This Week at the Lake – 12/52

/1 Comment/in , , , , , , , /by

This Week at the Lake - 12/52

A Barred Owl! So I finally got to see an owl at Radnor lake.

My first trip to the lake for the week was on Monday morning. The light is so great in the morning – I keep taking these bench shots:

I also got this shot of part of the fence that keeps people on the trail:

All those were take with the 70-200 2.8 L – All at 2.8 and all at long Focal lengths. I love the 2.8 aperture and the depth of focus it gives.

Also that morning I got a couple shots of deer:

I’m not sure why I keep putting the deer shots in black and white! I think they turn out really good though.

On my way back to the car that morning, I started talking with another photographer I met on the trail. I mentioned how I wanted to see an owl and he said he sees an owl almost every time he comes to the lake! He told me where to go sit (the link takes you to a picture of the long bridge at the start of the lake trail when coming from the ease parking lot)

My next chance to get to the lake came on Wednesday. So I went straight to this spot and sat on a bench. I sat for a couple minutes thinking I was wasting my lunch break when I heard the owl. It was coming from the direction of the east parking lot. So, do I get up and head back toward the parking lot or sit here longer? So I decided to sit and a couple minutes later I heard him again. But then nothing, for over 5 minutes I didn’t hear or see him. I was ready to give up (I’m just impatient) so I got up and turned around and noticed this little buck laying down right behind me!

While I was getting shots of this deer, another couple came walking down the bridge. He saw my camera and told me he had just seen an owl! I couldn’t believe it! If I had walked back out to the road I would have seen him. I was kind kind of mad and was going to head back to work. When I was telling the guy that I had been waiting for an owl, the owl swooped in and landed on a tree not far from the bridge!
The shot at the top of this post along with this:

I got several shots of him in the tree and then he flew to the ground looking for something to eat:

He stood in the same spot for a long time waiting for something in the little creek, then he attacked

The rest are too blurry to post as it was rather dark in the woods. I don’t think he got what he was after so he flew back to a tree that was further away. By then I had been gone from work for an hour and still had the 5 minute walk back to the car and the 15 minute drive back to the office! Better get going…..

For links to previous weeks of the 52 week project Click HERE

This Week at the Lake – 11/52

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by

This Week at the Lake - 11/52

This week I made two lunch break trips to the lake. I have been so busy at work the last few weeks that it is hard for me to break away. I’m glad that I’m doing this project because it really forces me to make time to get there. After I leave the lake, I’m always glad I went. It’s a great break in the middle of the day.

The above shot is the same bridge I lead off with last week, just a much different perspective. I took that shot on Friday. That day I actually carried my camera bag with me, something I don’t usually do. Because I did, I was able to switch lenses and get a much different view of the same bridge. You really should view it LARGE on Black – it looks much better that way!

IMG_1158 copy
This deer greeted me at the very beginning of the trail on Wednesday. I got very close to her. I processed it a couple different ways and I let my wife choose what she thought was the best – black and white it is!

IMG_1193 copy
This is a different deer, this shot was taken on the east side of the Lake Trail on Friday. She appears to be very pregnant. Again, black and white seemed like a great fit to the photo.

IMG_1163 copy
Finally, I caught this heron on Wednesday. I wanted to wait a while to see if I could get a shot of it taking off or flying, but I had to get going to get back to work….

This Week at the Lake – 10/52

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

This Week at the Lake - 10/52

My 10th week was a very short one. I was traveling for work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Friday, I spent the morning registering my son for Kindergarten! Wow, I can’t believe he’ll be in school!

So the only chance I had was Thursday on my lunch break. So I had about 30 to 40 minutes to get something decent for the week. I’m not sure I really got anything great, but I guess that’s how it can go sometimes during a year long project.

There were some big storm clouds in the sky so I parked at the west entrance hoping to get a wide shot of the lake with the clouds overhead. I was going to walk down the road some to get a good view when I came up to this:

So, scratch that idea. I walked back to see what I could see along the lake trail through the woods. That trail starts off with the bridge at the top of this post. While crossing this bridge I noticed a deer laying down in the mud:

I almost completely missed it.

By then it was time to head back to the car – yes, 40 minutes really goes by that fast… (also because while I was on the road, I spent some time stalking a turtle that resulted in no photos)

On the way back to the car, I caught this woodpecker:

For My Wife

/1 Comment/in /by

For my Wife

IMG_0243 copy

I got these two shots framed for my wife on our seventh anniversary.

The first one was done by using a wide open aperture (2.8) and a long focal length (195 mm) – focusing directly on the passage “With this ring, I thee wed”. The ring was placed so that the light would create a heart as the shadow. The “book” used is the 1928 book of common prayer – the one we used at our wedding.

The second photo was shot from straight overhead. Same ring and light placement, different book. This was just a novel I found around the house, this page being the start of chapter Seven. Textures were added in Photoshop CS2

This Week at the Lake – 9/52

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

IMG_1065 copy

Well I struggled to get anything decent this week. I was only able to visit the lake twice, for 40 minutes on Wednesday and 40 minutes on Thursday. Most of my best shots come when I can get there first thing in the morning – unfortunately, I was not able to do that this week.
On top of that, most of the road was closed due to storm damage. Radnor Lake received heavy damage along Otter Creek Road in the recent heavy rains that flooded Nashville. Check this photo out on Radnor Lake’s website! It’s absolutely incredible the damage that can be caused by water…

Along with the damage to the road, they said over 50 trees were down. Most of the Lake trail that I usually walk seemed ok. You could tell there was heavy rain and a lot of water but there didn’t appear to be major damage.

The above shot shows a deck they had to close. This deck overlooks a creek that results in the water flowing over the dam. During the heavy rains, the sides of the creek were washed away right up to one of the posts of this deck. It was very close to washing the entire deck away!

IMG_1068_69_70_tonemapped copy
This shot shows where they have closed Otter Creek Road

IMG_1071 copy
Here is a big snapping turtle trying to escape the muck! There is a lot of extra debris and mud in the water because of the heavy rains.

IMG_1058 copy
One of the many benches along the Lake Trail

For more information on my 52 week project at Radnor Lake – Click Here

This Week at the Lake – 8/52

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , /by

This Week at the Lake 8/52
Camera: Canon Xsi
Lens : Canon 70-200 2.8L
Exposure: 1/160
Aperture: f2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100

For more information on my 52 week project at Radnor Lake, see my first blog entry about it called This Week at the Lake – 7/52

The above shot was taken Thursday morning, before work. I got there at about 6:30 am and walked a little of the trails. There were several deer down in the water and I got a few shots but this one was the best I think. If you look close, you can see it was a buck!

Also from the same morning:

Camera: Canon Xsi
Lens : Canon 70-200 2.8L
Exposure: 1/125
Aperture: f2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
It’s funny because when you carry around a large lens, everyone you see on the trail feels like they need to tell you everything they saw (not really a bad thing I guess). I was heading back and I passed a lady who told me about a wood duck sitting on a log. These wood duck are so hard to get close to. I left the trail (which is not allowed at Radnor) and got as close as I could. Got a few shots and he flew off. I would love to be able to find a good sitting spot off the trail one day and just spend some time there.


Camera: Canon Xsi
Lens : Canon 70-200 2.8L
Exposure: 1/125
Aperture: f2.8
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 800
I’m not real happy by the way this turned out but I liked the idea. I wanted him to stop and look at me but while I was trying to get these shots a group ladies came power walking by and the deer ran off.
There are still plenty of wildflowers blooming all around Radnor Lake. On the way back to the car I grabbed these:

Also last week I visited Monday morning. It was still raining off and on then and the sky was very dark and stormy so I didn’t stay long:

Camera: Canon Xsi
Lens : Canon 28-135 3.5-5.6
Exposure: 3 exposure HDR (1/200, 1/50, 1/13)
Aperture: f9
Focal Length: 28 mm
ISO Speed: 100

This was taken Monday morning also. The wind was blowing too much for HDR, so I did some “Orton” processing on it and I thought it looked cool

Camera: Canon Xsi
Lens : Canon 28-135 3.5-5.6
Exposure: 3 exposure HDR (1/5, .8, 3.2)
Aperture: f8
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 100

By Friday, I needed a lunch break at the lake. Stopped by and caught this deer in the water:

Camera: Canon Xsi
Lens : Canon 70-200 2.8L
Exposure: 1/400
Aperture: f2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100