Earth Day 2016

Sunrise over Buzzards Bay

Today is the celebration of Earth Day; Landscape Photo Magazine had a project to celebrate Earth Day.  The project is for people all around the world to photograph sunrise at their location.  We went to my favorite spot for sunrise, which is Gooseberry Neck in Westport, Massachusetts because it usually has great color in the sky.

Well, today there was some color at the horizon, which was muted due to the clouds and low fog bank at the horizon over Buzzards Bay.  In fact, you barely could see Cuttyhunk.  Despite that the clouds I did produce some images.

Sunrise over Buzzards Bay

Sunrise over Buzzards Bay

Sunrise over Buzzards Bay

For all you photographers try to get out today and capture some photos of our Mother Earth to help honor it.



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The Fastidious Dunlin

Dunlin Carrying Slipper Shell Snail

Today, it was a beautiful day.  Even though the temperature was in the 30s, but there was no wind.  We traveled down to Gooseberry where the main species that we saw were Dunlins.  The Dunlins were either feeding, along the water line or in the wrack or higher on the beach in the sand where they were investigating slipper shells that got washed up and found the snails that live in the slipper shells.  Some Dunlins were just resting in the sun and getting warm.

One of the Dunlins that was feeding higher on the beach in the sand was very fastidious.  It would pull a snail out of the slipper shell, and if the snail was covered with sand, before eating the snail, the Dunlin would take the snail in its beak and run down to the water, where it would wash the sand off the snail before eating it.

Dunlin Carrying Slipper Shell Snail

Dunlin Carrying Slipper Shell Snail

Dunlin Watching the Slipper Shell Snail in the Water

Dunlin Watching the Slipper Shell Snail in the Water

Dunlin Watching the Slipper Shell Snail in the Water

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It Is That Time of the Year!

Panorama of the Milky Way Gooseberry Neck Buzzards Bay

Starting in March starts the season for photographing the Milky Way.  Because the galactic center is present, this area of the Milky Way is the most photogenic with its big area of "clouds".  This morning, the weather was excellent for viewing and photographing the Milky Way.  It was clear, cold and only a little bit of wind.  The stars were sparkling in the sky.

To decide when I want to photograph the Milky Way depends on the weather, phases of the moon, and the time that the galactic center rises.  I use a variety of apps or web pages to help me plan the time and also the location where I want to do the photography.  NOAA weather service has on its weather page an area where you can determine sky cover for a location.  I also utilize PhotoPills on my iPad along with The Photographer’s Ephemeris to ascertain the location of the Milky Way, times of astronomical dusk and dawn, moon phase and places.  In the spring.  The galactic center rises in the early morning and creates a low panorama in the sky.  In the summertime, the galactic center is visible for most of the night and is oriented up and down.

On consulting my apps about this morning, I found that the galactic center would rise about 2:20 AM, and that astronomical dawn start about 4:36 AM.  We arrived at Gooseberry, about 4 AM and were able to shoot for a half-hour creating some excellent photographs.  I produced a panorama which also contained two meteors.  I could not show the full curve of the Milky Way due to light pollution along the shore of Buzzards Bay in Westport because of the lamps on the street and around the houses.

Milky Way

Looking North into Westport Showing Light Pollution

If you have a dark location near you go and enjoy the Milky Way.  My equipment is a sturdy tripod, a digital single lens reflex camera, a wide angle lens 14-24 mm with the largest f-stop being f/2 .8.  I set the camera in manual and manual focusing.  Depending on the camera ISO will vary between 1250 and 3000.  The shutter speed will vary between 20-30 seconds.  By looking at the LCD screen on the camera and the histogram, I will make adjustments in shutter speed and ISO.

Dress appropriately for the weather and bring a hot drink along.

A Great Day Birding and a Poor Day Photographing

Monday, my friend Doug and I we went out birding and picked up a good number of sea ducks and seabirds.  The problem was all those birds were way offshore and too far for any decent photographs.  There was a number of passerine's, around, but they were very skittish and would only perch for a second, which did not allow any photographs.

There was an area where the ground cover was starting to change colors even though there was no color in the trees as most of the leaves on the deciduous trees had fallen.

Ground Color

At the parking lot on Gooseberry, a gentleman was feeding the gulls, which allowed me to capture some photographs of ring-billed gulls hovering and in flight.

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Like I said a day out in the field with beautiful weather is always a great feeling.  But remember, do not be afraid to go out in inclement weather because it will change perspectives.

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Chasing the Aurora

Looking across Buzzards Bay

There was a notification that solar flare would hit the earth on November 2nd and 3rd with levels that should make it visible as far south as Pennsylvania.  We spent the portion of both nights looking for the Aurora.  The first night was at Gooseberry and the second night was half at the stone barn and half at Gooseberry.

Orion and Pleiades at the Stone Barn

On the first night, although it was supposed to be clear clouds moved in which in themselves gave interesting patents in the sky.  We observed Orion rising and chasing the Pleiades.

Orion and Pleiades

Along with a number of bright meteors probably due to the southern Taurids and possibly the Orionids.  When trying to photograph meteors.  The hardest part is to determine where in the sky that they will appear.  The maps show the radiant point, where the meteor showers originate from.  However, they can be anywhere in the sky.  Knowing the radiant point, you try to be 45° off the radiant point and hopefully capture a meteor in your photo.  In fact, tonight November 4, the South Taurids peak and they are known to produce exceptionally bright meteors known as fireballs.  Over the two days, we saw a good number of very bright meteors.  However, I only captured one meteor in the two nights of shooting.

One Meteor above Orion

At Gooseberry, looking north, I photographed a couple of 15-minute-star trails both nights.  The first night. The lower portion of the photograph was burnt out because of light pollution.

Star Trails

Star Trails

The waning Crescent moon appears over the Western horizon, illuminating a portion of the sky and the ocean waters with an orange glow.  On the second night photographing the rising of the moon and adjusting the pictures in Lightroom and Photoshop, we could see the Aurora that the camera captured even though we could not see it with our naked eyes.

Rising Waning Crescent Moon with Clouds in the Sky

Aurora

Aurora

The temperature range from the high 40s to the low 50s and there was practically no wind, and it was comfortable being out photographing.

Experimenting

Went out to Gooseberry to see what we could find.  All three of the scoters were present out in the day, however, they were too far away to photograph.  There were a number of different sparrows around plus out at the tip of Gooseberry Savannah sparrows.  Just prior to our reaching the tip a large flight of shorebirds flew by, which disappointed me because usually at the tip is a great place to photograph shorebirds.  The reason was a gentleman was walking his three dogs, which cause the shorebirds to evacuate.

There was an interesting stand of driftwood out at the tip which I photographed.  When I looked at the driftwood on the computer screen, it was a very bland picture.  So I decided to have some fun experimenting.  First, I adjusted the picture in Lightroom and exported the adjusted picture to Photoshop.  While in Photoshop.  I cleaned up the background, replace the background with a texture, added a little bit of impressionistic painting and then did some selective adjustments of the color.  Here is before and after.

Driftwood after Lightroom Processing

Driftwood after Photoshop and Topaz Processing

Yellow-rumped warblers were present.  One of the warblers posed out in the open, allowing clear shots of it, but, the background was very busy.  So again back in the computer.  I adjusted the picture in Lightroom and in Photoshop and then replaced the background with a green background photograph that I had taken.  Again, here is the before and after.  Which one do you like better?

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler with Background Replaced

One yellow-rumped warbler kept flying off of branches turning around and catching small insects that were in the air.  I was happy to get a single image of the warbler performing.  I would love to have the warbler looking toward the camera, but I was happy to get a single clear picture.

Yellow-rumped Warbler Catching Flies Showing Its Yellow Rump

Not to start a controversy, I believe that a photographer is also an artist, and can adjust photographs to please himself/herself.  That is what I used to do in the darkroom, the same as AnselAdams and other old great photographers.  He yes, now we do it on the computer using a digital darkroom.  Now, if the photograph is supposed to be documentary or for the news, then no great manipulations should be performed.  Please reply on the blog what your thoughts are in this matter.

Gooseberry, Birds and Weather

Lincoln's Sparrow

Before I write about yesterday shoot, let me tell you my tale of woe.  What are my hard disks that had all my pictures from 2015 had a malfunction and I lost my pictures..  First thing that I did was go to my backup site that is on the cloud.  I utilize Backblaze as my backup agent.  They furnished me with a hard drive containing my backup for the hard disks that failed.  I did have to wait a week before I received it.  I did have to pay for the hard disk but that was all right because there was over a terabit of data and it would take in ages just to download the data.  I then went and tried some recovery options that I had and I recovered files, but they were in a folder that for some reason I could not find or access.  So all the pictures I took since the drive corruption, I did import into Lightroom and save the cards to I made sure everything was back in place.  If you are interested you can go to Backblaze and see their offerings, and if you use this URL you get a free month of service.  Plus, I also will get a free month https://secure.backblaze.com/r/010sos  Enough of that, now for the fun.

Earlier in the week we were out at Gooseberry and the migrants were coming through and we were able to photograph a number of different sparrows, including a Lincoln's sparrow.  So yesterday the kids and I decided to go back to Gooseberry to see what we could photograph.  It was partly cloudy when we left home with a little wind blowing.  When we got to Gooseberry.  The wind was really blowing and the waves were crashing against the rocks and the causeway.  The sparrows with their but because of the wind.  The birds were staying mainly in the bushes and it was harder to get clear photographs.

Swamp Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

In the Southwest, the sky was clouding up and darkening and you could see a storm coming.  At this point I changed from bird photography to landscape photography.  I love the look of the way the waves were crashing.  It started darkening over us and some very light rain started.  Suddenly there were three strikes of lightning close by, so we packed up and headed home in a torrential downpour until we reach Fall River and the sky was much clearer and no rain.  Now the nice part of when I was photographing the storm I was videoing at the time of the lightning.  It was able to capture it on video.

Storm Coming In

The Waves Coming in and the Clouds Swarming

Supermoon - Blood Moon - Eclipse

Moonrise over the Elizabeth islands and Buzzards Bay 

Last night was the final eclipse of the tetrad.  The weather gods were kind compared to the previous eclipses.  Two were rained out and the third was only able to be seen through half the eclipse since it clouded completely over.  Three of us were at Gooseberry neck at the time of moonrise and one person joined us for the eclipse.  We stayed and watched the moonrise in the sky and the clips begin and finally stopped after the moon was coming out of full eclipse.  At the time of the eclipse you were able to see the stars shining in the sky.  The sky started out clear and then a few high thin clouds passed over the moon and dissipated by the time the eclipse began.  There were many people at Gooseberry out to watch, party and enjoy the eclipse.

Once I had the moon in sharp focus, I turned my camera's autofocus to manual and until the moon was half eclipsed I did not have to change any shutter speed.  It was a wonderful evening and a good time was had by all.

Moon Climbing toward Full

Start of the Eclipse

Eclipse Continuing

Almost Full Eclipse

Full Eclipse

Full Eclipse and the Stars Showing in the Night Sky

Composite of the Eclipse

Great White Shark Found at Horseneck :)

Ha!  H! A Great White Shark

Yes, a smile for the great white shark that I found at Horseneck.  Walking along, I thought I saw a fish in the wrack.  Also, a ring-billed gull also saw it and started walking toward it.  On closer inspection it was a great white shark toy that some child lost.  The gull looked at it with disgust  and walked away.

We visited Horseneck, hopefully, to count shorebirds for World Shorebird Day and all we saw was probably 15 sandelings.  We spent most of the time at Horseneck photographing gulls in various stages of plumage and action.  A great black-backed gull caught a crab and was chased by another gull wanting to steal it but the great black-backed gull was smart.  It flew away.  Landed and ran as fast as it could to get away from the other gulls.  Seeing this happen a pair of Herring gulls screamed at the great black-backed gull.

Great Black-Back Gull with the Crab Being Chased

Great Black-Back Gull with Lady Crab

Vocalizing

As the sanderlings were running around feeding, ring-billed gulls stayed close to them, hoping to steal a mole crab. However, the sanderling that caught a mole crab flew away faster than the gull.

Sanderling

Ring-Billed Gull among Sanderlings Feeding

We were lucky in that an Osprey was searching for fish near the shore hovered then dove, and we were able to catch it coming up with a large fish.  We have photographed Osprey in the past, diving, but never catching them right after they caught a fish.  First coming out of the water, the Osprey had one claw in the fish and then as it was starting to fly off, it grabbed a the fish with the second claw, and off it flew.

Osprey Catching a Fish

Osprey Catching a Fish

Walking back to the car, we found morning around in the sand juvenile ghost crabs.  They are very fast-moving but one stayed still long enough for us to be able to take pictures, looking at its front and also looking at its back.

Ghost Crab

Ghost Crab

Still hoping to find more shorebirds, we traveled to Gooseberry where all we found was three semipalmated plovers and one spotted sandpiper.

Semipalmated Plover

Although, we did not find many different species of shorebirds.  It still was a great day being out photographing.