut shell.  It's back on Douglas Lake for the next two days but in different areas.  We'll see what I can't dig up .  Thanks for looking in.

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY

Easter is over and I just finished planting a lot of plants in the yard; some along the driveway and some to enhance the  pine trees I planted three years ago to form a hedge that will obliterate the neighbor's house and extinguish the bright light he burns every night all night long for some reason.  My goal is to entirely circle this property with 50 foot tall pines, leaving only a narrow slot wide enough for my truck and boat to pass through. 

The rain fell gently but steady all afternoon and it felt good to dig and plant grasses and the few holly bushes I had.  Finally I called it quits and went up on the porch, popped a beer open, sat down in the fine rocking chair that Tom bought me, put my feet up on the porch railing, let my hand fall beside the arm on the rocker and found Shade's head.  Now, that's satisfaction.

I have always been a person who likes action and adventure, discovery and the entire process that brings all that to my feet.  I like to be on the move, the bike wheels turning, the boat moving down the river constantly searching for that perfect campsite.  I like to use the "stuff" I brought to enhance whatever endeavor I am undertaking.  It's fun.  I still like to be that way although I'm appreciating the adventures to be more gentle in nature but just as rewarding.  
So, here I am kicked back with my girls at my feet enjoying a warm, damp evening in the rocker just looking out over all my plants - and there are a lot of them.

 The above evergreen is a Thuja Wintergreen.  They are considered to be a hedge tree.  All Thuja's are hedge trees (pines).  These Thujas will grow to 40 feet.

The tree above is a Thuja Emerald.  It's just a bit different than the Wintergreen.  There is one other Thuja that I have and it is called the Thuja Giant and reaches heights of 60 feet.  I can't wait.  Thujas double their size every year which is a very desirable asset to me but the rule of thumb for fast growing trees is that they don't have a very deep root system and can be susceptible to high wind.   No sweat cause it will simply fall onto my neighbors house and hopefully break his all night, outside light.  Incidentally, the tree above was only one foot tall when I bought this place four years ago.  It's actually over seven feet tall right now.

I found this holly plant way down in the woods.  I don't know if the folks who owned this place planted a few plants in the woods or if the holly is growing wild.  I transplanted it here where it will be fed and nurtured.  It can grow how and where it wants.  This place belongs to the plants just as much as it does the dogs.
I like tall hedge plants.  I thought I'd try some tall growing ornamental grasses so I ordered miscanthus gracillimus and also miscanthus purpurascens.  These grasses grow to about 5 feet tall and each plant will extend itself out about 4 feet to the side.  I planted them so they join and form a solid hedge down beside the driveway.  

The plant closest to you is a box wood hedge plant.  The grasses line the drive all the way down to the thuja pine at the end.  Below:  box woods line the drive the other direction toward the road.   I can't wait for this stuff to grow up.  Again, the box woods will grow to about 5 feet and will join horizontally.  

 Above is another holly plant.  I forgot this one.  I planted it a week ago.  

The forsythia you see below came from the old Scona Lodge site on Chilhowee Lake.  I am proud of each plant because each one represents a glorious past and each resided on the premises of a fabulous castle in a fairy-book land long ago.  They were tiny sprigs and roots when I dug them up.  Look at them now.

 They are lush and green, vivid, alive, healthy and reflect honor onto old Scona and keep her memory alive as long as I live.

 Here's two more of those great Thuja pines.  I need to get at least 50 more and I have to get them next year at the latest if I want to see them grown into fine hedges.  I'm not getting any younger.

Next is a close up of the miscanthus gracillimus ornamental grass.  It's hard to believe that this will grow into a 5 foot tall hedge.  We'll see.

Below is a better shot of a box wood.  (hedge plant)

Below are climbing roses.  They have been trimmed back but are growing out like crazy now.  It's amazing how they just blast to life overnight.

And, last but not least - my pride and joy ---- the clematis.  This growth of clematis originated from three plants no taller than three inches.  I stuck them in the ground three years ago and just look at them now.

Their green color is beyond green.  The hue is unbelievably sensational!

 Look at the density of the foliage, how green, healthy and shiny.  These are WOW plants.

I walk among these plants in the morning at sun up and again in the evening at dusk.  I enjoy their company and their freshness.  These plants, and my dogs, are what's important to me.  Someday you too will understand this.  It's a life thing - a life lesson that is understood too late to enjoy it for very long.