Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)

Dreary day over Buzzards Bay

Visited Allens Pond yesterday on a cold, blustery and cloudy day.  I was shown a group of people around and did take some pictures, utilizing my Nikon D 810 in my Tokina 11-17 mm.  I photograph some scenics and then turn my attention to shooting a sign of spring.  What is the sign of spring?  It is the skunk cabbage.  What strikes your eye is the spiral-shaped hood that is maroon in color and mottled with yellow or yellow-green.  People believe that this is the flower of the skunk cabbage.  No, it is a specialized leaf called a spathe that surrounds this spherical head of flowers called the spadix.  The spadix has many tightly packed individual flowers that have no petals.  The green leaves of the skunk cabbage grow up alongside the spathe.  A great article that talks about the history of the skunk cabbage is from the Nature Institute http://natureinstitute.org/pub/ic/ic4/skunkcabbage.htm.  Skunk cabbage is a found in the wetlands because they need water all year round.  So if you are interested in photographing the skunk cabbage now is the time.

Skunk cabbage surrounded by moss in the mud

Skunk cabbage spathes

Skunk cabbage looking into the opening at the spadix

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Upcoming Beach Ramble and Upcoming Trip.

Beach Loop at Allens Pond

Monday, September 7 at 10 AM I will be leading a beach ramble at Allens Pond Sanctuary 1280 Horseneck Rd., Westport, MA.  The addresses in Westport, but the sanctuary is in Dartmouth because the line runs right down along the side of the road.  This event is free and invite all my blog readers to attend if they are able.  It will be a great way to learn about the sanctuary and it chance also to add to your portfolio if you are a photographer.

Sulphur butterfly Allens Pond

Lady Crab on the Beach at Allens Pond

Meanwhile, I have been taking care of business since it is the first of the month by working on Excel spreadsheets.  Also, I am getting ready for my fourth trip to Costa Rica.  I will leave on Wednesday, September 9 and will be back on Sunday, September 20.  I again will be joining Greg Bosco and Foto Verde tours.  This trip is to discover the biodiversity of the Caribbean coast.  Last year I did the biodiversity of the Atlantic coast.  We will be staying at two locations that I have never stayed before and one Bosque de Paz, where I have been twice before and it is a gorgeous place in the cloud forest of Costa Rica.

View from my hotel room In San Jose

Setting up at Bosque De Paz for Hummingbird Photography

Violet Saber Wing

In preparation for this trip, I am cleaning my camera equipment, recheck in the focus calibration of my lenses and making sure all my batteries are charged prior to leaving.  Even though I am bringing chargers with me.  For any of my trips.  I have a gear list that I use to decide what I bringing.  For this trip, I will bring two camera bodies, four lenses; wide-angle, 28-75 mm, 70-200, 80-400.  Plus with telly extenders.  It will give me all the reach that I will need.  I take plenty of cards for the cameras and camera and lens repair equipment and cleaning equipment.  Bag wise I am going to use my Small Think Tank Roller and the Trifecta 10.  I will bring my laptop and to external hard drives to back up my photographs.  In the camera bags I insert silica gel decreased the moisture which is present in the jungle areas of Costa Rica.

Trifecta 10

If you have never been to Costa Rica, I recommend you plan a trip there, it is a eco--friendly country with a large number of national parks and private bio reserves plus a great variety of fauna and flora.  If you are interested in going, I recommend highly Foto Verde Tours http://www.fotoverdetours.com/

Because Internet connections are not always present in areas of Costa Rica, my blogs may be delayed until I return.

My Experience Utilizing Nikon D 7100 and Nikon 80-400 mm Lens for Birds in Flight.

Last year, when I travel to Costa Rica, I borrowed from NPS the Nikon 80-400 mm lens and founded fast focusing and easy to handhold.  To complement my 70-200 F/2.8 lens.  I have been viewing the different long zoom lenses that are on the market.  Years ago I did have the Sigma 50-150, which I liked but when I obtained my 500 mm F/4 lens and my 70-200 mm F/2.8 lens, I gave the Sigma to my son to use.  Last summer, I did try the Tamron 150-600 mm lens, I liked the quality of the pictures, but however, it was heavy enough so that I could not comfortably handhold it.  So I finally made a decision, especially when Nikon had a discount on the 80-400 mm lens and bought it.

What I like about the lens, it is is compatible with all my cameras, whether they are FX or DX.  It is very handholdable, quick on focusing, sharp and I can utilize my Nikon 1.4 X converter on it.  This will give me an aperture of F/8 when the lens is fully extended to 400 mm.  I do a lot of my bird and animal photography at F/8 and I adjust my ISO so that I can obtain the shutter speed of at least 1/1250.

 I carry the combination with a new neck strap manufactured by Indigo Marble Camera Strap - Soft Padded Black Neoprene Lightweight Adjustable Comfortable Designer Sling for Your Valued Canon Nikon Pentax Sony DSLR - Anti-Slip - For Guys & Women - Quick Release Design - Protect Your Investment - 100% Money Back Guarantee , which finally, I have a strap that doesn't bother my neck or back.

Sunday morning I visited Allen Pond and then traveled down to Sapowet Marsh/ Beach in Tiverton, Rhode Island, where most of my photography were birds in flight.  Photography wise, to me the only drawback was it was a beautiful sunny day with only a rare cloud in the sky.  Therefore, most of the backgrounds are blue.

Great Cormorants in flight.  Noticed a white hip patch

Drake Mallard

Turkey Vulture soaring. It came right over our heads

Young Herring Gull

Young Herring Gulls Squabbling over a Whelk

Osprey hovering looking for a fish in the water below

Male and Female TreeSwallow Squabbling

So if you are a Nikon user and need a carry around long lens that is not too heavy then the Nikon 80-400 mm F/4.5-5.6 can be the lens for you.

 

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Luck with a Green Heron

Like many people say, and I agree with, be ready to shoot.  You never know what will appear.  Last month, prior to me coming down with bronchitis and falling and hurting my back I was down on the beach at Allens Pond photographing the shorebirds that were running around in front of me.  I was utilizing my 500 mm F/4 lens with a 1.7 converter on it on a tripod with a Rigid Gimbal Head.  Walking back to the field station, right at the culvert, I glanced to my left and in the bushes was a Green Heron.  From watching green heron activity, usually here in the north, if they notice you, they will fly right away.  I immediately set down my tripod and captured some pictures, even though I was shooting through some bushes.  The green heron started acting like it was going to dive down and capture a prey and I got a few pictures of this activity.  Then the heron straightened up and allowed me to adjust where I was photographing from and got some images of the heron with out the bushes in front.  What was great about it, there was two of us photographing the heron, and it did not fly away.  Sometimes luck is with you.

Green Heron

Green Heron Looking like It Is Going to Go after a Prey

Green Heron with with Its Neck Stretched out

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Photographing the Milky Way Additional Information.

Milky Way over Gooseberry

Milky Way over Gooseberry

In my previous blog on photographing the Milky Way, besides the Stone Barn the other location to photograph the Milky Way I mentioned was Gooseberry Neck.

Despite light pollution due to the city's towns and villages along the shore of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with the appropriate settings in your camera.  You can get great pictures of the Milky Way.  In fact, you can get even surprises.  In this picture not only you can see the Milky Way, but there are three meteors and three airplane tracks.

Milky Way over Gooseberry with meteors

Locations of Meteors and Airplane Tracks

 I experimented taking a panorama of the Milky Way starting at ground level up to 90° overhead.  After importing the pictures into Lightroom and batch adjusting the settings, I exported the pictures into Photoshop CC 2014  and merged into a panorama.  Although the tripod didn't move, I needed to crop the picture and then did some further adjustments in Photoshop.  The main problem that I observed with this picture is I did not overlap the pictures is much as I should have.  Well you live and learn.

Milky Way over Gooseberry Panorama

Any clear evening from September 20 through September 28 after 8 PM will be a good time to photograph the Milky Way.  Remember September 24-25th, I will be holding a workshop at the Stone Barn of Allens Pond Sanctuary in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, starting at 8 PM.  The advantage of photographing the Milky Way at the Stone Barn is there is less light pollution and bathrooms and a kitchen so you could have coffee, tea or what ever else you want to bring to drink.  You receive instructions on your settings and any other help you may need to capture the Milky Way.  Remember to sign up at the Allens Pond Site.

Remember I have a workshop to to photograph the lunar eclipse on October 8 at the parking lot on Gooseberry Neck, Westport, Massachusetts, starting at 4:45 AM.  The other interesting event occurring is that there are two meteor showers peaking around that date: Draconids and Southern Taurids.  As the moon starts to eclipse and it's light diminishes there is a greater possibility of viewing the meteors.

The cost of the workshop will be $25 payable by PayPal.

I will have prepared handouts showing settings that you will need in order to capture the event.  Also since the Moon will set just after the sunrise occurs we can also photograph  the sunrise.  Equipment needed includes a steady tripod, camera, a medium to long zoom lens or a 300 mm-500 mm lens, a shutter release and a flashlight or headlamp plus appropriate clothing. Also,  you can utilize a wide-angle lens  to take multiple exposures then stack the photos in Photoshop or any other stacking program .  In case of bad weather the fee will be returned.

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