Howland's Island Park in Montezuma Wetland Area

Howland's Island at Montezuma

I'm always interested in new places in Central New York to take a hike for a couple hours and take some photos.  Recently I had the pleasure of finding just this kind of place.  Howland's Island is part of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex.  Montezuma is a park that many people know, but Howland's Isle is lesser known.  I imagine this is partly because it can be hard to find.  In fact, one of the final roads I was supposed to take was closed down.  Luckily, with some thoughtful driving I was able to find another way around.  If you can manage to find the place, it is well worth the visit.

Howland's Island at Montezuma

Purple flowers at Howland's Island

Howland's Island at Montezuma,
photo taken near a beaver dam

Howland's Island at Montezuma

Tully, NY and Tinker Falls

Tinker Falls, outside Tully, NY

What better way to spend a Saturday than to do a little hiking and nature photography?  That was my thought today as I set out down I-81 S from Syracuse to Tully, NY.  I've been to Tinker Falls, which is just past Tully into the next county many times, and I always enjoy the experience.  This time I decided to photograph using only my 15mm wide-angle lens.  Each lens really offers something different.  I often photograph with a telephoto and enjoy utilizing its shallow depth of field.  Recently, though, I've been interested in making pictures that include a lot of detail and a deep depth of field.  The 15mm is perfect for this.  I had fun getting muddy and wet today and spending some time in nature.  Please enjoy taking a look at some of the photos.

The creek leading toward the top of Tinker Falls,
outside Tully, NY

The path of the water on the rocks
leading into the creek.
Tinker Falls, near Tully, NY

Can you find the bird's nest?
Shot taken near Tully Lake in Tully, NY

Some great tree roots.
Near Tully, NY

This patch of moss caught my attention.
Near Tully, NY

Winter at the Zoo Prt. 2

The juxtaposition of these two photos make this
Siberian tiger's feet look huge.
Panthera tigris altaica

In the hopes of getting a "winning" photo for the Winter at the Zoo photo contest at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, I returned again today.  I really liked some of the shots I got last week and I am happy with some of these as well.  I've got until the end of the month to photograph some more or decide on the ones I have.  I would love to know your opinion.

Check out the head turning action on this barn owl.
Tyto alba

I just love the red panda.
Ailurus fulgens

A male Indian peafowl, also called
a peacock.
Pavo cristatus

Rainy Day Zoo Trip

Amur Tiger, Siberian Tiger
Pantheris tigris altaica

Female African Lion
Panthera leo

FJanuary is time for a photography trip to the zoo.  Every January the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse lets visitors in for free if they are participating in their photography contest.  Last year was my first time competing.  Both of my entries earned "honorable mentions," and that has a way of making you want to try a little harder next time.  I only visited the zoo once last time, and I hope to visit it at least twice this time.

Red and green Macaw
Ara chloropterus

Today was a great day to photograph at the zoo.  As it was a rainy school day in January, there weren't many other's there.  Actually besides my girlfriend and I, I ended up seeing Matt and Carissa, two other MOST employees.  They said that Justin, our PR Director was also there.  So, with five MOST employees there, we must have made up a nice chunk of the visitors.  I felt bad for the low attendance, but really enjoyed the one on one experiences with the animals.
I didn't end up doing a tour of the whole zoo this time.  Instead I made may way slowly few a few of my favorite parts.  I always enjoy the bird room.  This time I ended up attracting the attention of the large Parrot/Macaw there.  Usually he just sits in one spot, but the quiet chitterring sounds I made got him to leave his post and move to the closest part of his tree.  He continues going about his business of chewing on the tree, but kept looking up and watching me.  I think he may have even become a little territorial, because he puffed out his feathers at me.  After I felt I had worn out my welcome I journeyed on.

Please take a look at the photos and let me know which ones are your favorite.  I need to decide what to admit to the competition and I could really use your help.

Red and green Macaw
Ara chloropterus

Red and green Macaw
Ara chloropterus

African Lions, Male and Female
Panthera leo

Amur Tiger, Siberian Tiger
Panthera tigris altaica

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
Ovis canadensis

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
Ovis canadensis

Markhor from Asia
Capra falconeri

Colorful Clouds from Black and White Photographs

B&W Cloud Photo with Color

One of my favorite things to photograph is clouds.  I have an ongoing series of mostly black and white photographs of clouds called Terra Nebulae, which (in my best Latin) means Earth Clouds.  I call it that because part of the inspiration for the photographs are NASA's amazing images of space clouds, which are called nebulae (nebula=singular).  Up until today I've been trying to reference these space photographs by turning my skies black and leaving out any Earthly objects like trees and airplanes.  I hadn't aded color, until TODAY!

This is the first real developmental shift in this series since I started three years ago, so that is really a big deal for me.  Where did the idea come from and how did I do it?  To explain that let me talk a little about how NASA takes those wonderful Hubble photographs.

When the Hubble Space Telescope takes its wonderful photos of nebulae it is actually taking black and white images.  It takes a series of exposures, each one sensitive to only a limited part of the light spectrum.  This allows them to look at infrared features which the human eye can't perceive, and to look at the different features that show up in the different spectra.  In order to give these photos the colors we all love, a computer program is used to layer and combine the photos.  The colors you see in these photos are usually not the same ones you would see if you were actually looking at it.

I've known about this for some time, but I didn't really know how that could help my work until I attended a NASA conference and saw a demonstration on how to use search, download, and develop your own Landsat data.  The Landsat program started in the 1970's.  It uses satellites to take close up images of the Earth.  Landsat data is the basis for Google Earth.  Well, Landsat satellites do the same thing as the Hubble Space Telescope.  When they photograph a section of the Earth's surface, they take multiple exposures using different wavelengths.  Fortunately, I found directions for how to take all these exposures and combine them to make different colored versions of Central New York.  After I started to get the hang of it, I thought, "Hey, would this work for my cloud photographs?"  It turns out that with a bit of creativity, you can utilize this process to help interesting colorful photos from black and white photos.

So what do you think?  Do you like the black and white photos better, or do you like the new direction?

Another Black & White cloud scene

I was having so much fun that I figured I would try the technique on a black and white photo I took out West.

Christmas Baby and the Miracle of Photoshop

Since I am now a proud uncle, and it is Hudson's first Christmas next month, the job of taking holiday photos fell to me today.  My sister, Lindsay, really wanted studio portraits taken, unfortunately I don't have a studio anymore.  Since I didn't want my sister taking the little guy to another photographer, we decided to just wing it at my parents house.  We cleared off the table, used the natural light from the dining room window, and had my mom hold up a sheet as a backdrop.  These conditions were pretty lousy for a photo shoot, but it was all we had to work with, and I gave it my best shot.  In the end, we got some photos I really like.  I always do some digital editing with my photos, but today's shoot was an extreme case.  I'm including a couple of the original shots, so you can see how different the final photos are.

 This one was underexposed, and needed a bit of work on the background, too.

I couldn't resist putting this sequence up.  After photographing on the kitchen table we dressed him up in a Santa outfit and brought him to the park.  He isn't old enough to sit up by himself yet, so we tried propping him against a fence.  He didn't last more than a second before plopping over.  Don't worry, he was fine.  I can't wait to show them to him when he gets older.

Beaver Dams, Birds, and Wasps oh my!

The weather this November keeps surprising me.  It keeps being so nice.  Lately I've been putting in a lot of extra hours at work, so yesterday I took off and went hiking instead.  If you've never been to Baltimore Woods in Marcellus, NY before, I definitely recommend it.  If you need big attractions like waterfalls or lakes, this isn't that kind of experience.  Instead, it provides a nice hike through fields and woods and offers a nature center with art shows, animal specimens, and a very friendly staff.

Every time I spend a few hours exploring nature I am always surprised by what I find.  The highlights of this trip included a beaver lodge and dam (that totally flooded out one of the trails), a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, a cool beetle, some curious chipmunks, and a wasp's nest.

Washed out trail caused by Beaver Dam

Coming upon a large flock of Red-winged Blackbirds was a real treat.  I love watching and listening to red-winged Blackbirds whenever I'm near a marshy area.  During the Fall and Winter, however, this species changes their habits.  They start to build large flocks, some of which number in the thousands, and move to different types of habitats.  The flock yesterday had a few hundred (by my estimate) birds, and they were all hanging out and flying around in the trees above my head.  They were mostly Blackbirds, but there were Grackles in there, too.  My girlfriend and I thought it was so fantastic that we stopped for 10 minutes or so to photograph and watch and listen to the birds.  I took video showing the birds flying around the trees.  Please check it out if you are interested.

Wasp's nest

I couldn't resist photographing this leaf after I noticed the lighting on it.

I love chipmunks!