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Great Blue Heron in the Marsh

Large birds are one of my favorite subjects. The Great Blue Heron is perhaps the largest water birds in North America. I see them frequently in the rivers and ponds in just about every state I visit. They slowly step through shallow water looking for fish or frogs, then strike like lightning. In the San Joaquin March wildlife reserve in Southern California I spotted this heron on the edge of a creek, partly visible through the trees. Every shot was partly blocked by foliage. Eventually I moved to a spot with a clearer view of this big bird, hoping he would not be spooked and fly away before I could get some good images. Fortunately he was calm and allowed me to approach to within about 25 feet. From a distance they look all smooth and gray and white, but this close we can see the rich blend of tawny colors and textures of the feathers. This full standing image is available for sale on our Picfair site here . It's available at a large scale which will print well and preserve the in

Sri Lanka is a beautiful island off the coast of India, exactly halfway around the world from where I live. Sri Lankan Elephants migrate among about five national parks, and I had the opportunity to visit Kaudulla National Park in 2018. These are wild elephants, not confined in any way. Asian elephants are much less defensive than African elephants, and are quite tolerant of humans touring the park in trucks. But it's still necessary to keep a safe distance from them, and we had to carefully back away when a big bull let us know by throwing dirt in the air that he thought we were a little too close to his family. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants, and have much smaller ears. In the Sri Lankan subspecies, only males have tusks, and only about 10% of them. We spent an hour or so in the presence of these magnificent animals, learning about how they eat, and watching the families interact. At one point a few of them decided to bathe in the lake, splashing and spraying.

I went to a nearby urban river late in the day to see what I could photograph in the "golden hour" when the sun starts descending and providing warm colors. This is the time of day when birds, individuals or in flocks, start choosing a place to spend the night. I got some fairly close-up shots of Canada geese starting to settle in. Shots of mallard ducks landing in the water were rather uninteresting. The sun had set and I started walking back home. I'm getting used to a new Olympus telephoto lens and learning to get sharp photos at greater distances. This lens isn't especially good for low light situations, so I was not sure how any images after sunset would come out. Flocks of birds went flying by and I shot pictures not even knowing what I was seeing. When I looked at my pictures the next day I was very pleased to find I had captured silhouetted images of fifteen birds, and quite surprised to see the curved bills of ibises! Their wingtips and bills and feet stand o

I was exploring a run-down "nature trail" in San Clemente State Park, California. There used to be signs documenting the various plants, but age had made most of them unreadable. Mountain bikes had made some of the trails rather worn and dusty. Still, there were vines and bushes worth exploring. Some prickly pear cactus were in bloom, but the flowers weren't all that exciting. These bright pink-purple flowers, some kind of poppy, I think, were bright spots in a green slope. The petals were so thin that I decided to get down low and try a different angle: to see if the sunlight could penetrate them for a unique image. Sure enough, the light coming through the petals and even the sepals give this kind of an X-ray effect. Stems blurred out in the background kind of drift in and out of view. I envision this picture giving some color to a bright bathroom, or printed large and framed on a bedroom wall. Or maybe in a sunny kitchen. The pink-purple and green foliage, and the neu

Hummingbirds frequent our flowers but this was the first time I had seen a nest in our yard. The mother bird chose a branch in our orange tree about 6 1/2 feet off the ground. The nest was in deep shade. One of the rules of wildlife photography is to avoid disturbing nesting birds, so I didn't use a flash, I used a lens that admits a lot of light. I only approached the nest after the mother bird had left for a while, and only stayed for about two minutes at a time. As you can see, the nest was mainly made of spiderwebs. It was really small, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches across. I've heard them compared to half a walnut shell, but it was bigger than that. It was so small I was amazed that two babies could still fit into it as they grew up. The tree hangs over the edge of our concrete patio and the nest could easily be knocked down. I put a sign up on the eaves of our house to alert the gardeners. These are Allen's Hummingbirds. They have green shimmering feathers on their backs a

Sigiriya is a fortress in central Sri Lanka known as the Lion Rock. This view is from the top of the rock, I believe looking west. I like the subtle contrast of the green jungle with the red rock of the first mountains you can see. Then I like how the successive ridges of mountains recede in the background. You can just tell that there are miles of jungle between them. In the foreground is a lake or pond. Sri Lanka has an extensive network of man-made lakes and canals to bring water from the rainy north to the more arid south. There's water everywhere. The puffy clouds tell us that there's a lot of tropical moisture and humidity just waiting to rain down - and later in the day it did! What the picture doesn't show is the vantage point from which it was taken, and the story of getting the shot. Sigiriya is about 660 feet tall, and dominates the landscape. An ancient king built the fortress there because it was defensible, though it was captured less than 20 years later. Nowa

Edgewise Photography

Posts

Announcing my new photo book Wildlife Among Us

Great Blue Heron in the Marsh

Eye to Eye with a Sri Lankan Elephant

Fifteen ibises

Translucent flower

Twin Baby Hummingbirds

View from Lion Rock